I dragged my posse to Michigan Avenue last night. I wanted to catch a carriage ride and talk to some of the drivers in Chicago. My first carriage experience was here about 27 years ago. My best friend turned 21 and we took a ride to celebrate. Last night, The Kid and my baby bro (38, so no not so baby-ish anymore, but still...) sat in the carriage and chatted about me totally ignoring them while I talked with our driver, "C-Squared". I made sure she knew that I would be interviewing her for my blog and agreed not to use her name because that's how we carriage drivers roll.
This horse's name is Orsay which C-Squared said is French but to me sounds a little like Pig-Latin...C-Squared has been a driver for Chicago Horse and Carriage for three years and works it full time. To be a carriage driver for the company C-Squared works at you have to train for two weeks, and take a test. The costs involved are $40 for fingerprints, (Fingerprints, seriously? So they have them in the database for all the crimes commited by horse drawn carriage banditos? WTF!) and $30 for the license after you take a test. You are allowed to take/fail the test three times, and if you Epic Fail the third time you have to wait a year to re-take it. The company she works for also is a lot stricter about hours, scheduling, and credit cards than the one I work for. So, yes, I know how lucky I am.
The horses have their own drinking fountainsSo we had a pleasant ride around the city, chatting about the carriage trade, and she dropped us off at The Water Tower where there were a bunch of drivers staging.
Then we walked to Navy Pier and hacked around for a while before taking a cab back to the parking lot and heading back to my brother's place.
4 comments:
This reminds me of my parents. They have learned to bring me back pics of horses instead of tshirts. They started going on carriage rides and noticing horses all over the world.
Everybody is requiring those finger prints now. For a teaching job it is much worse. The school has them on file, the district and county each have them on file and the state does, as well. It is no big deal, it just shows how insane the world is. Stacey probably goes through insane security checks ALL of the time.
warysec -- the moment of paranoia that hits prior to the realization that its really not that bad
I collect magnets. My fridge is no longer white, it's a festive souvineer magnet color.
Sests= where all the extra "s"'s go...
Everybody's collecting fingerprints, social security numbers. GPS required in every cell phone. Big Brother lives, baby! How long will we are required to put ID microchips into our kids? No, wait, how long till we're convinced it's the only thing that will keep them safe? Now just try to sneak off for a moment to yourself.
Nice horses & carriage. A bit of the old time freedom.
therromm: Where Inspector Cluseau stays?
Looks like a fun trip!
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