Fiasco Philosophy

Compatibles PC Magazine #2, May 1987

Highway to Chicago, Illinois (1939)

Aerial view of the Chicago River with the Wrigley Building illuminated in the foreground.

Butte Evening

Once again I have here some more images taken in the historical section of downtown Butte, Montana. I start off with another shot of the Dumas Brothel, located on Mercury Street, with the Hotel Finlen sign lit up. The two other shots were made on West Broadway Street.

Forever Blue

First Job—Palestine, Illinois

Here are some images taken in a small Illinois town near the Wabash River. I had recently graduated high school and figured I’d work a year before going to college. (Something they’d call a “gap year” nowadays.) My job was third-trick operator with the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, which was later chopped up with most of it being folded into the Canadian National Railway.

This series has a depressed air about it, and I suppose that’s accurate—I was lonely and would often head back to my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, on my weekends to visit friends and stay over at my parents’ house. I usually drove my second-hand car, but hitched a ride on a freight there and back at least once.

While most of these images show the small town itself, I can explain a few of them. The second image shows the yard office, former freight station, in which I worked. The fourth is a self-portrait in the shabby, furnished apartment in which I lived, right downtown in a 19th century building, part of the business district. And the final shot is the desk at which I worked within the yard office—the date on the calendar is December 12th 1978.