Chicago

This is Chicago. That's what everyone called her at work. She was an eccentric old lady who was an old timer at the Post office when I started working there. The first thing she did when the PO had a new group of new hires, was to give us all warnings. These warnings took place in the locker room, where most of us congregated at lunch time. Chicago would tell us that men had AIDS and that we needed to be very careful because the men would look at the new girls and try to get friendly with them. As new girls at the workplace were open game, Chicago told us to watch out for the guys that wanted to use us. She was right about the guys going for the new hires, by the way. And she was also right about some of them having incurable diseases too. But you just couldn't convince her that it wasn't every guy who was lecherous and disease-ridden. We just let her go on with her lectures, and then chuckled quietly a month later when we heard her counseling the next group of new-hires.

Chicago used to wear big Air Jordans that were two sizes too big, because she said her feet swelled up at night while she sorted mail. Usually she wore her Air Jordans with a big billowy skirt, with pantaloons underneath. She dyed her hair flaming red, and wore lipstick to match. One time she wore slacks to work. They were too big to start out with, but stretched out as the night went on. At lunch she started jogging in the locker room, telling us she needed to lose weight. After about the 5th time she jogged past us, her slacks slipped down and went to her ankles. She stopped, stood there in her big white undies, pulled up her pants, and said, "See how easy it is to lose weight?"

Chicago had a very scary face. But she didn't realize it. In fact, she also took time to lecture us gals on how to stay as young-looking as she looked. The secret was to spread huge quantities of Petroleum Jelly all over your face every night. She did this before she clocked in at night, and as she spackled it on, she told anyone who happened to be using the bathroom how they should follow her lead to keep their girlish face. She was very sincere. And we were respectful of her, and also in awe that she had so much time into the USPS.

Chicago never called in sick. Even when she got sick at work, I mean really really grossly sick, she refused to be sent home. She was dedicated to the core. A little too dedicated sometimes.

Chicago had a very hard time once we all were forced to work in the new MLS plant 20 miles from the old one. She rode the bus to work and didn't have a car. The bus just didn't run up to that new outskirt of town too often, so Chicago would have to take the last bus of the day, get to work about 6 PM and then go sleep on the floor in the locker room until it was time to clock in at 10:30 PM. Sleeping on a thin blanket on a hard concrete floor eventually did Chicago's hips in. Soon she was walking only with help of rolling equipment, and thats when she was gently but forcibly retired out.

That was over a decade ago. Chicago, I am happy to say, went through physical therapy and last I knew, she was happily jaunting to baseball games on the bus, not really recognizing us, but knowing she knows people from somewhere. She is one of the colorful characters that touched hundreds of lives and will never be forgotten.

This is a picture of Chicago at a Union Picnic from long ago, on a now-dismantled Carousel at a park that no longer exists. It's now a business district full of strip malls. So many faces and places change over the years. Thank God for memories.