March 16th Flashback

                                                                             2023

I was sound asleep early on a Saturday morning the summer that I turned nineteen. I was woken up by my dad yelling from the first floor.

“You have ten minutes to get ready and be in the car…. We’ve got things to do, people to meet, breakfast to eat.”

I rolled over and smashed the pillow over my head. The pillow wasn’t thick enough to absorb the following attempt to get me out of bed.

Six thirty in the morning and a British Military Band started marching through the living room. Led by my father through the dining room and down the basement steps to my bedroom.

The bedroom door flew open and standing in the frame was my dad repeating what he previously said as the blankets are ripped off of my bed.

The Coldstream and Grenadier Guard continued to march through the speakers of my dads stereo in the living room. Luckily my dad marched back up the stairs without noticing the Old Style bottle on my nightstand.

Ten minutes later I’m sitting in the front seat of my dad’s Cadillac filled with cigarette smoke and WGN on the radio. Not good for a nineteen year old with a hangover.

Our first stop was Oak Park Bank on the corner of Marion and Lake street. Then we walked up the street to the travel agent. My dad had long conversations with both the bank teller and the travel agent. Everyone loved talking with Don Shepley. I just wanted breakfast.

We finally walked into the diner across the street from the bank. The hostess sat us down, handed us our menus and poured our coffee.

A few minutes later the waitress came to take our order. She was a knockout. I could barely stammer my order to her because I was so taken back by her beauty. My Dad smirked at me and shook his head....

“My son has a hard time with the English language and seems to be enthralled in your beauty.”

Don Shepley always took the opportunity to embarrass his son. The waitress smiled at me as she took our menus. After she walked away my dad continued to grill me about my awkward breakfast order.

He asked me what I was attracted to the most about our waitress. That summer was the time in our relationship when my dad treated me less as a boy and more like a man. The conversations were more about politics, current events, historic events and women.

I was always nervous talking about the last subject with my dad, but that didn’t stop me that summer morning.

“I like her cleavage through the buttons of her shirt dad and I like her legs.”

My dad sat across the table and shook his head. He took a long sip of his coffee and started telling me his philosophy on female anatomy.

“Son, it’s not about tits and ass. There are so many other things about a woman’s appearance.”

Now I’m in for a sex education lesson from my dear old father before my omelet arrives.

"Come on Moose, she has a gorgeous mouth. Her lips are full and her smile is heavenly. That is the first thing you should have noticed.”

I’m sitting there listening to my dad tell me the waitress has a beautiful mouth. I just want to eat breakfast and get out before my dad gets another chance at embarrassing me.

That was the day I learned that there is more about women than just boobs and booty. One of many things I learned at a breakfast table from my dad.

Today is Lips Appreciation Day. If you have someone that lets you lock lips, take advantage!

2022

“Get up off your big ass Moose! Let’s go!”

I often say that I don’t have many regrets, but I do regret the dance floors that I didn’t take advantage of through the years.

From here on out I will leave no dance floor undanced!

I grew up a SoulTrain kid so I know how to glide like a 747.

Get up! Make Your Bed and look at that number on the top right hand side of the Chalkboard!

The world is in turmoil. Our country confused and tired, but Daylight Savings Time is getting voted out!

Personally I can deal with dark nights for two months in December and January. Remember, I’m a morning guy… I dig the promise of a sunrise.

Enjoy those 9:00am sunrises for two months. Enjoy Christmas morning in the dark. Enjoy sending the kids To school in the dark.

While we all argue about the pros and cons of Standard or Daylight shit is hitting the fan.

It’s Erik Estrada Day! I’m not sure it’s a real thing to celebrate Officer Francis Poncherello’s Birthday, but what the hell!

Happy Birthday PONCH!

2021

The path we take and the people we meet along the way isn’t always our choice. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized neither is our destination.

Sure I can plan a long weekend to New Orleans or jump in the car and drive to the Southside to shop for a new hat.

I never wanted to move past Mannheim road and I didn’t plan on living in Riverside, but that’s where the path led me.

The point is I have few regrets on the way. Sure I regret not making a trip to London that was offered to me, but I’m glad I’m not living in Alsip...

Like a car we have mileage... let’s just hope a new muffler and some break pads gets us to 300,000 miles.

2020

Street football and baseball was occasionally stopped with the warning of “headlights” when we were kids!

Maybe the daily routine needs to run to the curb and let the cars drive past?

Good Luck and stay safe!

March 16th, 2024

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March 15th, 2024

 It might be Friday, but stay clear of any soothsayers.

Today is the Ides of March. This day is bigger and badder than any Friday the 13th… so good luck!

Today’s quote simply states that a misstep is a learning experience. Mistakes make us better.

It’s going to be a chilly weekend, but the sun will be smiling on the Irish. So have a pint, enjoy the soda bread and tie your ribbon tight….

….but beware the Ides of March!

March 14th, 2024

 Epicurus wrote this quote in a toga years before our lifetime. I don’t find any glory after overcoming a laborious circumstance or situation. When it’s over, I’m relieved only to prepare for life’s next shitshow.

Let’s talk about pies instead.

Listed are my top three. They are listed not only for their taste, but for the memories that they trigger.

Obviously my number one pie is associated with my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. I should probably include an apple pie for my other favorite holiday, but strawberry-rhubarb pies are connected with Fourth of July for me.

Let’s not get confused between a Hoosier sugar pie and a Hoosier legged-peach pie. A Hoosier sugar pie is a custard pie made with butter, flour, cream and sugar sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It doesn’t have any eggs because eggs were expensive during the depression when this pie became popular.

So the Hoosier pie fits today’s quote. It was made because times were difficult and money was tight. Eventually things improved and this delectable dessert found its glory…

… glory found in tummies from Logansport to Vincennes.

It’s firmly raining and my pillows are cold, so I’m packing up the typewriter and going to lay in bed for a little while longer.

Don’t let your socks get wet today and don’t forget to be astonished.

If Thursday is a hurdle… fly over that sonofabitch and land into a pile of glory.

Glory doesn’t stain your clothes like shit does!

March 13th, 2024

      I walked off the trading floor for the last time on this day in 2020. I thought I’d be back in three weeks, four at the latest.

I never returned.

I never had a proper farewell.

March 13th will always be MY China Flu Day.

And I don’t care if some of my LibLab friends are pissed right now at my term for March 13th.

I have determined that I am going to live the remainder of my life in Archie Bunker/George Jefferson mode.

China Flu, China Flu, China Flu!

March 13th set my life into a different trajectory. I no longer get on a train and head into the city. I drive Betty out to the suburbs. I no longer work in an art deco skyscraper completed in 1929. I work in a brown cookie cutter building slapped together in 1991.

That’s alright…. They had been talking for years about shutting down the trading pits. China Flu finally forced them to get off the shitter.

Another life changer was the loss of my father during China Flu. The Oldman was crumbling for several years prior to the pandemic. That unaccountable cold was what packed his bag and stamped his ticket to heaven.

The last thing he said to me on a Zoom call…. “Oh you magnificent son of a bitch…..”

I lost my trading floor and my dad during that period, that era that changed the face of mankind.

I’m not sure that I ever defined a closing date for the end of China Flu. I’ll let the history books determine that date.

Happy China Flu Day all you Chalkheads and yes, my tone is bitter.

Ah fuck it… I still have a great job at the OakBrook Terrace Board of Trade and my Oldman still busts my balls. Remember, heaven is closer than we think.

Go out and celebrate freedom and the survival of a stay in our own personal zoo. A zoo that gave us a mask to wear.

I’d like to quote the great Melle Mel, “Survival, only the strong can survive.

It's called survival, only the strong can survive.

It's called survival, in order to stay alive.

It's called survival, survival, survival, survival.”

Go out today and celebrate China Flu Day. Go to a bar, a restaurant, a concert, go to school, to the office or the gym. Go do something that you couldn’t do for a year or two.

We are all standing on the edge, so no pushing.

March 12th, 2024

 There are actually some days when I have nothing to say. Today is one of those days.

Quick quote from Scotty Fitz.

….. and he is correct!

Take your lumps and keep on getting back up.

Go be astonished….

March 11th, 2024

 The first work night after the time change. The “late for work” dreams dominated the show. Sunday nights are anxious already… throw in the time change and all hell breaks out.

Open outcry trading was back, but the trading floor was in the hallway of my high school.

And of course…. I couldn’t remember my locker combination and I wasn’t wearing pants.

Let us all get through this workday and first day of the week unscathed. Big smile on the sun today and though we might be tired this morning….

…. The afternoon and evening will be longer and brighter.

Take a walk and bring your Stanley filled with your favorite concoction and remember to be astonished.

March 10th, 2024

 I don’t know why I continue to watch the network news most every night. All it does is show violence and hatred. From the political bickering to the commercials for pharmaceutical companies, I’m fed up.

Fortunately they have that last minute spot that shows a quick glimpse at the goodness in humanity. The feel good story that shows love and compassion.

After twenty nine minutes of a shitshow, we get one minute of positivity.

We know it’s there… there is more than one minute of goodness during the day. If you caught my Chalkboard Video yesterday… I talked about the kindness that I ran across on my trip to the grocery.

It all goes back to the song that Sister Balthazar taught us in kindergarten.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Did you remember to change your clocks Chalkheads? Look at that glorious sunset time. Soon my flower pots will be filled on the balcony and the three drink maximum will be hit during dusk.

Week four of Six Nations saw two incredible rugby matches yesterday morning. England beat the best team in the world and Italy showed another glimpse towards their upward climb of improvement.

Today is going to be fanfuckingtastic… the late sunrise this morning gives you plenty of time to watch its splendor. Put some meat on the grill and some love on the sheets. Lace up those shoes and swallow some oxygen and absorb gobs of Vitamin D…

The smile is on the sun, so go be astonished and throw some peace and love around town.

March 9th, 2024

    Yesterday I woke up and the first thing I did was read my high school friend’s “Pink and Strong” Blog. I stole today’s quote from her.

This morning I woke up and the first thing I read was the obituary for my dear friend’s ma.

The only way the two are associated is by my prayers.

I’ve got to bring this Morning Chalkboard back to its initial intent. I’ve got to write more about the antics of a single dad trying to raise his three children. A loudmouth who yells and screams on a trading floor all day. A guy with big blue eyes and a veluptious booty.

I’ve been getting carried away with praying and preaching how we must love each other. Maybe I need to get back to talking about hot mommies and gin martinis?

I would never talk about how I support Israel searching for the lambs stollen from them. I can’t talk about not giving a shit about Ukraine or how fucked up the next presidential election is going to be. That isn’t what the Morning Chalkboard is about.

I long for the innocence of a George Bush versus Al Gore showdown. America lost its naïveté on that hanging chad.

….when I get off my typewriter, I’m going to get on my knees and pray for the classmate on the Ohio River. My friend that lost his mom just before he turned fifty. My two girlfriends that have twenty something sons that worry them.

I have a prayer for parents with children that are ill. I have a prayer for parents that lost a child. Grown children that have lost a mommy or daddy get a shout out as well. A prayer for lonely ladies and sulking sons. I can’t forget that “Hail Mary” for those with flat tires on life’s journey or an "Our Father" for those searching for the lighthouse.

I definitely have a prayer for the guy who fixes Betty the Green Blazer. He and his beautiful wife announced the arrival of their first baby coming this summer. My closest prayer right now is for my Auntie and Cousin who are visiting Uncle Chris at a nursing home before he leaves for cocktails in heaven.

I’ll also take a moment and tell heaven to send love to all the Chalkheads. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have this avenue of therapy every morning before sunrise.

Today is going to be a righteous Saturday. Don’t forget to turn your clocks tonight. Get your errands and chores done early and go be astonished. The sun will be smiling today.

Carry them home…..

March 8th, 2024

 It’s going to be a blustery rainy day today. It is Friday though.

So many places to go, people to see, things to get done.

It’s two in the morning and “Danny Boy” is softly playing on the radio….. Just the piano, no singing.

I leave WFMT on most nights of the week in the bedroom. My dad loved this song and waking up to hear it is his way of saying hello.

I’m not bullshiting when I tell you heaven is closer than we think.

Heaven is as close as a melody on the radio. Heaven is as close as a park bench across from Buckingham Fountain. Heaven is as close as a hotdog stand, a bakery, a church pew or a walk along the lakeshore.

Now they are playing “Danny Boy” by an orchestra. The strings getting their part, the brass, then the woodwinds, the strings again and solemnly ending with a flute.

2:22 is shining on the ceiling. I have one of those projection clocks. “Danny Boy” and an Angel number. I’ll shit myself if “Rhapsody in Blue” or anything by Bach plays next…..Music that my parents loved.

When I was a kid my mom would play “The Entertainer” on the piano over and over for me. When Fritz was about ten, he was humming a song.

“Fritz? What song are you humming?”

“I don’t know dad… some song I like!”

He was humming the Scott Joplin song my mom played for me when I was about ten.

Heaven is always near…..

The next song on the radio ended up being an opera song sung by a soprano. No Gershwin or “Ave Maria.”

I should go back to sleep, but the calmness of the wind and the slight cool dampness is relaxing. A cracked window and a transistor radio on my night stand are also pieces of heaven.

It’s going to be a long day. Keep your socks dry and your head covered. Be astonished and keep each other loved….

Morning Drive 3/7/2024

March 7th, 2024

 Let’s change the fucking subject!

There are so many things we can talk about with each other today, but maybe it’s time to take a breather.

I had a subject picked out and a story to tell this morning that was probably a thousand to twelve hundred words long.

I’m going to give it a break.

I will tell you that it was based on a text message that I received from a beautiful friend yesterday.

He told me his mommy passed away earlier in the day.

I’ve been praying my ass off for this kid and his mom for months now. It’s the same kid that was there for me during my own dark days.

It’s the true definition of how we need to be there for each other everyday.

We can’t make it without each other. Love and friendship may bring us together, but it is darkness that shows how bright we can be during our journey.

I can’t wait to see this kid and put my arms around him and help him squeeze out some grief and replace it with relief.

We just got to be there for each other. We need to listen to each other. We need to love each other.

That is all that I’m going to say today.

The quote is from a Sting song. I hope you figure it out and get earwormed all day long.

Get out there and put the smile on Thursday and let’s be there for each other.

March 6th, 2024

    The number down in the grabber section could probably be called the hyphen number. That number represents the amount of days between August 3rd of 1937 and May the 6th in 2016.

8/3/37 - 5/6/16 = 28,766

That is the amount of time my mom struggled with life.

Today I start my sixty day struggle to define how 28,766 touched the world. Sixty days can be really long when you give up all the pleasures that make life Mo Betta. Sixty days can be quick when they are on the tail end of a life.

It was on day 28,706 when Cecilia Shepley called her son to tell him she was sick. It was day 28,707 through 28,766 that painfully gave closure to the relationship between a mother and her only son.

All that is physically left from those 28,766 days can be found in two boxes in the back of my closet.

All that can be found between day 18,207 and day 28,766 can be found in my memories. It was on day 18,207 when I entered Cecilia’s life.

Life looks sterile when you number it into days.

I still have the phone message of my mom’s frail voice asking me to call her back. She sounds scared and in pain. It was probably one of her last struggles to get up the nerve to have that conversation with me.

But we had that conversation and we began the end of her journey together.

Our journey together…

Our journey together…

Our journey together…

It always comes to an end.

Well Chalkheads…. Here we go!

The beginning of “Sixty days of Celebrating Cecilia, 2024.”

28,766 days of life that touched the earth. You can’t rearrange the numbers. They all add up and get packed away.

It’s not a number to mourn, but to celebrate…

Life should always be Kool and the gang.

March 5th, 2024

 The wind chimes hanging in my bedroom window started clamoring just before one o’clock. The wind and steady rain have been the perfect sleeping companion.

One day it’s seventy and the next day it’s forty. Late winter rolling into early spring has always had mood swings, but these last few weeks have been batty.

Today is my last day before I start my annual “Sixty Days of Celebrating Cecilia.” I’ve been doing it every year since 2018.

From March 6th until May 6th….

No booze.

No red meat.

No dessert.

No hotdogs.

No pizza.

No orgasms.

My mom told me she was terminally ill on March 6th, 2016 and she left the building on May 6th, 2016. Other things are involved besides depriving myself of the pleasures of life. Prayer, meditation, cleansing and healing.

A sixty day journey to experience how short the end of life can be. The hardest experience through the years is not having a beer and a hotdog at opening day.

Bundle up and wear your Mack today. Don’t be foolish like the banker. He never wears one in the pouring rain. He’s very strange!

Be patient as we count the days until the next season. It’s Tuesday, make sure to daydream.

March 4th, 2024

 Happy Monday…. Happy birthday Chicago!

March 3rd, 2024

     Many events occur that can change the path of life. The big events usually come to mind when you look back in the past.

A death in the family, a car accident, the first lay, a job promotion, losing a job, marriage, divorce, parenthood or moving out of state.

Just to name a few…

…but what about the little things that happened throughout a lifetime that had a lasting impact?

Sitting on a porch with a grandparent listening to a ballgame on the radio. Going to the White Hen and getting a KayO with your dad. Seeing a Broadway musical downtown with your mom. Playing an impromptu game of hide and seek with the kids in the neighborhood.

Those events happen occasionally and when we think about them… they make us feel good.

Yesterday I planned on going to the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Forest Park. I’ve been doing it almost every year since 1994.

The first year I went with Bobby Franklin. One year I went with Billy Hamilton and his mother was with us. I went to several with my father-in-law, we smoked cigars. I went with my future wife one year and then one year we brought a baby. Then one year we brought a baby and a toddler. Then we brought a baby, a toddler and a big boy. One year I went with my work wife and his family. I’ve gone a bunch of times with my dear friend Trixie. I marched in the parade with a political candidate the week before China Flu shut the world down. I went back the first year after the pandemic with that same politician.

All these little memories flow together and make me feel happy when I reclaim them to thoughts.

Right now, I feel happy after typing that last paragraph.

Yesterday I took Hazel to her all-day dress rehearsal. George went and hung out with my mother-in-law and I was stuck with Fritz…

… or Fritz was stuck with me?!?!

We went to the cleaners, we went to Goodwill, we bought a new toilet brush at the Ace, we went to the grocery and we went to a hotdog stand.

We sat on a picnic bench on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and ate our lunch together. Just a dad and his fourteen-year-old son eating hotdogs and shooting the shit.

I didn’t wear my kilt. I didn’t drink green beer. I didn’t let any Trinity graduates look under my kilt. No soda bread or corned beef. I didn’t cry when the bagpipe band marched past and I didn’t get funky when Proviso East’s band funked out the day.

I made a better memory….

…. I had hotdogs with a kid that won’t always have pimples and is shorter than me. We watched shit do stuff and we quoted lines from “Blues Brothers.”

I’ll never have a chance to do that again with Fritz on March 2nd, 2024. Just like I’ll never go to Zum Deutschen Eck again and have a bowl of goulash with my dad or go to Tin Star Jail and have a pork tenderloin sandwich with my mom.

I’ll have next year when Clare, Margaret, Maureen or Colleen can tie the bow on my blue ribbon.

This year I had hotdogs with ketchup for the last time with my middle son. He turns fifteen soon and will no longer be allowed to have such a gross condiment pollute his hotdog bun.

It’s going to be a warm and windy day today… go do something small that will make you feel good thirty years from now.

It’s also National Anthem Day. Whitney was good, but Marvin at the NBA all-star game will always be the best.

March 2nd, 2024

 You probably recognize today’s quote from yesterday. I have never done this before, but I thought we had some unfinished business. This quote has too much going on not to delve into its intentions.

I look at this quote several ways. The first one is the more obvious interpretation. When someone dies who we love our relationship together has ceased to exist. The life they had consisted of the love that they had for the survivor. When my parents died, I lost two people that loved me.

They left and they took their love with them…

Every day of the year someone dies who gave love and who was loved. It is a tragedy to let someone die without ever being loved. It is a tragedy never to give love. Now we know that the world is full of hate and neglect. As Chalkheads we are the complete opposite.

When we die, we take our love with us to eternity. That is why there is grief left in the wake of our departure. This is the harsh kick in the ass that life gives us. We have a handful of people that love us and when they go, that number dwindles.

The second interpretation falls into the Alfie Lord Tenny theory. “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

There is one single person in this world that once loved me and I her. I firmly believe the loss of living love far outweighs the love lost to death. Now I believe this girl probably still loves me and I her. We are not in love and the hatred of losing love is still bitter. Until we perish the sting of love lost will always leave a foul odor in our lives.

What about our love for each other? Twenty to thirty people will be reading this Chalkboard later today that I deeply love. Hundreds of people will read this Chalkboard that I deeply cherish… that is love as well.

I can love all of you because I’m deeply in love with myself. There is no fucking way you can give love until you know how to be love…. that is only accomplished when you love who YOU are.

….and that is another tragedy in life. When hatred fills a heart and doesn’t allow it to pump love.

Today is Parade Day. I’ve been watching the weather calendar for months hoping for the forecast that we received. Unfortunately, something else crept up on my calendar that will keep me from my annual extravaganza.

I must chauffeur my little Thespian to her all-day Final dress rehearsal west of Mannheim Road. Like I told the first girl I fell in love with when she asked me last night what time I’ll be at the parade tomorrow.

“I need to be a dad for a fifth grader tomorrow, that only happens once. Forest Park will have another parade next year.”

Unless we have another round with China Flu.!.!.!

I need you Chalkheads to go out and smile back at the sun today. I need you to be astonished and I need you to spread love…… Jumbo amounts of love!

Just like Burt Bacharach told us….. “What the world needs now is JumboLove, not just for some, but for everybody.”

March 1st, 2024

 A new month has arrived and meteorological spring starts today.

Go get astonished on this first weekend of March.