Report: The HAZARDS of Movie-going on a BLIZZARD night

Report:  The HAZARDS of Movie-going on a BLIZZARD night

          

   Before an advance screening of the fascinating film "SANCTUM" (about climbing inside a cave that fills with water), I saw film critic ROGER EBERT was sitting in the Press row.  Having spoken to him & his wife CHAZ in late September  (during a screening-room showing of a movie for the CHICAGO INT'L FILM FESTIVAL), I went over to greet him...

       ...  Extending my hand, I said, I wanted to wish him WELL on behalf of myself & our mutual friend IRMA P. HALL (who played “Big Mama” in the movie & TV series “SOUL FOOD” & the “Lady” who Tom Hanks tried to kill in “THE LADYKILLERS”)...  He smiled, shook my hand, &, as soon as he heard her name, he immediately gave a "THUMBS-UP" sign (which Irma was thrilled to hear when I related it to her)!...

…  After the movie, there were hugely swirling WINDS blowing SNOW all around as part of the BLIZZARD they’d forecast for Chicago.  The snow was extremely “STICKY” (& thus building-up quickly), so I decided it’d be wise to stock up on some MILK for the coming hard days ahead.  I got that at the nearby WALGREENS, & joined a movie-goer friend at the busstop…

…  Luckily, I & my friend got a bus to the RED LINE train station after waiting just 7 or so minutes...   We decided to take the train to the far north, feeling that the buses would be running very BADLY going a long distance in such a storm…

                   ...  Within like 2 minutes, I was pleased to get a northbound TRAIN in the subway...  Just when things seemed to be going unusually "smoothly", the CTA transit agency went "CRAZY":  they kept stopping the train for 10-minute periods both between & at 2 locations...

                            ...  Then, after sitting a long time at the Addison stop (3600 north), after 2 engineers (who were in my front car) conversed with their "Scheduling" department over & over again, they were told to STOP heading north & turn the train around & head back SOUTH rather than going to Howard (at 7600 north)!...

                                     ....  I with every other passenger was ordered OFF the train, being given a "glowing" promise on the intercom that there would "soon" be a "SHUTTLE" train going the REST of the way north...  Naturally, that turned out to be a LIE:  after like 10 minutes, a SOUTHBOUND train stopped & continued south, & NO northbound train came along for us to go further north…

                                            ...  Meanwhile, huge WINDS (with gusts up to 50 mph or so) kept blowing around us from the east & north, to the point that we passengers (out in the cold) kept getting COVERED by snow, & the winds even knocked over something big at an apartment building west of us, which came CRASHING down with a huge broken-glass "thud"!...

                                                    ...  When another northbound train stopped at Addison (after like 10 more minutes of waiting outside for us passengers), it ALSO was told to turn around & head back SOUTH!...  To add "insult" to stupidity, it was followed about 5 minutes later by a train from the north ALSO heading south (proving that trains could RUN north of where we were)…

                                                          ...  NO train for us NORTHbound passengers arrived--  but 2 more SOUTHbound trains passed us by (coming from the north)!...   Many passengers on the platform were INFURIATED by the horrible decision-making by the Transit people--  especially after a 3rd northbound train was turned around & told to head back SOUTH from there!... 

                     ...  Finally, after like 40 minutes of waiting out in the cold (with 7 trains "passing" us heading SOUTH), a NORTHbound train came for us!...  By the time I got to the Morse stop (at 6600 north), we were in full "WHITEOUT" conditions, with the snow BLOWING so badly, it STUNG your face & made it so you couldn't even see like 1/2 a block away...  Plus, a number of LIGHTS went out in the area...

                      ...  Not seeing any buses heading east (about 6 blocks to where I live), I felt it was best to WALK with my backpack & a gallon of milk I'd been carrying from downtown...  Conditions were so bad, I had to walk in the middle of a main STREET, because the sidewalks were too deep with snow (around 9-12" normally, + some drifts in doorways up to like 3+ feet (1 meter) high due to the swirling winds... 

                              …  Almost no VEHICLES were traveling then, but I still kept looking back to be SURE none were coming so I could move out of their way...  I finally got home around 11:24 pm, after like 2.25 hours of traveling (more than DOUBLE the normal time to get home)...

                                 ...  Just as I was cooking some vegetable sort of "soup" to eat, around 11:40 pm, who should happen to call but the 88-year-old lady (L. H.) who'd been a neighbor of mine for like 9 years, + I've continued to buy & bring FOOD to her for the past 9 more years since she has great trouble in walking...

                                        ...  It seems she'd FALLEN DOWN again in the living room & couldn't get UP!...  She said her smooth-bottom slippers (which she'd purposely gotten  because she feared she'd be caused to fall if she got a rubber-grip type) had supposedly CAUSED her to fall, & she just had to have my help to get UP again!...

                                             ...  I pointed out, I'd just gotten home, it was "Whiteout" BLIZZARD conditions out, & I myself COULDN'T help lift her up because, when I'd done that for her around a YEAR ago when she'd fallen previously, I'd completely "thrown-out" my OWN body in trying to do it (since she weighs more than I do)!...  (I didn't tell her my "system" was upset for WEEKS afterwards...) 

                                                ...  She started CRYING that she didn't have anyone else who could help, & she just HAD to have my assistance...  I said well, I had a bad back HIP lately & I'd have to call the FIRE DEPARTMENT to assist in getting her up!  She said, that'd be OK--  but, since I have the KEYS to her front doors, I could help get them IN easily...  I said OK, but she'd have to wait until I could get there by walking thru the STREETS in the snow, which she said would be OK...

                                                     ...  As I walked towards her place, there were no FOOTPRINTS in the snow (because people had been WARNED for DAYS  that the storm was coming), & I kept sinking down into the snow with my boots...  At the corner, people were having to try to push a car that was STUCK in the intersection...

                                                           ...  I walked a short block east to a main street &, fortunately, a city SNOWPLOW was just heading south down the street, leaving a fairly flat "PATH" for me to walk the 4 blocks south to L. H.'s place!...  That was particularly helpful because, the STREET LIGHTS had gone out part of the way & there were continuing "WHITEOUT" swirling-wind conditions...

                                                               ...  Directly east of L. H.'s apartment building, there's a newly-built FIREHOUSE station.  I knocked on the window there, & finally, someone saw me & opened the door.  All their normal TRUCKS were gone, taking care of OTHER emergencies due to the Blizzard...

                                                                        ...  I talked to a youngish (30-ish) captain of Battalion 9, & he promptly agreed to come with to try to HELP L. H.  He had someone check, & their back door (which opened onto the alley directly behind L. H.'s building) could NOT be opened because of the drifting snow...  I said, she didn't appear to have "broken" anything, but, she was so UPSET, it's hard to know  for sure!...

                                                                                 ...  He recruited 2 other guys to help him, & we set off --  him, me & 1 guy (who'd brought a shovel) in a 4-wheel-drive car, & (to my surprise) 1 guy on a SNOWMOBILE they had in the station!...  The alley was TOO FILLED with snow to get thru, so we went to the lady’s street just past that...

                                                                                         ...  Wouldn't you know it--  2 other cars were trying to get THRU there from a main street--  but they COULDN'T because the snow was "TOO MUCH" to deal with on the lady’s street!...  Using the radio & snowmobile guy, the firemen got the 2 cars to BACK UP onto the main street so we could try to get thru...  But, wouldn't you know it, the 4-wheel capability on our car wasn't WORKING, only giving us inadequate 2-wheel drive capability!...

                                                                                               ...  Of all things, what should come along but a private SNOWPLOW truck!  The Captain knew the driver, & asked thru the window if he'd do them a favor & PLOW Paulina street 2 blocks to the north so we could get thru!...  The guy agreeably DID that right away, & we were thus able to get to L. H.'s APARTMENT building a 1/2 block north of us...

                                                                                                      ...  After a bit of difficulty, I finally was able to get my key to OPEN the necessary doors...  The 3 firemen & I went upstairs to L. H.'s 1st-floor apartment, & there she was, sitting in the MIDDLE of the living room floor!... 

                                                                                                               ...  She was very happy to SEE the Firemen, & laughed about her "condition" of having fallen.  She told how her "slippers" had supposedly called her to fall while she was trying to walk to the window to LOOK OUT at the snow [which seems somewhat inaccurate because of where she was located in the middle of the room, whereas the windows are at the far west wall!)...

                                                                                                                       ...  I moved magazines off her nearby couch where she said she wanted to sit, & the firemen promptly helped her UP, commenting on how "You have a good man there!" who'd walked 4 blocks to help her, & she was very FORTUNATE in all that.  She seemed "oblivious" to that all, & said no, she didn't want to go anywhere else like her bedroom, she'd be happy to just SIT there...

                                                                                                                                 ...  When asked by a fireman, she said no, she wasn't really "HURT" physically, & he urged her (as I just had) to NOT use the slippery-bottom slippers [since she hadn't "shuffled" / slid along in them as she likes to do]...  Another fireman handed her CANE to her from near the desk in front of the windows where she'd "left" it...

                                                                                                                                        ...  I'd commented to her that she should get the "rolling" walker that I'd been urging her to get for more than a year, & she IGNORED me (as I'd forecast she would to a fireman before we got there, relating how she keeps refusing because she's said she doesn't want to feel like an "INVALID"!)... 

                                                                                                                                              ...  She THANKED the firemen.  When the Captain again commented that she was LUCKY she had a  "good man" like me as a FRIEND to help her by specially walking over [in horrendous weather], she again seemed "OBLIVIOUS" to what he was talking about & gave no real "response"...

                                                                                                                                ...  Showing how she keeps acting "OUT-of-it" reality-wise, when I was about to leave thru the front door & called back that she really must get a "ROLLATOR" style WALKER to try to AVOID such problems in the future, all she could say was, "NO, NO!..."

                                 ...  As we walked downstairs, I MYSELF thanked the fireman for all their help, & shook hands with a couple of them...  Outside, as we were leaving, 2 OTHER firemen were arriving, having responded to the "report" the Captain had had to make, tho he'd told the dispatcher he HIMSELF would be handling the call he'd filed for their "records"...

                                      ...  According to one of the "new" firemen, the 2 cars which had backed-up for us at the intersection wanted to go THRU the street, so the Captain & the other fireman got a shovel & went back down the street to HELP them, & I said I'd just walk HOME from there... 

                                             ...  After I'd walked like 3 blocks (thru the "stinging" icy wind-whipped snow), when they came up behind me in the Captain's car, they thawtfully called out & asked if I needed any HELP to get home, & I said no, THANKS anyway for that & all their help with L. H.!...   I arrived home around 12:40 am, after spending like an HOUR on L. H.'s latest crisis... 

                 …  Is there a quasi-“MORAL” to this whole story?...  The closest I can come to that is, think at least TWICE before you go out to see a movie if there’s a BLIZZARD forecast for your area!... 

  (o_
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