Usually I like to do block posts about the chaos that has occurred during my illustrious Disk Jockey journey, ya know, string a couple fun tales together and call it a day. This incident…. This particular incident changed how I handle my self on a day to day not just during work hours but my life in general. I’ve been left over night in cars, I have had coins flipped at me, only as a decoy for a drunk old man to hurl a Bud Lite at me for not playing his song… but this is the time I was left, outside in the middle of winter, behind a dumpster on the south side of Chicago…. enjoy!!!!
Very early in my career my former boss would send me to events for his closer friends to work out the kinks. Local bars and Clubs friends of Ours owned or friends of the family ya dig!!! I always had an escort with me to make introductions and to make sure I got home safe. Always some dude I was told to Call “Uncle”, the two I remember were Uncle Luigi and Uncle Emiel. These dudes would just sit in the corner of the bar just to make sure things went smoothly and get me home at night. I was still in school at the time and had classes at 7 am 6 days a week…. It was a rough couple years.
I mention that portion of the story to tell you this. I knew the dumpster event was different, it was the first event I didn’t have someone with me. My former boss had booked a very small scale private party on a very “Interesting” part of town. If you are familiar with the South side of Chicago you know what a beautiful historic area it can be with wonderfully kind locals but unfortunately… Its a fairly rough part of town.
About an hour into the event my boss tells me hes taking off and he will be back to pick me up in 5 hours. This will be the first time I’ve been left at an event by myself, I’m both pumped to crush it and scared imma blow it hahaha. I will skip to the meat of this story but for the next 5 hours I find out that the guests love my boss… but the owner of the building and him have beef!!!! like legit standing long term family beef. End of the night rolls around and it takes me about and hr to break everything down. Back in the days everything was way more bulky and rarely had wheels so everything took a min. When I finish, I take a breath a sit on a sub only to hear the owner scream “Now get this S**t out of my building.” I was a bit taken back but I had learned in the 3 months I had been there to just keep my mouth shut. I move everything out into the snow covered ally only to have the loading dock doors closed and locked behind me.
I am now in an dark ally, on the south side of Chicago, with 30k in 90’s money worth of equipment, half pack of Parliament lights, praying to what ever God will listen that If I don’t freeze to death in this winter storm please don’t let me get shot. Im 19 years old & I’m way to awesome to go out this way!!!
I call my boss on repeat on my Nokia Brick phone. Lucky back then the batteries on the pre smart phones lasted for days so I wan’t worried on that front, but got no response. I am now worried, I was wearing a suit and dress shoes, its 15 degrees outside in a snowstorm and I can’t get a hold of my ride & have no Idea where I am. There is no Google maps, no Uber, no phone a friend option at all!!! The 90’s and 00’s were truly awesome hahaha. After the first 30 min outside the temp was unbearable. I had moved all the sound equipment behind a dumpster across from the loading dock I had been booted out of. Thank god for the dumpster and snow storm or that equipment would have been visible from the crossing street and no way it didn’t get stolen. They don’t call that town the windy city for nothing so I basically just needed to get shelter from the wind. I open the lid on the Dumpster and see it had recently been cleared and I don’t think twice before I jump in.
The next two hours are a blur of me smoking cigs ( back before I had quit) doing sit ups tryin to stay warm and making peace with my maker when all of the sudden the blue ford van my boss drove came slowly creeping down the alley. I heard the sound of the engine and popped out of that dumpster not even mad but happy this nightmare was over. I about half scared him to death since I had hidden everything so well he thought I got robbed and was being held hostage somewhere or even worse in the bottom of lake Michigan located right around the corner.
Turns out, this is one of the many times he got loaded and forgot about me. I’ve out lined a couple of the other experiences other blog posts but lets just say this one left a lasting impression on me.
Every day when I leave my house I think to myself…. Am I prepared to survive a dumpster on the South Side of Chicago at night during a snowstorm. Once I know I’m good, i’m on my way…. Health & Happiness to all!!!