Day Ten, Chicagoland

June 4, 2006

The last day in Chicagoland. Dawn's Dad and Mary Beth are pitching a cookout. The midwesterners, they like to cook out a lot in the spring and summer. It's not as big a deal in the South where we can cook out, probably, ohh, 300 or more days a year comfortably.

It's a bit harder to get the grill started when its encased in ice I reckon.

Today, I'd meet a lot of Dawn's extended family and Mary Beth's family.

We started out by meeting Dawn's dad...and Dawn's dad's new bike. This is the neatest contraption--a motorized bicycle with a simple battery and electric motor drive set up so that you don't have to pedal if you don't want to. I rode it down the block a bit. It was heavy, and tall, and Dawn had trouble riding it. It was pretty fun though the thing will go pretty fast!

We then went inside and settled into a comfortable couch. Dawn, who was struggling with allergies and the Indiana Beach crud I'd likely given her took benadryl and soon fell asleep in my lap. I was on my own...

I met Hugh, Betty, Hugh, jr, Hugh Jr's wife, Dawn's Aunt Sharon, her cousin Paul....lots of people!

Mary Beth's mom, Betty, is grand. In her working years, she was a flight attendant for TWA and had fascinating stories of travel. More recently, she had visited Macon and Savannah during a time when she was stranded, post 9/11, in Georgia just prior to a vacation trip out of the country. She has a wonderfully outgoing spirit and attitude, and in spite of some recent health problems, maintains a lovely energy and enthusiasm. She made me feel very welcome with her warmth and spirit.

Hugh, Sr. and Hugh, Jr., Mary Beth's dad and brother, are both attorneys. They were really fun to talk to, even if, at times, I felt slightly cross examined! Somehow, they discovered my southern accent where others didn't.

Hugh, Jr.: "You're from the south, I bet you're a republican?"
Pants: "Umm, no, not at all actually."

They were both very good conversationalists--topics ranged from southern geography and racism to pre-nuptial agreements and living wills. Hugh fascinated with me a story I was familiar with about his brother's participation in the taking of Mt. Surabachi at Iwo Jima during World War II, and Ira Hayes, who was immortalized in song by Johnny Cash.

We talked about cubs vs. sox and other sports related issues.

We then had a very nice lunch--dogs, burgers, sausages, chips, beer. Everyone had a great time talking and eating.

At some point during lunch, I made my one, unfortunate comment and embarassed Dawn's dad. About some issue in the aforementioned family videos, he said "I don't know what I was thinking that day!" and I observed that he'd had on really, really tight jean shorts that were probably cutting off circulation and imparing his thinking. Oh well. I wanted to show balls, too though.

After lunch, and a spot of dangerous front yard softball during which the neighborhood windows became endangered-- Dawn's dad led us on a long walk down to the Des Planes river through a local park/wild life preserve.

Yankees are funny. They're afraid of deer! Watch them! They might run at you! We did see several beautiful deer, amazing to me how close they are to people.

I think a lot of it was show for the kids though. At least I hope so. Hugh, Jr's kids were a lot of fun and they went walking with us, along with Jason, Dawn's cousin Paul, Dawn, me, and Dawn's dad. There were tales of alien abduction, satanic sacrafice, and mysterious monsters dwelling in the deep woods by the river. Dawn's dad is really entertaining, and I think she must have had fun with him when they were kids.

We did see several beautiful deer, amazing to me how close they are to people.

We walked all the way down to the banks of the river, where even those of us with good shoes struggled to stay upright. Dawn did well, even though she had on sandals that weren't the best for muddy river bottom hiking.

We came back and settled in, folks began to leave and it was nice for us to have some time just with Dawn's dad and Mary Beth. We chatted, listened to music, and played some pool. I played fairly respectably, though Dawn's dad pretty well mopped the floor with me.

We seemed to get Dawn's dad's blessing and endorsement at the end of the day as we were leaving....and that felt positive.

....A very nice day.