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Written and photographed in Chicago in 1974 while I was working a temporary stint with The Associated Press this story depicts sights, sounds and a summer's worth of confusion. Chicago is the only city I have ever seen with a beach made of concrete rather than sand. My first wife was suing me for divorce without giving me good or just reason, my first son was not yet two years old, my hopes for a good marriage and family were being destroyed, as was my emotional state of mind, for the first time in my life. I also spent six weeks in the VA hospital after having back surgery and felt more alone than ever before. After getting out of the hospital and recuperating I wandered around the city looking, perusing and shooting photographs of things which interested me. That was my self-induced therapy and release of anxiety and tension from the first, most stressful period in my life. It was a tough commute driving to and from Chicago to my hometown in Kentucky virtually every week trying to salvage a marriage and family and earn a living at the same time. My wife divorced me one year later.

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