Gapers' Block (1961)

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The digitized Chicago Tribune is now at December 1963.

(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
A $400,000,000 ASSET GOES TO WASTE
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Nov 27, 1961. p. 20 (1 page)
He also did not measure the time lost from "gapers' blocks"--delays caused when passing motorists go slowly past the wreckage.


HIGHBROWS ARE GETTING THE LOWDOWN; Taking Lessons from Flying Cop
HAL FOUST. Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Aug 2, 1962. p. 12 (1 page):
A group of traffic engineers with assorted college degrees--some of them really highbrows--are monitoring a Chicago policeman in hopes of improving the English they use in their profession.

The policeman is Irv Hayden, a high school graduate who broadcasts rush hour guidance to motorists from the W-G-N helicopter. He sharpened his English by issuing orders as an officer in the military police and as a patrolman by giving advice and tickets to motorists and truck drivers before he took to the air.
(...)
Among the Haydenisms nominated for academic recognition are: "gapers block," backup," "loosening," and "tight pocket." The expressions are descriptive and require no definition. They are familiar to all expressway drivers and all W-G-N listeners during the rush hours, all who commute behind the wheel hoping for Hayden to report traffic ahead as "heavy but steady."