Riots in the UK Bring Back Memories of Pass Riots

   I was working at my first place of employment after college on the far south side of Chicago when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. I was working at a tech center and we had hundreds of employees. We usually left work in three groups 15 minutes apart to avoid traffic congestion. We were all told to go home at the same time. Decades later I can remember seeing one of our security people standing on the roof watching for shooters. One of my co-workers heard the ping of a bullet by his feet. After I got in my car I was stuck in a traffic jam in front of the tech center for a long time, me with my bleached blond hair piled high as was the fashion.

   I picked up my kids from the baby-sitter and went home to follow the news. It looked like the south side of Chicago was going up in flames. 40 plus years later, still like yesterday!

   At that time I was dating a fireman. He told me later of driving to work with a gun in his hard resting on his steering wheel to warn off looters. When he'd be up on the ladders fighting the various fires he was being shot at. Not enough that he risked his life fighting fires, now he had to hope to not get shot.

   Buildings were burned down by some of the people who lived there. Stores were looted. A really terrible time.