Well, it wasn’t the final weekend I’ve had in Chicago, I’ve been back a few times since. What happened was my last trip by car to spend a long weekend with the friends I liked. After I returned to some financial stability, I would usually go visit the Silders and Bryants about once a month. The friends I had downstate were alright, they just weren’t very intellectually stimulating. The Silders and I didn’t sit around arguing over the finer points of Nietzsche or Plato yet we had higher aspirations in life than flipping burgers to get by. As I’ve always said, Central IL is a place where having a college education is a liability. Steve Bryant has a better saying, Bloomington-Normal is the suburb with no city.
After the TSR v. GDW debacle, I put the finishing touches on my boxes, called UPS, got my stuff out the door and on its way to Austin by 2 PM. I remember it cost me less than $300 to ship too. A U-Haul was going to run me over $1000.
Then I hauled ass to Chicago to beat the traffic.
I’ll just blow through a synopsis over those next three days. Eating ribs with the Silders on Friday night. Phil and Jill coming by on Saturday to drink beer, watch TV and fire Nerf weapons. Hanging out at Steve and Patty’s while Babylon 5 played. A walk to the corner bar which was a nice quiet hangout to drink.
Despite how awful the weather had been, I was going to miss Chicago. The friends even more. I didn’t bother seeing my brother Brian. I figured we’d always see each other, we’re family. He didn’t seem to care for visits from me in general.
The Silders let me stick around until Monday morning. Helen had jury duty so I gave her a ride to the courthouse. I clearly remembered her having a couple tears, me too. However, I never thought me moving to Austin would be the end. It did prove to be smart. The Silders moved to Maryland within 18 months.
I took my time driving back. For some odd reason I found the mall we visited a couple times in 1985 when Grandma Maggi was dying. I was hungry or had to go. There I found a favorite sweatshirt, the dark blue one with Babs Bunny on it. I wore this the first time I met Somara.
I still miss those long weekends at the Silders’ house. The Chicago food that’s bad for your health. Games of Monopoly. Playing William Tell with the Nerf bow and empty beer cans. WXRT playing in the background, over Pauls’ Metal objections. I’m grateful I had a nice finale to Illinois after a rather mediocre-to-miserable year.