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Kinky Boots, Commuter Train Sunglasses and Other Labor Day Celebrations

Michael Brockley

The laborers of Chicago binocular their fingers to read the storefront signs at the corner of Butkus and Sayers. “PROUD UNION HOME” “BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE.” “HELP WANTED.” Reese Cup mascots skateboard through the press of pedestrians, handing out blue-and-white foam fingers to this year’s kindergartners. Koko Taylor blues sizzle around a catfish-and-collard greens stand while the September sun special-delivers its raw gold. This is the day children perch on the shoulders of Blackhawks. When young men sport t-shirts advertising burgers and shakes while Bulls cheerleaders flirt in kinky boots and crooked tiaras. The gospel according to the Blues Brothers rattles loose from an alley that can’t be found on any municipal map. The El flashes HOPE on its destination screens as proud women and barrel-chested men disembark for this festival of blue-collar muscle and grit. With their street-vendor sunglasses still perched above sweating foreheads. In Grant Park, a young girl drops quarters in the upturned hats of the living statues of Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka, and Mickey Finn. “Priming the pump,” she says. All the while Great Lakes stevedores in wheelchairs rest with their backs to brick walls beneath the legend proclaiming “I can still eat manfood.” No one is making binoculars with their fingers anymore. Instead they lift up the city’s heart with their bare hands.

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