This is the train I used to take to work every day. When we heard about this accident we took the subway to see it. What a mess. 11 people killed. 180 injured. This is called being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Wikipedia - 1977 Chicago Loop derailment

Sometimes those trains scared me, for example on a crowded elevated train I was standing next to the door. We came to a stop and the wrong door was opened, the door I was next to. If anyone pushed I would have fell out and probably die.

Then of course there was the crime, pickpockets and other assholes.

We called the elevated trains the L. These trains are slow because frequently they had to take a winding path to avoid buildings in the way. No problem because the view was wonderful, especially when crossing the Chicago River to enter the Loop.

For some strange reason I miss Chicago and I might go back there some day despite the extreme cold and the never ending gunfire.

I used to swim in Lake Michigan which was warm two months of the year.

Please watch this video, it's fantastic. I worked in the red building about half way up. We had a very nice view of the city. One day I looked out the window and saw two helicopters fly very close to the Sears Tower. I knew one of those helicopters carried the President of the United States.

When the 110-story Sears Tower was built I worked across the street from it. We could look out the window and watch it being built. One day there was a fire in a elevator. We saw the bodies of four workers carried out. Then they gave everyone the rest of the day off.

"On April 11, 1973 a fire broke out in the elevator shaft of the building at about the 42nd floor. The cause was speculated to be cleaning solution that had come in contact with live electricity that sent flames shooting through the shaft killing four workers. One worker was found on the 42nd floor platform, two were found on the 33rd floor level and one was found dangling from a beam just a few feet above the 33rd floor."