PICK A SIDE!
I grew up on the south side where life was said to be about choices….It started with a guy named Adam and he chose the wrong apple so one has to really watch their choices. I was blessed to be born on the South Side of Chicago a few kilometers from Bridgeport and the King of Chicago, Mayor Richard J. Daley. “They” also said that sometimes where you are born sometimes makes the choice for you. I was born in a place where I was supposed to be a White Sox fan and a Democrat. Chicago was a city that worked. Good jobs were here as we had central location and were on the shores of Lake Michigan so if a guy or gal wanted to work hard, one could find a job here. Chicago had the jobs to be able to support two baseball teams. So, if you were born on the North Side, you became a Cubs fan and a Democrat — if you were born on the South side, you became a Sox fan and a Democrat – Simple.
I was born a Kennedy/Daley Democrat as my mom and most were mesmerized by JFK and all the new frontiers and limitless future he talked about. The Sox seemed to have a bright future as they had two young pitchers named Tommy John and Gary Peters whose names had a nice ring for my brother Gary and me, Tommy Huckleberry Nolan.
Well, life has been known to meander a bit and as I began to think outside the box. See, my dad was a Chicago policeman assigned to the special events detail which meant working at both the White Sox and Cubs games. He would report to work 3 hours before the games and many summer afternoons he brought a car full of kids to the games as in 1966-68 the Cubs did not draw that many fans as outside the park was kind of seedy. The Cubs had been dismal for decades so there were plenty of seats available as we watched batting practice and the pitchers warm up. We had Bleacher seats for BP and Bartman seats as we watched the great Cub Pitchers like Kenny Holtzman, Fergy Jenkins, Bill Hands, Ab and Ag—and so many others warm up down the left field foul line.
The Cubs are in the National league and the Sox are in the American league so the only chance of the two teams playing one another was if they both made it to the World Series. The Cubs have not been the World Series since 1945 when they kicked a goat out of Wrigley Field. The White Sox had not really been close since 1919 when eight players were banned from baseball for allegedly selling out to the gamblers and playing to lose the series. The Cubs were have been said to have done the same thing in 1918, when they lost the Series to Babe Ruth’s Boston Red Sox as the Babe set World Series pitching records against the Cubs. I figured my odds of really having to pick a side if they played, were beyond mathematical probability so I was going to cheer for both Chicago teams.
As far as the Republican thing, well Nixon was an intriguing fellow as my mom and I used to visit the local libraries to read the various periodicals like, Time, Life, Newsweek, Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. We would then discuss some of the stories that interested us as we walked or drove back from the library. It was March of 1968 when we read an article that TIME magazine called “the largest gold rush in history, a frenetic speculative stampede that…threatened the Western World.” TIME (March 22, 1968 ) p. 24
My mom was impressed with Nixon in his first race for President against JFK and now with the War raging in Viet Nam and Nixon vowing to end the war and work on economic issues that helps create these wars and hostile situations. He had good ideas and my mom and I worked for Nixon during the 68 election. We had to be careful as the 18th ward secretary lived across the street from us but we were cool as I was shovelin machine in the winter of 67 as everyone helped out everybody during the blizzards. I also cut a couple widow’s lawns so by the time I was 14 I had made amends and got a job at Durkin Park thru the ward secretary and Democratic machine. Times were tough though in 68 and Nixon was seasoned as he had been Ike’s VP in the calm 50’s and learned a lot from the General or so everyone hoped in November as Nixon won the election.
Humanity and the USA had a bad year in 1968 as it had been rough with the TET offensive in Viet Nam, Martin Luther King’s Murder, Robert Kennedy’s murder, the riots in Chicago at the Democratic convention and the race riots across the country as cities were burned and looted and college campuses locked down…
We were hopin for a Miracle in 69 to lift our sprits!