BEHOLD THE CHICAGO AUTO SHOW of 2023!

I left Wisconsin, in the awesome year 1989.,..  

You remember that year, right?  Well, you should if you're older than 37.  Even if you were younger than 37, you read about it in the history books!  ...............

....June 4, 1989  POLAND  The nation votes in favor of Solidarity with a new president that isn't a communist!  Communism in Europe comes undone like a spool of old movie film rolling around the floor!! 

(Not quite in history book)  August, 1989 I get hired at the Chicago Archdiocese of Chicago as a 5th grade teacher. 

later in August, 1989   The Late, Great, Frank Kaul  my honorable BFF, moves me into 1140 N. LaSalle St.

I love Chicago and damn those who don't! JMO

One thing this 26-year-old SELF noticed right away was that Illinois drivers were "considerably better!!!"  

Better than those slow drivers I had to deal with in LaCrosse as I zoomed in my tardy-driving, sorry-ass first car (82 Dodge Aries)  to my job at the  biggest LaCrosse grocery store  (at the time or still is??)  of them all, QUILLINS. 
As an old man with a driver data recorder in my car, courtesy of ALLSTATE, my views of LaCrosse drivers have changed.  

more Hx of a substantial nature   

October, 1989  The Cubs win their division and go to the playoffs (only to meet the Atlanta Braves).  

November 9, 1989   The Berlin Wall FALLS!                 even better than the Cubs making the playoffs in the perspective of ALL. 

So, people across the nation of ours, no, wait a minute, around the world know about the annual Chicago Auto Show.  This amazing event is held at the McCormack Place.  

What was the first thing to greet me at this august, spacious, just-right location for the Chicago Auto Show........................a nice fountain. 

The first thing I did was realize a dream I had for over 2 decades-drive a battery-powered car. I've wanted to own one for well over a decade, but it's fiscally irresponsible. 

  Still, I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem of global warming. It grieves the person, grieves the soul that there's still those who don't believe in global warming.  I HATE the idea that old rich men from Texas and other parts of the globe want to drive, AND GET RICHER from  the internal combustion AD INFINITUM! 

I'm proud to stand foursquare with Nancy Pelosi on the idea that it's wrong for people to hate people!!

Driving the cars, the electric vehicles was anticlimactic.  I can't even tell you what kind of car I drove or the color of the vehicle. Must be sensory overload!;

In the past, present and, hopefully, the future, I deeply love the idea of reducing petroleum of its current exalted pedestal.  

I love the idea of reducing rich, old, avaricious MEN in TEXAS who profited off this planet by mining petroleum; 

I love the idea of knocking them off their pedestal. Sophomoric ideas, much?  

Yeah, I do.  I can't get to work without petroleum. I can't go to my hometown of Ithaca without petroleum. We couldn't have gone to the CHICAGO AUTO SHOW without petroleum.  If I wanted to date (hypothetically), I couldn't without petroleum. 

Yet, the idea of helping save this planet and my tiny corner of the Earth is NOT sophomoric and is sincere love, if not concerted. 

 I got 2 tickets from my awesome friends, Casey & Lisa Hyland.  With the exception of 2 people, they have done more to help me grieve, and recover more from the loss of my dear Girlfriend of 12 years and friend of 32 years.  

The pictures below indicate that it was a helluva show! One I would love to go next year! 

So, that inclined path was actually driven by a JEEP, 

and it hurt my neck and back. I liked the pain, but love my 2 friends far more! 

End Part: 

I will state to you honestly and unequivocally that this "End Part"   MUST give credit to the Late, hedonistic, tragic figure of Hunter S. Thompson from his book, Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1, THE GREAT SHARK HUNT, from the article "The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy." Published by Warner Books, 1979

IF I KNEW THE CHICAGO AUTO SHOW WAS GREAT, I SHOULD HAVE GONE SOONER! 

I read about the great Jean Claude-Killy (born in occupied France in 1943), the winner of gold medals in the winter Olympics of 1968.  He was the object of a Sunday sports show on CBS (yes, I even remember the theme music) skiing back in the early 70s The Killy Challenge.    Yes, as a little boy, I watched him...

He was best highlighted by Hunter S. Thompson who wrote of O.J. SIMPSON (yes, that fuckin' OJ Simpson!!) and Killy going to the Chicago Auto Show.  I even read Gonzo Papers, Vol. a little less than 20 years after it was published.  

He talked about how hard and diligent Mr. Killy worked at discussing a great car at the Chicago Auto Show.  Most masterfully, HST contrasted that with the effortless, glib promotion of cars by Mr. Simpson.  

THE CHICAGO AUTO SHOW WAS GREAT WHEN HUNTER S. THOMPSON wrote about it, just as it is august, amazing, yet not exhilarating in 2023. 

HUNTER S. THOMPSON, Father of Gonzo Journalism
Yet it is a journalistic form taken to sinful lengths before, during & after his death in 2005.