Running Across Town for Some Indian Food
By Leon Despres
Posted Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, at 12:40 PM ET
.
At age 100, I luxuriate in late sleeping, until 9:30 or 10 and once even till 11. Today, at my request, a friend is driving me to see Devon Avenue, eight miles north of the Chicago River. I live eight miles south of the river and have not seen Devon Avenue for years. It is a long ribbon of a street that used to be filled with Eastern European Jewish stores. Almost everything you could imagine. Now the stores are all Indian or Pakistani groceries, jewelry, books, money exchange, and stores with only Asian names. Many restaurants, with many unlimited lunch buffets. Women in saris on the sidewalks. We stopped at the imposing Viceroy of India for an unlimited Devon Avenue buffet, which was actually limited for Occidentals by spiciness.
Home, at 2. Then, at age 100, a nap.
Our local Hyde Park newspaper did an "Obama Advertising Supplement," apparently assuming his election and including photographs of presidential libraries. I called the editor to leave word that adjoining Woodlawn would be appropriate. Woodlawn was all white, then all African-American, and is now beginning to be mixed. I decided that after Obama is elected, I will pursue this with the Obama group and the University of Chicago. An Obama library would be a great asset to the university as a neighbor.
At 4:30, I go down to our grassy garden and talk with neighbors. Our co-op apartment building has about 60 small gardens, and today our gardens gave us tomatoes. I wish very much I could still garden. Also, I wish I could walk.
At 5:55, most of us go indoors to look at the news. I like BBC for a half-hour and then PBS.
After that dinner, reading, and bed by 9.
Retirement is a very busy time, because I no longer have a secretary or a clerk as an assistant. In other respects, it is a wonderful time—few deadlines, no pain, lots of fun.
Running Across Town for Some Indian Food
By Leon Despres
Posted Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, at 12:40 PM ETNote from the Fray Editor
"Keep writing Leon you are interesting" Boils said, speaking for all of us: everyone loved Leon.
Comments from the Fray
Dear Alderman Despres,
Well, you'll always be Alderman to me!! I've followed your richly exciting life for over forty years, not just about your independent stance in the Chicago City Council, but also through the life and times of Hyde Park lore and mischief that included Merton Gill, Bernie Epton, Aaron Hilkevitch and many others. I look forward to hearing more about your little jaunts in the city (as well as about your well-deserved little naps) for many more years!!
--disembedded
(To reply, click here)
What a lovely piece of writing, so sensitive and rousing really. I must admit that I did come to tears, not because I felt sorry for you, not at all, but because your voice carries such impact. Suddenly, I wanted to go to your apartment and converse with you for an entire day. I just know you must have many stories to tell. Your thanking FDR and LBJ touched me deeply. I was born during FDR's administration and I remember my father telling me how thankful he was that his own father was able to collect social security even though he had contributed for only four years before he retired.
--eikciv
(To reply, click here)
Sorry to use the trite phrase 'an inspiration' but your diary entry fills me with optimism. So I'll say it anyway; your attitude is an inspiration, and bears testimony to the beauty, and absurdity, of life. I'm only a little over halfway to your years, and will quite probably never see 100, but if I can sustain only a fraction of your interest in life for whatever years I've been allotted, I'll continue to be satisfied. Bravo!
--olld jarhead
(To reply, click here)
Through Leon's writing I was swept up into the ruminations of a fascinating mind that continues well into years that many people can not even imagine. It made me realize that life is life. What you think about today is as important as what you think about in 20 years, 30 years, even 100 years.
I work in the hospital and only see older people who have experienced a great tragedy. Reading your articles made me smile and appreciate that people live robust lives deep in years.
In a country that values youth over wisdom, it is easy to lose touch with people who retire or are shuffled off to nursing homes but I think this separation is at a great disservice to us. These articles are like a conversation with that interesting older man whom you see around but never get to speak with.
--akaneshua
(To reply, click here)
(9/11)
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Note from the Fray Editor
"Keep writing Leon you are interesting" Boils said, speaking for all of us: everyone loved Leon.
Comments from the Fray
Dear Alderman Despres,
Well, you'll always be Alderman to me!! I've followed your richly exciting life for over forty years, not just about your independent stance in the Chicago City Council, but also through the life and times of Hyde Park lore and mischief that included Merton Gill, Bernie Epton, Aaron Hilkevitch and many others. I look forward to hearing more about your little jaunts in the city (as well as about your well-deserved little naps) for many more years!!
--disembedded
(To reply, click here)
What a lovely piece of writing, so sensitive and rousing really. I must admit that I did come to tears, not because I felt sorry for you, not at all, but because your voice carries such impact. Suddenly, I wanted to go to your apartment and converse with you for an entire day. I just know you must have many stories to tell. Your thanking FDR and LBJ touched me deeply. I was born during FDR's administration and I remember my father telling me how thankful he was that his own father was able to collect social security even though he had contributed for only four years before he retired.
--eikciv
(To reply, click here)
Sorry to use the trite phrase 'an inspiration' but your diary entry fills me with optimism. So I'll say it anyway; your attitude is an inspiration, and bears testimony to the beauty, and absurdity, of life. I'm only a little over halfway to your years, and will quite probably never see 100, but if I can sustain only a fraction of your interest in life for whatever years I've been allotted, I'll continue to be satisfied. Bravo!
--olld jarhead
(To reply, click here)
Through Leon's writing I was swept up into the ruminations of a fascinating mind that continues well into years that many people can not even imagine. It made me realize that life is life. What you think about today is as important as what you think about in 20 years, 30 years, even 100 years.
I work in the hospital and only see older people who have experienced a great tragedy. Reading your articles made me smile and appreciate that people live robust lives deep in years.
In a country that values youth over wisdom, it is easy to lose touch with people who retire or are shuffled off to nursing homes but I think this separation is at a great disservice to us. These articles are like a conversation with that interesting older man whom you see around but never get to speak with.
--akaneshua
(To reply, click here)
(9/11)