Happy new year all. Whatta 2016! We will see what 2017 will hold, but our 40th reunion and aftermath will be pretty hard to top. I have some random thoughts and musings of my overall adventures in Chicago from the 29th to this new years holiday:
I appreciate all the compliments and positive feedback on my wacky high school stories and my vivid recollection of my times at Lane. I read an article recently that posed a variety of questions and one question submitted was this one:
Q: "Why is it that our high school experiences occupy such a prominent place in our memories?
A: "During high school, we develop the most vigorous adult bodies we will ever have. At the same time, we possess the least amount of sense we will ever have. This combination produces many memorable moments!"
Now I can sure agree with that, except I will add that the above combination will also produce many IDIOTIC (which are also memorable, unfortunately, some we would like to forget) moments.
The other point is that those wacky moments are not limited to just high school, as I can attest to, but maybe it's because I have learned to fully embrace those moments and view each day as a new adventure in this insane but awesome world. There are wacky and yet amazing things going around all around me, I just need to keep my awareness up to notice them.
For example, here are some of those observations:
There did not seem to be a place to park on Irving Park road without those stupid "pay to park" spots. Free parking in Chicago is harder to get nowadays than on Monopoly when you are on Tennessee avenue! (get it? you gotta roll a snake eyes) But I lucked out as I found off street parking on a side street that did not have the "parking only if you have neighborhood sticker zone#(blahblahblah)", it was a several block walk, but I enjoyed the walk as I found out that:
Simmons pro shop is still there! I got several bowling balls drilled there back in the day, and that was right after my lane days. I got my Magnum six, LT 48, my Columbia U-dot and also a few "aquired" balls redrilled there, like my "Bowling Sucks" ball. (if Dave Cuzman ever joins here and reads this, he will know what I mean). There was also a bowling alley on Irving Park east of Damen called Timber lanes, but I never bowled there. It is another Chicago bowling alley that has closed down.
So we have the Lane "winter" meet and I get to the place, but I am a bit early so I head to the bar and order a Stella from the bartender, who I find out is also a Lane graduate, class of 2009. She also mentioned that some Lane faculty hang out here from time to time. Well, I am hoping that none of them gave her a bad grade because there are few things worse than having your bartender pissed at you and wanting to take revenge on you. "Hey! Why is there a loogie in my beer?" *hehehe* (No, I did not push that point on her)
I attended this New Years eve party around the Jefferson Park area on 12/31 (it is related to the Lane class of 76, but I will not tell...yet). So I am leaving this New Years party and I had to walk to the Jefferson Park CTA Blue line station as my Bro was too drunk to pick me up. No big deal, it was a short walk and the fare is free this night. My bro's place is right off of Belmont and Kimball so it's very doable (is that a word?)
I get to the Jefferson Park platform around 1AM, the train gets there about 15 minutes later and I board. And I am soon greeted by the quaint stench of nasty reeky butt and stankin feet multiplied by a factor of a thousand! I look around the car and see at least a 1/2 dozen people sleeping/sprawled in various places in the car. The stench brings back old memories of late night CTA rides and I hold on until my stop which was not very far. But there were several people that got on and then got off at the next stop to get in a different car. WIMPS! I am "OLD SCHOOL" Chicago baby! Old school IDIOTIC as I came close to barfing a few times. But I stuck it out and finally got to my stop.
Wackiness is there! You just gotta look hard enough.
Hi everyone!
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