Navy Pier Oddities

You know when you have out-of-town guests who suggest going to Navy Pier you get that sort of "errr....well...." kind of feeling?

(Well, at least I do.)  

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But who am I to judge?   I just finished reading a book on the history of Navy Pier and it was excellent!   Let me share some tidbits:

To promote the pier as a social center, the city held a Pageant of Progress there in 1921.   It was a big hoopalah, let me tell you!   Diving competitions, fashion show, fireworks, international typewriter contests (I kid you not) plus so much more.

One of my favorites would have been the Aeroplanes & Pigeon Race.   Considering those were propeller planes, this could not have turned out well for the pigeons.  

Besides the slicing and dicing of pigeons, my next most favorite moment would have been the crowning of Chicago's Queen, young Miss Evelyn Slader.    Evelyn is a Chicago legend by now because as you know, she was already crowned earlier that year as Queen of the Stockyards District (again, I kid you not.)

Here is lil' Evelyn being crowned Chicago's Queen by Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson. She is ecstatic.

And THAT is exactly what I look like when someone suggests we go to Navy Pier.