COOK COUNTY MORGUE!!!

Now that I was getting to know how to travel a bit, I took a few more trips out to see my sister. On one such occasion, my last train on the itinerary was cancelled. That was from Chicago to a close town where my dad was supposed to pick me up. I was at the Dearborn Station in Chicago and no train out, until the next day. It was about 11 o'clock PM and the information booth was closed for the night. What to do? I guess, I would try to get a hotel room somewhere in the loop. Dearborn Station wasn't too far from the loop.

Since I didn't know how much that would cost and whether I could walk it or not, I decided to try the telephone in the booth at the train station and ask for information. Now I don't believe that the telephone company gives out general information (like the kind I was asking), but I did get a kind helpful person on the other end. I asked her how far it was from the station to the loop. After she said it was a mile, I asked her if she thought I could walk it? She quickly came back, "No, it is not safe to walk, and that I should take a cab." I was glad to know this information, and asked her how much it would cost to take the cab downtown to a hotel. She told me, and I was armed to hail a cab and go spend the night at a hotel downtown in the loop. It didn't occur to me that I needed to call my dad up, as I thought he knew I wouldn't be on the train that was canceled. Why I thought he would know it was canceled, I was young and wasn't thinking. We didn't make unnecessary calls in those days. Remember, we were just coming out of the depression years and this life style was still ingrained in us. Needless to say, my parents added a few more gray hairs to their head and wondering where I was and if I could function in a large city like Chicago.

I got out of the cab and the fee was about the amount the kind telephone operator said it would be. I got a room for the night at a fairly decent hotel.

I just remembered that my cousin was a nursing student at the Cook County Hospital. She was in her senior year and one of the requirements was to do student nursing at Cook County Hospital for at least six months. I got the hospital's phone # and then asked to be connected with my cousin. Well, she quickly asked me to come out to visit her that day. She told me exactly how to proceed on coming. I decided to go and take the later train home and call my dad when I got there.

Neither my cousin, nor I had much money to speak of, so she asked me if I would like to visit the Cook County Morgue. WELL, this sounded like an adventure to me! It was adjoining the hospital. So for the fun of it, we went over and explored the morgue. Well it certainly was a better way to visit a morgue, then to come to find a loved one that was missing.

The morgue was rather spooky, and there were filing cabinets all lined up against the walls. You pulled a drawer out and there was an unknown dead body with the toe tag. We got to see where they performed an autopsy to determine what they died from. GRUESOME!! But it leaves me with lots of laughs and memories to share with others. Oh yes, the morgue didn't have a very pleasant odor either. Next month this same cousin will be going to Florida together with our family. I don't think visiting a morgue will be an adventure we want to take this time. We are just too OLD for so much FUN!!!!

I finally arrived home on the later train that day and learned that my parents were quite worried about me.

Wisdom--Worry is a burden God never intended us to bear.