March 25, 1989

It started almost two months ago in Bozeman, Montana. I hired this man, Johann, from Holland, to fix my car, a '67 Volvo 122S. He's in my church and was advertising his services. He looked and acted like a real good mechanic. It took him more than three weeks to fix my car! He first said that he did not quite have his shop set up. He had to help some people with emergencies and so on. And then, just before he was almost done, he was working on someone elses car (when he should have been working on mine) and the car hood fell on his head, twice! So he couldn't work for a few days thereabouts. By this time, I had everything arranged and packed to move to Chicago and I just had to get going. So I made my final request to Johann to finish the car, and turns out, he only had to put the stick shift in, which he was having trouble with. He had to do packing because he was being asked to move from his apartment. He refused to spend a little time on my car beforehand. Because of it, I spent a lot of time on a Saturday to have my car towed to a shop so that they could work on it first thing on Monday. I paid $50 from the money I paid to Johann. I paid altogether $270 for my car, and it all turned out to be worse than when Johann started. He had fixed the clutch, but now it was clearly evident from the sound that the transmission needed to be replaced.

Anyway I had faith that my car would get me to Chicago. I piled everything up real high in my car and took off. After about two hundred miles, the stick shift started popping out of fourth gear. I decided to put something heavy on it and it stayed in gear for about fifty miles, then it popped out and the heavy thing made it worse because it  prevented the shifter from coming cleanly out and made it grind real bad. I should have held it with my hand gently, but now I had to hold it very strongly with my arm because it just wanted to come right out of gear. My arm and hand got tired and painful, but I was determined and I made it another 200 to 300 miles. Then, the transmission sounded a little better and I found that the shifter would stay in gear all the time by itself.

I realized thirty minutes too late that I should have taken the I-90 turn off in Billings, MT, instead of taking I-94 through North Dakota. (I wanted to get to Chicago by 7PM the second day to attend an important service at my church). I figured the distances to be the same, but I-90 would have been a much more southernly route. On I-94, I ran into a terrible blizzard near Fargo, ND. Shortly before it got dark, the AMP light on my dash came on, but I ignored it. I left Fargo and about twenty minutes later, my lights got real dim. The drifting snow was very deep (I had no light) so I got behind a big tractor-trailer so I could see and also to ride in his tracks. I had trouble keeping up because the electrical system was weak, which made acceleration very poor. I don't think my car would have been able to penetrate all the snow, which was already drifting two feet high on the highway, if the truck had not cut a groove through it for me. After about twenty-five miles, I finally got to a turn-off with a gas station. On the off-ramp, I couldn't see very well so I had to stop for a second, and my car stalled and was dead. I couldn't push it because it was uphill a little. I only had thirty yards more to go and I would have made it to the gas station. I slept a cold night in my car and it turned out the station could not have helped me anyway, but a guy in this small town came and towed me. We figured that my generator was not charging as I drove so he charged my battery and I was off again. He charged me $30.

I only had about forty miles to go to get to Chicago, as it was getting dark the second day. I figured, probably unwisely, that if I could make it to Chicago and, worse comes to worse, I could have my car towed the rest of the way. So I drove with my parking lights only and stayed behind big trucks. I would have made it better, but I had to keep stopping at toll-ways, four of them and pay forty cents each time! I made it to the first exit which was for West Chicago, but I decided to go one more exit 'cause this exit was really another freeway. And I got real frustrated because there were no more exits for about ten miles. I don't know why because I was going through a heavily populated area. I think it was this extra ten miles that drained my battery and I didn't have enough juice or power to get to a good exit. I did make it to an exit that was only for a self-serve gas station and a McDonalds. My car stalled, but I was able to push it to a parking lot. I felt like I was on top of the city. I knew it was all around me, but I didn't see any streetlights. The McDonalds there was built over the freeway giving me an uncanny feeling. And I ate.

I got a tow the next morning after another cold night in my car. The tow cost $54 and $7 to charge my battery again. I should have stopped outside of Chicago before it got dark and parked near a gas station.

Anyway, they wanted to replace my generator (at a reasonable price), but I said no because I now knew that my Volvo had run its last great race. Also the rear end had been smushed by a big Cadillac three years earlier. I won't fix it again because I would have to get the transmission replaced and the engine is burning a lot of oil so it would be cheaper to buy another car. I thought,"I am so sad at the loss of such a trustworthy car." I had it thirteen years. A few days ago, I almost committed myself to buying a '79 Pinto Stationwagon for only $500. They said it runs good and has only 79,000 miles. I decided not to have a car because Chicago has an excellent mass transit system, including electric trains for an inexpensive cost.

So then I drove to the area where I wanted to live in Rogers Park (near my church). I spent two more cold nights in my car a little depressed that the rents were so high. Most all of the rents were or are around $400 per month. I finally found one for $265 per month and is only one mile from my church. And I am only about 400 yards from Lake Michigan, and my windows face the lake so I get lots of fresh air. Though, I can't see the lake from my window, even though I live on the third and top floor, because of other hi-rise apartments. Also, only 400 yards away is a one-half mile long public beach with paved walk-ways where I can do my running.

I was really depressed when I moved in, though, because the apartment was really dirty and roaches were everywhere almost. I have worked hard and done a lot of cleaning. I got good roach traps and the apartment is pretty nice now. Not many roaches at all.

I got a $60 bed from Salvation Army. I put it on top of my Volvo and drove thirty miles through town, and on the freeway where it almost blew off. I vacuumed the rug in this studio and I think I got up about ten pounds of tiny little metal objects and dirt. It is a gangster-era style apartment with an almost twenty foot high ceiling.

I moved in on a Friday, and I was not able to get electricity until the next Monday. A nice neighbor, Gwynn, also a born again Christian, suggested I try out an outlet in the hall and run an extension cord to my room for electricity. I felt better after a shower and decided then to try the outlet in the hall with my radio. The outlet was right near my door, but I still insisted on closing my door, and it locked automatically so I was locked out in the hall, and I only had sweatpants on. I had no shirt or shoes. Fortunately, Gwynn came by, saw me, and offered to open the lock for me for a fee (whatever I could afford to give her). The door is a heavy metal door. She pried the lock open and finally after forty minutes got my door open, but she ruined the lock. She thought maybe the lock would be Ok. I paid her $12.

I had to have a lot of faith that my things would be safe without a lock on my door as I attended services that Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday. And nobody bothered with my door or went in. It turns out that someone should have gotten a long ladder from the basement and climbed in my window because that lock was a good expensive one and the metal door was very secure. Now the next Monday, the janitor put on a cheap lock on the inside of the door. The lock is screwed into metal, but the door doesn't close all the way and is probably infinitely more easy to kick-in and have a break-in. I am still very upset with myself for locking myself out because I need a secure door since I live in a bad neighborhood. A few days ago the police raided an apartment a few doors down. There have been very loud, angry and vicious arguments by neighbors. There was a very pretty black girl, who asked me to her apartment. We had a great talk, but it turned out she just wanted money, and I gave her $7. Later, she wanted more. She said that she called the police when she saw or heard someone trying to get in my door, and that she had to pay for a taxi to go down to the police station and make a report. The time she said that this happened was a time I was home.

I forgot to close out my account at Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood in Bozeman. They don't have an office in this area. On the 11th, I spent $3 to call them so they would send me my money because I was running out. I sold all my silver right after the price went down, losing lots of money, but I still haven't gotten my check from the bank. I gave them the right address except for the zip code which I told them is 60629 and it is really 60626 so the post office sent that letter back when it has been delivering all the other letters to me with the incorrect zip code. This has been distressing to me and I finally found out what happened, when I spent another $3 to call the bank again on the 23rd. Now I won't get the check until the 27th or 28th.

I have also had an even more and much more distressing time trying to get my phone installed. I called from a payphone and gave them all the information. They said that I had to wait seven days for a credit check even though I said I needed the phone right away. I called on the 22nd to find out that nothing had been done on it because they somehow could not get in touch with the landlord or me. Later on the payphone again, a couple of representatives told me that my order was on hold because the person that lived in this apartment before me owed $2,000 and directed me to final accounts. Then, yesterday the 24th, they finally had a manager work on my case, and he had me go all the way downtown with my lease and ID. They tried to claim that they told me to go downtown on the 15th, which was not true. I myself only finally got to talk to a manager last night on the 24th and he was nice but said that my order would still probably not go through until the 30th! And he even made me go through the process of placing a new order. It seems like I have just been pouring my money into payphones! Good news for the phone company.

P.S. I finally got a good job at True Value Hardware, and I was able to go many times and also after work to eat at a community dinner at my church. Does it sound like I didn't like Chicago? I did. I really loved my eight months stay there. It is a wonderfully beautiful city.