Money Ain't Nothin But a Tool

So guess who got to fly to St. Louis and back in ONE day today? Me! YAY! We even accidentally drove on the wrong bridge and crossed into Illinois and back to Missouri within 5 minutes, so technically, i crossed to Missouri, Illinois, back to Missouri, and back to Illinois ALL IN ONE DAY! That's a lot of travel, folks. I've been up since 5am.

OOOH and guess who ripped a GIANT hole in her pantyhose in the knee area, just about the size of a cantaloupe, just after lunch, while at a client site, and a nice black dress on, when its 40 degrees out? ME!!! I mean, I guess it's kind of stylish, if you are a thug accountant. Haha. Never a dull day.

So as it goes, I took a cab home from Midway Airport and when I got in the car, My Girl by the Temptations was playing softly from the radio. What a pleasant way to travel home after a long day of travel...naturally I ask my cabbie to turn it up and of course this turns into a lovely 20 minute conversation where I get what I really wanted - another personal story to add to my collection of real people to learn a lesson from in Chicago. Seems that I can always find out something new about someone else, and simultaneously about myself when delving into these conversations and I tell you, I never regret it. Not even when a cabbie locks me up until he takes me to an ATM so that I can pay him in cash because he pretends my credit card doesnt work - teaches me something about myself, like how loud I can really scream, and when is the real time to call 911. But that didn't happen this time.

This time, I got one of my favorite kind of stories - a story about Chicago, as told by a real Chicagoan. I forgot to catch his name, so we are gonna call him Buddy... A veteran who served in Vietnam, hunched over in a trench for a year, came back with back problems, supposed to get surgery at the VA hospital but after seeing another patient right after surgery, said 'no thank you' and decided to pray and exercise his way back to health, and now has almost no back pain (and he is 60 years old)...supposed to get foot surgery and remembers the doctor slightly nodding off while talking to him so said that he would think about it - the doctor died the next day and Buddy went home, decided to work out his foot pain through prayer and exercise.

Buddy grew up on the South Side, and had two guns at the ripe age of 11. Where he grew up, if you could walk, you could work. When he was two, he went with his grandma to pick cotton in the fields in the morning, then went with his grandpa to the saw mill to help there. There was no time to play around, but he made money doing both of those things. At age 2, he had a tab at the candy counter - when payday came around he knew how to pay off his debt for the candy he'd earned through his hard work. His grandpa told him then, that money ain't nothing but a tool - like a hammer that lets you hang pictures, or build a house, just a tool to help you live. If you make money, you spend it. And that's just one life philosophy Buddy lived by - not saving, but spending and living.

Buddy left home at 13 when he realized he didn't want to live like he did anymore. He rented an apartment on the North Side from his Uncle who told him if he could pay the rent, he could stay. He ran his own paper route and scrubbed floors at one of the hotels to make money. And he made enough to pay rent to his uncle, and then at 14, to get his own first apartment at 3950 N Pine Grove, and took one step onto the balcony of his 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment, looked out at the lake and the view of the city, and excused his language as he said this to me, 'Now this is how a muthafucka should live!'. Then he excused his language again. What a gentleman.

He said that the best view of the city is just outside the planetarium, but it used to be just behind it, in an area that is closed off now (but still accessible if you sneak in) and if you go there early in the morning, it is the most unbelievable place to get a view of the harvest moon while looking out at the spectacular view of the city.

He used to take his dates out to picnic on the beach just outside Roger's Park, on the rocks. I told him he could take me out any day. I think he liked that but he did mention his being married :) Tell me, why are all the good romantics taken? Oh well, he's a little above my age range :)

Needless to say, hearing a story like that and not even hearing all of it was nothing short of awesome. I wished him a happy holiday and thanked him for sharing his story - because now it's just another piece I can add to mine. I love Chicago, and what I love even more are all the people that make this city what it really is - AMAZING.