Chicago to New Orleans
Dec. 30, 2005 - "A day that will live in infamy." Ok, so that's a little overboard. But "boldly going where no one has gone before" is cliche too, although it's cool that Shatner killed his wife and is still chillin'. He and Juice both.
The jist is: on that day, 7 almost-total strangers met at Mark DeMato's house on the Southside of Chicago, where our cars could be safely parked for 9 days, and began a journey as unique as each of those men.
Louis and Chris were the "ringleaders" of this band of misfits, if you will. That is, we had already been to Mississippi in October and surveyed "what we'd do different next time," and each had the good fortune of friends they could count on to make the journey. Louis secured a very generous sponsor, the Foundation For Community Betterment, who financed the cost of our transportation, purchased building materials, and made our contacts with the Jackson County Baptists, who generously provided living quarters and 3 meals a day for us. With the rebuild survey, Chris was able to price and order the necessary materials, vehicles, and a brief "survey" (i.e. party) & lodging in New Orleans for New Year's Eve "on the way". (Everything is "on the way" when DeMato plans things). And so these 7 men gathered, the Southland awaiting.
Of course there HAD to be a wrench in the works early, and this included Home Depot in Evanston screwing up the materials request order previously faxed to them. We were told that the materials would be pulled and stacked ready to be pallet-loaded onto the big rig, but upon arrival in Evanston Louis, Chris, Daniel, and Mike learned that this was not so. Because it was not "paid in full" when faxed (we were awaiting a tax-exempt letter from the Foundation, and Home Depot swore that they would pull the materials anyway and that we could present the letter and pay while the goods were being loaded - LIARS), when we arrived NOTHING was pulled. This meant we had to call Alexandra at the Foundation, ask her to fax her OWN personal credit card info, and forward the order to Home Depot in Biloxi, Louisiana. We would drive overnight while they pulled the order. You have to understand that this was not pulling a few nails and boards off the shelf; we maxed the 13 ton weight limit of our truck with over $6,000 of materials, bought by the Foundation via the donations of our friends and family who replied to our earlier email petition. (You know who you are, and thank you!). 80 sheets of dry-wall, 40 rolls of insulation, 80 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's, plywood, roof felt, buckets of joint compound - the list goes on and on.
Several hours and several Home Depot beef sandwiches later, Louis' patience and DeMato's stubbornness paid off, and Mike Cain, Daniel Alvarez, DeMato, and Louis finally arrived at Mark DeMato's house to meet the remainder of our crew. Fortunately Mark had done what any guy does when you have a bunch of men in the house and nothing to do - he fed them. And there were subs left for us too.
You have to imagine the meeting of this group:
Dan Moses - teacher at Clemente H.S. in the wonderfully defunct system known as Chicago Public Schools, knew no one but Chris DeMato. That's gutsy, to take Chris' word that everyone else on the trip was "good people".
Mike Cain - lives in the same building as Louis, jack of all trades contractor by profession.
Daniel Alvarez - Louis and Chris met Daniel on the first trip with the Loyola co-eds, which was very cute but not quite as productive as we workaholics prefer. Daniel has mad photography skills and works in Loyola's Law School.
Louis Linsmeyer - met Chris at the Loyola School of Business in 2000, and the world hasn't been the same since. Martial artist, father of 4, community activist, and a myriad assortment of titles still don't sum him up.
Bradley Grams - EPA chemist, U of C grad, if Brad doesn't know how to do something, he researches how. And likely saves us time and money by doing so. Or fines us. Brad was Chris' "intern" at Hyde Park Academy years ago.
Ryan Gutz - met Brad volunteering at Gilda's Club, and thus met Chris through Brad. Computer guru, pilot, motorcyclist; (Chris gets all his friends on 2 wheels eventually - Louis and Ryan got their bikes and licenses last summer) Ryan does a little of everything. As does everyone with a "general studies" degree from Iowa.
Chris DeMato - high school teacher, and god only knows what else.
and last AND least, Michael Roberts, who flew in for about 2 days of work, mainly because his girlfriend wanted him to embarass himself in her presence on New Year's Eve and he needed to be at work on Friday, January 6th. We're including him in the Eclectic 8 because he's a good guy (and because Eclectic 7 doesn't sound right).
By 10 pm the 7 of us (not Michael, remember) had all our tools and bags loaded between the truck and van, our symbolic beads were donned, and we were off to Stage 1 of the operation: New Year's Eve in New Orleans. We were already behind schedule. (Approx.4 hrs)
The drive down was uneventful. Except for Chris veering off in St. Louis and insisting that we stop at the riverboat Casino to have a "date with the dice", which no one would agree to. So he settled for some pictures with the Arch. 1/2 the crew slept right through that little side-track.
Upon arrival at Home Depot in Biloxi, we again found that GUESS WHAT? Nothing was pulled! Some materials were slightly different than what we stock in the Midwest (shingle color, for example) and prices varied as well. Adjustments had to be determined as to what exchanges would be made. Also, with this large payload our truck could not take all 5 pallets of supplies without breaking an axle, so 2 would have to be picked up later. It was another Home Depot fiasco as Louis now negotiated exchanges, returns, and new purchases - this time with Mike and Alex's credit cards.
In all, our New Years Eve looked like this:
Fortunately, Mike found some golden arches nearby and despite missing breakfast by 15 minutes, wisely substituted cinnamon rolls and coffee/juice. (Mike has a slight addiction to coffee.) Realizing there was no need for everyone to sit and watch, Louis and Chris stayed behind and the others drove ahead to secure our rooms and relax for a bit in New Orleans.
The jist is: on that day, 7 almost-total strangers met at Mark DeMato's house on the Southside of Chicago, where our cars could be safely parked for 9 days, and began a journey as unique as each of those men.
Louis and Chris were the "ringleaders" of this band of misfits, if you will. That is, we had already been to Mississippi in October and surveyed "what we'd do different next time," and each had the good fortune of friends they could count on to make the journey. Louis secured a very generous sponsor, the Foundation For Community Betterment, who financed the cost of our transportation, purchased building materials, and made our contacts with the Jackson County Baptists, who generously provided living quarters and 3 meals a day for us. With the rebuild survey, Chris was able to price and order the necessary materials, vehicles, and a brief "survey" (i.e. party) & lodging in New Orleans for New Year's Eve "on the way". (Everything is "on the way" when DeMato plans things). And so these 7 men gathered, the Southland awaiting.
Of course there HAD to be a wrench in the works early, and this included Home Depot in Evanston screwing up the materials request order previously faxed to them. We were told that the materials would be pulled and stacked ready to be pallet-loaded onto the big rig, but upon arrival in Evanston Louis, Chris, Daniel, and Mike learned that this was not so. Because it was not "paid in full" when faxed (we were awaiting a tax-exempt letter from the Foundation, and Home Depot swore that they would pull the materials anyway and that we could present the letter and pay while the goods were being loaded - LIARS), when we arrived NOTHING was pulled. This meant we had to call Alexandra at the Foundation, ask her to fax her OWN personal credit card info, and forward the order to Home Depot in Biloxi, Louisiana. We would drive overnight while they pulled the order. You have to understand that this was not pulling a few nails and boards off the shelf; we maxed the 13 ton weight limit of our truck with over $6,000 of materials, bought by the Foundation via the donations of our friends and family who replied to our earlier email petition. (You know who you are, and thank you!). 80 sheets of dry-wall, 40 rolls of insulation, 80 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's, plywood, roof felt, buckets of joint compound - the list goes on and on.
Several hours and several Home Depot beef sandwiches later, Louis' patience and DeMato's stubbornness paid off, and Mike Cain, Daniel Alvarez, DeMato, and Louis finally arrived at Mark DeMato's house to meet the remainder of our crew. Fortunately Mark had done what any guy does when you have a bunch of men in the house and nothing to do - he fed them. And there were subs left for us too.
You have to imagine the meeting of this group:
Dan Moses - teacher at Clemente H.S. in the wonderfully defunct system known as Chicago Public Schools, knew no one but Chris DeMato. That's gutsy, to take Chris' word that everyone else on the trip was "good people".
Mike Cain - lives in the same building as Louis, jack of all trades contractor by profession.
Daniel Alvarez - Louis and Chris met Daniel on the first trip with the Loyola co-eds, which was very cute but not quite as productive as we workaholics prefer. Daniel has mad photography skills and works in Loyola's Law School.
Louis Linsmeyer - met Chris at the Loyola School of Business in 2000, and the world hasn't been the same since. Martial artist, father of 4, community activist, and a myriad assortment of titles still don't sum him up.
Bradley Grams - EPA chemist, U of C grad, if Brad doesn't know how to do something, he researches how. And likely saves us time and money by doing so. Or fines us. Brad was Chris' "intern" at Hyde Park Academy years ago.
Ryan Gutz - met Brad volunteering at Gilda's Club, and thus met Chris through Brad. Computer guru, pilot, motorcyclist; (Chris gets all his friends on 2 wheels eventually - Louis and Ryan got their bikes and licenses last summer) Ryan does a little of everything. As does everyone with a "general studies" degree from Iowa.
Chris DeMato - high school teacher, and god only knows what else.
and last AND least, Michael Roberts, who flew in for about 2 days of work, mainly because his girlfriend wanted him to embarass himself in her presence on New Year's Eve and he needed to be at work on Friday, January 6th. We're including him in the Eclectic 8 because he's a good guy (and because Eclectic 7 doesn't sound right).
By 10 pm the 7 of us (not Michael, remember) had all our tools and bags loaded between the truck and van, our symbolic beads were donned, and we were off to Stage 1 of the operation: New Year's Eve in New Orleans. We were already behind schedule. (Approx.4 hrs)
The drive down was uneventful. Except for Chris veering off in St. Louis and insisting that we stop at the riverboat Casino to have a "date with the dice", which no one would agree to. So he settled for some pictures with the Arch. 1/2 the crew slept right through that little side-track.
Upon arrival at Home Depot in Biloxi, we again found that GUESS WHAT? Nothing was pulled! Some materials were slightly different than what we stock in the Midwest (shingle color, for example) and prices varied as well. Adjustments had to be determined as to what exchanges would be made. Also, with this large payload our truck could not take all 5 pallets of supplies without breaking an axle, so 2 would have to be picked up later. It was another Home Depot fiasco as Louis now negotiated exchanges, returns, and new purchases - this time with Mike and Alex's credit cards.
In all, our New Years Eve looked like this:
Fortunately, Mike found some golden arches nearby and despite missing breakfast by 15 minutes, wisely substituted cinnamon rolls and coffee/juice. (Mike has a slight addiction to coffee.) Realizing there was no need for everyone to sit and watch, Louis and Chris stayed behind and the others drove ahead to secure our rooms and relax for a bit in New Orleans.
posted by D at 12:53 AM
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