I was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1974. Early in the first year, there was concert organized as a social event for incoming freshman. A sophomore friend from my dorm told me that Cream played at their concert the year before and a couple of people in the front rows suffered ruptured eardrums. I guess the administration played it more safely for our class and we got Little Anthony and the Imperials. Man, I wish I had been born a year earlier.
Nonetheless, music flowed on the campus. I saw Steve Goodman, John Prine, Bonnie Koloc, and Bryan Bowers many times at small venues on campus. Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy played at a couple of the big dance shows. Later in freshman year, friends and I would venture north to see Steve Goodman and other artists at The Earl of Old Town. And then I had a girl friend ...
She liked ice cream. On weekends we'd walk up to the Baskin-Robbins on 53rd? Street to buy cones of Chocolate Cherry Cordial. Often we'd see an older couple - a woman with her husband? brother? friend? who was obviously suffering from dementia and associated physical problems. The woman would gently lead the man to choose an ice cream, help him eat, find joy in his pleasure, clean him up, and leave the store to resume whatever life they led.
My girl friend and I would think of Steve Goodman singing The Dutchman:
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