For John Nowak, the Chicago world’s fair of 1933 was “a marvelous thing.” He was a boy then, from a poor Catholic family. Each Friday, admission to the fair was reduced to a nickel. Over the summer and sometimes during the school year, Nowak’s mother would pack him a couple of salmon salad sandwiches (Friday meant no meat, of course) and off he’d go by streetcar to enjoy the fair. His lunch was always those sandwiches and a Coke.
“On the surface, this show reminds me of what Studs Terkel does,” remarks Rob Skeist, director of the White Crane center. “But Studs goes out and locates ordinary people who are extraordinary. Our people are ordinary–what Barbara’s done is to locate the energy and touching feelings in each of them.”
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Nowak hailed from the working classes. His father, he relates, “had an erratic work record, a little man, a tough SOB who was all muscle. My mother was a sewing machine operator.” Nowak, who rose to become assistant to the general manager of the old Sheraton Hotel downtown, has battled cancer for years and has lately been down on his luck: he lives by himself without a phone in a CHA building at Clark and Irving.
“Nobody knew what to say to me,” says Yamamoto, “not even my friends. I had typing class in the afternoon. We used to type to music, to get a nice, even rhythm in our typing. The music they played that day was ‘Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys.’ To this day, whenever I hear that song I can hear in my mind that tinny old phonograph and the click, click, click of the typewriters.” Fumi’s delivery is achingly soft.
The White Crane Senior Ensemble presents “Song and Story Sharing” on March 5 at 2 PM at Sheil Park, 3505 N. Southport, at a free event sponsored by the 44th Ward Senior Citizens Organization. You have another chance to see the ensemble at 2:30 PM on April 17, at the spring festival of the South Lakeview Neighbors held at Saint Alphonsus Church, 1433 W. Wellington. Admission is free; for more information, call 883-7151.
