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urban legends
Really, there's no lack of story material. It's all around us, in the newspaper and on the television and the conversations you overhear on the subway or waiting for your dry cleaning. I'm constantly amazed by the stuff I come across that's true, but we are a talkative species and we're not satisfied with the truth: we've got to tell stories, and we'll take any material we can find. Thus the urban legend, or urban myth. I usually get the sense that there's some shred of truth in these stories, but it's so long ago and far away that there's no way to track it down. Mostly urban myths are apocryphal, so that maybe the best way to think of them is a modern day equivalent of gospel stories, being generated among us to pass along society's rules and fears.
There's one tale that I'm fairly sure is an urban legend, but have never been able to track down on any of the websites dedicated to recording and documenting these stories. I was reminded of it because some wag in Chicago decided to use ebay to sell 'authentic Chicago parking place holders'. Here's one of the photos they included as a sample of their wares.
Where I grew up in Chicago most people lived in apartments or two flats and at least fifty percent of them had no garage or off street parking. You parked on the street. In the winter, when the snow drfits were three feet high, you still parked on the street, but first you had to dig out your space. Which was not pleasant work. Chicago can easily see winter temperatures below zero for days at a time, when the snow accumulation freezes solid and the wind cuts through clothes with all the nonchalance of a hog rooting through swill. So you dig out your parking place, the one right in front of your building or near by, and then it's yours. You dug it out. It's yours by social agreement and neighborhood concensus.
Of course, you may need your car, and so you drive away from your carefully and painfully won parking spot, and then what do you do? When I was a kid, you got a kitchen chair, usually the chrome ones with padded seats, which now are fashionable again and cost a fortune. Now, according to the images on ebay, you get the cheapest plastic lawn chair you can find. You get two of them and put them out in your parking spot, one at each end to indicate the length of your car. That way other people (1) know you had dug out the space and were holding it; (2) can't cheat and pretend they don't know, because those are your kitchen chairs, and sacrosanct. My guess would be that things are a little more flexible now that we're talking cheap plastic chairs.
So here's the story I'm sure is an urban myth.
First really big snow storm comes and goes, and so Joe, who has been doing this for thirty years now, goes and digs out his space, right in front of his two flat. His car is sitting near by, double parked, motor running (standard operating procedure.) When he's done he goes to get the kitchen chairs which are sitting on his porch, waiting, and while his back is turned, a guy new to the neighborhood (and new to Chicago, clearly) neatly pulls his big old chevy into the newly dug out space.If somebody can track down documentation on this particular urban legend, please do let me know.A Chicago style argument ensues. Lots of yelling and waving of arms and thrusting of fingers. The new guy (call him Sam) won't budge. The whole neighborhood comes out and gets into it, but Sam is dumb, he won't back down, won't give in, and thus Joe has to go dig out another spot. Which he does. Ominously quiet as he works. Thinking.
Late that night, when it's really, really cold, Joe goes down to his basement and gets out the long garden hose. Hooks it up to the laundry sink in the basement and runs the hot water. Opens the basement window and feeds out the hose, and then he goes outside and spends a happy hour with the hose and the chevy.
In the morning Sam finds his car sitting inside a giant ice cube. The water froze almost as soon as it hit the car, and Joe spent some time making sure it built up nicely all over.
Sam didn't have the use of his car until the April thaw, is how the story goes. Of course, Joe didn't have his parking space, either, but he did get a great laugh every time he looked out his window at the icepop chevy.
Now, how is this relevant to writing? This is the kind of backstory or minor subplot that can really bring a novel some texture and heart. Some day I may use it. Or maybe you will.
February 16, 2005 01:17 PM
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Comments
That story (true or false) was funny as hell. Thanks for sharing. I needed a laugh today. Love your blog btw, I tend to lurk, but now is as good time as any to delurk and say, Hi. :-)
Posted by: Jaq at February 17, 2005 09:06 AM
When I was at an adoption event, I overheard someone say ABOUT ME, and my film, that they thought my filmmaking story was an Urban Legend. WOW. Totally threw me. I couldn't speak up and say hey, that's me you are talking about and I am NOT an urban legend. I just froze.
The NON urban legend:
While I was out shooting a scene in my film I came home to find my home had burned down and my pets and rescues died in the fire. One cat escaped. And one dog lived for three days before succumbing to smoke inhalation. The cat that escaped and lived is Shane, (named after the movie as all my animals were named after films, yep I am a geek). But Shane, the cat, has one blue eye and one green eye, and oddly so does my lead actress in the film. The film footage I had already shot was also in my home and remarkable survived the fire. Even though nothing else did. Not one stitch of clothing, nothing. The film and one cat. And the weird thing about the cat, was that she was the cat that was NOT a feral cat. The feral cat (Thelma-Louise) is the one who taught Shane how to escape because Thelma was a feral kitten I rescued with her littermates. She wanted to be outside. And learned to open the screen window. So when I saw that window open, I thought it was Thelma who lived. (We could not tell which died in the fire).
And all of my pets are in my film, FREE to a Good Home. One rescue was adopted out the week before the fire. And we shot some footage the night before the fire, which is hard for me to watch. You want to go back in time and ... change it. I see that scene and think, we shot that Friday night. With my dog Sneakers, she was about 10, a shep mutt.
And one reason I wrote the film because she was the creation of two young girls (my friend Robyn and myself) who did not think... did not KNOW it was STUPID to allow a pet to have a litter of puppies. You think just one litter. Raku was Robyns dog and I kept Sneakers from that litter. Oddly also that same week, Robyn's dog died, old age disease. So when I contacted Robyn to tell her about Sneakers, she also had sad news. It was very weird. This whole film has been weird from day one.
Each time I got depressed and felt like this film was killing me, was just not coming together I would see a stray, dead or alive I would see a stray and the worse I felt defeated the MORE I saw (even in one day).
Once during filming a boxer came to my door and thankfully my neighbor adopted it to her Nephew. A month before the fire, we rescued Tilley. She wasthe one adopted the week before the fire. And Lilly Munster (my dog Puff Monsters wife, at least in my mind as they looked alike), but poor Lilly died in the fire. She came to be to be rescued, she litterally showed up at my door, looking like she was saying, I hear you take us in. So at the time of the fire I had seven.
Four dogs, two cats and and Tilley who was adopted the week before. I know I keep saying that. But Bambi (my favorite) is the one who lived three days. And that I dont really talk about because of the mess that happened with the Vet. They withheld medication. And to this day driving by VCA clinics I tear up. They are all about money. For some signature they withheld meds. Long story. I was there to sign everything and something was missed and that something was the reason they let her die. Bitter party of one.
I need to shut up now as I have to go to work and need not to have red puffy eyes.
So the making of FREE to a Good Home is NOT an urban legend.
Sorry for venting here... on your blog. I should copy this to mine.
My animals were:
Sneakers (shep, 10 yrs)
Puff Monster (aka Puffy, pit mix 3-4 yrs rescue)
Bambi (put together by committee, 2 yrs rescue, also came to my home)
Lilly Munster (pit, bull dog with BAD underbite that made her SNORE loudly, aprox 1-2 yrs)
Thelma-Louise (cat, 1 yr)
And Shane the sole survivor.
I have some of their pics on my website but should really post them all. Will update my site this weekend for the screening stuff.
Posted by: bohemianblogger at February 17, 2005 11:54 AM
ps the fire happened
Dec 8th 2001.
Posted by: bohemianblogger at February 17, 2005 11:56 AM
bb:
Your comment isn't too long. It's an important story you're telling, and I hope I have a chance to see it at some point. Although I probably will end up very teary. I can't stand to see animals abused or hurt... I can't stand it for people or children, either, but nobody makes a documentary that really deals with child abuse. At least I've never seen one.
My two dogs and two cats thank you for your work on the behalf of their extended families. So do I.
Posted by: sara at February 17, 2005 01:15 PM
Thank you, and your critters.
I would think making a doc on child abuse would be nearly impossible because all the subjects would have to be blurred. Although... now that I am thinking of that... it would pose a challenge to make a film interesting where you could only see hands and feet and all things unidentifiable.
And for a documentarian "you" cannot interfere with the situation. (My film is fiction although I shot doc style, did ride-alongs with Animal Control...cinema verité-like..or so I have been told - interacted with strays in the streets to get the footage etc...) back to child abuse... if the documentarian cannot interfere with child abuse or a situation, it could be criminal, and how could someone stand back and just film? Only a child who is suffering from it can be their own documentarian with hidden cameras (hidden from the 'guardians' aka those that do NOT need the protection of the blurred lense.)
When I was filming on a ride-along, and there was this pack of dogs weaving in and out of four lanes of traffic and along the MTA train tracks, I had to continually say to myself, just film it, just keep the camera rolling no matter what, people have to see this, just keep filming. The urge to jump from the truck and jump in front of the oncoming cars to alert them of the dog, was nearly overwhelming.
And then I had to say, don't shake the damn camera! And I got the shot. Thankfully it was a near-miss of a van and one of the dogs. Good footage.
Half the time my lead actress took the camera from me because I was busy jumping out in the middle of traffic trying to stop cars from hitting some critter.
Which is how I got one of the shots in my trailers (on my site)where the character spins around on the yellow lines as traffic whizzes by her on either side. That was me with the camera because there was a dog, of course walking into traffic, and I was just "lucky" to keep rolling, or to have been rolling at the time. And had my wits to get the shot we were actually trying to fake that day. Then later I put Katie (my lead) in the middle of the same street (with no cars coming) and I filmed her doing what I did. Waalaa... Edit together.
That is what is so freaky about this film. We went to get that shot and the highway shot... both in the same unbelivable day - the highway shot - which is seeing a dog running along the side of the 110 highway. We were going to fake it. But we didn't have a chance to fake it.
As we drove up to the spot I wanted to film at (and we did it ghetto style, no location permits, no permission...) my lead, Katie, started to scream, Judy, there is a dog. Oh my God, there's a dog! And she grabbed the camera (I was driving) and she filmed.
That footage of this gray (formerly white) dog is on our Teaser Trailer. And the footage of her running along the side of the highway with a million cars going by at 60 mph is also real. We tried to catch that dog. Never caught him or her.
So we go to fake the shot, and it happens for real.
I don't know maybe this film is an urban legend. It is too hard to believe all the mystical stuff that happened in reality.
Posted by: bohemianblogger at February 17, 2005 05:40 PM
So funny Sara. I lived on Southport and Waveland for MANY years and used to see many dramas played out over the winter months.
Cynthia in Florida
Posted by: Cynthia at February 19, 2005 12:01 PM