Chicago

[whipchick]

He tapdanced on a flattened cardboard box, that's what I remember. A skinny black man in a Santa hat, on the sidewalk of the Magnificent Mile. His boom box played carols with an electric beat and the crowd, too, was electric--expensive shopping bags in their hands, smiling for Christmas. A light snow was falling, and the big flakes and the lights

Comments

[i_17bingo]

...the big flakes and the lights in the trees made me rich enough to put five dollars in his hat.

What a perfect way to describe this feeling!

I lived in New York, hand-in-mouth, for most of my twenties. Recently I returned for a visit as a grownup, with a lot of time to chill out and walk around, and spend money I didn't used to have. But I don't think even that nostalgia tour brought back the feeling of that first Christmas there--naive, hopeful, excited, alive, and in love with the world--as gracefully as this.

*sigh*

I was so young.

[whipchick]

Thanks - yeah, that's what it felt like! I still look back and think, wow, that's why I moved there...There's something so magical about a city at Christmas...

[drwex]

*pebble*

[whipchick]

Thanks :)

[fodschwazzle]

How you take an incident like burning yourself, make it completely non-trivial, and then sidestep it while it fades into one more detail in a vivid slice-of-life (if that's the word I'm looking for), is one of the reasons why you are such a formidable writer. This is excellent.

[whipchick]

Thank you very much! It was so interesting to be back in Chicago and have all the old feelings come back. Glad you enjoyed!

[tonithegreat]

Oh Officer Friendly, I should not have smiled at you through my cracked windshield.

What makes you happy indeed.

[whipchick]

Seriously!

Thanks :)

[roina_arwen]

I've been to Chicago in effin' February, and *man* it was frigid! But it's a beautiful city with great pizza, so I'll go back for their pizza... in the summer. :)

[whipchick]

It's lovely in the summer, but man, that wind!