GRAND OPENING
A quiet note to our gentle readers
Greetings, early subscribers! October 8 marks the official unveiling of Roseland, Chicago: 1972, as well as the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. Let’s not make too much of that coincidence. Soon I will post some Notes on various interesting topics touched on in Chapter Two, and Chapter Three will arrive in November.
Meanwhile, I will take to social media, and hope you’ll follow for new features there. On Twitter, and soon on Facebook and Instagram, I will post two items daily: THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972, and MIKE ROYKO 50 YEARS AGO TODAY. The first one will cull interesting items from all five of Chicago’s major daily papers in 1972—technically in 1971 until we reach January 1. For the second item, any day 50 years ago that Mike Royko wrote a column for the Chicago Daily News, you’ll find a short synopsis and snappy quote.
Why? Because 1972 was still part of the ancient times when everybody read newspapers, even kids. More on this in Chapter Three. Steve’s family read the Daily News, and the Daily News meant Mike Royko. Also, it’s both infuriating and funny to read about 1972, in real time, as it happened, in the press.
Our Twitter and Instagram handles are @RoselandChi1972. The title of the Facebook page is Roseland, Chicago: 1972, but I frankly don’t know if you need to navigate there via the page for Steve Bertolucci. This is still evolving. However, if you make friends with Steve on Facebook, you’ll see one of his cutest childhood pictures.
Mental crayons do indeed stray out of the usual lines -- and this gentle reader is going to follow! Love the immersion into objects as Steve's mental artifacts that is slip sliding us back to the Seventies
May I offer the first friendly comment? I like looking at the pictures and reading the captions before diving into the text itself—kinda like reading The New Yorker.