Lost! Memory Lane! The 80’s! Flipping! 24 hrs…

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After a long day two Friday’s ago, Party Time was in effect. To cap off the night I ended up at Pick Me Up Café on Clark and Newport with my best bud Ralph and friends Molly and Erin. We got there around 4AM.

We ate, we chatted, and close to 5AM, it was time to call it a night.

Erin and Molly went home, and even though I live 5-10 minutes away on foot, I was going to have Ralph drive me home. So we head South on Clark and the adventure began…

Here’s a Map for reference:

A block away on Clark, near Buckinham, Ralph says he’s actually on the street we just passed, Roscoe, so we head back and start walking East on Roscoe.

Midway down the block Ralph says it’s actually on the other block.

We head back to Clark, head over to Buckingham and start walking East. As we’re walking Ralph says that we should be near because according to him, he’s positive he parked towards the end of the block. His car wasn’t there.

But then Ralph remembers another important factor: That he crossed Halsted on the way to meet up with me, so that means he must be on the other side of Halsted, towards the end of the block, which means near Broadway.

We cross Halsted and midway down the other side on Buckingham, Ralph stops and says he’s not sure if we’re on the right block. I ask him what else he remembers and he adds more info the details we already have: That he remembers a ‘fancy’ restaurant on the corner and a ‘paint store’ across the street, and that he’s on the end of that block, which he says is a one-way going East..

This sounds exactly like the corner of Halsted and Aldine, one block South, so we head that way and before we get a chance to start walking East on Aldine, Ralph says this is not the place.

I remind him of what he just told me and tell him this is the only place he described, but he’s adamant that this is not the place.

We then go North to Roscoe and we start walking East, but then he quickly says this is not the block, and demands we go back one block South to Buckingham.

We go back to Buckingham, walk East to Broadway, walk to Aldine, and then walk West until we get to Clark.

We then walk back to Buckingham, walk to Halsted and then head back to the corner of Roscoe and Halsted.

Now he wants to walk to Newport and head West. I tell him that’s a waste of time, because if he says he crossed Halsted, then there’s no way he parked on Newport because the street doesn’t keep going after Halsted.

Ralph: “Yeah, but that street is a one way going East, so I bet it’s there.”

Ok, why not. So we go to Newport, and walk back up to Clark and now we’re back where we started.

Ralph now has us walk to Aldine, East to Halsted, back to Roscoe and walk West again until we’re on Clark and Roscoe. Again.

I tell him that I think he’s confused and ask that we walk to School St, but on the WEST side of Clark because that’s the only other block facing East that we haven’t gone to.

VERY reluctantly, he agrees to do this.

So we walk to Sheffield and head South so that we can then make a left on School St.

Not TWO minutes from the corner of Roscoe and Sheffield, -which is where Pick Me Up Café is at- –Nowhere near Halsted, parked in the MIDDLE of the block, and facing SOUTH, we see his car.

I got home at 6AM.

*

Memory Lane made a trip to 2009 last week and smacked me in the face.

Early last week while flipping channels I caught the early 80’s super-cheesy break-dancing flick, “Beat Street”.

I decided to watch the whole thing not because it was a good movie, but because it reminded me of hanging out at my best friend Rafi’s (‘Ralphie’) house as a kid and watching this movie over and over with Rafi and his younger brother, Fabian.

We knew almost every line to this movie and we were into break-dancing, so we were ‘Beat Street Junkies’.

Watching TV and movies at Ralph’s place was always fun and something I looked forward to, so being reminded of this and of Ralph’s family is always a treat for me.

In a cool and sad way, I was reminded of this again when the news came that John Hughes passed away. (Click here for a cool post about him)

I remember watching most if not all of Hughes movies, as well as others like them (‘Lover Boy’, ‘Buy Me Love’, ‘Secret Admirer’, etc.) at Ralph’s place over and over again. All 3 of us saw most of those cheesy 80’s teenage movies at their home several times. So yeah, anytime I catch ‘Weird Science’ or any of those 80’s flicks, I try to watch the whole movie mostly because they remind me of the fun time I had hanging out with my friends.

Speaking of friends…

The weekend came and a good friend from the ol’ hood, Billy, was having a birthday party at the bar I used to hang out at when I lived on the near south side.

(Billy’s real name is Danny, but for some reason, when he was a kid, the older guys in the hood started calling him “Billy White Shoes” because he used to like wearing white shoes, I think. So somehow that became ‘Billy”. Weird.)

The name of the bar is ‘Simpsons’. I’ve been to Simpsons a few times since I moved away, but I haven’t been there for a party like this where a bunch of old faces come out to party. And boy did they come out. I saw a lot of people I haven’t seen in YEARS, and some I haven’t seen since the 8^th grade.

That night brought back some very fun memories of these people. At one point I found myself alone in a corner having fun watching the crowd of friendly faces and was reminded of friends that I used to hang with back in the day, but that sadly are no longer wit us. So I whispered to myself “Philly, “Faw”, “Little Cesar”, this one’s for you”, and I finished my beer alone, for them.

I really enjoyed being at Simpson’s this night. I wish I had the chance to see my old friends more often and hope they don’t think that because I don’t come around, I don’t care about them, because that couldn’t be farther from the truth..

The night was spoiled a bit by some younger punks who now try to frequent the bar. I got into some mini-confrontations right off the bat, and then when the bar was getting ready to close, some drunk drama started happening that the younger punks started.

In a funny way that brought back familiar memories too: Getting drunk at Simpson’s, a fight starting, and somewhere in the middle, people trying to buy more booze to continue the party elsewhere.

But all ended well and I made it home alive with a good taste of the good ol’ south side in my mouth.

*

A couple of days later, I was wandering around the Marshalls store near my place, and I heard a whisper:

“Toss Salad….?”

I have a nephew named Julian. Years ago when his Dad was still with his Mom (my sister), I got to know his Dad and we became pretty cool with each other. One day I started to tease him for getting in trouble with the law and told him to be careful or he was going to be “tossing salad” pretty soon. (Look it up, I’m not going to explain it)

This became some weird running joke between us and eventually we both had given

each other the same nick name: “Toss Salad” or, “Tossy”.

He even taught my nephew to call me “toss salad”, which of course would get him in trouble with my sister. By then it was too late, we created a monster. Every now and then for no reason at all and without being prompted by his Dad, Julian would yell out:

“Toss-Salaaaaaaad!”

It always made me and his Dad laugh a lot. Soon it became normal to be at the table and hear “Hey, Tossy, pass me the mustard”. He was Tossy, I was Tossy, we were both ‘Tossy’.

My sister and him broke up a long time ago and eventually we got to see less and less of each other. I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t seen him in about 6 years or more.

So here I was this past weekend walking down an aisle and then: “Toss Salad…?”

I thought I heard it but wasn’t sure. Still, I casually looked at the other aisle and saw some dude shyly looking at me. I was about to look away when it hit me and a big smile came to my face which prompted him to say out loud “Tossy!”

We talked for a while and I was happy to learn he was doing Ok. It was real nice running into him. We promised to have a beer sometime soon and as I walked away I said “Later, Tossy”. He said the same.

*

The following day as I was headed to the theater and I ran into a friend I haven’t seen in maybe 10-15 years.

Growing up I had 4 close friends I used to hang out with a lot: Julian, Rafi, Alex, and Roman.

Even though we all grew up and did our own thing, I still see Rafi a lot, Alex once in a while, and Julian briefly. But Roman? That cat moved out of the hood and we never really knew where he moved or how he was doing except for the occasional run-in with his sisters.

So here I was heading to the theater and BAM, Roman is walking towards me. We were both surprised as shit to see each other and sadly we were both in a hurry to catch up much, but I told where I perform so hopefully I’ll get to see him soon.

Yeah, Memory Lane was good to me last week.

*

I guess it was a good movie week as well. I told you about ‘Beat Street’, but I also decided to stay put while catching a couple of other movies. One was “A.I.” and the other was “Pretty Woman”.

Yup. Shut it.

I’m not ashamed to admit that for some reason, if I ever catch “Pretty Woman” while flipping channels, more often than not I’m going to stay put if I have the time.

Why? I dunno. It’s a classic fish-out-water movie that’s funny and has some good people in it. I think Julia Roberts is amazingly cute in that movie. Not just physically, but just cute in general. I also think her and Richard Gere have great chemistry on screen. Other than that, I really couldn’t tell you why I enjoy this movie so much. I just do. Weird. (Yup, I enjoyed ‘Runaway Bride’ too)

Then there was “A.I.”.

I saw the movie when it came out a long time ago and liked it. It’s not a super good movie, but I’m a Speilberg fan, and of course I likes me some eye candy, so this flick was going to be watched regardless.

So yeah, I was flipping channels, caught it, and decided to stay put. The eye candy still holds up, but I wasn’t prepared for how happy I was going to be when it was over.

In a nutshell, a highly advanced robotic boy longs to become “real” so that he can regain the love of his human mother.

He doesn’t get his wish because he never gets the chance to see her again, but in the end of the movie, the boy is revived after thousands of years by an advanced species, and his craving to see his ‘mother’ is still strong.

Turns out the boy had some of his Mom’s hair with him, and his new keepers tell him that using that hair they can bring his Mother back to Life. But, as advanced as they are, they can’t get the procedure to last more than a day.

So the boy is given the option to bring his Mother back to life, but only for 24 hours. Once she goes to bed, she will not awake again.

The boy accepts and spends a wonderful 24 hours doing everything he missed doing with his Mom and then some. (The mother has no clue as to what’s happening, and he can’t tell her).

It’s a very touching ending and inevitably it made me think of what I would do if I had the chance to see my Dad again for 24 hours.

Oh, man.

I never really got a chance to enjoy baseball stuff with him like he did with my younger brother, so I’d buy a glove and play catch with him.

Because they lived with him for several years in Mexico, I didn’t have the time my sisters had to spend with him, so when he moved back to Chicago, I always looked forward to spending time with him. I remember sitting in his van watching my brother play baseball and just talking and enjoying that very much. We would laugh at dumb things we each said or did and when I laughed or smiled he would pinch my cheek.

So I would take him to a Cubs game and just chat like we used to and look forward to that cheek pinch.

My Dad always liked wrestling. When I was a kid I’d lie with him in bed watching wrestling while he played with my hair and occasionally put me in a leg lock.

I outgrew wrestling and didn’t have an interest in watching it when I visited him.

So this time, I would sit on the floor in front of his couch and have him play with my hair as we watched wrestling for as long as he wanted.

I’d introduce him to his great granddaughter.

He loved ice cream and Polish Sausages, so I’d take him to get a Polish Sausage and some ice cream.

He liked to put his arm around me as we walked down the street while talking or sometimes not saying anything. So even though I hate walking, I would take a long walk with him with his arm around my shoulder.

I’d hug him. A lot.

Then right before he went to bed, I’d tell him I Love Him and pinch his cheek..

*