When Newsstands in America Faded Away, Just Like the Herds of Buffalo…by Robert M. Katzman
by Robert M. Katzman © February 10, 2021
Saw an old Chicago Sun-Times
Dated Christmas Day
December 25, 1983
“Chicago Bitter Cold
Breaks 100-Year-Old Record!
80 Below Zero!!”
*
Once-Famed Bob’s Newsstand
In Chicago’s
Old Hyde Park
was still open
On that frigid day
And I sold that
Cold newspaper
By myself
*
Picked up the bundles
Thrown off the truck
By the Driver
Counted the newspapers
To make sure none
Had been stolen
By those Drivers
As was the ancient pattern
While the aging
Simmering Truck Driver
Watched me
Two old adversaries
Trapped in their pattern
*
Cut the tight plastic band
Surrounding each bundle
–Wire long ago abandoned
By the four Chicago Presses–
Sliced with the
Razor-sharp Buck Knife
Hanging in a worn leather holster
On my hip
Last City in America
That still had four newspapers a day
*
Stacked them up inside
of the
Now brick building
Because the old
Outside Wooden Newsstand
Was long closed
as the
Changing Times
Dictated
*
Then I rang up
Occasional sales
on my
Plastic cash register
Stiff canvas change belts
With their three stitched pockets
For Nickels/Dimes/Quarters
Extinct by then
Just like the once
Enormous and heavy
Metal cash registers
*
Gone too were the crowds
The endless rows of
Impatient cars
Shimmering waves of heated air
Rising above their Engines
New York Times addicts
All those young kids
Swiftly selling those
Once upon a Time
Thousands of powerful
Chicago Newspapers
Bulging with
Advertising Supplements
*
All over America
The Newsstands were closing
Old Men
Old Women
Dying
Customers for Printed News
Evaporating
*
Because so much like the
Vast black herds of Buffalo
and the
Many Indian Tribes:
Arapaho…Blackfoot
Cheyenne…Comanche
Kiowa…Lakota Sioux
Whose Horse-Culture
Depended on them
*
Our time as
Hustling News-Agents
Selling what
Powerful Newspaper Publishers
Decided was
Important to Know
Was just about over
*
Comparing my brick
Urban Newsstand
to brown and faded
Old West Images?
*
Not such an
Outlandish
Romantic Fantasy
A thousand miles
From the Atlantic Ocean
A long drive by Oxen
in a jolting
Conestoga Wagon
Illinois was once
“The West”
*
James Butler Hickok
“Wild Bill Hickok”
Born in Illinois
1837
—-
Wyatt Earp
The “Gunfight at the OK Corral” man
Born in Illinois
1848
—-
Bat Masterson
Dodge City, Kansas
Gunfighter and Sheriff
Lived in Illinois
—-
Gen. Custer’s Top Scout
Charley Reynolds
Born in Illinois
Died at Little Big Horn
—-
Charley Goodnight
Owner of a million acre
Texas Ranch
Born in Illinois
—-
William Quantrill
Leader of the Murderous
Civil War Raiders
Taught school in Illinois
*
After a Time
Good or Bad
Everything fades away
Ask any kid in
Any Middle School
Who the hell was the
Traitor: General Benedict Arnold?
Hero: Sgt Alvin York?
Will they know?
*
Eighteen months
and
Four days later
after that
Chicago Sun-Times
was printed:
July 29, 1985
Two Decades Old
Bob’s Newsstand
Like an old wrinkled newspaper
Faded away into history
*
Me?
Then 35
With my
Vast knowledge of
Maintaining
Kerosene Lanterns
For Light
Kerosene Stoves
For Heat
and
How to find
Obscure
Newspapers and Magazines
From all over the World?
*
I was unemployed
for
Two long, long years
Time losing meaning for me
I had these
Very specific talents
Which
No one needed
Anymore
*
Yep, I was obsolete
I had never
Imagined
What Hell was like
Until I’d been there
It’s
Lonely
Empty
Dark
and
So very cold
***