The last time I went to Wrigley Field… everyone was paying cash for Old Style. Yesterday, everyone was swiping a card for White Claws.
I put on a summer weight fedora, a dress shirt and a pair of slacks and took the train up north. I didn’t recognize a single fucking thing.
The bleachers spill out into the street. The apartment building where I first sat on a rooftop has been taken over by a corporation. The wood frame building overlooking left field that I did the walk of shame from has been replaced by a bigger brick building. There weren't many Old Style signs hanging over the tavern doors and nobody sitting around me knew who Jose Cardenal, Ivan DeJesus or Rick Reuschel was.
Married couples in their thirties gravitated towards me in Nisei’s after the game. A couple from Georgia, Wisconsin and Lincoln Square were told to always work hard, stay close friends and never become selfish, but respect each other’s alone time.
It was last year when I was worried if the beer vendor was going to card me. It was last season when I was trying to lay the girl visiting from Des Moines, but it was actually yesterday when I was giving advice on successful marriage in a bar on Sheffield. Wrigley is still around and I’ve been going there for over fifty years.
I took the L back into the Loop and stopped at the Berghoff. Boy they have really fucked that up. Almost as bad as they fucked up Wrigleyville.
I long for the day of no barstools, two beers on tap and a carving station. I long for a rooftop with a playground bleacher, a Weber grill and a cooler of beer.
Today is Yom HaShoah, the day to reflect on the Holocaust. In a time when our Jewish brothers and sisters are still attacked, we must continue to protect and support them.
The first Sunday of May is a good day to prepare for the beginning of summer. Next Sunday is Mother’s Day. If your Ma is still around, take her to brunch…
…and be astonished!
