Two in Five Million

Friday, November 4, 2016. It's 9 AM. I am sitting at my desk--yes, the same desk I had fallen off the day before. A peer is in my office, working diligently.

Enter the maintenance man. 

He takes a gander at the two of us and asks, "Why aren't you two at the parade?" He jokes about how he thought we'd be there, that of everyone he thought for sure we'd be meandering the city with our kind. (The Cubs World series parade. People, KEEP UP!)

Exit the maintenance man.

My peer, whom I shall refer to as Clark Sheffield, looks at me. I look at Clark. I ask aloud, "Why AREN'T we at the parade?" Clark shrugs and indicates he doesn't know. We both WANT to be there. We both NEED to be there. But, we aren't there. He points out that he has a court appointment at 10 AM, so he really can't go. I concur.

Then, his dang phone rings... the court appointment has been cancelled.

I declare this a sign from God. 

I ask him if he wants to go. We stare at each other, big smiles painted all over our faces. He pulls out his cell phone and checks out the Metra train schedule. He announces, "If I drive 85 MPH, we can catch the 10:20 AM train."

I have no idea if he was kidding or not about the 85 MHP part, but I know I didn't care. All I have to do is (1) figure out if I can be back by 5 PM and (2) find someone to cover my one appointment for the day. I get a co-worker to agree--rather quickly. (She started to hem and haw and ask questions...I educated her that it was a YES or NO question and that the answer had to be NOW.) As for the 5 PM bit, it looked plausible, as long as we were able to catch a train allowing for that needed arrival time.

The next thing I know, we are in his car, screaming down the freeway. 

We aren't in our Cubs gear because we hadn't planned on going to the Cubs Parade. He's not wearing walking shoes and I'm wearing shorts despite it being 50 degrees. We don't have information. We don't have a plan. But, we have faith and a World Series win. That is enough.

Side note: Smart phones make things easy. It's like cheating. We had access to train schedules, parade schedules, street maps, etc. I say we didn't have a plan but really--does one NEED a plan when technology is along for the ride?

It is important to note that we both took the time to seek input from our spouses BEFORE leaving the parking lot. My wife thinks this is the greatest idea I've ever had (seriously--she was all giddy about this), while his wife wasn't completely sold on the idea. I think it was more about her wanting to come along more than him actually going to the parade with me.

We made the train, with minutes to spare. I purchased the tickets while he parked the car. It was an easy enough ride to downtown Chicago, with almost all the commuters blanketed in blue.

Once there, we quickly surmised that we would need swimming skills to navigate the sea of humanity in front of us. There was no questioning where to go--all you had to do was get into the stream and go with the flow. Our goal was to see the parade. Bonus points if we got to Grant Park to hear the rally and speeches.

The traffic downtown was more ridiculous than usual but everyone was honking and cheering and waving. The beeping was in good cheer, not in hateful anger. I found it quite surreal. Cars stuck in traffic with happy passengers. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

My photos do not do justice to the event.

I have never seen so many people in one place at one time. I've been to sporting events with 80,000 people and this was nothing like that. This was a whole new beast. Thankfully, everyone was happy and laughing and singing and celebrating. Even the cops were laughing and high-fiving people. There wasn't an angry bone in that entire entity.

Of course, it might have been all the pot smoking that made people so happy. I'm not sure. All I know is that I was VERY surprised by all the pot smoking. Right out in the open, not a care in the world. What were the police gonna do--arrest someone for smoking a joint while dealing with a five million person crowd? Not a top priority.

Clark and I did indeed see the parade--and the World Series trophy--but we were not able to swim our way to Grant Park. We tried but the crowd went one way while we tried to go the other. Let it be know that it is impossible to go against a crowd this size. (I now also understand how someone could be stampeded or trampled. I always thought that sounded ridiculous. Now I know. Even a friendly crowd could easily trample someone.) We were lucky enough to see the parade. With this, we swam our way back to the train station, traversing the bottles and cans and garbage and people.

I cannot express to you what it feels like to see people as far as you can see. I mean for as far as the eye can see. Just people. People wearing blue baseball caps. People smiling and joking and having a great time. People celebrating something fun, something historic, something almost unreal.

For one moment in time, there was nothing but elation and celebration. There was no election. There was no strife. There was no hatred, arguing, name-calling.  What a profound relief to be immersed in such frivolity. Baseball may only be an event of which has nothing to do with my real life but this sure was a nice by-product of a non-entity.

Being that I am twenty years older than Clark, I'm not sure he had the same reaction as me. But, I can tell you that he seemed to be having a pretty good time, soaking it all in.

It took us an hour to walk a mile. That's how many people were in the streets. I wasn't sure we were going to make our train but we squeaked in before the Metra rolled away from Union Station.

Yes, I made it home by 5 PM. 

Clark and I are now part of history. It is estimated that five million people were in attendance and that this was the largest gathering of people in America....EVER. It's been deemed the seventh largest gathering of people in the history of the WORLD. I daresay that data sounds correct. That city was packed with people.

We were two in five million. Not everyone can say that. (Well, technically, four million, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety eight people can say that, but who's counting?)

Clark and I will always be bonded together by these few hours in time and space. 

I believe this to be a once in a lifetime thing and so I am just that much more grateful to have attended the parade. But, Clark? Clark is young. Clark sees this as the start of something, not a one time thing. He can see more victories in the future. I can tell there are more parades in his future. I will wish him and his wife a good time. I'll wave to them from the train station. I think one five million person gathering is enough for me.

Unless....that dang maintenance man asks me why I'm not there.....

...all bets are off if the maintenance man arrives.....
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