NOTE – While this blog is for public consumption, it also it a recording of history for me and the next few days will be about my places of residence in Chicago. I hope you enjoy the reminiscing but this is being written for my own edification before the sands of time ravish my already depleted brain.
A conversation I was having yesterday morning morphed into first apartments and I was reminiscing about my first apartment in Chicago. It was a studio apartment at 5240 N. Sheridan, just north of Foster. I think I was on the 9th floor and so it had a great view of the lake. Not having been out of college for two months (this was February 1995), I was barely into my first real job and so $500 a month, while a bargain in those days, was still a heck of a lot of money for me to dish out.
I sublet the studio from a lesbian named Jamie who was moving in with her lover. Since I had no kind of furniture to begin with (except a 2-seater velvet couch that could be described as “Fat Elvis era”), I happened to mention I was looking for a bed. Her lover, the strap-on wearer in the relationship, said that she had a never-used mattress and box spring she could sell me for real cheap. Since it was still in the original (as far as I know) plastic casing, I jumped on the offer. We still have that Almost Lesbo bed in our guest room to this day.
Like any move-in day in the middle of the Chicago winter, it was a bone chilling 14 degrees before you even factor in the wind chill from Lake Michigan that was only a block away. Thankfully I didn’t have many possessions at this time (the couch, stereo, TV and clothes). The studio was rather large compared to most studios in the city. It was an older building so it had an ornate lobby. In fact the building at one time was owned by Al Capone, but then again, what wasn’t owned by him in Chicago during his heyday?
Sometimes the fog of memory can gloss over places that might not have been as nice but after looking through my pics last night from that time, the apartment really was spacious for a studio and had that old-style architecture that’s missing from a lot of modern buildings such as shelves built into the wall. The neighborhood at the time was a “fringe” area, where certain parts were being gentrified but there were still plenty of sketchy places you didn’t want to walk through at night. I’m sure that 12 years later most of this area is already unaffordable for 90% of the Chicago populace now.
Even that far north in the city limits had parking issues. There were a sizeable amount of high rises in the area since Lake Shore Drive was only a block away so it still was a challenge to find a parking spot. Within three weeks I got rid of my car and for the five years I lived in the city, I didn't miss it one time. The Berwyn stop on the El (Red Line) was 5 minutes away and thus began my total dependence on public transportation while living in Chicago.
I was only there for a few months since the lease was up and I had a friend who also wanted a roommate. We moved into an apartment at 2914 Broadway on top of a bar. A gay bar. A very gay bar. A very gay bar called Big Daddy’s. But that’s another story for another day.
This picture shows my view of Lake Michigan although on this cold, dreary, overcast day the lake was the same color of the sky so you couldn’t really tell. Across the street on the left was a Dominick’s grocery store and to the right was a cheap motel. Behind those was a private tennis club whose name I can’t recall.
