Bill Griffin, Chicago vendor, 1980. (Courtesy of Lloyd Rutzky)
The world has been changing and Bill Griffin likely wanted no part of it.
“Griff” was the gruffest vendor at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago. He was proud to say that no one had worked the ballparks longer than him. His vendor life began in 1952. Bill spoke in an outlaw drawl that came from his native Oklahoma and he had the face of a postage stamp left out in a western rain. Bill died May 16 of COVID-19 at the Astoria Place senior home in Chicago. He was 88 years old.
Bill died the day after they started playing live organ [...]
“Classic” John Prine stamp by Michael Hernandez de Luna
The idea was to get John Prine on a postage stamp.
He wrote some of the best songs about the American condition while on his late 1960s U.S. mail route. And it’s been assumed the little ranch house I bought in near west suburban Westchester, Ill. was on the postal path of the Maywood native. Since the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in, the volume of mail delivered by the U.S.P.S. has declined. The agency is asking Congress to keep the postal service going. President Trump has refused to sign a new bill that includes postal service [...]
John Prine always seemed to be there for me.
But his music was there for you, too.
He wrote of angels that fly in from Montgomery, the mystical power of Wisconsin lakes, hobos, clocks and spoons and old people living alone in “Hello In There.”
He wrote “Hello In There” in 1969 based on a memory of delivering newspapers to a senior citizen home. He was only 23 years old. One of his favorite songs was “Far From Me,” about being raised near a junkyard in west suburban Maywood where “a broken bottle looks just like a diamond ring.”
John Prine saw those things.
He helped us understand those things.
John died Tuesday night from [...]
Two views of the Matchbox, with David & Jackie (upper black and white). Photo by Anthony Mata.
A good bar is a rich collection of loose change.
The patrons are a deep pocket of old and young, nickels and dimers, half dollars and occasional slugs.
The Matchbox, 770 N. Milwaukee, is my lucky penny.
I’ve been going to the Matchbox since 2000. I was breaking up with a girlfriend in Palmer Square and the Matchbox was my shrink couch on the way home to my place in the West Loop. Things change. I fell in love again at the Matchbox. Life moves on.
And the Matchbox was sold last week.
Owners [...]
