At the center of all the action.

At the center of all the action.

This was the weekend of the Puerto Rican Day parade in Chicago, and I live across the street from Humboldt Park, which is where every person celebrating their love of Puerto Rico congregates for the weekend. It started building up Tuesday with cops redirecting traffic around the park, since one way folks show their pride is by driving up and down North Avenue waving flags, honking their horn, and hanging out car windows.

By Saturday my neighborhood was absolute chaos. The streets and park were filled with people, dancing, singing, blowing whistles, and generally having a blast. There was no way I was going to drive my car to The Burlington*, or ask my lady friend to come and brave the traffic to pick me up, so I hoofed it a few blocks to the bus stop. While I was waiting on the corner for the bus I drew quite a few stares since I was the only dude who wasn't Puerto Rican for about a mile around. One car even pulled over asking me what the hell I was doing there. It was actually kind of tense for a second, but when I explained I lived across from the park they said, "Oh, so you see this all the time, That's cool. You smoking Marlboro's? Can I have one?"

Things only got weirder after that. In fact, at The Burlington, I was wearing a hat! Wild. See?

*This proved somewhat prescient since it turned out Fullerton Avenue was completely closed between Western and Central Park. Personally, I think that was a bit of an overreaction on the city's part.

Flag photo by joe m500, goofy photo courtesy Melissa