We drove down Western one Saturday afternoon because it occurred to me he wasn’t gonna get to meet my dad (because DEAD) and so he should at least know a few things bout the old man
She had something else to do, can’t remember what, so it was just me and the kid
He had a lotta questions, and they were more or less easy to answer
What kind of dad was he (eh, fine), was he like me (thank god no), did it stink watching him die (can’t remember), was his diner good (now that I don’t resent it anymore, it was very good), was he a cubs fan or sox (neither)
Those kindsa questions
All this was right before the pandemic, when you could just get in a car and go somewhere
It was a nice day in early March
At that point, he was on a Led Zeppelin kick cos of his PE teacher, and so we listened to Zeppelin for a while, then switched over to The Who
At the end of 5:15, when everything was slowing down but Keith Moon was still drumming like it wasn’t, the kid asked me “Why does Keith Moon always hafta go so hard?”
I said, “Well, so the thing about Keith Moon was …”
“I was being rhetorical, dad”
He was ten at this point, by the way
The trip took almost two hours, but that was mainly because we stopped a few times for hot dogs
He became of the opinion that hot dogs and fries are better than hot dogs with chips
I told him he was dead wrong, and after some back and forth, we decided Never the twain shall meet
Though we both agreed that CASH ONLY dog stands are the best dog stands
We got to that neck of the woods a little before three
We parked the car and walked around
The Metra station which I always thought would take me to my big important job downtown once I got older and would never come back here ever again and that would show ‘em, it sure would
I showed him where I played Little League and loved it even though I sucked (couldn’t hit, couldn’t field, had no arm, was slow)
He asked what position I played, I said Left Bench, and by the time I got done explaining the joke, we were both annoyed I had told it
We went around my school, which I hated because even in like fifth grade there were snobs
He asked if I ever heard from any of those kids anymore, the snobs
No, not really, but every now and again back in the day, one would show up hungover for breakfast and my dad would hafta serve him cos I refused
The thing I would do to them was add extra to the check, like juice or a side of potatoes, like a buck or two, and if I got away with it, so much the better
(I usually didn’t, it usually ended in ‘my mistake, my mistake’)
Then after whichever snob was gone, dad would grumble that I had to put that shit aside
By shit he meant hurt feelings, lingering resentments, wounds, I guess
I showed him all the sights - the video store, the ice cream place, where my first girlfriend lived, my second girlfriend, all that
The bakery, the church, all that
The basketball courts, the library, all that
The liquor store with the racist name that would sell to you no matter what
The park where me, Louie, Jay and Steve (sometimes Bob, sometimes Eric) would drink what we’d just got from the liquor store with the racist name
(He asked what I drank and I said everything, and there was that look in his eyes)
The convenience store that was a White Hen back in the day but is now just a Mart of some sort
My mom had a part time job with the public works department so we walked past there too
And then we went to my childhood home which was like four blocks over
The house looks like a Georgian but my mom and dad always swore it technically wasn’t
There’s a hedge in the front, it kinda blocks the living room window, like a third of the view, give or take
It drove the dogs crazy (Fleegle and Wilson) because they couldn’t see around or over it and there were big blind spots for them, they were missing some of the action!!
My dad was always threatening to yank the thing out (it was a yew) but he never did and neither did anyone who lived there since
The yew was still there, still blocking. I hoped the current owners had dogs who were just as frustrated haha
Whoever was living there now was doing a good job on the upkeep
A real estate agent would say, “Pride of Ownership”
The kid said the house was bigger than ours now and he was right
I told him it was nice to live there, nice to grow up there, and there’s a lot I would change if I could (I can’t) but at least we never had to worry too much
Then we went back to the car
Within a couple minutes we were parked in front of my dad’s place and I was trying not to cry too much but there was that scratchy feeling at the back of my throat and my nostrils felt wide
The place has changed hands a buncha times in the last … eighteen years, I guess? Somewhere around there?
To my knowledge, it’s been three diners and a sandwich place since dad closed up
I was gonna call and ask my mom, cos she knows such things, but it might be her nap time and Hell hath no fury, etc
And now there was a FOR LEASE sign in the window
I told him what all my jobs were there (dishwasher, busboy, cashier, occasional server, pancakes-french toast-waffles-toast but only when we were slammed and my dad could only handle one half of the grill)
I told him my dad had five pots of coffee and three packs of Winstons every day and I only slightly exaggerate the coffee
We sat there for a bit
We wondered how much it would take to open ‘er back up, get ‘er going again
We sat there some more
He had to pee and I needed a drink so we walked to this place a couple doors up, this dive that had also changed hands a bunch since way back when
I knocked back a shot of Makers, then another, then sipped a High Life (the two dollar special)
(There was that look in his eyes again)
I told him he didn’t have anything to worry about, I was working on it and it was getting better
(Which it was at the time, until the big pit happened, the big emptiness in the middle, and things got worse, way worse, but I’m getting ahead of myself, haha)
And then we were back on the road again, crawling back up Western
The other band his PE teacher was into was Lynyrd Skynyrd so we listened to that
Free Bird, Gimme Three Steps, etc
No hot dogs or anything cos it was almost dinner time
We got home around six
I went straight for the Makers, and he had that look again, and I nodded like It’s fine, it really is (and I meant it)
We had pizza, the three of us
He told her all about it. She was upset she couldn’t go (for the life of me I don’t remember what she had going on that day), and so he and I promised we would take her back in the next couple weeks, the next good weekend day
But then the pandemic hit, so ...
Fleegle - so you watched the Banana Splits too when you were a kid! Great as usual but damn why did you have to get ahead of yourself and make us realize. Damn. Still great tho.
My hubs's old neighborhood (that's what he still calls it) was at Western and 35th, prolly a long way north of where you headed that day. He loves to revisit. Where I grew up, I'd rather not. Stirring that pot o' memories can do some things.