Back in the 1970s, every el stop had a newsstand nearby. While getting on the train in Uptown to go back to Rogers Park (where I lived at the time), I snapped this photo. Enlarging the image shows a Playboy cover in the background dated 1974. Before the Internet, newsstands like this one were the primary medium for the distribution of sexually oriented publications. This poor man looks as though he had been ground down by life. His face was expressionless. He covered his mouth with his hand because he didn’t have many teeth left.
