OF A GOLDEN AGE

bite-size portions of a thousand conversations are overheard every day in the admissions office. people come and go (talking of michelangelo) with Things on Their Minds . . . if there weren’t already an arm-length list of reasons why this job has unconditional appeal, its people-watching quality is stunning.

the construction workers have serious discussions of last night’s bar fights, their children’s exploits, and the steel conduit they’re now installing in middle college. the wires they feed through the conduit are of a color unusual to electrical work, best described in crayola fashion by “seafoam green.” the standard-issue one-off patriotism of red, white and black is nowhere to be seen.

at eight o’clock atomic time, a shift occurs in the tone of the workmen’s idle talk. the f-word disappears from john’s recollection of a brawl with his brother and he asks maria about her children. he already knows more backstory about maria’s life than the counselors upstairs have ever cared to learn. her children are her grandchildren, informally given to her by her drug-addict daughter. there are five of these children and they malfunction in ways previously unseen by the naked middle-class eye. earlier in the week maria locked her daughter and her daughter’s possessions out of maria’s house. when she told this story, her eyes glistened in a heartbreaking, effortless way that an amateur actor could only envy.

maria is four feet and ten inches tall. i want to pick her up and carry her home with me. one of my greatest fears is that i may someday lose my blinding awe at the nature of people and their worlds, that i may lose compassion. i can’t let this happen.

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Two in custody, one dead after fight
By Henry Stuttley, Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Two men were in custody Monday after a fight in an Addison restaurant parking lot early Saturday that killed a 23-year-old local businessman.

Nickolaus Artman died Saturday morning after an altercation involving at least two other men at 2:30 a.m. outside El Burrito Tapatio restaurant at 640 Lake St., Addison Police Chief Bill Hayden said.

Artman was taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he died later that morning.

Hayden would not provide the specific cause of death. He said two men were in custody but had not been formally charged as of late Monday. Police are still investigating the incident.

Artman’s brother was also involved in the altercation outside the crowded restaurant, police said.

Police would not release the name of the brother, but family friends identified him as Anthony Artman and said he was taken to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village for treatment after the fight.

Nickolaus Artman’s best friend, Douglas DeVivo, said he was with Artman earlier that night at a local bar. DeVivo said the two were not involved in any arguments at the bar and that nothing that happened there would explain what transpired later.

DeVivo said he left about 2 a.m. to go home while Artman went on to El Burrito Tapatio.

DeVivo said he didn’t believe Artman had any enemies.

“Everyone liked him,” said DeVivo, who was friends with Artman since kindergarten. “He was the happiest guy I ever met. He was loved by everybody.”

Artman, a 1999 graduate of Driscoll Catholic High School in Addison, owned Turf Werks, a landscaping business in Addison. DeVivo said Artman had a girlfriend who is pregnant with their child.

High school classmates remember him as an outgoing and popular student who always put a smile on their faces.

“He was always there for a good laugh,” said Patrick Arlis, who graduated with Artman. “He was a free spirit and didn’t have any worries.”

Amy Adorno, a classmate and friend of Artman, said he was a sincere person who was determined to have a good future. She described him as the “life of the party” and a leader.

“Everything came straight from the heart,” she said. “It’s so sad to think anything would happen to him.”

No funeral information had been released as of late Monday.

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“and in paris, there was this wild catalán who was doing all there was to be done with technique. i could tell there wasn’t going to be any technique left for the rest of us to invent. so that’s when i decided i was going to paint ideas.”

(rené magritte)

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