Driving Thru Model Years

I heard Commander Ron and Broken Biker Pat say "Then we'll meet Tuesday at 9:30am here at Panera." Thats how I got involved.

Hey whats going on. We're going to Volo Auto Museum, do you want to join us.

Hell Ya, it sounds better than golf. Count me in.

Today Tuesday we met at coffee and asked Shy Roger if he wanted to join us. Sure, I'm not doing anything.

Pat volunteered to drive as he has a monster Ford 250 4dr cab, extended bed truck.
Roger, Me, Big John, Ron, and Pat

The 5 of us sat comfortably for the 25.2 mile ride. Ron won the guess of how many miles from his home in Mt. Prospect.

The ride was quick and so were the wise cracks. Seems like each of us took the brunt of others humor.

Before any world problems could be solved we were in Volo IL. A really tiny town or we saw a small part.


We paid our admission and didn't ask for the Senior discount but still the cashier asked me if I wanted the senior discount.

Why did she ask me? She didn't ask Ron or John or that gray hair shy guy, Roger.

Look at the photo. Do I look that old. Just because I cut my hair short. HELL NO I told her. I'm only 62.

By the way, how much is the discount. 2 bucks huh.

oh, do I qualify.

Nope 65. I know I don't look 65. Maybe Ron does

Soon, we started our trip.

Thru the specialty cars from the movies.

The BatMobile

Dr. Seuss' vehicle.

The Flintones vehicles.

The Ghostbusters car

Then to another building where maybe a hundred cars were lined up.

They're almost all for sale and had the sale price on them.

$10,000--21,000---69,000 up to $250,000 for a Mustang l, I believe.

Corvette's, Chevelles, 442's, Barracuda's, Carmaro's, 55-56 T-birds. You name it and if it were a muscle car, it was there.

We moved out of that building to bldgs 2 & 3 and the antiques.

All were enjoyable and brought back so many memories. Mostly about how Ron's first car had a seat that after pulling a hidden wire, the passenger seat back would drop back flat.

None of us could understand why a teenager would want a seat like that.

After a few hours of bursting smiles and leaving our fingerprints
on cars with "Please don't touch the cars" signs all over them.

Yes, the old guys remembered these cars from a part of our lives long gone but not forgotten.
Pat, 44yrs, remembered these cars from stories his father and uncles told him.

So many of our favorite cars were older than Pat.

They all looked in good shape or like new. But I'm sure they had their hidden problems.

Sort of like us.

The old guys, we're nice to look at, but who would want to take us for a ride.
c'ya
jim

Another Friday Night In Another City--Niles

Park Ridge, home of Hillary, has a fine arts concert each Friday night. As a group we have been attending for a few years.

Fridays are busy. Today a little more than usual. Talk at McDonalds at 7am, Breakfast at Sunrise, followed by Panerra.

During breakfast this morning, with the Neighbors. We all discussed if we would see each other at the concert tonight. I knew of other concerts that weren't so long hair. Tonight it was Mozart. How many years do we have to listen to this guys music.

I mentioned that other very close cities have more lively concerts. You know like oldies or rock & roll.

Some eyes rolled and Jerry Murphy jumped in and said he would check out the local paper.

At 4pm we got the call. Niles is having oldies night in the park about a mile from the house.

At 7:30pm we walked past the playground where 50 young kids were climbing the monkey bars and other devices.

Thru the greenery we could see the crowd and the stage in front.

This must be the place.

A short distance ahead we could see our friends just sitting down.

We joined them and discovered that our friends had brought treats.

A cheap bottle of wine $4 from Trader Joe's that said it beat the expensive wines in some national contest.

Yes, even I thought it was good.

Then Peg brought out some Pretzel bread with a little cheese and turkey wrapped up inside.

Gail Powers brought Spicey Liversausage on crackers. Karolyn thought it was the best.

Me, with a name like LIVER SAUSAGE, gave it a pass. Just let me enjoy the music.

Sure enough soon THE RAGTOPS started to play and they sounded good. We started to get the urge to get up and start swinging.



But first we have to get into the mood.

That cheap wine sure helped put the smile on us.
Then it was get out of our way.

Peg and Karolyn were ready for some action.

Soon the ladies were dancing. And picking up men and women. They ran over to Phillip and dragged him over to dance with them.

The old guy did a great job. I had my camera and took many photos. It was dark but some came out ok.

Another women Pat came running over and jumped into the dancing folks.

She had the biggest smile on her face as did the crowd.
Seems like more concert goers were turned and watching our group than the band.







Yes, Big Jim could not help myself and did a little hip shaking, arm swinging and singing.

Hey, who could hear me with the loud music.

I thought I sounded good.

They played about an hour.. all of our favorites from the 50's and a few from the 60's.

From the Big Bopper -- the Beatles --Neil Diamonds "Sweet Karoline" -- the twist and many more sweet tunes.

Yes, we all had a great time except for those who don't like to dance. NOT ME....

I really enjoyed the night, the music and friends. I wondered "Life is Great".

c'ya
jim

Was that Tammy Mae Baker

Visiting
Everyone is visiting so we went to Vandalia in S ILL

We've been here before with our crazy/wild friends Judy and Bob.
Friday we arrived about driving 260 miles from Chicago.

Judy should have been an entertainer. She sings like Patsy Cline and her "Crazy about you" song is fantastic.

Friday night she dressed up like Tammy Fay Baker and called herself Tammy Mae and Timmy

Her friends were having a family reuniion and asked her to do the character.

It was a 50's theme & Bob dressed up as Jimmy BakerJuly has a mouth and brain to go with it.

Yes she's a brunette...just kidding....

Anyway, for 40 minutes she ab libbed in front of 80 folks in a small room.

She told the group that she was the lost relative. The twin of Terri.

Terri's parents whom Tammy Mae had stand in the front of everyone, went along so great, it was almost magic.

Of course Tammy was the good looking sister and Terri the ugly one.

She rewrote the words to some song I can't remember, and applied it to the parents.

So what seemed like a small fun gig, took her months to prepare for.
The skits, songs and dress.

Everyone was laughing and gave her a standing ovation. So the effort must have been worth it.




We then went to a senior home and visited with Bobs 93 yr mom (Helen)who did not recognize Judy







When we arrived and asked Helen "Do you know who this is"

She said NO, but I had blonde hair like her when I was young, long down my back.


We told her it was Judy, but I don't think she could see her daughter in law under the wig, plastic strip eyelashes and 50's outfit.

Afterwards, Judy changed and we went for Margarita's at a small little Mex restaurant with a pitcher of Margies for $12.

I only drink/enjoy Margies so a buzzing was in my head soon. I slept good.

Whats up for today, tomorrow we can only imagine.

Except I will start with Judys brother Robb for a round of golf.

c'ya
jim
PS: We just read that the Real Tammy Fay Baker passed. She was a character.

I'm Back, from a lot of excitement

Hi everyone,
June 19th..
I did make it to fla and back. The back is the tough part. I really love it there and after awhile I don't miss the family. Ok, I do but could travel back and forth if I lived down south in Paradise.

We arrived in Fla during a heat wave that felt more like a sauna. As soon as we got off of USA 3000 flight 659, we felt the humidity.

What were we going to do get back on the plane, nope we were here and no matter how difficult it would be, we would tough it out for the 12 days.

We stayed at our condo in Sarasota. The reason for the trip was Great Grampa Ted's 89th bday.
Our daughters Jill & her Sara, and Jessie joined us. Jill left Thomas at home and Jessie let Mark do his mountain climbing. As you might know, that did not go well.

We spent most of the time together going to Teds house or touring the area.

One trip we drove thru ST. ARMANDS CIRCLE...(which I compare to Rodeo Drive in Calif). It smells of money. Then turned right and drove thru Longboat Key where all the big politicians visit.


We ended up on Anna Marie Key. We were surprised where years ago it had tacky beaches that were blown away by some hurricane.

Now the beaches were great and we found a wonderfull restaurant that borders the beach.....THE SANDBAR....at the north end of the key.

After Anna Marie we returned to Sarasota and jumped in the pool, sauna--yes a heated sauna. And visited Gramps several times.


We ate on St. Armands at Columbia, expensive. Carrabbas in North Port--almost as expensive.


And of course my favorites: Sam Selzer and McDonalds.

One night we went to Sara's favorite restaurant near downtown Sarasota. Its on the water in Sarasota Harbor.

Yes, its Marina Jacks and we ate outside on a new like boardwalk. I think I had a French Dip beef sandwich $12.

I'm cheap and this sounds expensive but it was as good as one of those $15 prime ribs. A good choice made by Sara.

We all had fun everyday and it was time to leave. Gramps thanked us for the bday celebration and we all cried as we said goodbye.

USA took us back on July 1, 2007.
c'ya
jim

Owens Bday, an exciting affair

While we were driving to the bday party at Jimmy's, we had enough rain to make me turn on the wipers. Twice they swept the windshield and not another sweep was necessary.

It cooled the air off by 5% degrees and that was good.

The party was mainly outside until dinner.

The party had plenty of children running around, in a wading pool, on swings tied to super high braches of a tree, maybe 40 feet high.

a bubble machine that made Lawrence Welk look like he did it himself.

Kids playing in the toy room. In the train room (formerly the dining room), and the basement toy area. It was so exciting. AND NO CICADA'S BY THEIR HOUSE. Everyone noticed.

Opening of the toys was another exciting time with Owen opening the toys, screaming with joy and then giving them to guests to play with. Interesting kid.

Food consisted of plates of cookies by Karolyn. She did a terrible job she thought. Everyone kept eating them. We just laughed.

Bday Boy Owen thought the frosting was the best. It was his cake and mom wasn't looking.

And pulled pork from Robinson's ribs in Oak Park. The pulled pork looked like a slurry.I mean you couldn't see pieces of pulled pork. Its as if they put it into a blender before serving it. Another interesting food. It didn't look interesting and many just passed it by. I thought it was great, and we brought a big bag home.

Fried chicken from Jewel grocery store, last week it was perfect.. this week a little dry.
.

Food was late being served and a few started chewing on their own tongues. For others the evil red eyes appeared.

Everyone started to leave after 7pm. These are all the families with Kids who must be in bed early

One thing I observed. When the kids entered the house and all the adults were standing like those big redwoods, the kids were apprehensive and a little scared.

When it was time to leave, all we heard was: "Can we come back to this house,with all the toys, its so cool." This was from 3 to 5 yr olds.

From the adults, this was such a great party. Everyone had fun, thank you!

I took a few photos and videos' I think the camera counted 198. So it will take time to reduce and send them out.
c'ya
jim

Those were the days.....

There was a hillbilly bar on Armitage ave west of Pulaski (that after a night of celebrating my oldest sons birth), my buddy Jim Boyle and I ended up for a last drink. 1972

Jim just got back from Nam and wanted to drink with the Hill billies.
Jim is 6'04 and was 190lbs.

We drove his 72 caddy and walked in to see all these Motorcycle gang jackets on.

Of course I said forgetaboutit, lets go somewhere else. He said Nah, It'll be ok.

About a hundred folks in the bar and the place was difficult to walk through.Jim smiling, saying hi to everyone and laughing. Just having a good time.

He came behind a little filly with long smooth dark brown hair and said Excuse me honey,
Honey turned around and with his big mustache said "Who the ______ you talking to"

Jim picked up mustache and tossed him like at a midget toss. All the bar came to attention and swarmed toward us with bottles and chairs in hand.

He was ready but I took out a friend. My friend was a Browning semi-auto with 15 extra friends with it.

It was chrome plated and I knew they would see it. I waved it like a mad man and told Jim lets get out of here. Being recently from Nam, he said lets take them on.

I asked him for his keys, which he gave me, and then tugged him out of the bar with the gun moving from side to side.

I ran to the car and pulled it out into the street. He walked over slowly to the car exchanging pleasantries with the patrons.

As we drove away, his Blue 72 Caddy was suddenly covered in foam from all the beer bottles they threw at us. He wanted to stop, But I was driving. haha

Yes, those were the days.

Oh, I have stories like that for each of the births of my other 3 kids and his 2.

Wow, Life was good.

Life is great.

If Its Green Its Trouble, If Its Grease Make Mine a Double.

Last friday Jerry Murphy found an add for a restaurant that serves Gourmet dinners starting at $20 and up.

We made reservations for 6:15pm at Bonsoiree. The address was 2728 W. Armitage.
http://bon-soiree.com/
I used to work the area and could only remember 2 restaurants.

Tastee freeze and PePe Mexican.


I was certainly surprised when we drove thru
the neighborhood.What once was hillbilly and hispanic gang turf was now Yuppie Turf.

Not one racing Police car with siren and lights
flashing went by. I was amazed.

Anyway we started out with a salad. Asparagas chips with almonds.

It was green and my motto is the title.

I asked for the soup, zucini and something else . The soup was excellent.


All the food arrived on small white triangular dishes for the salads and desserts while the main entree was served on a wavy 4 cornered plate.

Sorry, I was so excited by the appearance of the food that I did not take a photo of the entree's.

We all tried something different on the menu. I went with Red Snapper is a brown sauce with some kind of fancy potato.

Others had salmon which they loved. And the
meat lovers had a pile of meat.

Don't get me wrong. All the portions were about as big as a McDonalds quarter pounder.

The bill turned out to be $52 per couple. This of course was low as it is a BYOB establishment.

I liked that as I didn't have to pay for others drinking habits.

But I must admit did have a little swig of the Red wine but prefered the White Zinfidel with a fruity flavor...
















I guess we all enjoyed the meal and the wine and the whiskey. Also, We All Agreed We Would Return To This Fancy Joint.


Oh, I did mention that the portions were for normal thin folks. So, I made an emergency stop.



I brought back some belly fillers for us all to enjoy. The photo below will show the type of Gourmet Restaurants I am used to.