Grant Park, the Day After

I wasn't able to attend the rally in Downtown Chicago last night (too busy liveblogging, I guess). But today I decided to take an early lunch and walk over to the site of the rally, Grant Park's Hutchinson Field. Maybe I could find a little token from history to give to my three-year-old son; maybe I could just enjoy a nice walk on a resplendent fall day in the city that finds itself at the center of history right now. Whatever the reason, it seemed like the right place this morning.

As it turned out, I got much more than that: I ended up on the stage itself, standing behind the podium and looking out into the empty press tent that just last night recorded Obama's acceptance speech. I stood in the same spot as Barack Obama and saw... a sea of Teamsters waiting to disassemble the stage. It was a wonderfully Chicago moment.

Here's a slideshow of what it looked like, both from the stage and from the park itself, the day after history was made:

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Comments

[DebbieinPhx]

Nice! thanks.

[demfriend]

Amazing pictures when the crapper blog was saying there would be massive amounts of trash left by those who attended the rally!! I saw all of the little flags on blogs and TV and only saw the take aways to save and show the "I was there" proof. Lots of little flags to be passed down to children not yet born to save the moment in time when history was made!! Wish I had one....probably ebay has a few!

[Daniel Sinker - Huffpost Blogger]

It's true, I thought the park was going to be a complete disaster. But it was spotless. You really wouldn't have known that there were a half-million people there the night before. The only mess I saw was inside the press tent. Go figure.

[CallMeNAG]

Very cool. Thanks for that. I miss my hometown!

[allisonwoo]

Are you sure those guys are Teamsters? I know union rules vary from city to city, but here in Seattle, for example, the stage and production elements (sound, lights) would be dismantled by stagehands, from the IATSE union.

Very strange sight, that stage, complete with all production elements and even the properties, still up well into the next day. Wonder why.