August 24, 1968
by Janine Stephenson
Dean Martin stayed at our hotel. So did President Kennedy and Lucille Ball, but not at the same time I don't think. Queen Elizabeth stayed at the Conrad in 1959. The busboy told me. I asked him if he ever met anyone famous and he said, "Of course!" Too bad I didn't have a chance to ask who it was he met.
The woman at the gift shop is snooty. Becca complained about it, but I told her that if she wasn't snooty then we wouldn't remember that we were staying in a fancy hotel. We are very lucky that we're not out in the park with the rest of the people. I haven't seen Baby John yet. But I can only imagine what it's like to sleep in a van under conditions like this.
But what's even better about everything is that Mrs. Stoutmiller found us! There was a knock on the door, we opened it and there she was. Exactly like I remember her. I missed her sooo much. She was very pleased to see us. She's staying with the rest of her delegation at the hotel next to ours, which I think is called the Blackstone or something like that. She was very proud of us for staying with the campaign. She said it showed commitment on our part... Even though we had our doubts.
Anyway, Mrs. Stoutmiller was very scared about the way the town looked. She hadn't been to Chicago in 20 years and it hasn't gotten much better since then. That, coupled with the wild people (that's what she calls hippies) and the barbed wire around the Amphitheatre... She told us to be sure to be very careful and to promise that we wouldn't go into the park.
We did. But as soon as she left, Becca told us that we have to go to the park. This is an extremely bad idea, especially in light of what happened at the Dow Protest. Becca punched a cop by accident. Or maybe it wasn't by accident. Either way, she could easily do something like it again, which is why we shouldn't go to the park. Besides, we promised Mrs. Stoutmiller and my feet hurt.
