Official A2K Gathering in Chicago, May 7th, 2006!

I have been banned from Chicago.

seriously? for what reason? feel free to PM, if you'd rather not publish the details.

Who would dare ban our Sturgis?

I went to Chicago and it snowed for a week, as I prepared to leave there was an ice storm. Did I mention that I arrived as the temperature plummeted to below zero degrees fahrenheit? It stayed under for some two weeks. It was terrible and finally the mayor came to my hotel room and pleaded with me to leave. The next day John Wayne Gacy (the clown killer) was arrested and Dick Butkus was back on the air selling lawn mowers or grills or some item. Well as soon as I left the sun came out and summer returned, unfortunately I brought havoc to Fort Wayne Indiana...yup I have been banned from there too.

(and for the curious this happened during the winter of 78-79)

As for the real fact behind the ban, I cannot go into it. It involved me, a police officer and a rather drunken and naked spree along something called East Wacker Drive. The judge who saw me at the trial advised me not to return...not sure if he really meant forever. (and yes this happened during the winter of 78-79 and the snow and Gacy facts are part of what was going on in Chicago at the time)

Wacker Drive?

yeah Wacker drice has a couple Banks on it.

Wacker runs along the river, Osso.

Sturgis, do you expect any of us to believe that story? I mean, you are a Republican and a very conservative Republican. And you live in Vermont, for godsake. Sturgis running naked? I doubt it. What's the real story? You can tell us.

rjb
every youngser does silly things that gets us in trouble once in awhile ................. don't they?

I'm riffing on the name, J_B....

But...but, but Repubs running naked! Sure, Husker, johnboy got into quite a bit a mischief when he was a lad back in the 60's as a wild-eyed, wild-haired left-wing liberal. The running naked and the long-hair days are gone now for me. But the image of Sturgis...

is indeed enchanting. Stugis, we have no doubt you are presently as upstanding as the rest of us.

Pause.

If he's as upstanding as me, he'll just get into trouble again.

Yeh, and me too.

I've done some pretty silly stuff on Wacker Drive - well, sorta under Wacker Drive. Didn't get banned or anything, but I did get fined, and got some pretty embarrassing attention from The Local Media.


In my defense, I really thought the horse could do it; I was as surprised and dismayed by the ensuing traffic chaos as anyone - with the possible exception of the panic-stricken horse. Fortunately, the critter sustained no lasting injury. Wouldn't have anything to do with tunnels after that - even loading him into a trailer became a production from then on, and he remained real leery of traffic, but no limp or scars or anything like that.

I think my being drunk at the time might be the first clue...
and I wasn't always a Conservative minded fellow...well, not entirely true, my first political party alliance was when I registered to vote as a Conservative...I refuse to register as a Republican.

If you look through some of my posts, you will figure the time line...
I was born, I grew up, I got drunk, I went to college and got drunk, I graduated college and got drunk, I began teaching and getting drunk a few nights a week, I was suspended from teaching for 14 months due to having shown up inebriated on the job 5 times in one month, I fled to my birthplace of New York City, took a job with the Village Voice (they weren't so harsh about the drinking). I left The Voice suddenly and went to Chicago to see if the river really was green...it was after I vomited into it) any way it was the early part of December and the weather went bad. I stayed in a cheap hotel and spent the dollars left to me by my uncle who had keeled over dead a year before leaving me everything...
The winter was bad, I was a mess, I got into a scuffle with a police man, I then kissed him full on the lips and copped a feel...yup, I copped a cop and I was drunk and according to the arrest info I was com-pletely nekkid at the time. The officer behaved remarkably well and instead of beating me senseless, he hauled me into the station house, I was processed and spent a night locked up then 2, then 3 then I got lucky and went before a judge who said he would let me go but that I really should seek help and maybe it would be best if I never came back to Chicago. I returned to New York in late January, it was a snowy day, I passed out on my Uncle Bert's castro, when I came to, we talked, he took me to an AA meeting...the rest as they say is history...I pulled it together to a degree, I had a few drunken relapses until 1988 at which point it sort of stuck...until 1998...

After Chicago, I came back to Vermont worked as a blacksmith for an old friend until I was allowed to return to teaching...never drank again on the job.


My political stance became steadily more right-leaning (conservative) over time. Back in '68 I actually was against the Nixon Admin. Hell, I used to live in Greenwich Village when it was all about peace and love and sex and drugs...

(the only part that was off int he first part was the part about the Mayor)

LOL... between the horse and the horny show (kissed a cop on the lips???)... I don't know which is a worse story.

Is THIS why there are all those strange lights on that bridge crossing Wacker?

Sturgis, I assume that it was after you kissed that Chicago cop on the lips that you had to puke in the river, thus rendering it green?

Yeah, Chicago has a street called "Wacker Drive." Actually, it has two streets called "Wacker Drive," and they meet at the corner of Wacker and Wacker. David Letterman, when he came to Chicago, thought that was hilarious, but we live with it every day and don't seem to mind too much.

I think it's much funnier that Goethe Street, named for the famous German writer, is pronounced "Go-thee" Street by the natives.

We also have a statue dedicated to Goethe:



Also known as "Naked Guy with Big Bird"

sturgis, drinking's one thing, but you gotta stay away from love potion number 9. ;-)