My family’s been in Chicago for a long time, but I’m the first and only Bacon to work for the Board of Education. My dad was a hat maker—he had a store on 47th Street, right off of King Drive. After he passed, my brother ran it.
Tony Bacon is a 55-year-old south-side resident who works as a custodian for the Chicago Public Schools. —Ben Joravsky
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I never was in the hat business. I became what they call a window trimmer. I learned to decorate windows. At that particular time, there were a lot of Korean merchants coming into the neighborhoods and they would hire me to set up their stores. I’d put the clothes in the window, that sort of thing.
First, they sent me to the Blaine School over on Southport. But after about two weeks I wound up at Franklin Fine Arts school in Old Town. I don’t know why they sent me there, but I’m glad they did. I love that school.
My fifth-grade daughter goes to Franklin. I still drive her to school from our home on 83rd Street. Then I go to work at Darwin. I asked the union if they could do something about it. But the union guy told me, “Just be happy you got a job.”
