It's Winter! But Still No Snow. Nothing Like Back In 1979 In Chicago

Here in Denver, there has not been much snow so far this season. Granted, areas around Denver that are at a higher altitude, especially the mountains, have had their share, but with temperatures in the 40s and 50s here in town, there is currently no snow in sight. Although I have been through a lot of big storms both here and back in my hometown of Chicago, I remember the snow we had back in 1979 the most.  It was not just one storm - the snow just kept coming and coming all winter long. At the time, I was living in a studio apartment in Forest Park, just to the west of Chicago, and eventually the snow accumulated to a point where you were driving through canyons of snow, and the playgrounds of the local schools were plowed out to allow people to park their cars. I was working at Walden Books in the Yorktown Shopping Center in west suburban Lombard at the time and commuting there was definitely pretty tricky that winter. But happily, on my days off, I could walk half a block to the Oak Park "El" station and be in downtown Chicago in 20 minutes or so. I would get off at State and Randolph and walk up North Michigan Avenue to Water Tower Place for lunch. I took the photograph on the left during one of those days off as I passed the little park where the historic Chicago Water Tower is located.

I would head into Water Tower Place, have lunch at McDonald's (I have always had high standards when it comes to dining establishments), cross over to Rizzoli's Bookstore to browse around a bit, and then head to Marshall Field's to check out their books, too. I checked on the internet, and none of those businesses are still there. Marshall Field's, of course, was taken over by Macy's years ago, but Macy's is not in Water Tower Place either. I did see that Harry Caray's 7th Inning Stretch Restaurant and Sports Bar is now there, and something called Gateway Newsstands (Chicago still has newsstands?) is there too, and so if I still lived in that studio in Forest Park, I could still take the "El" downtown and do a modified version of my walk up North Michigan Avenue. Of course, realistically, that ship sailed long ago. On the other hand, I could always fly back to Chicago to recreate that walk. What's not to love about Chicago in mid-winter?And if I stayed at a hotel in or near downtown, I could start the walk from there. By any chance is there a Motel 6 on Michigan Avenue these days? A Super 8?