Monday, May 12, 2008

Exhaustion and Lake Shore Drive





I normally do most of my writing during my swing-shift break. I get off my Sunday morning shift at 2:15p and don't have to be back at work until 115p Monday afternoon. This Sunday, the evening shift clerk called in sick, and I ended up working a double, plus another hour and a half for a late southbound train--545a to 1130p. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the night and was still recovering through my Monday evening shift. Chapter 18 has yet to be written. I seem to have the hardest time working in actual events--in this case, the barricade at Lincoln Park and Hugh Hefner getting swatted with a billyclub. In the meantime, here's a song about the street that connects Lincoln Park and Grant Park, by Aliotta-Haynes-Jeremiah from 1970. The "Hollywood" refers to a street in Chicago. The song was banned on some stations because of references to "LSD." It's just the initials of Lake Shore Drive, though I suspect the songwriters were chuckling to themselves while writing it.

3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

It's always hard when you have to work extra time because someone else slacks off. Especially when you're already exhausted.

Tea N. Crumpet said...

Did you all see this period as history in the making, Steve?

steve on the slow train said...

Charles--Actually I can't blame the guy for slacking off this time. But the result was the same.

Tea--I Every period is history in the making, including our own. But 1968, with the King and Kennedy assassinations, the Chicago convention, the "Prague Spring," and the failed Paris revolution (in which the French Communist Party conspired with DeGaulle to put down the revolt), and the triumph of Nixon, makes it particularly history-making. Jules Witcover called it "The Year the Dream Died."