“Attention, May I have your attention please. Due to mechanical issues trading will end in thirty minutes. I repeat all trading floors are closing and trading will be halted.”
It was a cloudy cold Monday. It wasn’t noon yet and suddenly I have a free afternoon.
So what does a twenty five year old guy do? Well this twenty five year old walked down to Ceres for a Bloody Mary.
“Just one Jumbo! We have to close due to some sewer problems.”
It’s 1992 and we weren’t walking around with smart phones. We couldn’t text each other. As far as I knew there was a sewer issue in the Loop.
I walked over to my dads office building on the other side of the Loop to see if he wanted to go to lunch.
He was already gone. The receptionist said the office sent everyone home due to the flooding.
"Flooding?"
I got over to Adams and the lights were on at The Berghoff. So I went in and stood at the half empty bar.
The bartender was standing there dumbfounded and the server at the carving station wasn’t fully set up yet.
“Jumbo! No trading today”
Yeah, the bartenders at the Berghoff knew me… they knew me at The Wabash Inn, Miller’s Pub and Exchequer’s Pub as well.
Fortunately for me The Berghoff wasn’t closing. This was the bar that was issued the first Chicago liquor license after prohibition! They weren’t going to let a backed up sewer shut them down.
Six beers, a bratwurst, a couple shots of Berghoff Bourbon and a corned beef on rye to go…
…I’m walking across the Loop to catch the Congress el to Oak Park, but since it is a subway downtown I had to walk over to the Lake Street el.
I found a payphone and checked the messages on my answering machine.
"Hey! We are going to have a snow day! Get your ass over to Doc Ryan's!"
So I went straight to Doc Ryans. Half a dozen of the Oak Park Board of Trade guys were sitting there watching WGN.
It was made official around 6:30 that the trading floors will be closed on Tuesday.
We worked two hours on Wednesday, an abbreviated session on Thursday and finally on Friday we worked a full day.
We didn't have a dress code because there wasn't any air. There were generators everywhere and temporary lights strung all around the building. It was a historical week in Chicago Board of Trade folklore. Things didn't get back to normal well into May.
Nine years later would be the next time the trading floor would be closed due to a disaster. That was when terrorists flew hijacked jets into several buildings on the east coast.
Thirty years ago! That went by quickly... God I miss that trading floor, I miss the Berghoff before they mucked it up and Doc Ryan's when it was on the east end of The Street of Dreams.
