Wednesday, August 23, 2006
(10:20 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Cultural Diversity
One of the greatest things about Chicago is its cultural diversity -- almost all ethnic groups are represented, and in many cases have a particular area where the culture of their native land is practiced and original languages are spoken. I'm happy to say that this is true not only of Koreans, Poles, Indians, and Assyrians, but also American Rednecks. I know this because I live next door to some.They grill out literally every night. They talk loudly. There is a sign in their back yard reading, "Proud to be an American." All the women are morbidly obese. They seem to have a dozen dogs, and their primary way of disciplining them is to yell, "Hey!" Just the other day, while taking out the garbage, I got a good look at the loud-mouthed guy who seems to be the ringleader: a skinny guy with a NASCAR shirt and cap and a mullet. He looks like the husband of my co-worker back in my chiropractic days, the one who commuted from Indiana because her husband refused to live in a state other than Indiana. (Kankakee is very close to the state line, so this was doable -- but he worked in Illinois, too!)
This only increases my impression that I have somehow stepped into a bizarre gap in the fabric of space-time which has resulted in Kankakee County being dropped and scattered into the middle of Chicago. We even have our own little Momence, by the Rockwell Brown Line, with small town-style hole in the wall bars all named "Old Style." At that point, the Brown Line is even at ground level; people who have sat for a half hour waiting for a train in Momence will know that this is essential to the overall feel of that particular "border town."
My commute down to Hyde Park takes a similar amount of time to the drive from Kankakee as well (back in those innocent days before the catastrophic construction on the Dan Ryan expressway). It doesn't feel as long because I can read or work through a vocabulary book or something instead of making the impossible choice between Fresh Air and Rush Limbaugh -- but still.
Anyway, that's about all I have to say about this, because I'm trying to cut back on unnecessary typing today. My left thumb felt fine yesterday, but I woke up today to find it back to "the new normal" -- for example, I experienced some discomfort clipping my fucking fingernails. I'm sure I had similar problems back in Bourbonnais, but I've come to idealize those times, what with the amazing combination of regular paychecks and comparatively low rent that allowed me such luxuries as going out for fast food a couple times a week, or having one additional magazine subscription.
