In search of the pure food beer (Courtesy of June Sawyers.)
Scottish by birth and a Chicagoan by heart, June Sawyers has written more than 25 books.
Her prolific catalog includes “Praying With Celtic Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and Poets,” “Dreams of Elsewhere: Selected Travel Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson” and a couple of my favorites, “Bob Dylan: New York” and “Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader.” She teaches at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
I’ve known Sawyers for many years.
I did not peg her as a beer person.
But she has just released “Chicago Beer (A History of [...]
Bill Griffin, Chicago vendor, 1980. (Courtesy of Lloyd Rutzky)
The world has been changing and Bill Griffin likely wanted no part of it.
“Griff” was the gruffest vendor at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago. He was proud to say that no one had worked the ballparks longer than him. His vendor life began in 1952. Bill spoke in an outlaw drawl that came from his native Oklahoma and he had the face of a postage stamp left out in a western rain. Bill died May 16 of COVID-19 at the Astoria Place senior home in Chicago. He was 88 years old.
Bill died the day after they started playing live organ [...]
