Chicago Myth #1: Friendliness

This will be the first in a series of posts called "Chicago myths." Chicago historically has been known as a friendly mid-western city. A.J. Liebling wrote of this is his 1950's area critique of Chicago entitled, The Second City. Sadly, I don't even find this to be the case anymore.


One night, while eating tacos late after work, an attractive college girl about my age sat down next to me at the restaurant bar. The girl began talking to me about how she needed to get out of her apartment immediately or she would "go crazy." I immediately knew she wasn't from Chicago and where she was from. I said, "you aren't from here are you." She looked perplexed, "How could he know I wasn't from here?"--I'll tell you exactly why--



1.) An attractive Chicago college age girl or even older would rarely, if ever, bother talking to someone she didn't know, especially randomly. In fact, most Chicagoans including people from the suburbs would rarely, if ever, bother talking to a random person.



2.) The girl abruptly sat down next to me and started talking to me. I can't think of any other instance where this has happened in Chicago. If someone knows where the hell this happens regularly in the country, let me know. I have heard myths this happens in the South and the West.



3.) As I have said, the only way someone can put up with Chicago is because they don't know how bad it is. A true Chicagoan wouldn't usually publicly complain about sitting in their apartment or they would "go crazy." A true Chicagoan is crazy.



I told the girl that I thought she was from out West, specifically California; She told me to keep guessing. The girl was a Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah; she worked as a flight attendant. When I told her I knew she wasn't from Chicago because of how friendly she was, among other things, she replied by saying, "I have a real problem with people around here." I wish I could have replied, "No shit, I could write a book about it, literally. Instead, I write a blog about it." This was in late 07', before I was back in college, and before I had the time to formally analyze Chicago. She said something along the lines of the people being uptight and stuffy. I have traditionally heard those terms applied to Eastern cities. I remember someone, who went to college in NY, told me to not go out there because the people were miserable and had a bleak outlook on life; perhaps, this is the case, but I really don't find people from Chicago being particularly friendly or happy. The girl got her take out Mexican food and left. I now understand why someone would raise their kids in the Mormon Church.