So, this WKND was some huge annual Puerto carnival festival in my 'hood in Chicago, IL. called Humboldt Park, the other day, Thursday, myself and the rad chick that is dating me went to it and walked around. Said girl wrote this article last year for Time Magazine online for their travel section. This was my first time going in the 3 years that I have lived in this neighborhood. I live on the other side of the park and she lives less than a block from the epicenter, and let me just say that the center was petty epic.
First stop: Funnel Cake, this is basically pancake batter poured into a deep fryer, put onto a plate and covered with powdered sugar, TDF (to die for). We then walk through everything, I must say that I have been missing out on this display of family and unity within my time here. Humboldt Park has had a bad name for itself for some time with gangs, drugs and racial rift. The latin kings are based out of Humboldt Park.
After getting powder on our faces, licking our fingers and fulfilling our guilty need for grease and sugar we then decide we need some sort of liquid to wash our pleasures away be them guilty or not. We happen upon a man with a tray of Piña Colada samples (non-alcoholic of course) to which lights her face up and we make a Bee Line to the booth which holds what may seem our destiny in the form of a refreshing liquid. Hmmmmm do we want the Piña Colada in a cup for $5 or in a cored out Pineapple with six slices and a cherry pierced with a pipe cleaner frog skewer for $8? Do you really have to think about that?
Liquid Gluttony out of a blue straw during our weaving steps through the fest sampling, with our eyes, the wares and wears that this sort of event brings to the surface. Stuffing our proboscis' full of tradicional local smells will only lead to us stuffing our faces with Chicken/Pork skewers con Arroz. After trading money for sustenance we find ourselves a secluded block of 5 foot x 10 foot concrete to feast upon our food as well as our appetitus societatis. People watching for the people by two people.
A whole world of wonder passes in the foreground like some strange dream we could never think of, our minds need not any more stimulus than that of which walks before us. Taking turns feeding and scraping out our pineapple treat in efforts to sweeten our buds enough to match the visual procession of sweet treats that are constantly replenishing right before our eyes. Pineapple gone, let's experience more.
Games, let's try to ignite the fire of our inner child with a few games that are sure to induce laughter and smiles. We stroll through game alley taking in all the temptations of stuffed animal heaven, stopping at the Pig Races where the goal is to toss your ball up a ramp in a Skee Ball type fashion trying to get the ball into different colored holes each color making your Pig "run" faster or slower. Long story short, I won. I picked out the most Atomic green stuffed frog we had ever seen, I say Atomic because even as dusk approached and set upon us, this little green friend still seemed to glow just as magnificent as if in the sun. Before we made our walk back home through the park admiring the glowing frog we stopped to win some kewl mirrors.
You remember those kewl coke mirrors as they have become known? Well, the object is you get three darts and for each balloon you pop you get a small mirror, if you pop all three you get a medium sized mirror or three small ones. I hand over my money for my three darts, One: *POP*, Two: *POP*, Three: *POP*!!! I'm such a stud. We then admire which three small mirrors we should get to adorn our households. The first pick was a BVM picture (blessed virgin mary) KNDA in the trad with red, yellow and green background, the second pick was for me and it was of five Horses, not Pegasus' or Unicorns, but no less majestic, running through a breaking ocean wave at night with a full Moon with the atlantic blue tones and pink glows accenting the mountains and night sky. Lucky pick number three was another BVM with the exception that this one was a great airbrush masterpiece of the BVM in the background and what looks to be a '74 Chevy Impala low-rider with the license plate reading "low life" in three wheel motion.
We end the night with a walk through the Park at night, something I would never have done in 1990 or even in 2000, back to my house to feed The Squishy and watch Roseanne on TV Land because they have like a Nine block of Roseanne and it is something the both of us like to do at the end of an Awesome Day.
As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Rag" by Shudder To Think from the album "Your Choice Live Series 021" 1992.
why can't you write for time mag, or some other mag?
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