The Summer Project: Milwaukee, not Chicago (1991)
Following each of my first two years of college, I returned to Chicago and spent the summer at home. I worked full-time doing custodial and maintenance work for a small suburban school district, helping clean the schools and prepare them for the next term. When I wasn't working, I hung out with my high school friends, partied on the weekends, watched MTV, played a lot of Nintendo, and both eagerly looked forward to returning to school and wishing the summer wouldn't zip by so quickly. "You should be drinking more, Joe, instead of taking pictures of us!" By the spring of 1991, I was already working at one of Milwaukee's daily newspapers part-time. The lease for my next apartment would begin June 1, and I wasn't particularly excited about trying to find someone to sublet my spot. The decision was easy: I would stay in Milwaukee for the summer and not go home. As I think about it, college students get only three summers (maybe four if you were on the five-year ...