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| Charlie Wheeler |
Charlie Wheeler was walking south on Rush Street Tuesday morning as I turned the corner from Chicago Avenue, heading north toward the Newberry Library. On his head was a gray beanie with an orange propeller. For all the cartoons I've seen featuring guys in pinwheel hats, I'd never had the chance to actually speak with one before. The exhibition on the influence of immigrants on printing in Chicago would have to wait.
"Do you mind if I take your photo for the Chicago Sun-Times?" I asked.
Wheeler did not.
He is 68, from Crown Point, Indiana, and has been in the propeller beanie business for six years. Before that?
"A little bit of everything," he said.
How does one get into the pinwheel hat trade?
"Somebody gave me a baseball cap," he explained. "I don't wear baseball caps — the visor gets in the way. So I removed the visor and looked at it a minute."
Inspiration struck.
"And then I thought, 'Oh, no! I know what that needs,'" he said.
The typical pinwheel beanie, Wheeler said, is a shoddy affair. His creations sell for $40.
"There's a very high-end hat," he said.
Juan Bolanos came hurrying over, a big grin on his face.
"Are those for sale?" he asked. Wheeler admitted they are.
"I usually charge $40," he began, slipping into his salesman's patter. "But as you seem to be a working-class guy, I'll take 25% right off the top, bringing it down to a paltry $30."
Bolanos, manager at Devil Dawgs across the street, laughed.
"You don't have a solid black color?" he asked.
Wheeler did not.
"These things are hilarious," Bolanos said. "I love it."
"This is the closest I have," said Wheeler, producing a two-tone gray.
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At first, I thought that Charlie Wheeler, former Sun Times reporter and retired UI- Springfield professor, had grown a beard and moved back to Chicago.
ReplyDeleteHa. Me too
DeleteI bought an orange, hard hat solar powered beanie (it had a photovoltaic cell on the front that powered the propeller) at a Barry Commoner rally at Marquette University in 1980. Commoner, a leading environmentalist, was running for President representing the Citizens Party. He did not win.....and I no longer have the solar powered beanie. 😥
ReplyDeleteI understand. It's my fault that I cannot navigate the incredibly frustrating website that the sometimes presents for its readers to have the honor to read their newspaper. I understand. I'm an old person and I don't know where to click, but I've watched that video now this morning three times and then it goes to the donation pitch and it gives you no chance to read the rest of the article. It's said you could if you watched the video but that's a lie.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any money. I'm old. I'm on social security. I can barely pay my bills and the one thing that I enjoy is to read your column. I don't read any of the rest of this rag it used to be that newspapers understood that eyes on the page increased their ad revenue. The number of subscribers, the number of people in circulation but now they're just saying give us money like a guy with a cup on the corner and you know what they've got to offer about the same amount as he does. I'm sorry man I ain't coming to your calling no more where your block I ain't coming.DONE Happy holidays Neil and adios!
So I read the beginning of this guy's comment, leap to the paper's web site, collected the end of the column, and was going to post it here so this poor fellow could read it. Then he sort of turns sour and storms off. Look, it's not rocket science. Thousands of people manage it. It's the one part of the column I have no input on. I've talked to the bosses, for what good that does. I can't post the entire column here because they paid for it. I owe them their clicks.
DeleteIt is easy to miss especially when one does not know what to look for or has vision that is not as sharp as it once was. After viewing the video and it list donation options in the box there is an "X" in the upper right-hand corner of the box, not the computer (or phone) screen but in the box that is blocking out the column. Just click on that "X" and the box disappears and you can read the column behind it.
DeleteMatt W
I seem to encounter Mr. Wheeler quite frequently. It’s difficult not to remember him.
ReplyDeleteVery cool character study! Hope he sells a whole bunch of those. Also as a sci fi and Philip K. Dick fan, very interesting background trivia.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of out of left field, but have you seen the Apple TV series called "Shining Girls"? It's set in Chicago, mostly in 1992, right around the flood, the two protagonists are Sun-Times reporters working to solve a series of murders, with some sci fi elements. The period recreation of Chicago locations, including the old S-T building is great, although some minor details I think are a little anachronistic. There is even a somewhat contrived blink-and-you-miss-it Royko appearance. Anyway, I'm watching it now and thought you might enjoy it if you haven't seen.
Does the beginning take place in the paper library? I might have started watching it. A kinda creepy vibe?
DeleteDefinitely a creepy vibe. First scene is a guy giving a figurine to a girl on a stoop in the 50's, then it goes to the S-T newsroom or archives in 1992 - is that what you mean by the paper library? Then a body is found in a tunnel during the 92 flood. Elizabeth Moss plays the female lead and Jamie Bell the antagonist.
DeleteYup, I started watching it. It's pointless to demand historical accuracy from fiction, but the actual library was a tiny warren with rolling shelves. I'm not a fan of horror of any kind, having reported on my share of vicious crimes and autopsies — "If I'm going to have to look at this, I want to be paid for it," is what I used to say. So I probably bailed out not wanting to see the suffering of the girl.
DeleteAh, very much understandable.
DeleteThe library of the 90s was probably a shadow of what it was in the 70s, when I worked at the paper...and when I was transferred to the library for a short but unhappy stretch. It had its own horror stories, mostly having to do with the head librarian. Not going to elaborate any further. She died of a brain tumor in the early 80s, at 43.
DeleteOnly guy I ever knew who walked the sidewalks of Chicago with a propeller beanie was Jerry Pritikin, Wrigley Field's well-known Bleacher Preacher. He's still alive, and pushing 90. What a wild life he has had, in San Francisco and in Chicago. He was a good friend of Harvey Milk, the activist and politician. And that's just for starters.
Someone ought to write a book about Jerry. Tried to make a deal with him a couple of years ago, about ghostwriting an autobiography, but that plane crashed and burned on takeoff. We're both geezers, and we live in different cities. Most folks under a certain age probably don't even remember him, so there may no longer be a market for such a book. Like Royko.
Charlie has you to thank for an order of two beanies-- thank you for your public service!
ReplyDeleteHe truly does, because not only was he unfindable on eBay, but he had priced the beanies at ... ready? ... $75, because he was afraid people were seeing him hawk them, then going online trying to get them cheaper, and having them be so much more would be "a cruel joke." I suggested he lower the price to the still considerable $40 and maybe he'd sell a few. Which he seems to have. Which is good. I liked him. A character.
DeleteA character, indeed. A delightfully unexpected addition to today's Sun-Times, NS. And he makes for an interesting photo -- especially striking when blown up across the top of the blog. Nice to have something to smile about after a month-and-a-half of doom and gloom in this benighted nation.
DeleteDelightful. Thank you.
ReplyDelete