There are certain things you should really only say to your best friend. This is probably one of them. You ever just shut up and just listen to somebody? Go right ahead. That's what.

Spill it out there, brother. I already did. Tom and Scott are in an all night diner around midnight. Scott is disheveled and tired. He's been working all night as a bartender at a chinese restaurant, serving lots of free drinks on the sly to Tom.

And Tom, in response, seems astonishingly ungrateful. Here is the kind of sass that Tom keeps throwing Scott's way. You're the one who needed the food and the beers and all that stuff like that to calm down after your traumatic night stealing from your employer.

Really? Just at that moment, a man in a hawaiian print shirt and khaki pants walks by their table. He hears the word employer, mistakes it for the word lawyer, and then turns to Tom. Are you a lawyer? Uh, no.

No. Do you want to be? Who brought up a lawyer to start with? You just came walking. No, I didn't.

Not at all. He didn't say lawyer. You thought that you heard something, and then you let your mind take over, and then it got you, and it put your lawyer. So that's probably why. I might have thought that.

But you know what? I'm trained in the art of listening. And because sworn, you said you wanted to be a lawyer, I definitely wouldn't hire you, because you heard completely wrong. Really? Yeah.

There are some conversations that you overhear, and it's hard not to want to keep listening or to butt in, even though everybody knows that it is not the right thing to do. One Sunday morning a while back, I was sitting in one of the booths in this very diner, the golden apple in Chicago on Lincoln Avenue, and looked around the restaurant. At the table next to me, a family was taking their teenage daughter out to an awkward last breakfast where she shipped out with the military. There were dressed up people who'd come in from the church across the street and young couples who'd stumbled in with the paper and were working on the crossword together. And I thought, if only somebody ever lost, they're supposed to find a policeman and tell them not to bring them home. Bring them to the golden apple. As evening falls, it takes a while for the dinner crowd to show up in any kind of force. It's a slow day. Everybody says.It is Friday, and couples start to arrive. Someone dates some just friends, some in that vague territory in between. And the topics of conversation in the room start to make an orbital shift toward couples. Sorts of topics. One of our producers, Susan Burton, notices one couple in particular.A man and a woman in their thirties sit down in a booth by a window. The man's long hair is tied back with a bandana. I'm Daniel Romero. Sylvia and I just got through playing a few sets of tennis in Grant park and stopped at healing earth for a little incense and some good karma, and we decided to stop and grab a bite.You know, Sylvia and I have. Have this kind of weird history. She actually dumped me not too long ago. And that's right, it wasn't that long ago. So she's now happily in a relationship.And I was telling her as we were driving here about how. How lonely I am. Actually, it's been three years since Daniel and Sylvia broke up. They met when they worked together at the same nonprofit organization. Well, you're ready to settle down now.I am. Well, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I actually. When you first told me that, I actually wasn't sure.Right. But you will not be coming to the wedding. You already told me that. I did tell you that. I won't be participating there.You'll have my best wishes. We're friends. I still love you and care about you. Why can't you be there? Well.Well, it would just be weird. I mean, you and I was our neighbors that went to the hall without any. They wouldn't take a penny. They decorated that place that you wouldn't believe. Now, how many neighbors would do that for you?You know, so gay or not gay, they're really nice people. So I think that the gays can be credited for being such a nice people. They swayed a lot of the old time people into different thinking.There's still a lot of racial stuff. Maybe if you had a black neighbor here or one of the people would rent to a black person, I think they'd be frowned upon a little bit. But if you rent to a gay person today, it's okay.A lot of things that we think are, should be this way and that way as you grow up. It's really not that way. It shouldn't be that way. So I don't feel that we should really judge them. You know, let the Lord judge him.Coming up, drunks, partiers, people on the make, and lots of other people to try not to judge. I mean, we have not even gotten to the cops. In a minute from Chicago Public Radio. Warm up that coffee for you, Wayne. Our program continues.It's this american life. Amira Glassen, today on our program, 24 hours at the Golden Apple. If you're just tuning in, we tried to interview every person at every table of a 24 hours restaurant here in Chicago starting at 05:00 a.m. in the morning on Friday, July 14, going to 05:00 a.m. the next morning.This is all back in the year 2000. Today's show's a rerun. Not everybody said yes. Not everybody could fit into a 1 hour radio show. And the day is just heating up.Let's jump ahead to midnight. One of the owners, Pete, is explaining something sort of surprising about a restaurant like this to our reporter Wendy doar. We never close. We have no kiss. We got no kiss.If you see the doors, we have no locks, always open. We'll never, never lock the doors. Just at that moment, a young woman bursts through the door, laughing. She swivels around and drunkenly tries to lock it to keep her two friends out. It takes a second before she realizes there are no locks.The three stumble to a table. This is Kim. I'm at the Golden Apple and Om and I'm with Oscar and Beth. Oscar? Oscar who?I have no idea who he is. Beth and I are riding in a cab, and he, like, hops. And I've never even met this guy. I need to order food. I'm a journalism major, by the way.Yeah, so I understand what you're doing right now.I work with Kim, and Kim lives. I don't live downtown. I live in the suburbs. And Kim, it was like, okay, we weren't downtown, though, right? I do.She lives in Sheffield. It doesn't matter. Anyway, so we go to this premiere party of the Star wars exhibit at the field museum. Yes. It was so awesome.By the way, Kim, this is my. Look at my stars. Look. See it? Yeah.She's Star wars. I'm the most sober one here, as you can probably tell. So anyway, I'm sorry. I'm joking. It's fine.I meet Oscar. We just meet him, like, standing at the bar and he offers. He buys us a couple shots. So we're like, you know, fine. We start drinking with him.We start talking to him. Oh. So I'm sitting there talking to Kim. All of a sudden, I feel two hands on my back. Two hands I do not recognize.Two hands that I do not want on my body. And I look, and who do I see? It is Oscar. And I don't even know your last name, do I? You're not gonna stay on the radio.I'll be honest. I will be honest with you. He paid for a lot of tonight. Like, he paid for my drinks. Okay, great.You know what? Don't touch me. But you can buy my drinks for me. If you're gonna hop into the cab and pay for it, then find out why you get into the cab with me. That's fine.And he's probably gonna buy our food here tonight, so that's fine with me. Brutal truth. I'm just honest. I'm not gonna go home with you.My name's Oscar. I bought them. I bought them a drink or two for a bottle of $300 champagne. Okay. I'm successful.We didn't even have to pay when we walked in. I'll be completely honest with you. My goal is to share about. Yeah, I'm at Bibliotho. It doesn't matter which one.It's just to share a bed. He just wants to get some play, basically. Is that what you're saying, Oscar? And I'll bet you if you follow us home, one ofsome kind of subliminal basis. So, yeah, I was a cowboy in one lifetime, probably right before the turn of the century. And my other lifetime, I really don't know. But I know I was crushed and I don't know by what, but probably a large building. I haven't identified the time yet?I'm still working on that.Can I have. Can I have a short stack, please? That's all. Thank you. Not far away, in another booth, sit Danielle, who's 17, and Allison, 18.They're best friends. A month ago, because of problems at home, Danielle moved in with Allison's family. They both live in the basement there now. They've been driving in from the suburbs to the golden apple. Hang out, meet friends, guys, mostly.We're sitting here waiting for this guy, Jeff, who's hopefully gonna come. We've just been coming here for the last three nights at about midnight, 01:00, just sitting here waiting for random people to show up. She kind of has a crush on this guy, and so we kind of come here in hopes to find him. It hasn't worked yet. Yeah, I paged him and told him to come here.Paged him. No answer. Page him again. No answer. Page him again.No answer. So basically, we have no life. So we come down here and wait for people. All right, phone call time. Do you have the number?Yeah, I have the number. All right. Give me money. All right. I am calling this guy Jeff, and I'm going to make him come here because my best friend wants him to.All right. And it's still ringing. Hi, Jeff. We are at the golden apple, and I am wondering if you're a at all coming, because Allison kind of wants to see you. And I'm not gonna stick around here all night.Cause I have to sleep. So hopefully you'll be here by, like, two. If not, call Allison tomorrow. All right, bye. And he'll be here.He'll be here. Six messages on his machine at home.I just called Jeff and told him that he's not here, and he should be. I still think he will come. I just don't know when. See, the thing that makes this a big deal is the fact that I think he actually might like me back, which doesn't happen ever. So that's why I, like, want to see him again.See, I know the really weird thing about us is she, like, hates herself. She never likes anyone, ever. And whenever anything goes right, she freaks out. Seriously, like, you say that there's so many people that like me, but how many times has it actually ever worked out? It's not hard for you because you're just like this massive guy magnet.You know, when you act sometimes like you don't see it, you see it. You gotta see it. Because we go somewhere, and it's like, whoosh. And everyone's there by you. And not even just guys.Like, you're just like, people like you, you know, takes no effort. Just. You're wrong, though, because it's not like I just get them like that. It's okay. I'll give you.Sometimes just. I don't know why, but sometimes it happens like that. And it's the fact that I talk and I'm not, like, boring. And I don't just. No, I'm not saying you're boring.I'm just saying that that's what I'm not. People, like I said before, are robots, and they're gonna want to follow the life of the party. That's how people are. If you put an idea in their head, like, if one person says you're a good kisser, you are deemed a good kisser forever and ever and ever. That's the point.Like, you have this thing where, like, you just, like, radiate positive vibes, you know, and you're always, like, upbeat, you know, when I've been, like, really outgoing or trying to be, you know, and, like, almost imitating you to see if it works. It doesn't work for me. And, you know, we're best friends. Especially now that you live with me, it's like you're just always there. So the issue is always there when you didn't live with me, you know, sometimes I'm not even thinking about it.I don't care. But now you're there all the time, and, you know, we've been, like, going out more, and it's. It's always there.It is 125 almost. Okay. I am calling my friend Marion in hopes that he is up. Okay. Marion, are you sleeping?You are. We're just at the restaurant waiting for people, and no one's coming. So we were wondering, do you want us to come pick you up? Say yes. So come back here.Just say yes. No. Say yes. So don't go to sleep.Oh, come on. You know you love me. Thank you. I will be there to pick you up in like, two minutes. Bye.So we're here. Hi, Marianne. Hi. I can't go anywhere. You can't go anywhere.Get in the car. I do not. Marian. My mom has convinced me to stay. Marian, go tell her that you have to come back to the restaurant.I can't. I have to wake up at eight tomorrow morning. Marianne, I'm gonna go beat you up. Danielle, however, does not do such a good job convincing him with her fists. Actually, she doesn't try.He won't come. So she climbs back into the car. To head back to meet Allison, who's waiting back at the golden apple.Okay. Me and Allison, I think that she feels like we're growing apart because I. I've kind of been mean lately. Not like. Not, like, too mean, but, like, she's my best friend.She will always be my best friend. It's just, like, now that we live together, we have constant each other, and it's just, like, we realize the things that we could overlook before are actual issues now. Like, we're complete opposites. She doesn't like people. I love people.She likes staying home and reading. I can't stand staying home, and I can't stand reading. And, I mean, I don't. I don't like thinking. It's.It's like thinking is something you do in school, and then when you need to. And she's not like that, and that's very cool. I mean, it shows that, you know, she's not a robot or whatever, you know? But she's 17. She's only 17, and she acts like she's 23.She's, I guess, above, you know, the normal teenager. She thinks of things. She cares, you know? And that's what people in college do, and that's what, you know, older people do. But me and most of all, my friends, we're not ready.We don't want to do that. You know, we want to just sit back and have fun. I mean, she just needs to find the right people to hang out with. And for right now, it's not my thing. This is.This is my thing. I like thiswe want for coffee breaks, use the wash and whatever. And it's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Okay. All 500 hours.It's often. This district normally is slow. But on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights, narcotics. It's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five.With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark. And even further up north of Lincoln, you can go from one jab to another one fight after fight after fight after fight. Well, we had a bar fight over at Irish Eyes. The guy's gonna need plastic surgery with a beer stein in the face. Sox fan versus cubs fan.Okay. The cuffs fan got in the face with a Stein. And then we had another brawl over at Cubby Bear where we made three arrests. And we just got done with all the paperwork. And it's been what, two and a half hours on the paperwork?Yeah. Yeah. Total four arrests. Four arrests. First time to sit down, have a cup of coffee and relax and unwind.This is my regular hangout here. The golden pancake. I don't know. You come here all the time. I know.Come here all the time. I used to know. 29, 71. Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around.And then there's, well, Bob over there sitting on the end. Hey, Bob. How you doing? Donna? Mary Dave, the one cab driver.I've come here quite a bit.Three men standing on the street. There's a male three blocks away. Three guys with a gun. Three blocks from here. I'm getting description of a male, white ball head, white t shirt.The mouse is heading towards Barry, which is this way they can break our personal. If they want our lunch break, they're not supposed to. But if it's a hot call like this one, might not even be bountified. Probably eight out of every ten calls are garbage. They're not.Now there's two calls. Now. It might be legitimate.One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner. Some of you even work for the first night. You learn the first name, not just the last. And then what? You work before.Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect master memorabilia. Models. I do model collecting.I collect a couple guitars. I play the guitar. And then young things. But you create a bond. You'll even tell some intimate secrets.You know, things that even the wives don't know about. But you're creating a bond. People don't realize that 90% of the job is you and your partner in the car. It can be a long night or it can be a lot of fun. The other thing is, if you don't feel like doing anything on some nights, you don't have to.You might not get a call. You can chill out, drive around. You know, you just kind of be off in a haze and it doesn't really matter. Yeah. Squad down here with the data.It's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Two more hours. Yeah, if we don't get a later rest. 1922 is back with you. They head towards the door.Donna, she guys Mignana I still abide by, says Donna over by the counter.All right, see you guys all later. The damn sun is coming up already.The damn sun streaks its damn light through the cursed windows. Donna straightens things up a little, surveys the restaurant. She's the waitress that we first interviewed a full day before, the one who brings in cookies on Christmas for everybody. She eyes the morning regulars at the tables. Well, it's now 05:00 Saturday morning, and I got 1 hour and 45 minutes.And I know it sounds a little corny, but I really do enjoy it. As soon as it starts to get daylight, I start to feel good. And the day people come in, the nice smells, the nice colognes, you know, it's kind of wore off on the night people. But the day people, it's so fresh. It's nice, it's refreshing.Everybody else is getting sleepy, and I'm starting to wake up because I'm a day person that's been working nights for 26 years, but I'm handling it all right.Program is produced this week by Julie Snyder and my with Alex Bloomberg, Blue Chevenix and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the golden Apple include Mary Wittenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Doar recorded the policeman Oscar and the two drunk women who would not go home with him, Tom and Scott, and the lady who explained earthly time. Nancy Updike. Story was produced with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of Hearingvoices.com dot.Many thanks to the dozens of customers that we interviewed over the course of the day, and to Tom and Nick and Pete, the owners of the Golden Apple back then. All three of them are still there, though they say that Donna retired in 2016 or 2017 after 43 years. The show was recorded in July of 2000. Golden Apple still stands at Lincoln Avenue, where it hits Southport. My recommendation is the feta cheese omelet.Additional production for today's rerun by Michael Comte, Henry Larson, Stone Nelson and Matt Tierney. Our website, thisamericanlife.org dot. You can stream over 800 episodes of our program for absolutely free. For your long haul holiday vacation drives, you're going to see all kinds of videos we've made over the years. The musical we did on stage, favorites list staff recommendations.Again, thisamericanlife.org dot. This american life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Miss Tori Malatia, who's always reminding me I'm a journalism major, by the way. Yeah. So I understand what you're doing right now.I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with more stories of this american life.Next week on the podcast of this american life. So Cameron's in the ocean and he hears from maybe 100 yards away someone yelling shark. There was really three options. You sit there and panic and scream for somebody else to help, and you don't do anything. Or you swim the opposite way and try to protect yourself.Or the third option, you swim toward the shark. That's what Cameron did. What questions you had when you make that choice next week on the podcast or in your local public radio station.

ever lost, they're supposed to find a policeman and tell them not to bring them home. Bring them to the golden apple. As evening falls, it takes a while for the dinner crowd to show up in any kind of force. It's a slow day. Everybody says.

It is Friday, and couples start to arrive. Someone dates some just friends, some in that vague territory in between. And the topics of conversation in the room start to make an orbital shift toward couples. Sorts of topics. One of our producers, Susan Burton, notices one couple in particular.

A man and a woman in their thirties sit down in a booth by a window. The man's long hair is tied back with a bandana. I'm Daniel Romero. Sylvia and I just got through playing a few sets of tennis in Grant park and stopped at healing earth for a little incense and some good karma, and we decided to stop and grab a bite.

You know, Sylvia and I have. Have this kind of weird history. She actually dumped me not too long ago. And that's right, it wasn't that long ago. So she's now happily in a relationship.

And I was telling her as we were driving here about how. How lonely I am. Actually, it's been three years since Daniel and Sylvia broke up. They met when they worked together at the same nonprofit organization. Well, you're ready to settle down now.

I am. Well, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. I actually. When you first told me that, I actually wasn't sure.

Right. But you will not be coming to the wedding. You already told me that. I did tell you that. I won't be participating there.

You'll have my best wishes. We're friends. I still love you and care about you. Why can't you be there? Well.

Well, it would just be weird. I mean, you and I was our neighbors that went to the hall without any. They wouldn't take a penny. They decorated that place that you wouldn't believe. Now, how many neighbors would do that for you?You know, so gay or not gay, they're really nice people. So I think that the gays can be credited for being such a nice people. They swayed a lot of the old time people into different thinking.There's still a lot of racial stuff. Maybe if you had a black neighbor here or one of the people would rent to a black person, I think they'd be frowned upon a little bit. But if you rent to a gay person today, it's okay.A lot of things that we think are, should be this way and that way as you grow up. It's really not that way. It shouldn't be that way. So I don't feel that we should really judge them. You know, let the Lord judge him.Coming up, drunks, partiers, people on the make, and lots of other people to try not to judge. I mean, we have not even gotten to the cops. In a minute from Chicago Public Radio. Warm up that coffee for you, Wayne. Our program continues.It's this american life. Amira Glassen, today on our program, 24 hours at the Golden Apple. If you're just tuning in, we tried to interview every person at every table of a 24 hours restaurant here in Chicago starting at 05:00 a.m. in the morning on Friday, July 14, going to 05:00 a.m. the next morning.This is all back in the year 2000. Today's show's a rerun. Not everybody said yes. Not everybody could fit into a 1 hour radio show. And the day is just heating up.Let's jump ahead to midnight. One of the owners, Pete, is explaining something sort of surprising about a restaurant like this to our reporter Wendy doar. We never close. We have no kiss. We got no kiss.If you see the doors, we have no locks, always open. We'll never, never lock the doors. Just at that moment, a young woman bursts through the door, laughing. She swivels around and drunkenly tries to lock it to keep her two friends out. It takes a second before she realizes there are no locks.The three stumble to a table. This is Kim. I'm at the Golden Apple and Om and I'm with Oscar and Beth. Oscar? Oscar who?I have no idea who he is. Beth and I are riding in a cab, and he, like, hops. And I've never even met this guy. I need to order food. I'm a journalism major, by the way.Yeah, so I understand what you're doing right now.I work with Kim, and Kim lives. I don't live downtown. I live in the suburbs. And Kim, it was like, okay, we weren't downtown, though, right? I do.She lives in Sheffield. It doesn't matter. Anyway, so we go to this premiere party of the Star wars exhibit at the field museum. Yes. It was so awesome.By the way, Kim, this is my. Look at my stars. Look. See it? Yeah.She's Star wars. I'm the most sober one here, as you can probably tell. So anyway, I'm sorry. I'm joking. It's fine.I meet Oscar. We just meet him, like, standing at the bar and he offers. He buys us a couple shots. So we're like, you know, fine. We start drinking with him.We start talking to him. Oh. So I'm sitting there talking to Kim. All of a sudden, I feel two hands on my back. Two hands I do not recognize.Two hands that I do not want on my body. And I look, and who do I see? It is Oscar. And I don't even know your last name, do I? You're not gonna stay on the radio.I'll be honest. I will be honest with you. He paid for a lot of tonight. Like, he paid for my drinks. Okay, great.You know what? Don't touch me. But you can buy my drinks for me. If you're gonna hop into the cab and pay for it, then find out why you get into the cab with me. That's fine.And he's probably gonna buy our food here tonight, so that's fine with me. Brutal truth. I'm just honest. I'm not gonna go home with you.My name's Oscar. I bought them. I bought them a drink or two for a bottle of $300 champagne. Okay. I'm successful.We didn't even have to pay when we walked in. I'll be completely honest with you. My goal is to share about. Yeah, I'm at Bibliotho. It doesn't matter which one.It's just to share a bed. He just wants to get some play, basically. Is that what you're saying, Oscar? And I'll bet you if you follow us home, one ofsome kind of subliminal basis. So, yeah, I was a cowboy in one lifetime, probably right before the turn of the century. And my other lifetime, I really don't know. But I know I was crushed and I don't know by what, but probably a large building. I haven't identified the time yet?I'm still working on that.Can I have. Can I have a short stack, please? That's all. Thank you. Not far away, in another booth, sit Danielle, who's 17, and Allison, 18.They're best friends. A month ago, because of problems at home, Danielle moved in with Allison's family. They both live in the basement there now. They've been driving in from the suburbs to the golden apple. Hang out, meet friends, guys, mostly.We're sitting here waiting for this guy, Jeff, who's hopefully gonna come. We've just been coming here for the last three nights at about midnight, 01:00, just sitting here waiting for random people to show up. She kind of has a crush on this guy, and so we kind of come here in hopes to find him. It hasn't worked yet. Yeah, I paged him and told him to come here.Paged him. No answer. Page him again. No answer. Page him again.No answer. So basically, we have no life. So we come down here and wait for people. All right, phone call time. Do you have the number?Yeah, I have the number. All right. Give me money. All right. I am calling this guy Jeff, and I'm going to make him come here because my best friend wants him to.All right. And it's still ringing. Hi, Jeff. We are at the golden apple, and I am wondering if you're a at all coming, because Allison kind of wants to see you. And I'm not gonna stick around here all night.Cause I have to sleep. So hopefully you'll be here by, like, two. If not, call Allison tomorrow. All right, bye. And he'll be here.He'll be here. Six messages on his machine at home.I just called Jeff and told him that he's not here, and he should be. I still think he will come. I just don't know when. See, the thing that makes this a big deal is the fact that I think he actually might like me back, which doesn't happen ever. So that's why I, like, want to see him again.See, I know the really weird thing about us is she, like, hates herself. She never likes anyone, ever. And whenever anything goes right, she freaks out. Seriously, like, you say that there's so many people that like me, but how many times has it actually ever worked out? It's not hard for you because you're just like this massive guy magnet.You know, when you act sometimes like you don't see it, you see it. You gotta see it. Because we go somewhere, and it's like, whoosh. And everyone's there by you. And not even just guys.Like, you're just like, people like you, you know, takes no effort. Just. You're wrong, though, because it's not like I just get them like that. It's okay. I'll give you.Sometimes just. I don't know why, but sometimes it happens like that. And it's the fact that I talk and I'm not, like, boring. And I don't just. No, I'm not saying you're boring.I'm just saying that that's what I'm not. People, like I said before, are robots, and they're gonna want to follow the life of the party. That's how people are. If you put an idea in their head, like, if one person says you're a good kisser, you are deemed a good kisser forever and ever and ever. That's the point.Like, you have this thing where, like, you just, like, radiate positive vibes, you know, and you're always, like, upbeat, you know, when I've been, like, really outgoing or trying to be, you know, and, like, almost imitating you to see if it works. It doesn't work for me. And, you know, we're best friends. Especially now that you live with me, it's like you're just always there. So the issue is always there when you didn't live with me, you know, sometimes I'm not even thinking about it.I don't care. But now you're there all the time, and, you know, we've been, like, going out more, and it's. It's always there.It is 125 almost. Okay. I am calling my friend Marion in hopes that he is up. Okay. Marion, are you sleeping?You are. We're just at the restaurant waiting for people, and no one's coming. So we were wondering, do you want us to come pick you up? Say yes. So come back here.Just say yes. No. Say yes. So don't go to sleep.Oh, come on. You know you love me. Thank you. I will be there to pick you up in like, two minutes. Bye.So we're here. Hi, Marianne. Hi. I can't go anywhere. You can't go anywhere.Get in the car. I do not. Marian. My mom has convinced me to stay. Marian, go tell her that you have to come back to the restaurant.I can't. I have to wake up at eight tomorrow morning. Marianne, I'm gonna go beat you up. Danielle, however, does not do such a good job convincing him with her fists. Actually, she doesn't try.He won't come. So she climbs back into the car. To head back to meet Allison, who's waiting back at the golden apple.Okay. Me and Allison, I think that she feels like we're growing apart because I. I've kind of been mean lately. Not like. Not, like, too mean, but, like, she's my best friend.She will always be my best friend. It's just, like, now that we live together, we have constant each other, and it's just, like, we realize the things that we could overlook before are actual issues now. Like, we're complete opposites. She doesn't like people. I love people.She likes staying home and reading. I can't stand staying home, and I can't stand reading. And, I mean, I don't. I don't like thinking. It's.It's like thinking is something you do in school, and then when you need to. And she's not like that, and that's very cool. I mean, it shows that, you know, she's not a robot or whatever, you know? But she's 17. She's only 17, and she acts like she's 23.She's, I guess, above, you know, the normal teenager. She thinks of things. She cares, you know? And that's what people in college do, and that's what, you know, older people do. But me and most of all, my friends, we're not ready.We don't want to do that. You know, we want to just sit back and have fun. I mean, she just needs to find the right people to hang out with. And for right now, it's not my thing. This is.This is my thing. I like thiswe want for coffee breaks, use the wash and whatever. And it's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Okay. All 500 hours.It's often. This district normally is slow. But on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights, narcotics. It's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five.With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark. And even further up north of Lincoln, you can go from one jab to another one fight after fight after fight after fight. Well, we had a bar fight over at Irish Eyes. The guy's gonna need plastic surgery with a beer stein in the face. Sox fan versus cubs fan.Okay. The cuffs fan got in the face with a Stein. And then we had another brawl over at Cubby Bear where we made three arrests. And we just got done with all the paperwork. And it's been what, two and a half hours on the paperwork?Yeah. Yeah. Total four arrests. Four arrests. First time to sit down, have a cup of coffee and relax and unwind.This is my regular hangout here. The golden pancake. I don't know. You come here all the time. I know.Come here all the time. I used to know. 29, 71. Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around.And then there's, well, Bob over there sitting on the end. Hey, Bob. How you doing? Donna? Mary Dave, the one cab driver.I've come here quite a bit.Three men standing on the street. There's a male three blocks away. Three guys with a gun. Three blocks from here. I'm getting description of a male, white ball head, white t shirt.The mouse is heading towards Barry, which is this way they can break our personal. If they want our lunch break, they're not supposed to. But if it's a hot call like this one, might not even be bountified. Probably eight out of every ten calls are garbage. They're not.Now there's two calls. Now. It might be legitimate.One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner. Some of you even work for the first night. You learn the first name, not just the last. And then what? You work before.Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect master memorabilia. Models. I do model collecting.I collect a couple guitars. I play the guitar. And then young things. But you create a bond. You'll even tell some intimate secrets.You know, things that even the wives don't know about. But you're creating a bond. People don't realize that 90% of the job is you and your partner in the car. It can be a long night or it can be a lot of fun. The other thing is, if you don't feel like doing anything on some nights, you don't have to.You might not get a call. You can chill out, drive around. You know, you just kind of be off in a haze and it doesn't really matter. Yeah. Squad down here with the data.It's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Two more hours. Yeah, if we don't get a later rest. 1922 is back with you. They head towards the door.Donna, she guys Mignana I still abide by, says Donna over by the counter.All right, see you guys all later. The damn sun is coming up already.The damn sun streaks its damn light through the cursed windows. Donna straightens things up a little, surveys the restaurant. She's the waitress that we first interviewed a full day before, the one who brings in cookies on Christmas for everybody. She eyes the morning regulars at the tables. Well, it's now 05:00 Saturday morning, and I got 1 hour and 45 minutes.And I know it sounds a little corny, but I really do enjoy it. As soon as it starts to get daylight, I start to feel good. And the day people come in, the nice smells, the nice colognes, you know, it's kind of wore off on the night people. But the day people, it's so fresh. It's nice, it's refreshing.Everybody else is getting sleepy, and I'm starting to wake up because I'm a day person that's been working nights for 26 years, but I'm handling it all right.Program is produced this week by Julie Snyder and my with Alex Bloomberg, Blue Chevenix and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the golden Apple include Mary Wittenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Doar recorded the policeman Oscar and the two drunk women who would not go home with him, Tom and Scott, and the lady who explained earthly time. Nancy Updike. Story was produced with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of Hearingvoices.com dot.Many thanks to the dozens of customers that we interviewed over the course of the day, and to Tom and Nick and Pete, the owners of the Golden Apple back then. All three of them are still there, though they say that Donna retired in 2016 or 2017 after 43 years. The show was recorded in July of 2000. Golden Apple still stands at Lincoln Avenue, where it hits Southport. My recommendation is the feta cheese omelet.Additional production for today's rerun by Michael Comte, Henry Larson, Stone Nelson and Matt Tierney. Our website, thisamericanlife.org dot. You can stream over 800 episodes of our program for absolutely free. For your long haul holiday vacation drives, you're going to see all kinds of videos we've made over the years. The musical we did on stage, favorites list staff recommendations.Again, thisamericanlife.org dot. This american life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Miss Tori Malatia, who's always reminding me I'm a journalism major, by the way. Yeah. So I understand what you're doing right now.I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with more stories of this american life.Next week on the podcast of this american life. So Cameron's in the ocean and he hears from maybe 100 yards away someone yelling shark. There was really three options. You sit there and panic and scream for somebody else to help, and you don't do anything. Or you swim the opposite way and try to protect yourself.Or the third option, you swim toward the shark. That's what Cameron did. What questions you had when you make that choice next week on the podcast or in your local public radio station.

was our neighbors that went to the hall without any. They wouldn't take a penny. They decorated that place that you wouldn't believe. Now, how many neighbors would do that for you?

You know, so gay or not gay, they're really nice people. So I think that the gays can be credited for being such a nice people. They swayed a lot of the old time people into different thinking.

There's still a lot of racial stuff. Maybe if you had a black neighbor here or one of the people would rent to a black person, I think they'd be frowned upon a little bit. But if you rent to a gay person today, it's okay.

A lot of things that we think are, should be this way and that way as you grow up. It's really not that way. It shouldn't be that way. So I don't feel that we should really judge them. You know, let the Lord judge him.

Coming up, drunks, partiers, people on the make, and lots of other people to try not to judge. I mean, we have not even gotten to the cops. In a minute from Chicago Public Radio. Warm up that coffee for you, Wayne. Our program continues.

It's this american life. Amira Glassen, today on our program, 24 hours at the Golden Apple. If you're just tuning in, we tried to interview every person at every table of a 24 hours restaurant here in Chicago starting at 05:00 a.m. in the morning on Friday, July 14, going to 05:00 a.m. the next morning.

This is all back in the year 2000. Today's show's a rerun. Not everybody said yes. Not everybody could fit into a 1 hour radio show. And the day is just heating up.

Let's jump ahead to midnight. One of the owners, Pete, is explaining something sort of surprising about a restaurant like this to our reporter Wendy doar. We never close. We have no kiss. We got no kiss.

If you see the doors, we have no locks, always open. We'll never, never lock the doors. Just at that moment, a young woman bursts through the door, laughing. She swivels around and drunkenly tries to lock it to keep her two friends out. It takes a second before she realizes there are no locks.

The three stumble to a table. This is Kim. I'm at the Golden Apple and Om and I'm with Oscar and Beth. Oscar? Oscar who?

I have no idea who he is. Beth and I are riding in a cab, and he, like, hops. And I've never even met this guy. I need to order food. I'm a journalism major, by the way.

Yeah, so I understand what you're doing right now.

I work with Kim, and Kim lives. I don't live downtown. I live in the suburbs. And Kim, it was like, okay, we weren't downtown, though, right? I do.

She lives in Sheffield. It doesn't matter. Anyway, so we go to this premiere party of the Star wars exhibit at the field museum. Yes. It was so awesome.

By the way, Kim, this is my. Look at my stars. Look. See it? Yeah.

She's Star wars. I'm the most sober one here, as you can probably tell. So anyway, I'm sorry. I'm joking. It's fine.

I meet Oscar. We just meet him, like, standing at the bar and he offers. He buys us a couple shots. So we're like, you know, fine. We start drinking with him.

We start talking to him. Oh. So I'm sitting there talking to Kim. All of a sudden, I feel two hands on my back. Two hands I do not recognize.

Two hands that I do not want on my body. And I look, and who do I see? It is Oscar. And I don't even know your last name, do I? You're not gonna stay on the radio.

I'll be honest. I will be honest with you. He paid for a lot of tonight. Like, he paid for my drinks. Okay, great.

You know what? Don't touch me. But you can buy my drinks for me. If you're gonna hop into the cab and pay for it, then find out why you get into the cab with me. That's fine.

And he's probably gonna buy our food here tonight, so that's fine with me. Brutal truth. I'm just honest. I'm not gonna go home with you.

My name's Oscar. I bought them. I bought them a drink or two for a bottle of $300 champagne. Okay. I'm successful.

We didn't even have to pay when we walked in. I'll be completely honest with you. My goal is to share about. Yeah, I'm at Bibliotho. It doesn't matter which one.

It's just to share a bed. He just wants to get some play, basically. Is that what you're saying, Oscar? And I'll bet you if you follow us home, one ofsome kind of subliminal basis. So, yeah, I was a cowboy in one lifetime, probably right before the turn of the century. And my other lifetime, I really don't know. But I know I was crushed and I don't know by what, but probably a large building. I haven't identified the time yet?I'm still working on that.Can I have. Can I have a short stack, please? That's all. Thank you. Not far away, in another booth, sit Danielle, who's 17, and Allison, 18.They're best friends. A month ago, because of problems at home, Danielle moved in with Allison's family. They both live in the basement there now. They've been driving in from the suburbs to the golden apple. Hang out, meet friends, guys, mostly.We're sitting here waiting for this guy, Jeff, who's hopefully gonna come. We've just been coming here for the last three nights at about midnight, 01:00, just sitting here waiting for random people to show up. She kind of has a crush on this guy, and so we kind of come here in hopes to find him. It hasn't worked yet. Yeah, I paged him and told him to come here.Paged him. No answer. Page him again. No answer. Page him again.No answer. So basically, we have no life. So we come down here and wait for people. All right, phone call time. Do you have the number?Yeah, I have the number. All right. Give me money. All right. I am calling this guy Jeff, and I'm going to make him come here because my best friend wants him to.All right. And it's still ringing. Hi, Jeff. We are at the golden apple, and I am wondering if you're a at all coming, because Allison kind of wants to see you. And I'm not gonna stick around here all night.Cause I have to sleep. So hopefully you'll be here by, like, two. If not, call Allison tomorrow. All right, bye. And he'll be here.He'll be here. Six messages on his machine at home.I just called Jeff and told him that he's not here, and he should be. I still think he will come. I just don't know when. See, the thing that makes this a big deal is the fact that I think he actually might like me back, which doesn't happen ever. So that's why I, like, want to see him again.See, I know the really weird thing about us is she, like, hates herself. She never likes anyone, ever. And whenever anything goes right, she freaks out. Seriously, like, you say that there's so many people that like me, but how many times has it actually ever worked out? It's not hard for you because you're just like this massive guy magnet.You know, when you act sometimes like you don't see it, you see it. You gotta see it. Because we go somewhere, and it's like, whoosh. And everyone's there by you. And not even just guys.Like, you're just like, people like you, you know, takes no effort. Just. You're wrong, though, because it's not like I just get them like that. It's okay. I'll give you.Sometimes just. I don't know why, but sometimes it happens like that. And it's the fact that I talk and I'm not, like, boring. And I don't just. No, I'm not saying you're boring.I'm just saying that that's what I'm not. People, like I said before, are robots, and they're gonna want to follow the life of the party. That's how people are. If you put an idea in their head, like, if one person says you're a good kisser, you are deemed a good kisser forever and ever and ever. That's the point.Like, you have this thing where, like, you just, like, radiate positive vibes, you know, and you're always, like, upbeat, you know, when I've been, like, really outgoing or trying to be, you know, and, like, almost imitating you to see if it works. It doesn't work for me. And, you know, we're best friends. Especially now that you live with me, it's like you're just always there. So the issue is always there when you didn't live with me, you know, sometimes I'm not even thinking about it.I don't care. But now you're there all the time, and, you know, we've been, like, going out more, and it's. It's always there.It is 125 almost. Okay. I am calling my friend Marion in hopes that he is up. Okay. Marion, are you sleeping?You are. We're just at the restaurant waiting for people, and no one's coming. So we were wondering, do you want us to come pick you up? Say yes. So come back here.Just say yes. No. Say yes. So don't go to sleep.Oh, come on. You know you love me. Thank you. I will be there to pick you up in like, two minutes. Bye.So we're here. Hi, Marianne. Hi. I can't go anywhere. You can't go anywhere.Get in the car. I do not. Marian. My mom has convinced me to stay. Marian, go tell her that you have to come back to the restaurant.I can't. I have to wake up at eight tomorrow morning. Marianne, I'm gonna go beat you up. Danielle, however, does not do such a good job convincing him with her fists. Actually, she doesn't try.He won't come. So she climbs back into the car. To head back to meet Allison, who's waiting back at the golden apple.Okay. Me and Allison, I think that she feels like we're growing apart because I. I've kind of been mean lately. Not like. Not, like, too mean, but, like, she's my best friend.She will always be my best friend. It's just, like, now that we live together, we have constant each other, and it's just, like, we realize the things that we could overlook before are actual issues now. Like, we're complete opposites. She doesn't like people. I love people.She likes staying home and reading. I can't stand staying home, and I can't stand reading. And, I mean, I don't. I don't like thinking. It's.It's like thinking is something you do in school, and then when you need to. And she's not like that, and that's very cool. I mean, it shows that, you know, she's not a robot or whatever, you know? But she's 17. She's only 17, and she acts like she's 23.She's, I guess, above, you know, the normal teenager. She thinks of things. She cares, you know? And that's what people in college do, and that's what, you know, older people do. But me and most of all, my friends, we're not ready.We don't want to do that. You know, we want to just sit back and have fun. I mean, she just needs to find the right people to hang out with. And for right now, it's not my thing. This is.This is my thing. I like thiswe want for coffee breaks, use the wash and whatever. And it's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Okay. All 500 hours.It's often. This district normally is slow. But on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights, narcotics. It's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five.With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark. And even further up north of Lincoln, you can go from one jab to another one fight after fight after fight after fight. Well, we had a bar fight over at Irish Eyes. The guy's gonna need plastic surgery with a beer stein in the face. Sox fan versus cubs fan.Okay. The cuffs fan got in the face with a Stein. And then we had another brawl over at Cubby Bear where we made three arrests. And we just got done with all the paperwork. And it's been what, two and a half hours on the paperwork?Yeah. Yeah. Total four arrests. Four arrests. First time to sit down, have a cup of coffee and relax and unwind.This is my regular hangout here. The golden pancake. I don't know. You come here all the time. I know.Come here all the time. I used to know. 29, 71. Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around.And then there's, well, Bob over there sitting on the end. Hey, Bob. How you doing? Donna? Mary Dave, the one cab driver.I've come here quite a bit.Three men standing on the street. There's a male three blocks away. Three guys with a gun. Three blocks from here. I'm getting description of a male, white ball head, white t shirt.The mouse is heading towards Barry, which is this way they can break our personal. If they want our lunch break, they're not supposed to. But if it's a hot call like this one, might not even be bountified. Probably eight out of every ten calls are garbage. They're not.Now there's two calls. Now. It might be legitimate.One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner. Some of you even work for the first night. You learn the first name, not just the last. And then what? You work before.Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect master memorabilia. Models. I do model collecting.I collect a couple guitars. I play the guitar. And then young things. But you create a bond. You'll even tell some intimate secrets.You know, things that even the wives don't know about. But you're creating a bond. People don't realize that 90% of the job is you and your partner in the car. It can be a long night or it can be a lot of fun. The other thing is, if you don't feel like doing anything on some nights, you don't have to.You might not get a call. You can chill out, drive around. You know, you just kind of be off in a haze and it doesn't really matter. Yeah. Squad down here with the data.It's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Two more hours. Yeah, if we don't get a later rest. 1922 is back with you. They head towards the door.Donna, she guys Mignana I still abide by, says Donna over by the counter.All right, see you guys all later. The damn sun is coming up already.The damn sun streaks its damn light through the cursed windows. Donna straightens things up a little, surveys the restaurant. She's the waitress that we first interviewed a full day before, the one who brings in cookies on Christmas for everybody. She eyes the morning regulars at the tables. Well, it's now 05:00 Saturday morning, and I got 1 hour and 45 minutes.And I know it sounds a little corny, but I really do enjoy it. As soon as it starts to get daylight, I start to feel good. And the day people come in, the nice smells, the nice colognes, you know, it's kind of wore off on the night people. But the day people, it's so fresh. It's nice, it's refreshing.Everybody else is getting sleepy, and I'm starting to wake up because I'm a day person that's been working nights for 26 years, but I'm handling it all right.Program is produced this week by Julie Snyder and my with Alex Bloomberg, Blue Chevenix and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the golden Apple include Mary Wittenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Doar recorded the policeman Oscar and the two drunk women who would not go home with him, Tom and Scott, and the lady who explained earthly time. Nancy Updike. Story was produced with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of Hearingvoices.com dot.Many thanks to the dozens of customers that we interviewed over the course of the day, and to Tom and Nick and Pete, the owners of the Golden Apple back then. All three of them are still there, though they say that Donna retired in 2016 or 2017 after 43 years. The show was recorded in July of 2000. Golden Apple still stands at Lincoln Avenue, where it hits Southport. My recommendation is the feta cheese omelet.Additional production for today's rerun by Michael Comte, Henry Larson, Stone Nelson and Matt Tierney. Our website, thisamericanlife.org dot. You can stream over 800 episodes of our program for absolutely free. For your long haul holiday vacation drives, you're going to see all kinds of videos we've made over the years. The musical we did on stage, favorites list staff recommendations.Again, thisamericanlife.org dot. This american life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Miss Tori Malatia, who's always reminding me I'm a journalism major, by the way. Yeah. So I understand what you're doing right now.I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with more stories of this american life.Next week on the podcast of this american life. So Cameron's in the ocean and he hears from maybe 100 yards away someone yelling shark. There was really three options. You sit there and panic and scream for somebody else to help, and you don't do anything. Or you swim the opposite way and try to protect yourself.Or the third option, you swim toward the shark. That's what Cameron did. What questions you had when you make that choice next week on the podcast or in your local public radio station.

some kind of subliminal basis. So, yeah, I was a cowboy in one lifetime, probably right before the turn of the century. And my other lifetime, I really don't know. But I know I was crushed and I don't know by what, but probably a large building. I haven't identified the time yet?

I'm still working on that.

Can I have. Can I have a short stack, please? That's all. Thank you. Not far away, in another booth, sit Danielle, who's 17, and Allison, 18.

They're best friends. A month ago, because of problems at home, Danielle moved in with Allison's family. They both live in the basement there now. They've been driving in from the suburbs to the golden apple. Hang out, meet friends, guys, mostly.

We're sitting here waiting for this guy, Jeff, who's hopefully gonna come. We've just been coming here for the last three nights at about midnight, 01:00, just sitting here waiting for random people to show up. She kind of has a crush on this guy, and so we kind of come here in hopes to find him. It hasn't worked yet. Yeah, I paged him and told him to come here.

Paged him. No answer. Page him again. No answer. Page him again.

No answer. So basically, we have no life. So we come down here and wait for people. All right, phone call time. Do you have the number?

Yeah, I have the number. All right. Give me money. All right. I am calling this guy Jeff, and I'm going to make him come here because my best friend wants him to.

All right. And it's still ringing. Hi, Jeff. We are at the golden apple, and I am wondering if you're a at all coming, because Allison kind of wants to see you. And I'm not gonna stick around here all night.

Cause I have to sleep. So hopefully you'll be here by, like, two. If not, call Allison tomorrow. All right, bye. And he'll be here.

He'll be here. Six messages on his machine at home.

I just called Jeff and told him that he's not here, and he should be. I still think he will come. I just don't know when. See, the thing that makes this a big deal is the fact that I think he actually might like me back, which doesn't happen ever. So that's why I, like, want to see him again.

See, I know the really weird thing about us is she, like, hates herself. She never likes anyone, ever. And whenever anything goes right, she freaks out. Seriously, like, you say that there's so many people that like me, but how many times has it actually ever worked out? It's not hard for you because you're just like this massive guy magnet.

You know, when you act sometimes like you don't see it, you see it. You gotta see it. Because we go somewhere, and it's like, whoosh. And everyone's there by you. And not even just guys.

Like, you're just like, people like you, you know, takes no effort. Just. You're wrong, though, because it's not like I just get them like that. It's okay. I'll give you.

Sometimes just. I don't know why, but sometimes it happens like that. And it's the fact that I talk and I'm not, like, boring. And I don't just. No, I'm not saying you're boring.

I'm just saying that that's what I'm not. People, like I said before, are robots, and they're gonna want to follow the life of the party. That's how people are. If you put an idea in their head, like, if one person says you're a good kisser, you are deemed a good kisser forever and ever and ever. That's the point.

Like, you have this thing where, like, you just, like, radiate positive vibes, you know, and you're always, like, upbeat, you know, when I've been, like, really outgoing or trying to be, you know, and, like, almost imitating you to see if it works. It doesn't work for me. And, you know, we're best friends. Especially now that you live with me, it's like you're just always there. So the issue is always there when you didn't live with me, you know, sometimes I'm not even thinking about it.

I don't care. But now you're there all the time, and, you know, we've been, like, going out more, and it's. It's always there.

It is 125 almost. Okay. I am calling my friend Marion in hopes that he is up. Okay. Marion, are you sleeping?

You are. We're just at the restaurant waiting for people, and no one's coming. So we were wondering, do you want us to come pick you up? Say yes. So come back here.

Just say yes. No. Say yes. So don't go to sleep.

Oh, come on. You know you love me. Thank you. I will be there to pick you up in like, two minutes. Bye.

So we're here. Hi, Marianne. Hi. I can't go anywhere. You can't go anywhere.

Get in the car. I do not. Marian. My mom has convinced me to stay. Marian, go tell her that you have to come back to the restaurant.

I can't. I have to wake up at eight tomorrow morning. Marianne, I'm gonna go beat you up. Danielle, however, does not do such a good job convincing him with her fists. Actually, she doesn't try.

He won't come. So she climbs back into the car. To head back to meet Allison, who's waiting back at the golden apple.

Okay. Me and Allison, I think that she feels like we're growing apart because I. I've kind of been mean lately. Not like. Not, like, too mean, but, like, she's my best friend.

She will always be my best friend. It's just, like, now that we live together, we have constant each other, and it's just, like, we realize the things that we could overlook before are actual issues now. Like, we're complete opposites. She doesn't like people. I love people.

She likes staying home and reading. I can't stand staying home, and I can't stand reading. And, I mean, I don't. I don't like thinking. It's.

It's like thinking is something you do in school, and then when you need to. And she's not like that, and that's very cool. I mean, it shows that, you know, she's not a robot or whatever, you know? But she's 17. She's only 17, and she acts like she's 23.

She's, I guess, above, you know, the normal teenager. She thinks of things. She cares, you know? And that's what people in college do, and that's what, you know, older people do. But me and most of all, my friends, we're not ready.

We don't want to do that. You know, we want to just sit back and have fun. I mean, she just needs to find the right people to hang out with. And for right now, it's not my thing. This is.

This is my thing. I like thiswe want for coffee breaks, use the wash and whatever. And it's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Okay. All 500 hours.It's often. This district normally is slow. But on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights, narcotics. It's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five.With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark. And even further up north of Lincoln, you can go from one jab to another one fight after fight after fight after fight. Well, we had a bar fight over at Irish Eyes. The guy's gonna need plastic surgery with a beer stein in the face. Sox fan versus cubs fan.Okay. The cuffs fan got in the face with a Stein. And then we had another brawl over at Cubby Bear where we made three arrests. And we just got done with all the paperwork. And it's been what, two and a half hours on the paperwork?Yeah. Yeah. Total four arrests. Four arrests. First time to sit down, have a cup of coffee and relax and unwind.This is my regular hangout here. The golden pancake. I don't know. You come here all the time. I know.Come here all the time. I used to know. 29, 71. Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around.And then there's, well, Bob over there sitting on the end. Hey, Bob. How you doing? Donna? Mary Dave, the one cab driver.I've come here quite a bit.Three men standing on the street. There's a male three blocks away. Three guys with a gun. Three blocks from here. I'm getting description of a male, white ball head, white t shirt.The mouse is heading towards Barry, which is this way they can break our personal. If they want our lunch break, they're not supposed to. But if it's a hot call like this one, might not even be bountified. Probably eight out of every ten calls are garbage. They're not.Now there's two calls. Now. It might be legitimate.One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner. Some of you even work for the first night. You learn the first name, not just the last. And then what? You work before.Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect master memorabilia. Models. I do model collecting.I collect a couple guitars. I play the guitar. And then young things. But you create a bond. You'll even tell some intimate secrets.You know, things that even the wives don't know about. But you're creating a bond. People don't realize that 90% of the job is you and your partner in the car. It can be a long night or it can be a lot of fun. The other thing is, if you don't feel like doing anything on some nights, you don't have to.You might not get a call. You can chill out, drive around. You know, you just kind of be off in a haze and it doesn't really matter. Yeah. Squad down here with the data.It's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Two more hours. Yeah, if we don't get a later rest. 1922 is back with you. They head towards the door.Donna, she guys Mignana I still abide by, says Donna over by the counter.All right, see you guys all later. The damn sun is coming up already.The damn sun streaks its damn light through the cursed windows. Donna straightens things up a little, surveys the restaurant. She's the waitress that we first interviewed a full day before, the one who brings in cookies on Christmas for everybody. She eyes the morning regulars at the tables. Well, it's now 05:00 Saturday morning, and I got 1 hour and 45 minutes.And I know it sounds a little corny, but I really do enjoy it. As soon as it starts to get daylight, I start to feel good. And the day people come in, the nice smells, the nice colognes, you know, it's kind of wore off on the night people. But the day people, it's so fresh. It's nice, it's refreshing.Everybody else is getting sleepy, and I'm starting to wake up because I'm a day person that's been working nights for 26 years, but I'm handling it all right.Program is produced this week by Julie Snyder and my with Alex Bloomberg, Blue Chevenix and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the golden Apple include Mary Wittenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Doar recorded the policeman Oscar and the two drunk women who would not go home with him, Tom and Scott, and the lady who explained earthly time. Nancy Updike. Story was produced with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of Hearingvoices.com dot.Many thanks to the dozens of customers that we interviewed over the course of the day, and to Tom and Nick and Pete, the owners of the Golden Apple back then. All three of them are still there, though they say that Donna retired in 2016 or 2017 after 43 years. The show was recorded in July of 2000. Golden Apple still stands at Lincoln Avenue, where it hits Southport. My recommendation is the feta cheese omelet.Additional production for today's rerun by Michael Comte, Henry Larson, Stone Nelson and Matt Tierney. Our website, thisamericanlife.org dot. You can stream over 800 episodes of our program for absolutely free. For your long haul holiday vacation drives, you're going to see all kinds of videos we've made over the years. The musical we did on stage, favorites list staff recommendations.Again, thisamericanlife.org dot. This american life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Miss Tori Malatia, who's always reminding me I'm a journalism major, by the way. Yeah. So I understand what you're doing right now.I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with more stories of this american life.Next week on the podcast of this american life. So Cameron's in the ocean and he hears from maybe 100 yards away someone yelling shark. There was really three options. You sit there and panic and scream for somebody else to help, and you don't do anything. Or you swim the opposite way and try to protect yourself.Or the third option, you swim toward the shark. That's what Cameron did. What questions you had when you make that choice next week on the podcast or in your local public radio station.

we want for coffee breaks, use the wash and whatever. And it's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Okay. All 500 hours.

It's often. This district normally is slow. But on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights, narcotics. It's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five.

With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark. And even further up north of Lincoln, you can go from one jab to another one fight after fight after fight after fight. Well, we had a bar fight over at Irish Eyes. The guy's gonna need plastic surgery with a beer stein in the face. Sox fan versus cubs fan.

Okay. The cuffs fan got in the face with a Stein. And then we had another brawl over at Cubby Bear where we made three arrests. And we just got done with all the paperwork. And it's been what, two and a half hours on the paperwork?

Yeah. Yeah. Total four arrests. Four arrests. First time to sit down, have a cup of coffee and relax and unwind.

This is my regular hangout here. The golden pancake. I don't know. You come here all the time. I know.

Come here all the time. I used to know. 29, 71. Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around.

And then there's, well, Bob over there sitting on the end. Hey, Bob. How you doing? Donna? Mary Dave, the one cab driver.

I've come here quite a bit.

Three men standing on the street. There's a male three blocks away. Three guys with a gun. Three blocks from here. I'm getting description of a male, white ball head, white t shirt.

The mouse is heading towards Barry, which is this way they can break our personal. If they want our lunch break, they're not supposed to. But if it's a hot call like this one, might not even be bountified. Probably eight out of every ten calls are garbage. They're not.

Now there's two calls. Now. It might be legitimate.

One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner. Some of you even work for the first night. You learn the first name, not just the last. And then what? You work before.

Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect master memorabilia. Models. I do model collecting.

I collect a couple guitars. I play the guitar. And then young things. But you create a bond. You'll even tell some intimate secrets.

You know, things that even the wives don't know about. But you're creating a bond. People don't realize that 90% of the job is you and your partner in the car. It can be a long night or it can be a lot of fun. The other thing is, if you don't feel like doing anything on some nights, you don't have to.

You might not get a call. You can chill out, drive around. You know, you just kind of be off in a haze and it doesn't really matter. Yeah. Squad down here with the data.

It's almost 05:00 in the morning am. Two more hours. Yeah, if we don't get a later rest. 1922 is back with you. They head towards the door.

Donna, she guys Mignana I still abide by, says Donna over by the counter.

All right, see you guys all later. The damn sun is coming up already.

The damn sun streaks its damn light through the cursed windows. Donna straightens things up a little, surveys the restaurant. She's the waitress that we first interviewed a full day before, the one who brings in cookies on Christmas for everybody. She eyes the morning regulars at the tables. Well, it's now 05:00 Saturday morning, and I got 1 hour and 45 minutes.

And I know it sounds a little corny, but I really do enjoy it. As soon as it starts to get daylight, I start to feel good. And the day people come in, the nice smells, the nice colognes, you know, it's kind of wore off on the night people. But the day people, it's so fresh. It's nice, it's refreshing.

Everybody else is getting sleepy, and I'm starting to wake up because I'm a day person that's been working nights for 26 years, but I'm handling it all right.

Program is produced this week by Julie Snyder and my with Alex Bloomberg, Blue Chevenix and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the golden Apple include Mary Wittenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Doar recorded the policeman Oscar and the two drunk women who would not go home with him, Tom and Scott, and the lady who explained earthly time. Nancy Updike. Story was produced with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of Hearingvoices.com dot.

Many thanks to the dozens of customers that we interviewed over the course of the day, and to Tom and Nick and Pete, the owners of the Golden Apple back then. All three of them are still there, though they say that Donna retired in 2016 or 2017 after 43 years. The show was recorded in July of 2000. Golden Apple still stands at Lincoln Avenue, where it hits Southport. My recommendation is the feta cheese omelet.

Additional production for today's rerun by Michael Comte, Henry Larson, Stone Nelson and Matt Tierney. Our website, thisamericanlife.org dot. You can stream over 800 episodes of our program for absolutely free. For your long haul holiday vacation drives, you're going to see all kinds of videos we've made over the years. The musical we did on stage, favorites list staff recommendations.

Again, thisamericanlife.org dot. This american life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Miss Tori Malatia, who's always reminding me I'm a journalism major, by the way. Yeah. So I understand what you're doing right now.

I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with more stories of this american life.

Next week on the podcast of this american life. So Cameron's in the ocean and he hears from maybe 100 yards away someone yelling shark. There was really three options. You sit there and panic and scream for somebody else to help, and you don't do anything. Or you swim the opposite way and try to protect yourself.

Or the third option, you swim toward the shark. That's what Cameron did. What questions you had when you make that choice next week on the podcast or in your local public radio station.