tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post5277239531013373019..comments2024-03-28T22:15:17.067-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/29/24: Flashback 1998: A century of cornflakesNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-47542075212598152652021-09-14T17:06:53.070-05:002021-09-14T17:06:53.070-05:00Thanks! When I lived in (East) Rogers Park in the ...Thanks! When I lived in (East) Rogers Park in the early 70s, I often rode the Evanston Express downtown, because it still stopped at Morse and Loyola then. And most of the time, I rode on those same 1923 4000s. Made me feel like I needed a fedora and a hip flask. <br /><br />When my father was a boy, in the 20s and 30s, he probably rode the same cars to the Loop. And in the Fifties, as a kid, I could see them from his office window, when they stopped at LaSalle and Van Buren. Some 35 years later, I passed through that same stop every weekday. <br /><br />Damn...now I need a Chicago fix. Haven't visited since the weekend when...the Cubs won the pennant. Still feels funny to be able to type those five words.Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-48842935532752153292021-09-14T14:29:08.438-05:002021-09-14T14:29:08.438-05:00Seeing "a whole row of wooden 'L' car...Seeing "a whole row of wooden 'L' cars" on fire on your way by sounds cool, Grizz. <br /><br />Poking around online, it seems that in 2019, they used restored 1959-vintage cars (6000 series.) But the year we went, they used the old orange-and-brown 4000 series cars. You've prompted me to look back at some photos, which I hadn't bothered to look at before my post about this, so I can report that we rode on cars 4271 - 4272, which were delivered in 1923 from the Cincinnati Car Company at a cost of $22,900 per car. They last "saw revenue service in 1973." And my previous comment was wrong in at least 2 respects. We didn't go there the first year the tour was offered, and the train left from Howard. Such is the accuracy of my memory.<br /><br />If you'd like to get a feel for some of what could be seen on the tour from the comfort of your Cleveland home, here is a very thorough report on the 2019 tour taken by a much more dedicated participant than I was the year before.<br /><br />https://www.chicagoobservations.com/chicago-observational-ramblings/2019/10/20/repairs Jakashnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-82234552077722445892021-09-13T20:49:58.632-05:002021-09-13T20:49:58.632-05:00Jakash: Do you remember what the Skokie Swift car ...Jakash: Do you remember what the Skokie Swift car looked like? Could have been one of the 4000 series, from the Twenties. More likely it was either a 6000, built in the early Fifties, or one of the high-speed cars from the Sixties. The best Skokie cars were the articulated 5000s, built in 1947.<br /><br />I know about the Open Hpuse Chicago tours, but I've never made any October treks from Ohio in order to partake of the "hidden gems." Just for those rare Cub playoff games. Never been inside the Skokie Shops, either, but knew them well. Lived nearby as a kid, and used to catch the #97 Oakton bus in front of the Shops, before the Swift began service to Howard. <br /><br />South of the Skokie Shops, there were dozens of old cars from different eras, just rotting away on their storage tracks, or being used as tool sheds. One memorable day, while on my way to a Cub game, I almost choked on heavy smoke. The CTA was burning a whole row of wooden 'L' cars, from the earliest days of the century. They'd finally been retired, but only after a train caught fire on what is now the Red Line. Then the CTA started torching them in Skokie.<br /><br />Those wooden cars were still in service when I was a kid, and I took my earliest 'L' rides on them. I'm actually that old. Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-4620379700051482722021-09-13T20:19:38.692-05:002021-09-13T20:19:38.692-05:00Did you mean the Pullman neighborhood, south of Ea...Did you mean the Pullman neighborhood, south of East 111th Street? Been there. Love that place. Ate at the old lorence Hotel in the Eighties. <br /><br />Or were you talking about the Pullman facilities and shops? I thought they were closed and abandoned a long time ago. Then they were supposed to be recycled into something, but burned down first. Or am I mistaken about all that?Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-36349557075135940722021-09-13T14:42:46.976-05:002021-09-13T14:42:46.976-05:00Grizz . It was recently announced that Pullman has...Grizz . It was recently announced that Pullman has tours of buildings and restored cars . I'm looking forward to heading down FMEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06829632906445535928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-17969642937088156812021-09-13T11:26:15.229-05:002021-09-13T11:26:15.229-05:00Grizz, the Chicago Architecture Center conducts Op...Grizz, the Chicago Architecture Center conducts Open House Chicago each October, which "offers access to hundreds of sites across Chicago, from iconic locations to under-the-radar architectural gems."<br /><br />A few years ago they added a tour of the Skokie Shops, the "CTA's heavy maintenance facility for the entire fleet of railcars on the 'L' rapid transit system."<br /><br />We were delighted to visit the location the first year they offered it. In addition to seeing the facility, the tour started out by having us board an old-model CTA car at the Skokie Swift station to ride along a spur to the Shops. The whole thing was pretty cool.<br /><br />Sorry -- I'm sure you'd have noted what model rail-car we were on, and its exact age, but I'm not that level of correspondent, alas. ; )Jakashnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-59030167611082555792021-09-13T08:44:22.180-05:002021-09-13T08:44:22.180-05:00Back in the Fifties, before the interstates were b...Back in the Fifties, before the interstates were built, my parents would shlep me and my sister onto "The Mercury", the New York Central's Art Deco passenger train, so we could visit our Michigan cousins. Sometimes we took "The Wolverine"...the train that Steely Dan sang about. The tracks went right past the Kellogg plant in Battle Creek. You couldn't miss it. Big signs.<br /><br />We also made the same trip in our '49 Plymouth, so we could spent time at the lakeside resorts in South Haven. While traveling along U.S. 12, my parents repeatedly promised us that we would tour the corn flakes factory "someday"--but it never happened. That's the way parents are. Same thing with the Kedzie Avenue carbarns, near my old school, where the big red Pullman streetcars were housed. A tour of that facility would have been much, much better than Battle Creek. <br /><br />Oh, well, at least I got to tour the Mars candy plant, on Oak Park Avenue. I was eleven. My kid sister, who was seven, asked the tour guide if she could "lick the beaters"...Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-4335978377235256062021-09-12T21:58:25.989-05:002021-09-12T21:58:25.989-05:00I remember a tour of the corn flakes plant in Batt...I remember a tour of the corn flakes plant in Battle Creek, about 1964. The raw wet, corn flakes really stunk before they were baked.Clark St.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09634234069783123180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-12482316996549494452021-09-12T20:13:06.696-05:002021-09-12T20:13:06.696-05:00That is puzzling, because I distinctly remember be...That is puzzling, because I distinctly remember being excited to find, in the archive, a copy of "The Road To Wellville," the Kellogg pamphlet that gave the novel (and, eventually, your point of reference, the movie) its name. Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-43079525153066768752021-09-12T12:15:15.671-05:002021-09-12T12:15:15.671-05:00Kinda surprised to see no reference to "The R...Kinda surprised to see no reference to "The Road to Wellville," featuring Anthony Hopkins as John Harvey Kellogg, in this piece. Perhaps that's because the movie wasn't very good. Still, the wacky Hollywood take on the sanitarium has its moments.<br /><br />Regardless, this covered a lot of ground in your usual snappy fashion. Well worth the investment of the paper sending you on the 3-hour pilgrimage to Battle Creek. <br /><br />"The company's Sugar Frosted Flakes were an immediate hit" and a new lane was paved on The Road to Obesity. Jakashnoreply@blogger.com