The Blue Collar Town

On the few days we were allowed to enter into downtown Chicago and see the sights, tastes the foods, and smell the smells, we got more than our share. Wow. Not for Chicago, but for the experience of where I am, the people I'm with, and what I've learned of late. It's too much for one blog post, from unknown family history, family I never knew about, to experiencing the higher cities as a country grown boy. God is using the time to sharpen me...I can feel it.
The people I work with are mostly family. Ach...an entire post could be done on my uncle, one of the most unusual men I have met. Interestingly, those he has hired are mostly all my own cousins...he is quite an idealist, wanting to keep the business strictly family owned and managed. I don't think he has hired anyone except distant family and random connections. It certainly makes for an interesting family view! I might try to describe them all in detail later, and how my mission in bringing them closer to Christ progresses. Suffice to say for now...there's opposition. God will have to work heavily. Please pray for that.
But enough of that. Those interesting stories...might come later. Of Chicago, the best I ever saw was not the Sears (actually Willis now!) Tower, or Navy Pier, or...the random giant iron marble in the middle of downtown. It wasn't the absolutely (AMAZING!) deep dish pizza pie we had. I felt again like Link walking into Castletown for the first time, a country boy seeing what small, stately cities wretched humanity could contrive.
The best part of it all...was as we left, we rode the L Train out, headed north from Union Station, on a fairly cloudy night, just as the fog was setting in. It was later, perhaps eleven on a Tuesday night. Streets were almost deserted, except for the trains occasionally rolling above the streets. This was the most magical part of Chicago that I saw...gazing out into the dim, misty streets, lit by rows of lantern posts. We went slowly. Once in a while a shadowed person below would walk down the misty, quiet streets as we flew by. We went over the river, it was glittering with the street lights, flashing and black in its canal. It...was a very noir, romantic, quieting thing to experience. It looked like a scene from a film noir, the streets a private eye would walk. Or a quiet couple might walk beside the river under the lanterns, in the wind, right in the midst of the darkened city. That is what I shall remember of Chicago, for the time being.