172: 24 Hours at the Golden Apple

Tom and Scott are in an all-night diner. around midnight. Scott is disheveled and tired. He's been working all night as a bartender at a Chinese restaurant, serving lots of free drinks on the sly 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.

Do you want to be? Who brought up a lawyer to start with? You just came walking in. 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... 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 Sworney said you wanted to be a lawyer.

I definitely wouldn't hire you because you heard. completely wrong. Really? Yeah.

There are some conversations that you overhear and it is 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 looked around the restaurant. The table next to me, a family was taking their teenage daughter out to an awkward last breakfast where she shipped out with the military. There were dressed up people who had come in from the church across the street and young couples who had 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 would 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 of today's program all the way back in 2000,, and we will be running it again today. From WBEZ Chicago, today's show, 24 Hours at the Golden Apple. To Samaritan Life, I'm, Ira Glass. Stay tuned.

It's a Samaritan Life. It's 5 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 taxi drivers and the cops, you know, come for a cup of coffee. until 6 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. There's a counter with stools and a larger room with tables. in the back.

There are those 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 having a bit of 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, the pie case is not turning, and, believe it or not, it's not selling as 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, from quiet in the early morning to crazy hectic late at night. when the bars in the neighborhood let out. Nancy Updike took the first shift of our 24-hour surveillance, mic in hand, from 5 a.m. till 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 a regular. 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... That's all I can 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? Through my dad. My dad done the same thing when I was, I don't know, maybe 10, 11 years old. So I started working for him, who was paying me a dime an 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 hours' 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 Wits. And I own another one on Clark and Oakdale called Jake's. How did you get into the bar 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.

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 Zervas. 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 Fahey Flynn.

I don't know if you remember, back in 1979, Fahey Flynn was a well-known newsman right here at Channel 7 News, before he died in 81.. I was the youngest butcher in Illinois in 1979..

And yeah, I've met Governor Thompson down Randolph Street. My father was in the retail business too, on Randolph Street, and that's how I started learning how to cut. So I've been doing this, for, I'm 33 now, since I was like eight years old. You were a butcher when you were eight? Well, yeah, I'd 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. Piece of pork loin, and I sliced it.

I remember very well, like it was yesterday, and real slow. on a bandsaw, pork chops. Pork loin's like 18 pounds, the 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 bandsaw, not to put your hand in it, because the bandsaw doesn't have any friends.

I mean, if it's going to grab your hand, 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 sauna 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. Yes.

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 Deneuve. She's one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen in person.

How long have you been working here? Oh, 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 shift's waiting tables. Her customers give her tapes of the bands they're in, bring in 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 long.

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. Honey, I've got to get finished with the rest of my work.

All right. Are you doing anything to set up or clean up? I've got to check and see what I've got to do. Can I just follow you around and you tell me what you're doing? Well, I don't even know if I have anything more to do.

I just didn't want to talk anymore. Oh, OK. I didn't want to be rude. No, no, no, you shouldn't.

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've 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 counterman.

Mr. Harland, there with Steven, they come twice a day.

Rush comes about three, four times a day. Al, 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. He can't afford much else. So why do you come here?

Just something to do. Coffee. I come over here because I'm single. No wife, no girlfriend.

No kids either. Robert is one of three different men who tell me that they come here in the afternoon to drink coffee and talk to the waitresses. All three actually seem a little shy and intimidated by the waitresses. Robert is so bashful, he has a hard time saying much of anything to them. I never said more than hello, you know, or goodbye.

Really? That's all I ever said. I don't know what to do with a pretty girl. What to say?

At a table in the back, Manuel Hernandez is here for the second time today. He's a retired carpenter. He came to Chicago from Mexico in 1965 and 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. It was too windy up there.

After two guys, they fall down and then I quit because I don't want to be the next. As the 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. He's worried. it's some kind of scam. She reads it, tells him no, 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, Alison 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 U.S. copyright law. Two ears and a head, maraschino, cherries, canned 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. Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it. 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 him not to bring them home, bring them to the Golden Apple. As evening falls, it takes a while for the dinner crowd to show up in any kind of force. It's a slow day, everybody says.

But it is Friday and couples start to arrive. Some on 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 couple 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.

Sylvia and I have this kind of weird history. She actually dumped me not too long ago. That's right. That was a long time ago. It wasn't that long ago.

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 non-profit organization. You're ready to settle down now. I am.

I'm proud of you. When you first told me that I actually wasn't sure. But you will not be coming to the wedding. 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 care about you. Why can't you be there?

Well,

it would just be weird. 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. Okay.

See, I think 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 in 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 Sylvia 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 Sylvia began by talking about Sylvia's 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. And 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. And she's talking about...

Nothing happened, though. Would you go out with a woman who would degrade her boyfriend that way? Who would treat the guy that she's supposedly dating that way? Yeah, but I'm not going to marry this girl. I wasn't interested in a lifetime commitment at that moment.

I was much more looking for the immediate gratification. That's what you're always looking for. 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 then you met the next girl and moved in with her after three weeks.

I think it's a hard topic for us both.

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's just the thought of.

it's like He trails off, staring out the window. I don't know. It's kind of hard to describe. It's kind of hard to talk. when two babes go by.

Outside on the sidewalk, two girls with blonde hair and short skirts approach. They catch Daniel's eye. He mumbles. As the girls 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.

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 look out on Santa Fonsa's Catholic Church, a huge building, sits. Kay Frank, known to her friends as Katie Keene, 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. Alphonsa's 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 Quince lived in that house. Lucille Satchel lived in that house. I can still see all the things in my mind, as I did in the 30's and 40's Back then. for instance, the pharmacy was on this spot. 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 kiddie mass anymore at 9 o'clock in the morning. this was like a hangout here after mass and this whole section here they had a wonderful soda fountain 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 belonged to St.

Alphonsus for the Germans, St. Andrews for the Irish and Italian, St. Josaphat for the Polish until finally, in the 1960's that ended, Kay's 5 sisters and her parents all moved away from the neighborhood. I'm the only one that stayed in the neighborhood because we couldn't afford to move out of here. we bought our house in the mid 60's 64.

and everybody thought the neighborhood was going to change. so of course they're moving to the suburbs. or farther north or farther west. Change, you mean. people thought it wasn't going to be white anymore?

They thought, yes, they thought it was going to 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 $500,000 $550,000 for my house.

Meanwhile, 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 hasn't made it out to where her sisters live, but around here, on Southport and on Clark, and all over, there are 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 a lot of 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 water.

now that I'm older,

and when they moved in, my husband coming from way back. oh my god, 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, it was our neighbors that went to the hall without any. they wouldn't take a penny. they decorated that place like 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 old 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 rent to 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.

it's This American Life, I'm Ira 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 5am in the morning on Friday, July 14th, going to 5am the next morning. this is all back in the year 2000. today's show is 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 Dorr. we never close, we have no keys.

if you see the doors, we have no locks always open. we never, never lock the doors. just at 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 NLM and I'm with Oscar and Beth Oscar, I have no idea where he is.

Beth and I are riding in a cab and he like hops. I've never even met this guy. I need to order food. I'm a journalism major, by the way, 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 I live downtown, though 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, Kim, this is my story. look at my stars. look, do you see it?

Star Wars? I'm the most sober one here, as you can probably tell. so anyway, it's fine. I meet Oscar. we just meet him standing at the bar and he 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. 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, but you're not going to stay on the radio. 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 for me if you're going to hop into the cab and pay for it, then why don't you get into the cab with me? that's fine, and he's probably going to buy our food here tonight, so that's fine with me.

brutal truth.

my name is Oscar. I bought them a drink or two, a bottle of $300 champagne. I'm successful. what can I say? we didn't even have to pay when we watched that.

I'll be completely honest with you. my goal is to share a bed tonight. yeah, I'm going to do both of them. it doesn't matter which one, it's just to share a bed. he just wants to get some play.

is that what you're saying, Oscar? and I'll bet you, if you follow this home, one of them two will be in bed with me tonight.

would I be sitting here talking to you in front of a microphone, eating breakfast with them, if I was not going to go home with them tonight? either I'm a complete moron or.

or I know something that you don't.

I just want to know where 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. 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 1.15am 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, that what if that were your reality? and what if this were the dream 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?

can I have a short stack, 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 gonna come. we've just been coming here for the last 3 nights at about midnight 1 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. so basically we have no life. so we come down here and wait for people.

phone call time. yeah, I have the number. alright, give me money. alright, I am calling this guy, Jeff, and I'm going to make him come here because my best friend wants him to. alright, and it's still ringing.

hi, Jeff, we are at the golden apple and I am wondering if you're at all coming, because Allison 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 2. if not, call Allison tomorrow. alright, bye, and he'll be here. he'll be here.

6 messages on his machine at home.

I just called Jeff and told him that he's not here and he should be. I still think he will come. I just don't know when see. the thing that makes this 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 like want to see him again.

see, you want to know. the really weird thing about us is she like hates herself, she never likes anyone ever, and whenever anything goes right, she freaks out. seriously, like 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 by you, and not even just guys like you're, just like people like you know, takes no effort. just you're wrong, though, because it's not like I just get them like that it's.

okay, I'll give you sometimes it 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, and like almost imitating you 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 1.25 almost.

okay, I am calling my friend Marjan in hopes that he is up.

okay, hi.

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, Marjan. hi, I can't go anywhere. you can't go anywhere. get in the car.

actually, she doesn't try. she climbs back into the car to head back to meet Allison, who's waiting back at the golden apple.

okay, me and Allison. I think that she feels like we're growing apart, because I I've kind of been mean lately. not like, not like too mean, but like 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 she's not a robot or whatever.

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. 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, we're going to have fun, we're going to laugh, we're just going to let everything go. you know, just like alright golden apple scene, yeah.

now, for the microphone ready?

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'll 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.

They scooch in tight to each other near the mic as they sing, Allison sitting, Danielle standing, leaning in close, and then, the thing that they've been waiting for all night finally happens. Sort of.

I told you, I knew it, I never gave up faith. 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, and Allison transfers her 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, okay, 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, and so, I don't know, I actually had somebody talk to him about for hours now, but then again, it's like, what's the point of liking him if he doesn't like me? So. Should I ask him? No.

I'm just going to go, I'm going to be like, okay, here, look, I'm trying to hook her up and. Don't. Hey, I was wondering, I'm trying to set Allison, I'll be slick, 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 Allison, if she were hooked up 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 Allison, he smiles, a big number two smile, then he and Allison sit alone at a table and talk for a while, until Danielle comes over. Are we leaving now? Yes, we made, and we left.

SIP, and I put the rest of the change in this little box here, and now we're leaving. And the 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.

By 4 a.m. Saturday morning, things had finally started to die down. Once again, like when we arrived the day before, it's mostly cab drivers and cops. What was that show? Florence was on?

With Mel's Diner? What the hell's the name of that show? Alice? No, um. 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. Hey, that's Donna. Maybe she knows. Hey, Donna.

Oh, no, thank you. What's the TV show that, uh, where they were in the diner with the... Flo. Flo. Flo was the redhead.

Flo was the one with the waitress. It was Alice and Flo. And Vera. Yeah, it was Mel's Diner. Vera was the dark hair.

Flo was the, uh, western. And then Alice was the one from New York. But it was called Flo's, I think. No, it wasn't called Flo's. No?

It was... I think it was Alice. Yeah, I'm stumped. And I won't be able to sleep today until I find out what the name of that show was.

Hello? Well, I'm Officer Norman Knutson, and, uh, this is my partner. Officer Clark Eichmann. We'll work, uh, beat 1922. tonight in the 19th District.

We're on a personal. We'll throw it, man. We're allowed, uh, as many personals as we want for coffee breaks, use the washroom, whatever. And it's almost 5 o'clock in the morning, a.m. Okay, all 500 hours.

It's often. This district normally is slow, but on the weekends it's like any other district. Gun calls, fights. Narcotics. Uh, narcotics.

It's, it's real busy for two days a week and real slow for five. With all the bars on Lincoln and Clark, and even further up north on Lincoln, you can go from one jab to another. One, fight after fight after fight after fight.

Uh, we had a bar fight, uh, over at, uh, Irish Eyes. One of the guys is going to need plastic surgery. Yeah. Because he's got to get a beer stein in the face. Sox fan versus Cubs fan.

Okay, the Cubs fan got in the face with a stein. And then we had another brawl over at, uh, Cubby Bear, where we made three arrests. And we just got done with all the paperwork, and it's been, what, two and a half hours on the paperwork. Yeah. Yeah.

Total of four arrests. Four arrests. First time to sit down and have a cup of coffee and relax and unwind.

I come here all the time. I used to know 2971 Lincoln. Mike is always hanging around, and then there's, well, Bob over there. He's sitting on the end. Hey, Bob, how you doing?

Donna, Mary, Dave, the one cab driver. I've come here quite a bit. Where do we go?

Three blocks away. Three guys with a gun. Three blocks from here. I'm getting a description of a male, white, bald head, white t-shirt.

You're not supposed to be heading towards Barry. You went to this way. They can break our personal if they want. Our lunch break, they're not supposed to. What if it's a hot call?

Like this? one might even be bonafide. Probably eight out of every ten calls are garbage. They're not. Now there's two calls.

Now it might be legitimate.

One thing that happens is when you get a regular partner, some of you even work for the first night, you learn their first name, not just their last, and then, where'd you work before? Are you married? He collects hockey cards. I collect monster memorabilia, models. I do model collecting.

I collect a couple 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 bond. People don't realize that. Ninety percent of the job 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, a.m. Three more hours. Yeah. If we don't get a late arrest.

1922 is back with you. They head toward the door. Donna, Pete, we'll see you guys. manana. Hasta la bye-bye, says Donna over by 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 table. Well, it's now 5 o'clock, Saturday morning, and I got one hour and 45 minutes.

And I know it sounds a little corny, 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 clothes.

You know, it's kind of wore 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 nights for 26 years.

But I'm handling it all right.

It's actually really good.

This program was produced this week by Julie Snyder and myself, with Alex Blumberg, Boo Shevany, and Jonathan Goldstein. Other people who took shifts recording at the Golden Apple include Mary Woottenberg, Joe Richman, who recorded Danielle and Allison. Wendy Dorr 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. They say that 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. We're at Southport.

My recommendation is the Feta Cheese Omelette. Additional production for today's rerun by Michael Komette, Henry Larson, 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 going to see all kinds of videos we've made over the years, the musical we did on stage, favorites lists, staff recommendations. Again, thisamericanlife.org. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Thanks, as always, to our program's co-founder, Ms. Tori Malatia, who's always reminding me...

I'm a journalism major, by the way. So I understand what you're doing right now. I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with 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 100 yards away, someone yelling, shark. There was really three options. You sit there in 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 in the middle of the ocean.

That's what Cameron did. Look what's through your head when you make that choice. Next week on the podcast, on your local public radio station.