Living in the 19th ward, there’s one thing that affects your road travel more than anything else: railroad tracks. So it’s perhaps fitting we have a former locomotive engineer in our midst for this Thursday’s Frunchroom show.
Dave Daruszka has spent his entire life surrounded by railroads and immersed in their history. Despite attending college to study design and photography, and making a few attempts at a creative career, he inevitably ended up working on the railroad as a locomotive engineer. The railroad left him with a darker sense of humor, numerous aches and pains, and a multitude of stories. These tragicomic tales are filled with a cast of characters that border on the unbelievable. They are most often best told to other railroaders who understand both the joys and futility of the industry they give much of their lives to.
Since retirement, Dave has gone back to working on his photography and other artistic pursuits while blogging on occasion about Chicago’s railroad history and his life as a Polish kid from Buffalo, NY. He has also undertaken a new quixotic project and currently lives in Morgan Park…near the railroad tracks.
See Dave and our other readers this Thursday at 730pm at the Beverly Arts Center!
The Frunchroom 
Railroads: I basically forgot that they existed when I moved from Roseland to the north side. That is, until I was struck by a train–no, no I guess stuck on 95th is what I meant to say. So — after having bought a house in Pullman and getting a p-t job at Mariano’s on 95th — when waiting 12 minutes for the train to pass, I spent the time recalling the many times railroads crossed my life. I’ll be at Thursday’s FRUNCHROOM to see what it’s all about–just like the “Hokey-Pokey”
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