addendum to the Montgomery Ward story

I should have added that the Montgomery Ward card proved to be useful once in a crisis.

Late in the summer of ’92, I returned to Chicago from a lengthy trip, and found that I had inexplicably lost my house keys during the journey. Luckily, I had always carefully stashed a backup set of keys at the DePaul Philosophy Department where I alone could find them. I was living at Kenmore & Belmont in those days, meaning that it was only about a 20-minute walk to DePaul, but I didn’t feel like hauling the luggage down there with me. So, I did what I thought was a careful job of stashing it on my outside back porch, which moreover was protected by a high and intimidating-looking fence.

And then I went down to DePaul and got my backup keys. I think I ran into some friends there and spent an hour or two having lunch with them. By the time I returned to my flat, someone had actually gotten onto the back porch and found and stolen my duffel bag! They were probably watching me hide it without my realizing it. It was already a fairly safe neighborhood by 1992, but weird incidents were still occurring now and then. (In the 1970’s it had been a dangerous area, I believe.)

Now, that duffel bag contained virtually all of my clothing. I was down to maybe 2 shirts and 1 pair of pants. And I decided it would be appropriate to replenish my entire wardrobe at Montgomery Ward. But I did not take my friend’s advice to buy nothing but hip-hop gang gear (a style that Montgomery Ward stocked abundantly at the time). Nor did I dare to use the “von Habsburg” card. But I did get some passably decent stuff there.