172: 24 Hours at the Golden Apple

There's certain things you should really only say to your best friend. This is probably one of them. Tom and Scott are in an all-night diner around midnight. Scott has disheveled and tired. He's been working all night as a bartender at a Chinese restaurant, serving lots of free drinks on the slide 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 on 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 in. You didn't. 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 you in. Well, I am a 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 Sportner said you want it to be a lawyer. I definitely wouldn't hire you because you heard completely wrong.

Really? Yeah. There's some conversations that you over here, 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 I looked around the restaurant.

The table next to me, my family was taking their teenage daughter out to an awkward last breakfast before 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 could interview every person at every table in this restaurant, that would be amazing. You'd get such a wide variety of different kinds of stories from different kinds of people. So, we decided to try it.

One Friday night, a big group of us took shifts, starting at 5 a.m. and going to 5 a.m. the next morning. During quiet hours, it was just one of us on duty, recording and interviewing people. During the busiest hours, which means late night, three or four of us worked the tables. The first broadcast today's program all the way back in 2000, and we'll be running it again today. WBEZ Chicago, today's show, 24 hours at the Golden Apple. It's American life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay tuned.

It's five o'clock in the morning. My name is Pete. I work from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. And now we're going to have the tax drivers and the cops come for a cup of coffee until six o'clock. The morning crowd is going to be in.

Pete's one of the three owners of this restaurant, along with Nick and Tom. All three are Greek, and one of them is always there, 24 hours a day. The restaurant sits at one of those intersections, where three streets come together, not two. So every one of the corners in the intersection is wedge-shaped, which means that the restaurant itself is wedge-shaped, with booths along the windows on two sides of the wedge. Here's a counter with stools, and a larger room with tables in the back.

There's oversized laminated menus that go on for pages, pages, with pictures of the food. By the door is one of those revolving dessert cases, an octagon made of glass, three shelves of cream pies and melon slices and cakes. Lately, I've been nothing but trouble. Here's Nick, another one of the owners. It's supposed to be turning. It's not turning, because the motor broke. Jimmy's supposed to come out like three days ago. He's still coming. Now, if you can figure this one out.

But the pie case is not turning them. Believe it or not, it's not selling this good. That's the truth. Dessert sales are down, he says, by half ever since it broke. People just like desserts more when they're in motion. It catches the eye, you know, when it's turning, it catches the eye and it sells.

Over the course of 24 hours, the staff of the Golden Apple changes, the regulars who come in change, and the atmosphere changes. A quiet and early morning, a crazy hectic late at night when the bars in the neighborhood got out. Nancy Updike took the first shift of our 24-hour surveillance, Mike in hand, from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. This is Eddie.

He comes to the Golden Apple a few times a week in the mornings and plays the harmonica in the middle of the restaurant for a few minutes. He's in a pale blue shirt and hopping lightly from foot to foot. I might fall down. Eddie heads to the back of the restaurant to play there. No one is complaining. No one is rolling their eyes. In fact, a few people are smiling and saying hi. Eddie is not an outsider here. He's irregular.

Early morning at the Golden Apple is like that, a profoundly democratic place. Early morning welcomes the night shift workers, the unemployed, the retired, the confused, the disappointed, the slightly off. The people who work for themselves and the people who don't work at all anymore, but crave a little morning routine.

Every morning I'm here between 4.30 and 5. I love the Golden Apple. They're wonderful people. They got good food. And that's it. This is how Joe Molica ends every sentence. And that's it. Or sometimes. And that's all I could tell you. Joe's not used to talking about himself. His story comes out bit by bit. Our entire conversation takes place in a different era.

He's completely unselfconscious about calling me honey. He bangs on his coffee cup with his spoon to get the waitress's attention for a refill. Please don't try this at home. But he gets away with it. I do construction, remodeling, rehab. And that's what I do. I retired. I'm 78 years old. And I gave the business to my two sons. And that's it. How did you start that business?

to my dad. My dad done the same thing when I was, I don't know, maybe. 10 to 11 years old, I started working for him who had paid me a diamond hour. And that was it. Clean up, sweep up the floors that he's working on. What else you want to know, honey?

At 5.30 in the morning, almost everyone is sitting alone. By choice, it seems. Joe's friend Bob is sitting in his own booth behind Joe. No one's talking much, but it's a comfortable silence. When you're up this early, it's hard not to feel some sense of community with everyone else who's awake. But you don't necessarily want to talk to them.

As it gets lighter and lighter outside, more people trickle in. A guy with thick, dark, blonde hair and a face that looks like it could use another six-hour sleep sits down at the counter. His name is Scott Johnson, and he says he usually comes in around 3.30 a.m., but today's different. It's about 20 after 7. How did you start coming to the Golden Apple? I own a bar right down the street. It's called Whits, and I own another one on Clark and Ounty. I call it Jakes.

How did you get into the bar of business? Oh boy. Well, about eight years ago, I turned 30, quit my career, got a divorce, and bought a bar in the same month. Oh my god. Took the edge of sketch and shook it. Took the student stood upside down and shook it real hard and changed my life forever.

It's completely light outside now. Commuter traffic is picking up. The golden apple isn't crowded, but all the front booths are taken and most of the counter.

Nick keeps getting deliveries, orange juice, potatoes, and his butcher comes by, John's service. John is a big man in that way that's the norm in Chicago. Not fat, just big. John has been eating at the Golden Apple and supplying its meats for 10 years. When he was eight years old, he became famous for being the youngest butcher in Illinois. Back in 1979, I was interviewed by Fehe Flint. I don't know if you remember, back in 1979,

Uh, Fehe Flynn was a well-known newsman right here, Channel 7 News, before he died in 81. I was the youngest birch in Illinois in 1979. And, uh, yeah, you know, I've met Governor Thompson down Randolph Street. My father was in the retail business, too, on Randolph Street. And, uh, that's how I started learning how to cut. So I've been doing this for, I'm 33 now. And, yeah, since I was like eight years old. You were a butcher when you were eight? Well, yeah, I've been involved, you know, cleaning tables. And about 12 years old, I started cutting meat on a bandsaw.

Wow. Do you remember the first piece of meat you cut? Pork chops. It's a pork loin and I sliced it. I remember very well. Like it was yesterday. A real slow in a band saw. Pork chops. Pork loins like 18 pounds. First thing I did is cut it down the middle and start from the middle. The trick is, at the end, not to cut your hands when it comes really small. You got to use a special kind of thing that's underneath the band saw, not to put your hand in it. Because the band saw doesn't have any friends. I mean, if it's going to grab your hands, it's going to cut it.

The front of the Golden Apple is the smoking section. Sitting there is a grayish woman with a fleshy face and wavy hair in one of the small two-person booths. Her name is Alice DeLuca. I work at a purification center. It's Sana, running vitamins and minerals. It's a program to rid your body of toxins and radiation. Wow.

Have you done the program yourself? Yes, I have. Now, to the naked eye, it looks like you're smoking and drinking coffee and about to have some sausage. So how does that square with the whole toxins thing? Well, I'm trying to wake up. You need some toxins to wake up. I guess so.

The restaurant never gets crowded this morning. Turnover is slow. People linger over their coffee or their conversation.

It's a weekday, so there's no impatient brunch crowd waiting for tables to open up. And if you don't have an office you need to get to, why rush? Donna, the waitress, is finishing up the night shift and getting ready to go home. She's been on since 11 p.m. but you would never know it to look at her. She's six feet tall and looks like Catherine de Nove. She's one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in person.

How long have you been working here? 26 years. Wow. How old were you when you started? Well, you think I'm going to tell you that? Are you kidding? My kids don't even know how old I am. Donna says she's actually not a night person, but she's worked the night shift the entire time, all 26 years. She came to Chicago from Oklahoma City in her early 20s with three kids. I was divorced when I came here.

And I had married so young, had my children young, no education. And I had a little baby. That's why I started working nights. But this is a great job for that. I mean, working nights, that way you're with them during the day. You don't sleep much, but when they're sleeping, you're working.

And I'm still working the night shift. I don't know why, but I still am. Every Christmas Eve, Donna brings in a big tray of homemade cookies for the homeless guys and the old men and the taxi drivers, anyone who shows up that night. Every once in a while on her afternoon off, she'll go see a play starring one of the actors who come in every night after their own shifts waiting tables. Her customers give her tapes of the bands they're in, bringing their artwork for her to see.

tell her about their successes and failures. These are people she's known for years. It's like home here to me and when I think about, you know, going on a day job, I just can't. It's almost like it'd be another, you know, a separation because it's like home when you've been here this home. Donna runs her shift at the Golden Apple with a lot of compassion and generosity.

But like any good waitress, she's also ruthlessly practical. She can be direct when she needs to. Early morning is no time to stand on ceremony.

Clean up and see what I got to do. Can I just follow you around and you tell me what you're doing? I was just like, well I don't even know anything more to do. I just didn't want to talk anymore. I didn't want to be rude. I'm tired of talking.

In the middle of the day, a muted light streams through the windows, through a pale haze of cigarette smoke. At certain hours, it feels like everybody is smoking at the Golden Apple. Three industrial smoke eaters. I'm non-stop. At lunch, some customers come in, eat quickly, and head back to work after just a half hour. But they're in their minority. Probably three-fourths of the customers are regulars. Many of them stay for hours. Nick, the owner, says, some come two or three times a day. I mean, they go home and sleep, of course, but this is their base.

We got Charlie right now in the restaurant that comes twice, three times a day. Floyd, which is right next to him, Mitch, Mitch with his son on the counter, he's a counter man. Mr. Harlan there with Stephen, they come twice a day. Russ comes about three, four times a day, L, two, three times a day.

At the counter, a man who looks a little bit like the actor Harry Dean Stanton, scruffy and lean, is here for the second time in 24 hours. He gives me what he says is his nickname, Robert. He says he usually just comes for coffee. Can't afford my chills. So why do you come here? This is something to do.

Robert is one of three different men to tell me that they come here in the afternoon to drink coffee and talk to the waitresses.

Arthur actually seemed a little shy and intimidated by the waitresses. Robert is so bashful he has a hard time saying much of anything to them.

At a table in the back, Manuel Hernandez is here for the second time today. He's a retired carpenter, came to Chicago from Mexico in 1965. He was one of the workers who built the Sears Tower downtown, one of the tallest buildings in the world. He quit, he says, when they got to the 105th floor. He was to windy up there. After two guys, they fall down and then I quit.

This afternoon passes, he calls over one of the waitresses, Sherry, and asks her for help reading a document that he got in the mail from an insurance company. So right at some kind of scam, she reads it, tells them now, they've sent him a check, it's real. Sherry says this kind of thing happens all the time. Some of these guys, who else do they have to turn to?

Out on the sidewalk when the weather's good, the restaurant sets up tables. At one, Alex and Musgrave and her two kids are eating. Ian is four, Madeline is two. Both are wearing their bicycle helmets at the table and eating the Mickey Mouse pancakes. Three pancakes, arranged in violation of US copyright law. Two ears and a head. Maraschino cherries can pineapple and whipped cream as the eyes and mouth. Cover it with maple syrup and you have a sugar concoction so powerful that four-year-old Ian literally cannot sit in his chair.

Ian, Ian. Around here, please. Thank you. I don't live far from here, and I do not think there is a four-year-old in a ten-block radius who does not know the Mickey Mouse pancakes. Turn around now, Ian. Turn around, please. The restaurant has toys for kids in a corner inside.

One couple named Mike and Liz tell us that they come here so often with their four and seven-year-old and feel so at home here that they've instructed their kids that if they're ever lost, they're supposed to find a policeman and tell them not to bring them home. Bring them to the Golden Apple.

This evening falls, takes a while for the dinner crowd to show up in any kind of force. It's a slow day everybody says. There 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 30s 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 this kind of weird history. She actually dumped me not too long ago. And that's right. That was that long ago. So she's now happily in a relationship. And I was telling her as we were driving here about 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. 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 Cara bought you. Why can't you be there? Well, why can't? It would just be weird. I mean, you and I have a pretty significant history together.

but I would still be happy for you and you'd have my best wishes and I'll still buy you a toaster. A toaster? Oh, okay. See, I think that that's unusual. I think I would be very happy for you. Would I have some feelings there? Yeah, maybe there would be a little twinge thinking, why wasn't it me? That's actually a sex in the city topic a lot, absolutely.

In case you've missed it, Sex and the City is a TV show on HBO. Each episode circles around some central question, like, can you be friends with your ex? If Daniel and Sylvie and I were suddenly cast in our own episode of the show, this would be the moment where I would light a cigarette and flip open my power book and ponder what I'd seen. Daniel and Sylvie began by talking about Sylvie as a new boyfriend, but wound up discussing each other.

And I started to wonder, when you talk about your ex's new relationships, are you really just talking about the two of you? I didn't tell you this. You asked me how my love life was a little bit earlier. I did meet somebody about a week ago. Her name is Amy, and she works at, where does she work at? She works at Supercuts. And she was with her boyfriend, actually. And she was hitting on you. And she was hitting on me. She said to me,

I want to go out with you." And I said, fine, let's go out. She says, well, you have to wait a month because I'm still going out with this idiot over here. I mean, and she's talking about, you know, so nothing happened, though. I go out with a woman who would degrade her boy from that way, who would treat the guy that she's possibly dating that way. But I'm not going to marry. I'm not going to marry this girl. You know, I mean, you know, I wasn't interested in a lifetime commitment at that moment. I mean, I was much more looking for the immediate gratification.

That's what you're always looking for. That's not entirely true. That's not entirely true. Each time Daniel brings up someone he's interested in, Sylvia gets exasperated with him for refusing to make a commitment. It happens when he mentions the woman he saw in a lounge chair by a pool in Las Vegas and the girl he's taken on a dozen dates, but is pretty sure he wants to break up with. It turns out that this is a conversation they've had before, at the end of their own relationship.

I was ready for the next step and he was ready to back out. Anytime I pressed forward, he went backwards a couple steps. You're right. You and I were in a place where you were frustrated because I couldn't move forward. I was frustrated because you were pressing so hard and right. And moved in with her after three weeks.

I think it's a hard topic for us both. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's just, you know, the thought of, you know, it's like... He trails off, staring out the window. I don't know. It's kind of hard to... It's kind of hard to describe. It's kind of hard to talk when two bags go by. Outside on the sidewalk, two girls with blonde hair and short skirts approach.

They catch Daniel's eye. He mumbles. As the girl stride by the window, he turns his head and follows them from one end of the glass to the other. The gesture seems to happen in slow motion. He does that all the time. Yeah, but I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that when we were together and you did that, that really hurts. Even though it's just looking.

It says, you're not interested in what's going on right here. And that's exactly what you did by doing that. You couldn't even formulate the sentence because your eyeballs were glued to that window. This has been another topic on sex in the city. Just for the record, what actually happened in that episode, the woman got so mad at her boyfriend that she punched him in the face. And then, she realized she couldn't change him.

Over by the restaurant's front windows, which will get on Santa Faunce's Catholic Church, a huge building, sits Kay Frank. Known to her friends as Katie Keen, 75 years old, dressed in a nice outfit and matching scarf. She's here because one of her longtime neighbors, another Golden Apple customer, is laid out dead in the funeral home right across the street. She'll eat and pay her respects. She tells me that she's lived her whole life within walking distance of this very spot.

I was born and raised on Lakewood 75 years ago. Went to St. Alfonso School, so this is my neighborhood for a long time. And it gives me a lot of pleasure to walk the neighborhood and say, Margaret Kunst lived in that house. Lucille Suchill lived in that house.

I can still see all the things in my mind as I give them the 30s and 40s. Back then, for instance, a pharmacy was on this spot and Kay and her friends would come here after 11 o'clock mass. I'm talking about first year, second year high school when you didn't go to the kitty mess anymore at 9 o'clock in the morning. This was like a hangout here.

After me as in this whole section here, they had a wonderful soda fountain. It was right here where this would be. See what I'm saying? She points at a section of booths. For years, this neighborhood was all about which parish you belong to. Sieno Francis for the Germans, St. Andrews for the Irish and Italian, St. Joseph out for the Polish, till finally in the 1960s, that ended. Case five sisters and her parents all moved away from the neighborhood.

I'm the only one that stayed in neighborhood because we couldn't afford to move out of here. We bought our house in the mid 60s, 64. And everybody thought the neighborhood was gonna change. So of course they're moving to the suburbs or farther north or farther west. Change, you mean people thought it wasn't gonna be white anymore? They thought yes. They thought it was gonna go down. That's why people were scared and moved out. So we couldn't afford to move

So we bought a house there for $27,000. I've had offers of $500, $550,000 from my house. Mima, one of her sisters who moved to an area too expensive for Kay or her husband to afford, just sold her house for only $200,000. Gentrification, which spread through this neighborhood in the last 15 years, has it made it out to where her sisters live.

But around here, on Southport and on Clark and all over, there were little boutiques and several Starbucks and expensive restaurants with fake European names. The neighborhood has changed a lot. A whole lot. Some for the better, some for the worse. Close by. We have our gay people, which we never had as a kid. They were around maybe, but we didn't know who they were today. You know who they are.

My husband coming from the old school, we have the nicest neighbors we've ever had, two gay men. They can't do enough for you. They cut your grass for you. They watered now that I'm older. And when they moved in, my husband coming from way back, oh my God, you know, he didn't want really too much to do with them.

Within a year, I'd say we saw that they were nice people, very clean. And when we had our 50th wedding anniversary party, we had some goitchenic here. It 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?

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 whole 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're into 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 them.

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 Bubble Radio, warm up that coffee for you. When our program continues.

It's this American life on our glass. Today on our program, 24 hours at the Golden Apple. If you're just tuning in, we try to interview every person at every table of a 24 hour restaurant here in Chicago, starting at 5 a.m. in the morning on Friday, July 14th, going to 5 a.m. The next morning, this is all back in the year 2000. Today shows a rerun. Not everybody said yes. Not everybody could fit into a one 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'll 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 like a door. Just to 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. I know I am. And I'm with Oscar and Beth. Oscar, Oscar and Beth. No, I'm curious. Beth and I are writing in a cab and he like, hots? I've never 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 want some- I live downtown though, right? I do, 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 story. Look at my stars, look, see it? Yeah, she sees that one. Star Wars, I'm the most stubborn one here, as you can probably tell.

So anyway, it's fine. I meet Oscar. We just meet him like staying at the party, 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? 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 from me. If you're going to happen to the camp and pay for it, then I don't want you getting to the camp with me. That's fine. And he's probably going to buy our food here tonight. So that's fine with me. Riddle truth. I'm just honest. I'm not going to go home with you.

My, my name's Oscar. I bought them, I bought them a drink or two. Or a bottle of $300 champagne, okay. I'm successful, like I said. We didn't even have to pay when we watched it. I'll be completely honest to you. My goal is to share about tonight. Yeah, I'm at, I'm at people faulting. He doesn't matter which one, it's just to share about. 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 of them two will be in bed with me tonight.

Would I be sitting here talking to you? If you were a microphone, any breakfast with them, if I was not going to go home with them tonight. Either I'm like, I'll be more on, or... Or I know something that you don't. I really am, but... I'm scared you're a good guy. I understand you have a lot of hormones, and that's fine with me. You're just not going to be able to act on them tonight. With me, I don't know about you, but... Not me either. Unless it's paying by food.

Where the hell's the waitress? I don't know. I just want to know how the waitress is. By one o'clock, the diner is at capacity and it feels like one big party. A woman sits in a booth in the back with a friend. She's in her early 40s, grew up in the neighborhood.

My name is Nancy. Where am I and what time is it? I don't think I'm really here. I think that I'm doing like a two-dimensional kind of thing. So there's part of me that's here and then there's part of me that's...

somewhere else, the future me. So, what time is it? Earthly time, it's 1.15 AM, and there is no time where my future self is. You know how you, when you go to sleep and you dream, how you can bend and shape the events that take place in that dream?

Well then, what if that were your reality and what if this were the dream? You know, you can actually paint your future and you can make everything that's ever happened. Is happening and will happen? Has already happened. It's shape-shifting time and events so that you know why your soul is here. And that's the purpose. To know why you're here. To know why you came back.

I know one past life I was a cowboy, and I was shot by accident. And I've met two of my four buddies that I was with together. Here, we agreed to come back on 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 a short stick, 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. Ties mostly.

We're sitting here waiting for this guy, Jeff, who's hopefully going to come. We've just been coming here for the last three nights at about midnight, one o'clock, 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. Paged him again, no answer. Paged 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 at all coming because Alison kind of wants to see you. And I'm not going to stick around here all night because I have to sleep.

So hopefully you'll be here by like two. If not, call Alice in tomorrow. All right, bye. And he'll be here. He'll be here. Six messages on his machine at home.

I just called Jap and told him that he's not here and he shouldn't be. I still think he will call him. I just don't know what. See, that makes us 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 want to see him again.

I know the really weird thing about us is she hates herself. She never likes anyone ever. And whenever anything goes right, she freaks out. Seriously, 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 about you. And not even just guys like you're just like people like you know. It takes no effort. Just. You're wrong though because it's not like I just get them like that. It's dark. Okay I'll give you sometimes it's 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 sit there. 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 going to 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.

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, I'm like almost imitating 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 always there. It is 125 almost.

Okay, I am calling my friend Marion in hopes that he is up. Okay. Are you sleeping? You are. We're just at the restaurant and waiting for people and no one's coming. So we were wondering, do you want us to come pick you up? Say yes. To 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, Mario. Hi. I can't go anywhere. You can't go anywhere? Get in the car.

Marianne! My mom has convinced me to stay. Marianne, go tell her that you have to come back to the restaurant. I can't... I have to wake up at 8 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. She climbs back into the car, head back to meet Allison. He's waiting back at the Golden Apple.

Okay, me and Allison, I think that she feels like we're growing apart because I've kind of been mean lately, not like too mean, but 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 like thinking. 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 the normal teenager. She thinks of things. She cares. And that's what people in college do. And that's what older people do. But me and most of all my friends, we're not ready. We don't want to do that. 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 my thing. I like this scene where it's just like, we're going to sit back and have fun. We're going to laugh. We're just going to let everything go, you know? Just like, all right. Golden Apple scene. Yeah.

Once she's back in the restaurant, after all this thinking about how she and Allison are so different, she heads over to her best friend. They started a band together called Mixed Emotions. It's just the two of them. Allison plays guitar. They both sing. And they do one of their songs together, now, for the microphone. Ready?

okay so much for faith so much for loving you so much for everything you told me you would do so much for love you won't believe in me so much for all the times you say you never leave

I needed you and thought you'd be there But now I see the change in you And now you just don't seem to care

So much for faith, so much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving you So much for loving

Hey, I don't want to hug Julius. Yeah, this is Jeff. That's one. That's Billy is okay. It is 2.15 and they have finally arrived. Yeah, like when we've given up all hope they're here. I told you I knew it. I never gave up fate. They all sit down together.

The guy who they've been waiting for, who they called six times, Jeff. He never arrived. But there is another Jeff with this group. Now, listen, transfers your crush to Jeff number two. At some point, Danielle drags her outside the diner to confer. They stand on the sidewalk, just on the other side of the plate glass window from Jeff number two, and everybody else. Allison reviews the facts of the case. Well, it's just like, OK, he's into some of the supernatural stuff, too. And we have a lot of things in common. We're both big Tim Burton fans.

I know, I actually had somebody to talk to him, you know, about for hours now and... But then again, it's like, what's the point of liking him if he doesn't like me? So... I asked him. No. I'm just gonna go under like, okay here, look, I'm trying to hook her up and... No. Hey, I was wondering, I'm trying to set Alice and I'll be slick. No, it'll be fun. For you, yeah. I'll give him a flower. Come on, it'll be fun. If he says no, we just won't come out here ever again.

Please? Whatever else it might do for Alison, if she will hook that with somebody, it might just reduce the general level of tension between her and Danielle. And Danielle does not take no for an answer. She gives the flower to Jeff number two, saying it's from Alison. He smiles a big number two smile.

then he announced and sit alone at a table and talk for a while until Daniel comes over. Are we leaving now? Yes, we paid. And we left the tip and I put the rest of the change in this little box here. And now we're leaving a research foundation. It was fun.

We got here at like 11.30 and it is now 3.15 and it is time to leave. So we'll be back tomorrow. Bye. Bye.

By 4 a.m. Saturday morning, things have finally started to die down. Once again, like when we arrived the day before, it's mostly cab drivers and cops. These two police officers are sitting in a booth in front. Even on a break, they are required to wear 18-pound bulletproof vests. They call over their waitress, Donna, to help settle this question.

And that's not an issue, also. Oh, no, thank you. What's the TV show that we're here in the diner with? Mel's diner with Alice. Hello. Hello. What was the red hair? What was the one waiters? It was Alice and Flo and Vera. Yeah, it was Mel's diner. It was the dark hair. Flo was the Western. Yes. And then Alice was the one from New York. Yeah. But it was from Flo's, I think. No, it wasn't from Flo's. No. I think it was Alice. Yeah, I'm stoked.

Now I won't be able to sleep today until I find out what the name of that show was. Well, I'm Officer Norma Knudson and it's my partner. Officer Clark Eichmann. We work in 1922 tonight in the 19th District. We're in a personal... We're allowed as many persons as we want for coffee breaks, use the wash and whatever. And it's almost five o'clock in the morning AM. Okay, oh, 500 hours.

It's often, this district normally is slow, but on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights, narcotic. It's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five. With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark and even for the North on 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 going to need plastic surgery. He's got to give him a beer stein in the face. You know, sax fin versus Cubs fin. Okay, the Cubs fin got in the face with the 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 like 20 hours on the paperwork. Yeah. Yeah. Total of four arrests. Yeah, four arrests.

First time you sit down, you 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, 2 9 7 1 Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around and there's, well Bob over there sitting on the end. Hey Bob, how you doing? Donna, Mary, Dave, the one key up driver. I've come here quite a bit.

Three blocks away, three guys with a gun. 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 bona fide.

Probably eight out of every 10 calls are garbage. Now there's two calls, now it might be legitimate.

One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner, I even ask somebody to even work for the first night. You learn the first name, not just the last. And then where'd you work before? Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect the master memorabilia models. I do model collecting. I collect a couple of 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 button. People won't realize it. 90% of the jab 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. It's almost 5 o'clock in the morning AM through more hours. Yeah.

If we don't get a later rest. One nine two two is back with you. They head toward the door. Diana, did we see you guys, mañata. Hasta go by by, says Donna, everybody 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 five o'clock Saturday morning. And I got one hour and 45 minutes. And I know it sounds a little horny, 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 clones. You know, it's kind of war off on the night people, but the day people are so fresh, it's nice, refreshing. Everybody else is getting sleepy and I'm starting to wake up. Because I'm a day person that's been working nice for 26 years. But I'm handling it all right.

Our program was produced this week by Julie Snyder and myself with Alex Bloomberg, Bush, Ebony, and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the Golden Apple include Mary Wootenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Doer recorded the policemen, 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's story was produced with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of HearingVoices.com. 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 the Donna retired in 2016 or 2017, after 43 years. The show was recorded in July of 2000. The Golden Apple still stands at Lincoln Avenue, where it hits Southport. My recommendation is the Feta Cheese Omelette.

Additional production for today's rerun by Malcolm Comite, Henry Garson, Stone Nelson, and Matt Tierney. Our website, thisamericanlife.org. You can stream over 800 episodes of our program for absolutely free for your long haul holiday vacation drives. You're gonna see all kinds of videos we've made over the years, the musical we did on stage, favorites list, staff recommendations, again, thisamericanlife.org.

This American life is still over to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co-founder, Ms. Joy Malatea, 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 out of glass. Back next week, we have 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 a hundred 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. Well, go shoot your head when you make that choice. Next week on the podcast or in your local public radio station.