After the last of Wisconsin's state Senate recall elections last Tuesday, a lot of us who have been in the midst of things took a break. It is both distracting and tiring to be “on” all the time: ready to discuss politics with friends and relatives, ready to drive north to knock on doors, ready to head back to Madison at night to watch live broadcasts of the Ed Show.
A trip to Chicago with my son to visit a university he wants to apply to would seem to be just what the doctor ordered. It was, in a way.
The tour of the school was scheduled for Friday morning, so I cashed in some old frequent flyer miles for a Thursday night reservation at a nice downtown hotel. Due to my anxiety about driving in big cities, we took a coach bus from Madison to Union Station in Chicago, and then cabbed it over to the hotel. The bus ride was comfortable and relaxing, though it took a little longer (4 hours) than if I’d driven because the bus made a few stops.
As we pulled off I-90 in Rockford, Illinois, I looked out the window and saw the prominent (by Rockford standards) entrance sign for the Clock Tower Resort as we passed by. Why was that so familiar to me? Oh, yes. The 14 Democratic state senators who fled Madison in February to delay Scott Walker’s union-busting bill stayed for a few days at the Clock Tower Resort. I knew I’d seen that sign before.
A few blocks later, the bus arrived at the small Rockford bus station and the driver pulled into a stall. As more passengers boarded, I looked out the window. In the next stall, a man in a lift truck was fixing one of the overhang’s light fixtures. When he turned I could read the back of his T-Shirt. In big letters it said “IBEW Gives Back!”
IBEW is the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. I met some Chicago IBEW members in Madison during the protests. Nobody made them come to Madison that cold spring day, or any other day. They just did, to show solidarity.
The bus took off, but before we got back to I-90, we made another Rockford stop – at the Clock Tower Resort – to pick up a few more passengers. I got a close look at the place. I’m sure it was fine as a hideaway when the brave 14 were out-maneuvering the FitzWalkerstan State Police, but calling it a “resort” is a stretch.
We arrived in Chicago on time and went straight to the hotel to check in. There was a big bowl of granny smith apples on the counter at the reception desk, obviously meant for guests. I took one. My son and I had time to walk around Chicago a little before the sun went down, then we found an authentic deep-dish pizza place and stuffed ourselves. It was good.
The next morning we and a few hundred others took tours of the University of Chicago, and we listened to testimonials from various deans and students about how to apply and not to be disappointed if the application is rejected, as most of them are.
If my son applies and gets admitted, I have no idea how we'll pay for it, but we can dream. If nothing else, we got the T-Shirt.
“Here is the dorm where Enrico Fermi stayed when he worked at the University during the 1940s,” our student guide mentioned to our subgroup of twenty during our tour of the campus. “There is a lottery for his room every year because it’s the only one in this dorm with a private bathroom.” So, he helped orchestrate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, which eventually led to the building of atomic weapons and an end to the second World War, and students want his former room because it has its own toilet? I like to think some of the students want the room because Fermi slept there, but maybe I'm wrong.
Our guide was bright and friendly and I'm sure a whiz in her studies (including learning Arabic) but admitted she wasn't much into science. She also told us about Edwin Hubble, who "invented the Hubble telescope."
We had an inexpensive lunch at a local café where we shared a table with two very nice medical students, then we headed downtown to catch the bus back to Madison. We just made it. The return trip was not relaxing. There was some confusion about whether we would have to transfer, and an accident on the interstate forced the driver to take a detour.
We enjoyed our 24 hours in Chicago. I wasn’t too distracted by the little reminders of everything that’s happened in Wisconsin, but I wonder if things will be this way from now on. Will I see things through this lens forever? Will every family get-together from now on include a discussion of Scott Walker? Did we start a self-sustaining chain reaction, or did we burn ourselves out? I wish Hubble had invented a time machine so I could skip ahead and see how this all gets resolved.