Steven Smalley <Stsmalley@aol.com> Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997
To: David.C.Broski@uic.edu
To turn one of the last remnants of the Real Chicago into a plastic, cancer-ridden, cubicle of a computer laboratory , reeks of the worst of academia. Why stop with Maxwell. Perhaps instead tear down the Green Door Tavern and turn it into a "Gangster Museum", with lifesize wax figurines of John Dillinger and Ma Rainey!
There is a soul and a heart on that sacred ground you're planning on turning into a Student Center. Hearts have been broken and healed and lives have been lost and found on Maxwell Street. There a real TANGIBLE memories that people carry around with them to this day tucked away in some sweet sweaty pocket of their hearts. Are you telling me you're willing to demolish the real Home of Chicago Blues?
Good God, look at what Memphis has done with Beale. They cherish and nurture Beale Street in Memphis. For the sake of History, let it be.
-- Steve "Honeyboy" Smalley
P.S. I am great fan of the Blues, as is my father who, if you should meet him, will be only too glad to tell you of seeing Little Walter in1961 (he was one of 3 people there along with a bottle of Old Granddad) and of his 'seminal' version of Fever that he sang with Big Time Sarah in 1994. I was there and (show-woman that she is) she was floored.
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