EVERYONE old enough remembers "Hizzoner", jowly Mayor Richard J. Daley, whose cops clubbed and gassed the anti-Vietnam war protesters in Chicago in 1968. Now, 18 years later, it is another less fearsome Mayor Daley who is getting headlines.
At 54, Richard M. Daley is also becoming something of a legend as one of the most efficient mayors in efficient United States and as the man who brought the Democrats back to Chicago for the first time since the traumatic days of August 1968.
Inevitably, the son at 54 is compared with the father, now dead, who served six successive terms as mayor and is credited with helping to get John F. Kennedy elected in 1960 with some manipulation of the ballot boxes in Cook County.
Daley jnr, the eldest son, is known familiarly as Richie or Little Richie or, even more disparagingly, as R2D2. But he is also feared for his power.
The rundown area around the convention centre on the seedy west side, away from the skyscrapers, has been spring-cleaned by reluctant landlords. "I kicked butt," Daley explains laconically.
He has handled skilfully the inevitable media rerunning of the mayhem in the streets in 1968. He told the convention on opening night that the last time Democrats met here to nominate their presidential candidate, "America was at war at home and abroad."
But "this year we gather under happier circumstances, America is at peace. The bitter confrontations of the past have been replaced by a healthy dialogue within our party."
He dislikes public speaking and, like his father, is famous for hilarious bloomers.
Daley snr once described O'Hare Airport as the "crosswords of the nation". His son has come out with such bloopers as "The more killing and homicides you have, the more havoc it prevents." Defending sanitation inspectors he said: "If a rat is in your sandwich, you hope to know it before. If a mouse is in your salad, it's only common sense."
When his crime package was surprisingly defeated by the city council, Daley shrugged: "Well, you just pick up your face, and you keep on walking.
This week Daley was able to shake hands with Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago Seven tried and sentenced after the 1968 riots, when the two attended a reconciliation concert.
The fervently Catholic and anti-abortion Mayor Daley has also mended fences with President Clinton, whose liberal policies early in his term he despised. Now that Mr Clinton has moved to the centre, Mr Daley approves.
His brother William, a high powered lawyer, has been a close adviser of the President and is credited with successfully lobbying Congress to pass the unpopular North American Free Trade Act.
William was tipped to become transport secretary in the Clinton cabinet, but was passed over. He may serve in the next one if Mr Clinton is re-elected.
But Little Richie will keep on being mayor, or "mare" as some of his constituents pronounce it.