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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Joe Marconi and Mike Ditka at the inquest into the death of Tony Parrilli, a former Illini linebacker shot by the Willowbrook police chief in the bathroom of bowling alley the two Bears co-owned. Hindale, 1964

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Joe Fortunato, Mike Pyle, Larry Morris, and Mike Ditka, Chicago 1963.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Fire drill at the California Institute for Deaf and Blind, probably early Twenties.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

State Street postcard, Chicago 1943

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Swift & Co. invites you to visit a dramatic display at the Museum of Science and Industry showing how livestock products help to strengthen and lengthen the lives of all Americans. Chicago 1954

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

South Branch of the Chicago River, 1880

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

live in OAK PARK the people place, 1976

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I almost miss Twitter as a venue to "debate" (i.e. beat the tar out of) eejits who refuse to believe that Chicago is half as dangerous as it was in the early nineties.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Didn't approve when the Trump passport was optional, though I relished the idea of passport officials elsewhere going slowly by the book when they see Donald's scowl. But now it seems that anyone who will need a passport in 2028 will have a Trump passport. www.forbes.com/sites/suzann...

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Chicago Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen on strike, 1950

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

3000 block of Madison, Chicago c 1968-1969

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Gérard Meister preening after winning La Coupe de Noël, a Christmastime race in the Seine, 1912

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If we are lucky, David Mamet will pen an essay explaining how it is about time this guy bulldozed the John F. Kennedy Center, a living memorial to the slain president.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

African-American WAAC playing basketball at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Mildred Gilmore, Technician Fifth Grade of Chicago is on the far right.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Watching the orchestra play at the Savoy Ballroom, Chicago 1941

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A driver showing his displeasure after another motorist cut in line at the pumps during the national gas shortage. Chicago 1974

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"Gasoline hungry motorists caused traffic jams and near chaos at service stations still selling gasoline here. Cars in the foreground and lined up down the street are waiting to get to the pump area of the station at the left front." Chicago 1974

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Eight-year-old Michael Beschloss asks President Johnson if he could memorialize JFK by adding his visage to Mount Rushmore, December 1964. @beschlossdc1776.bsky.social

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Paul Borik's letter to President Ford was covered by the national press. He died nearly five years later when his father's building, housing a tavern and apartments, collapsed. He had been cleaning the basement when the foundation fell on him. He lies in Bohemian National Cemetery.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

East Pilsen fifth grader pleading with President Ford to "lower the prices just a little," as it was interfering with his parochial school's fundraising for "the poor and the people that get laid off of work.' 1/2

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Great Rock Island Railway soothes and pleases, Chicago 1881

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Outside the Regal Theatre, Chicago 1940

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Bartender and the owner of a South Side tavern, Chicago 1940

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Pizza party at Great Lakes Naval Hospital for former POWs, 1973

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

a reminder that David Mamet thinks that Charlie Kirk is on the same moral prophetic level as MLK and Malcolm X.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A later entry in today's side trip in Chicago history AI slop: the Wrigley Building, back when the Ohio River ran through Chicago.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Runner up in today's side trip in Chicago history AI slop: elevated train tracks engineered for maximum fatalities.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Today's side trip in Chicago history AI slop: the oddball baseball diamond at Weeghman Park.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Today's side trip into Chicago history AI slop: the bleachers at Wrigley Field.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"Obey Your Air Raid Warden," a catchy Civilian Defense ditty, Chicago 1940

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Detail from 1935 map of Brookfield Zoo.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Personal income/population density map of the South Side, 1966

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Learn psychic stuff from THE School of Yoga in Evanston, 1960

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"Lift yourself from failure with a new tool of mankind:" A record from a Glencoe hypnotist, 1960

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Detail from a 1935 map of Brookfield Zoo.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Still from an AI slop video of the historic Allerton Hotel.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A reminder that Chuck Grassley was born before the invention of the beer can. And nylon. And ballpoint pens. And parking meters. And electric guitars.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Psychic Fair at McCormick Place, Chicago 1975

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The same account generated an alternate view of our wee lakeside airport in an earlier post.

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Facebook AI slop account: This image shows Meigs Field as a heavily-forested island the size of a Jewel-Osco parking lot. Typical response: It is terrible it is gone. Let me share with you all my precious memories of Meigs Field.

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