A Poltroon’s Guide To Big City Wandering

WSJ piece hailing “The Emotional Benefits of Wandering” thru our Big City streets no doubt rightly draws attention to endless culture & positive interactions with natives BUT just be sure to stay STREET WISE Chicago style …

Take it from one who lived and survived in one Sweet Home Chicago for more than 4 decades. The Home of the hot dog and deep dish pizza can not only yield the wanderer a diversity of world class epicurean cuisine, but a breathtaking skyline & other acclaimed architectural designs, an endless lake front park & harbors, usually crappy yet always fun to watch pro sports, and a political machine to end all political machines. Other cities like the Big Apple of New York & the Rice A Roni Treat of San Francisco boast similar lures too numerous to list. Little wonder then that the WSJ article quoted researchers who found that “the more you roam to unexpected urban places, the happier you are.” This, we’re told, is “especially true for adolescents.”

Ok. But, having witnessed while roaming Chicago over the years a throat slashing, having ducked a rotten egg by passing car-driven punks, being surrounding by the Insane Devils on a subway train lusting over the groceries I was carrying, and reading the unending stories in recent years about rising violent crime in this City of Broad Shoulders, I’m reminded of what my Daddy used to tell me as a youngster: “When yor walkin’ da streets keep away from da alleys and yor head out of yor a** so yor eyes can be glued all’s about ya.” Good advice when wandering these days around NY or SF, too.

Davd Soul