Since that point in time, Skokie has grown by leaps and bounds
> between Church Street (formerly north end) and Golf Road (new north
> end) and going west to the edge of the village of Morton Grove --
> which we sometimes call MORON Grove; remind me, I will tell you why > sometime --
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When I lived in the area (or, as Mr. McClain phrased it, 'Skokie was my stomping ground') I did NOT work for 'Skokie Swift' nor did I work at the 'Skokie Swift Station'. I was employed at the time by the Skokie Greyhound Agency, then I went on to take over the operation of the Agency, selling bus tickets anywhere, but primarily between Chicago Milwaukee, the line we were on. I rented space from Chicago Transit Authority for the bus station. Chicago Transit Authority is a
*slumlord*, first class. They do not maintain nor take care of their property. The entire building was a total shambles, and they would not spend the money needed to put in heat or water other than the antiquated units which were there, nor would they allow
_me_ to spend the money and deduct from the rent. We had frequent ceiling leaks and similar. I asked CTA to pay me to allow
_their_ bus passengers to wait in my little run-down shack while waiting for the CTA bus they were taking; I asked RTA the same thing; the answer from both of them was 'we are not going to pay for our passengers to have a warm place to stand or sit; if you do not like having them around, then lock them out of your place.' So basically, the only thing I got money for was revenue from Greyhound ticket sales; and not a lot of that. When I tried locking out the CTA/RTA passengers, that got me a lot of grief from those passengers who wanted to use
_my_ private bathroom (there are no public facilities anywhere at Skokie Swift, CTA does not believe in that; only a very small, very unsanitary place for 'employees only') or in the winter track mud all over the floor. In order to have
_some_ modicum of facilities for Greyhound passengers to use. i.e. vending machines for food, public telephones and a clean, sanitary restroom, I had to allow the CTA passengers in to use the facilities also, but
_they_ (CTA/RTA passengers) were always the ones complaining the most and no one was paying me
_anything_ for their upkeep; or to clean up after them; CTA refused to do so, and RTA is just part of the CTA anyway. Finally, I managed to get the Skokie building inspectors on CTA's case, got a report from building inspector showing in excruciating detail the extent of repairs CTA would have to make to their property to make it habitable for any sort of business (like my Greyhound Agency) to operate therein; getting the building inspectors involved
_really_ brought the CTA bureauacracy down on me pretty hard. Thereafter, the Chicago Transit Authority would repeatedly hassle me about my rent money and make things even more miserable. But
_finally_ they started making repairs and sprucing up the place a little.
About the _MORON_ Grove police department. In 1985 or thereabouts, they managed to get a city ordinance passed -- purely city, mind you -- banning the private ownership of any handguns within their village. Forget about the Second Amendment and all that rot; that did not matter at all to them. They put up a sign on Dempster Street where Dempster goes into Moron Grove warning everyone that all were subject to search and seizure for handguns; now I do not own any form of gun; truth be told, weapons of any sort frighten me a lot; but what scares me a lot more is the blaise way the village fathers were doing away with guns, just on the say-so of their police department, and their neighbors to the east, Evanston and Skokie who also supported the anti-gun initiative. Moron Grove police were very corrupted anyway, (as are Skokie and Evanston police) and I just did not get along very well at all in that part of the world. PAT]