 and re-decorating instead?”
Chad laughs.
“If only I’d been a cute dancer boy or something…” I say,sitting up and grabbing the sunscreen to rub on my nose.
“DAMN!” Chad yells to the sky after a minute, “Wahoooooooooo!!!” He thrusts his arms in the air and throws back his head, bathing his face in sunlight.
I smile, flip on my stomach, bend my knees, bobbing my legs in the air, and pull a magazine from my bag.
Chad turns the dial on the radio and lands on “Spirit in the Sky.”
“Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky,” I sing, “That’s where I’m gonna go when I die/When I die and they lay me to rest/Gonna go to the place that’s the best.”
*********************
It’s July. It’s Nikki’s birthday and Chad and I meet her and Sam on Foster Beach. They’re finishing sandwiches from the Thai bakery on Broadway and Nikki holds hers out and asks if I want a bite. “Ew,” I say, holding my hand up, “Those things stink! How can you eat them?”
It might just be the only thing we ever argue about — these smelly Thai sandwiches. The summer before, on Nikki’s recommendation, I buy two Thai sandwiches with Drew on one of his earlier visits to Chicago. We keep them in their bag until we park our bikes and find a spot on the beach. And then, eager to taste the delectable treat Nikki raves about, we tear into the bag, only to gag on the stench and rush the sandwiches to a far-off trash can.
“Oh, they’re good!” Nicki replies, waving away my criticism and polishing off the last bite, “you don’t know what you’re missing.”
I’ve brought champagne and plastic cups and we toast to Nikki’s birthday. I suddenly wish I’d brought baklava from the Middle Eastern Bakery.
*******************
It’s August and Terry is in town with the kids for less than 24-hours en route back to Springfield, Mo.
“I drove the wrong way for 2 hours before I realized I was heading north and not south,” he says of his detour from Ohio.
“Lucky for us,” I reply.
In college, Terry is like an uncle to a bunch of us. Chad introduces me to him that summer he can’t stop redecorating his porch, and Terry entertains me with stories of Woodstock and San Francisco in the late 60’s and the Merry Pranksters. Sometimes the three of us go swimming in Fellows Lake. Sometimes Terry has us over to his little apartment on Walnut, which is unlike any apartment I’ve ever seen before. Stickers, album covers, newspaper and magazine clippings, tin foil stars, photos, and old postcards adorn nearly every inch of wall space. Even the ceiling is covered with stuff — with homemade mobiles, paper lanterns, and plants hanging from it lazily, gently swaying whenever a breeze blows through the open window.
A year after I meet them, Terry and his wife Mary move to a house, even closer to campus now. Mary is pregnant, and most of us can’t believe Terry is going to be a father. They have a girl in June and a year after that, I move away to Chicago.
On Foster Beach during Terry’s detour back to Missouri, we wade to our ankles in Lake Michigan. It’s night time and dark and Terry doesn’t want the kids going out too far. The next afternoon, I bike to the beach after work and meet Terry and the kids before they head home. They’ve been at the beach all afternoon waiting for me and now we have time for two songs and a quick dip in the lake.
Afterwards, as they pack up their rented 2007 white Maxima, I promise to keep in touch. “Maybe Chad and I will come visit one of these days,” I say.
“Oh sure, oh sure,” Terry replies, stuffing a bag into the back seat with the kids. They’re in a change of clothes, but still sandy from the beach, and look exactly how I imagine their parents looking at their age. “We will” I say, “sooner or later…We can’t stay away forever.” And it’s not until I say it, that I realize how much I mean it.
Four weeks later, when I leave Chicago for New York, I tell my friends I’ll be back before they even have time to miss me. “I can’t stay away from Foster Beach for too long,” I say.
And everyone knows what I really mean is I can’t stay away too long from them.
Elizabeth October 21, 2011, 11:44 am
Love it, Wendy! I love Foster beach.. had my birthday there this summer:) well, actually in the shade of trees since it was almost 100 degrees out, but you know.
I have to agree with Nikki, Ba Le is awesome.
After early morning workouts in the summer, I jump into the lake at Foster running shoes and all.. just to cool down. Also, I’ve seen several people coming back from the lake with soap and towels around 5:30 in the morning.. random.
CottonTheCuteDog October 21, 2011, 12:10 pm
What happened to the letter E? Last week was D….
Wendy October 21, 2011, 2:23 pm
Well, I have to save somethin’ for the book! 😉
Yammy October 21, 2011, 5:20 pm
I know the Thai sandwiches you’re talking about! My friend Gary calls them sewer sandwiches and absolutely loves them.
Nick October 21, 2011, 7:58 pm
Great pic too. Dandelions. That weird icy blue on the water. Nowadays I see it from planes.You will be picked up from your hotel between 08.00 - 08.30am and drive for 90 minutes (60km) to the Cu Chi Tunnels, where you will spend the next couple of hours exploring the area and learning more the tunnels and their use during the Vietnam War.
After lunch, enjoy a sightseeing tour of Ho Chi Minh city, visiting attractions such as the Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Old Post Office, and Ben Thanh Market.
After being picked up from your hotel between 8:00-8.30 am, depart from Ho Chi Minh City and head into the Mekong Delta, crossing the impressive Rach Mieu Cable-stayed Bridge.
Arrive in Ben Tre village after an around 2-hour drive and board a small boat to cruise around the delta, visiting traditional villages and artisan workshops.
Stop along the way to visit a small brick factory, a coconut-processing workshop, a local mat-weaving house, and take a xe-lôi (a kind of motorized rickshaw) ride around a local village.
Enjoy a delicious lunch at a riverside restaurant, before starting the afternoon activities which include a scenic bike ride and a sampan cruise along the canals.
Back at the port, set out on the return journey to Ho Chi Minh City, stopping to visit a local market along the way.
Return to your hotel. End of services.
I have created a new site telling the story of the day Dr Mike Carney risked everything to return to the place of his birth, the remote Great Blasket Island, at the age of nearly 93. He was the last of his kind, the men and women who had grown up and worked on that windblown, isolated island of stories, where they spoke a form of Irish that had not been heard on the mainland for a century and still told each other the old tales by firelight every night for fun.
The day we took him back on a boat was extraordinary, and none of us were sure whether he would make it back alive. He was an inspirational man, who passed away at the weekend and is being laid to rest in Springfield, Massachusetts, tomorrow. Please find out more about the 93-year-old man who climbed out of a boat and onto an island by visiting www.thelastislandman.com.*Rhiw school photograph July 1916,
In the photo we can see the headmaster Mr R H Gruffydd, he was newly
appointed as we know his predecessor died a couple of months earlier. He was
well known in Llyn, as the Leader of Hebron Choir, and in 1925 the choir won at
the National Eisteddfod that was held in Pwllheli that year. He was also an
accomplished poet and won many prizes at the Eisteddfod, including his hymn for
St Davids Day. From Rhiw he went on to be headmaster of Penfforddelen school
Groeslon.
The first national school opened in Rhiw
in 1877 and by June had 74 pupils on it's register. Attendance at the school
very much depended on the seasons, children would be needed to help out with
planting, harvesting and also shearing. Disease and epidemic also forced the
closure of the school at times, as well as happy times when the school would
close for fairs, religious and musical festivals. The school finally closed its
doors in 1965, and the children of Rhiw went to either Aberdaron or Rh