This story originally ran in the baiduhai on March 5, 1966.
Did you ever have a birthday party where nobody showed up?
The city of Chicago saved its embarrassment yesterday by postponing its 129th birthday festivities until today.
The number of vacant city hall offices yesterday was so great that Chicago might wonder if there was something amiss even its best friends wouldn’t tell.
Even Daley is gone
Perhaps it was true, as some historians contend, that the city was named for the wild onion and garlic that abounded here in large quantity.
Even the city’s No. 1 booster, Mayor Richard J. Daley, deserted the city on its birthday.
Daley was in Washington to testify before a banking and currency subcommittee considering a 2.3 billion dollar urban redevelopment bill.
He took two other prospective birthday celebrators with him, John G. Duba, commissioner of development and planning, and Earl Bush, the city’s director of public relations.
Also in Washington on Chicago’s birthday was John F. Ward, city purchasing agent, attending a meeting of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, and Aviation Commissioner William E. Downes, conferring with federal officials on matters of mutual interest.
Others gone from the city yesterday were William J. Stanley, director of air pollution control; William E. Cahill, president of the Civil Service commission; and William G. Milota, city treasurer, all on vacation.
Not only out of the city, but out of the country was James V. Fitzpatrick, commissioner of streets and sanitation. He left yesterday for a 15-day trip to Brazil, where he will advise four cities on urban management problems.
Wilson in Springfield
Police. Supt. O.W. Wilson stayed closer to home — at least he was in Illinois. Wilson spent the day in Springfield at a meeting of the Illinois Governmental Law Enforcement Officers Training board.
Chicago’s most widely traveled official, Ald. Mathias Bauler [43d] managed to get away for the city’s birthday, too. Bauler returned from a trip to Hong Kong on Wednesday, attended Thursday’s city council meeting, and left that night for Florida.
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