T-Box Went Off With No Major Incidents, Good For The City Bad For The Blog

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WRIGLEYVILLE — Eight hours into TBOX, the day-long pub crawl that took over Wrigleyville Saturday, bar-goers dressed as a wide array of holiday characters were stumbling through the neighborhood. Perhaps it was the booze, or it might have been partly due to the heavy snowfall that hit the area Saturday, dumping as much as 6 inches on the city. But mostly, it was probably the booze. Police estimated 30,000 participants descended upon this North Side neighborhood for the annual Twelve Bars of Christmas, or TBOX, pub crawl, involving more than 50 establishments. Organizer Festa Parties said 18,500 people registered, but “thousands” stayed away due to the weather.

The event was highly anticipated by bar-goers, judging by social media posts, and greeted apprehensively by business owners, who took the brunt of mayhem brought on by the 40,000 partiers who attended last year’s event. Saturday’s below-freezing temperatures didn’t dissuade TBOX bar hoppers, whose costumes ranged from the traditional Santa to sexy snowmen to Macaulay Culkin’s character from “Home Alone.” Last year’s TBOX, which drew 40,000 revelers, led to complaints of noise, trash and vomiting on the street, and by the end of the night, a man had been stabbed with a broken beer bottle. One sloppy St. Nick punched out the window of a Clark Street comic store. But all appeared to be running smoothly hours into Saturday’s event. Hank Zemola who works at the “command center” that is monitoring community complaints said his team of 200 had been working since 5 a.m.

First of all, if you live in Wrigleyville and complain about drunk people you’re a fucking asshole. There is nothing worse than the neighborhood groups in Wrigleyville getting outraged over drunk people when they willingly chose to live in the drunkest section of Chicago. I used to live in Wrigleyville, I used to dodge daily vomit on the sidewalk and hear drunk people screaming at 3 am, it comes with the territory. You don’t sit next to a bonfire and cry about smoke, you get up and move to the other side.

Now with that said, I will admit that T-Box going off without a hitch is bittwersweet. I’m happy that this doesn’t become fodder for stuck up community groups to crack down on the fun but it also gives me nothing to blog. A drunk guy half naked in the streets and a midget with some sparklers. That’s all we got. I was up there for a bit on Saturday and it basically has become crying girl fest. Just a sea of people dressed up and chicks bawling their eyes out because they can’t find a cab/lost their friends/drank too much/dropped their phone/toes are cold. Good times indeed.

Oh and of course I saw Woo-Woo, I’m worried about him. Guys above Redmond’s asked him to come up and have a beer and he declined. Never seen Woo-Life turn down a free beer. Something’s up.