I was stargazing with Fritz the other night.
I was trying to explain how Chicago looked on a cloudy evening from the old sodium vapor streetlights.
I explained that LED lighting on a massive scale has only been around for twenty years or so. Chicago started replacing the old high pressured vapor lights with the newer blue lighted LED’s during Fritz’s short lifetime.
Fritz will never know the orange glow during an evening rainstorm in August. The great blizzards of our childhood when the snow fell across an orange sky.
The tall poles that reached high along the city blocks shining down the glow of our youth. It was the beam of security that Mayor Daley gave to his great metropolis.
All replaced with more efficient lights that put a dent in light pollution along the shores of Lake Michigan.
We had an old sunroom that faced east. I enjoyed sleeping in that room year round even though it was purposed for three seasons.
Our house in Oak Park was built well before air conditioning. I can picture the original owners sleeping with all the windows open and an old metal fan blowing the warm summer air.
I loved sleeping up there during a snow or rainstorm, being lulled by the orange hue from the city.
Today’s quote comes from Scotty Fitz. He used a green light located on the end of a dock as a symbol in “The Great Gatsby.”
The green light symbolized hope for the future, a desire to be successful and unobtainable love.
The orange glow of the last part of the twentieth century into the new millennium was steep with symbolism as well.
To me the ancient glow of Chicago meant strength and power. It gave security to lost souls who longed for calm among the midst of chaos. The orange skies provided happiness and warmth. Something we didn’t realize until the staleness of technology changed the bulbs and brought a bright blue hardened reflection.
Jay Gatsby overlooked the bay gazing at the green light from the distant shore. I had the orange clouds hanging over the John Hancock and Prudential Building.
The potential of LED lighting has already made an impact going into the middle of the 21st century. I long for the neon lights from the 20th century hanging over the sidewalks and the sodium vapor lights shining down on the corners and in the middle of the block.
Chinese restaurants, furniture stores, liquor stores, taverns, movie theaters with the neon signs hanging from their facades have been replaced with plastic sheets in metal frame boxes illuminated by rancid lighting. Displacing the richness with a cheap fake landscape.
Nick Carraway turned off the green lamp at the end of his dock. Extinguishing the hope and desire the light gave Jay Gatsby. Technology and Mayor Rahm Emanuel replaced the stage lighting from my early years.
That’s alright….
….Fritz and I have a better view of Jupiter and the Moon.
Or in the case of my sophomoric son, “Hey Dad? Where is Uranus?
Today is National Clam Chowder Day. Make mine Manhattan with a warm baguette and a cold lager.
Find the glow in your life that guides you through the creeping pace of your daily routine.
Astonishment is always radiant no matter what light bulb we have…
