>>>>Jay,
>>>>
>>>>Forgive me for: a) Not replying sooner; and b) not replying to any of your previous post...well, at least some of it.:-)
>>>
>>>No prob... Thought you might have a hard time finding it. We got moved to Chatter. Can't imagine what's more important than memories of Chicago <g>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>First, you mentioned the 5th district, did you mean ward? Back when I was stomping around Hyde Park it was wards not districts that the aldermen represented. Part of H.P. was in the 4th Ward and part in the 5th. The 5th ward alderman was Leon Despres, who, not too surprisingly, was the one independent in the city council.
>>>
>>>Ward -- sorry for my photogenic memory <g>
>>>
>>>Despres was an appropriate representative of the UC community...
>>
>>I thought so too.
>>
>>>Actually, it was the 2nd ward that I was thinking of .. Roti was the alderman in question.
>>
>>Yep, he was the one "...so dirty he was clean".< g >
>>
>>>>
>>>>Second, as you may have surmised, I've returned from my journey to Chicago. Had lots of fun (at the party perhaps too much fun), saw tons of friends, drank gallons of beer, watched the Bears on Sunday, got to the lake front, ate a couple of Italian Beefs, had a Bill's pizza and the weather was great. I think that pretty much sums it up.< bg >
>>>
>>>That's as good as it gets!
>>
>>Yep, plus the flights were good too.
>>
>>>But, you know, we're all waiting with baited breath about the celebration <bg>
>>>
>>First of all, our friends live at a place called Deerpath Farm. It's not a sub-division but an actual farm. It's just east of North St. Mary's Rd. on Townline Rd. I can't say for sure how big it is, but it's quite a few acres. To give you an idea, the "driveway" is 1/3 of a mile long just to reach the clearing where the trees end and the lawn and house begin.
>>
>>Into this scenario, you just need to drop 50 or 60 people, lots of beer (not to mention the refrigerator holding a half-barrel of Michelob). You put up a lot of pink flamingos and other decorations, a fire, have lots of food and you basically have it.
>>
>>Now as to my perhaps having too much fun, I won't go into the details on the grounds of self-incrimination. Suffice it to say that: It wasn't illegal; and it wasn't that I drank too much (even though I did) and that led to the...ummmm...situation.
>
>You know, George, I think this is the perfect time to practice for the Nobel Prize in Lit... I mean, with pink flamingos, beer -- you've got to have Confederacy of Dunces beat hands down!
>
Well, the "...situation" I mentioned certainly wasn't violent or typical.< beg > The party, however, was fairly typical of those at the farm. This has been going on for over 20 years. The difference between those of the past and this one was the birthday decorations and the fact that the garage had been cleared out for food, presents and a boom box to keep folks out of the house. However, there weren't either of the one or two "normal events".

One of these is the "field car" expedition (provided, of course, that our host and my friend John, has one that runs). A "field car" is basically a beater that anyone can drive into the field. My feelings towards riding in the field car is basically summed up by the first lines in Lynyrd Skynyrd's "That Smell".

Whiskey bottle, brand new car
Oak tree, you're in my way...

I tried to get John's brother-in-law, Bruce, from Orlando to use the Grand Marquis they rented down there (had 1,100 miles when they picked it up) to use it as a field car. Bruce didn't think that it had enough ground clearance enough to survive without ripping the muffler off and didn't want to have to drive back to Orlando with the additional noise.

The other is the hay ride. The basic differences between the hay ride and a field car expedition are that the hay ride is done on a tractor pulling a hay trailer loaded with people. Beyond that it's pretty much the same.:-)

The hay ride is a staple of these parties in the summer.

I forgot to mention that there were pyrotechnics at the party as well, and those are usually present as well. This time, however, we took it easy so that the yard didn't look like a battle zone afterwards (which it usually does).