telly time

 I did not spend a lot of  time watching TV

    I did watch most of the Cubs win.  It was an exciting end to the home stand.

    Over the seasons we have noticed people I the park.  The pink hat man who sits behind home plate, for instance.  We also noticed that unlike other years, he has not been to a lot of games.  We wonder if he is ill, or just too frustrated to attend.  He has several expensive seats and people always seem to be in them.  Just not him as often as previous years.

    I think I remember reading that he now lives in Florida and his family won't let him attend games in extreme conditions because of his health.  Then again, sometimes I remember things that have not happened.

    In previous years the cameras used to focus on an elderly woman during the seventh inning stretch.

    This year a guy in left field seems to get a lot of camera time.  He has long hair and seems to be at a lot of games.  He  bangs on the wooden part of the sign just to the left of the bleachers during Go Cubs Go and the stretch.  Today the announcers said Ian Happ gave that fan $100 for his enthusiasm.  Lucky guy!

    I watched the Bears until it was 14 - 0, did something and came back it was 21 - 0 or something like that, so I mowed the lawn.  I did not miss much.

    I am not a talent rater or a game planner, but I think I would fit in with the current Bears' staff because they don't seem to be either.

    I did watch a show that put me in a somber mood.

    WTTW started their new season of Chicago Stories with a documentary on Our Lady of the Angels.

    On Dec 1, 1958, a fire started in a cardboard trash box in the school's basement.  It took 20 minutes for flames to slowly creep up the stairs and hit oxygen on the second floor, where it flashed down the hallway.

    The second floor had 9 classrooms, but only one of them had a fire exit.  All the fire drills they had assumed the hallway and stairwells would be passable, but they weren't.

    Three nuns and 95 children died in the blaze.

    I remember that day.  I was 10 and I actually feared my school would burn.

    Fire inspectors had been at the school months before and noted some fire code violations, including no fire door at the top of the stairway.  Since the school was built before the fire codes were established it was grandfathered in and the door was not mandated.  If it had been installed, the fire might not have been so deadly.

    Several survivors of he fire were interviewed and recalled the horrors of the day, a day in which friends and siblings died.  One man lost a brother and a sister.  He jumped from the second floor window and told his sister to follow, but she never did.  He lives with that guilt.

    The priest in charge was featured in a news clip after the fire  and said the fire was "God's will."  I hate to think that God would will such a horrible fate on innocent children.

    The father of one of the survivors told his son to "Keep on believing."  Years later that boy would become a keyboardist in the band Journey.  He would draw on his father's phrase to write the band's  biggest hit.

    Good did come out of the fire.  Laws were enacted, safety standards established, inspections of schools more vigilant...........but nothing can replace the lives of those children and nuns.

    Like I said, a somber reminder on a somber night.

Peace and Love