Rockford (2)

So that was Saturday night, taken up with catching up until 2 a.m. (staying up til 2 a.m. is an easy feat in Madrid, but this was the first time I managed to do that here in the U.S.). We got up Sunday morning for a fantastic brunch buffet at Cliffbreakers, with everything from roast turkey to canteloupe, all kinds of eggs (Florentine, Benedict, scrambled, fried, poached...), and a hot fudge fountain with strawberries and marshmallows for dipping. Of course, we needed a lot of time to go back for food and to talk, and we needed a lot of food as we invested a lot of energy in talk...in our own private room, so plenty of time, space and energy to catch up with Patte, Carla (and her daughter Alyse), Linda (and her sister Sue), Beth Purfeerst (Paul-Petersen), Cathy, and Colleen. Of course, my Mom and Diana were there...the story of the cuff of my pants catching on fire in Ruby (Patte's red push-button transmission car that Carla and Joe Kelly drove into a ditch...but, of course, that was after the pants incident) and everyone throwing me into a snow bank to stomp out the fire surprised my mother (who insists she always thought I was so quiet and so good) and has given Diana a story (among others) to tell her Dad and her sister...I'll never hear the end of it!

It was hard to end that fabulous brunch ...but I do have promises from some of the gang that a St. Louis road trip is in the offing...

While Colleen and Nicky Joy attended another brunch for Colleen's Dad's 89th birthday, Mom, Diana and I drove around Rockford. We drove past Boylan, my high school, and down past 3627 Huffman, the red brick rach home where I grew up, and currently adorned with 5 or 6 huge plastic Halloween figures in the front yard. Our house is on a hill, which seemed so long and steep when I was growing up, and now seems like a short stretch with a slight incline. We drove around and visited other spots...including 2339 Harlem, my grandparents' house when I was growing up, and then my parents moved in just as I was moving out to Spain. It is the house Elisa & Diana grew up visiting every summer, and they (and their cousins) have great memories of times spent there. The house is up for sale...so the whole family since has taken a virtual tour on the real estate agent's website, with talk, especially amongst the kids, and Luis - who loves that house! - of why not buying it? Sigh. It does have its attraction. Rockford was the place where a lot went into my becoming who I am, and I had a lot of fun going back for a visit. One of the funnest parts was sharing it all with Diana, who patiently put up with the road trip, the reminiscing, the stories, the introductions to old friends...not only patiently, she genuinely seemed to enjoy it. One of my favorite pics from the trip:

Sunday evening, the road trippers all piled back into Colleen's van, and headed down to Springfield. Mike Doran had us over to his house for pizza, and more reminiscing (he conveniently had a yearbook from 1975 so we could look up all those people whose names had been woven into conversations, yet whose faces didn't always come clear). Monday morning, Colleen and Nicky Joy dropped us off at the train station (thanks, Colleen & Nicky Joy, for the great company, the great ride...and the pics!) in downtown Springfield where we parked our suitcases while we went off to visit the Lincoln Musem. That was quite interesting (I especially liked the 1860 presidential campaign TV coverage and the Mary Todd Lincoln special exhibit)...although the "God Bless America" motif grates after a while.

We then had an uneventful train ride back to a rainy St. Louis...though these last couple of days have been absolutely exquisite - brisk fall days, and, yes, the trees ARE turning nicely, thank you (though that does mean that I have to sweep bunches of leaves off my car in the morning!). I even saw a flock of ducks flying overhead when I was leaving the park yesterday morning.

Tomorrow's Halloween...I haven't been here for Halloween since 1978...I am looking forward to giving candy out to the trick or treaters...

Home to....Rockford (1)

For all of you who don't know, Rockford, Illinois is where I spent the first 18 years of my life - rather important years. Rockford gets lots of bad press... I still remember one of my students in the Linguistics class of Spring 07 who, when I mentioned in class my origins, told the story of Hulk Hogan stating that Rockford was the second best city in the U.S., all other cities coming first. And apparently, on various lists ranking cities in the U.S. for quality of life, Rockford has been known to come in last or near last. Frankly, I trust Hulk Hogan and those kinds of lists people put together for whatever reason they have about as much as I trust politicians, certain administrators, and students who don't do their homework and can't own up to it. I think Rockford's great, and we had a great weekend there October 19-21.

The occasion was Sue Deery (Trixie)'s 50th birthday bash. Mom had come to St. Louis, and high school chum (and partner in bikeriding around Rockford, crime, and carkissing) Colleen Brophy (now Karstens, but aka Broph and/or Shirley) and her 10-year-old daughter, Nicky Joy, swung into St. Louis on Friday afternoon in their van to pick Mom, me and Diana up, and thus started our road trip across the Mississippi and northwards through Illinois.

The trip up was uneventful in terms of scenery, just as well, as Colleen and I jabbered away in an attempt to catch up on a good 20 years of our lives. When we arrived to the outskirts of Rockford, Mom, Colleen and I were all taken by that odd feeling of "this is SO familiar, then why is it SO different?" Cherry Vale used to be a mall on the southwest edge of Rockford, out in the country all by itself, and now it is surrounded by businesses, new streets, housing developments, cars everywhere. Progress!

I was delighted, though, when we arrived at our destination - the Comfort Suites hotel connected to Cliffbreakers, right on the Rock River, on Riverside Blvd., a mere mile away from the house I grew up in on 3627 Huffman Blvd., and right next to North Towne...a strip mall where I spent a good amount of time during my teen years, and where I held my first jobs at the age of 16, first at Key Rexall Drugs and then at Noble Shoe Store. OK, so the memory synapses were in overdrive...as they were all weekend!

After we got something to eat, Colleen and I took off for Finnegan's Cottage, a bar owned by old highschool mate John Waugh. I swear I don't remember him every being that talkative (or maybe I was so shy around the opposite sex in high school that I thought everyone else was!). We had a great time catching up, and John can tell some pretty funny stories!

We woke up to a beautiful morning on Saturday, and I got a couple of walks (one with Mom and one with Colleen) on the bike path which runs along the Rock River. It is a spectacular walk, especially at this time of year, with all of the trees turning to bright yellow and burnt orange, yet still a lot of green about. Mom was having a leisurely lunch with her bridge club at Cliffbreakers (coincidentally). So Colleen and I tooled about the town with our daughters in tow, reliving more of our past lives, getting ready for the big event that evening...Trixie's 50th.

Diana, Colleen and I giggled as we were arriving to the bash about the jumping around and "oh my god"s that were bound to take place, although...NOT US...never in that overexcited valley girl style...which, I would say, characterizes fairly well what DID happen when we saw wonderful people like...Trixie (that's Colleen, Trixie & me in the photo)

And ...with me in this photo Patte Armato (Lund) (who brilliantly provided the music for the evening) and Linda Marchese (Schuler)

and more of the very cool people I went to school with, and who I had a great time catching up with (and once again partying with...).

Missing from these pictures are other good friends, like Carla Saieva and Cathy Conti...who will feature in Part 2 of this exciting Rockford series...

Pictures!

Finally, Diana and I went out and bought a card reader so that we can download the pictures off of the camera. I thought I'd catch you up a bit on that, while I wait for the photos to come from friends from the trip to Rockford (and what a trip that was!! more soon...)

Remember our trek up to Compton Towers? Well...here are a few pics from that, which will give you an idea of St. Louis.

They say that the views from Compton Tower are better than from the arch. At least there is a great view all the way downtown of the arch.

I never realized how many trees St. Louis had until I tried to take a picture of the house we're living in from the Tower, and I couldn't see it because of the trees! The church you see is just a couple of blocks over from where we live, and just a few blocks beyond that is Tower Grove Park.

Someone asked what kind of car I was driving while I was here...it's a Chevy Cobalt, bright red. Diana laughs at me because I'm always trying to make sure I park it perfectly aligned with the curb. Usually I end up jolting up onto the curb, or parking about a foot away. People here are surprised, as they think that in Europe we get much practice with parallel parking...bit difficult on the metro or the busses!

Just beyond where our car is parked is a neighborhood called Compton Heights. This week, during Shirley's visit, it's one of the neighborhoods of St. Louis that we drove around. The houses are incredible...some mansions, some simply large. The area was laid out in 1880, and the homes are of various styles (after looking up exactly what styles, I came up with Tudor, Italianate, Quasi-Richardson, Chateauesque, Romanesque, and Georgian).

Other notable areas we explored were the Lindell mansions, also built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, across the street from Forest Park, and in the Central West End. Scattered around that area are some lovely apartment buildings as well, and some great cafes and restaurants (we tried Duffs, on Euclid and McPhereson, and the food is very good...can't resist the white chocolate cheesecake!).

We also visited the Loop, in University City, named after a spot on Delmar where a streetcar looped around. This stretch of Delmar has been deemed one of the 10 best streets in the U.S. by the American Planning Association, and it also has some noteworthy restaurants (we've loved the spinach-artichoke dip at Cicero's), shops, and generally a pleasant laid back feel, as it combines apartments, businesses, restaurants and bars in an interesting cultural milieu.

Before we went to Rockford, we also got in a visit to the Samuel Cupples house, built by a St. Louis entrepreneur finished in 1890 on what is now the Saint Louis University campus. You can actually see photographs of the house at the time it was finished at http://www.slu.edu/the_arts/cupples/vintage.html, as, apparently, these rich folks liked to show off their wealth for all to see, so the photographs would have been made available publicly. Now the house has been restored and furnished with furniture from the period. It is St. Louis' most prominent Romanesque Revival home, and the ornate detail (different in every room) is impressive, along with the glimpses of genteel Victorian life in St. Louis.

So much to see and do! Shirley was reluctant to leave St. Louis...but now I DO have time to catch up with things like this blog!

Fall IS here!

I had hoped to put up some pictures today, as a friend of Diana’s lent us a cable to connect the camera to the computer…but the cable doesn’t fit (Sony cable, Kodak camera), so we’ll have to keep doing this blind.

Fall IS here, finally. I’ve packed up my summer clothes for Luis to take back to Madrid after his visit here in November. Someone said that packing up may have been a bit premature, and Sunday the temperature did get up to 27 or so. But still, not the kind of weather that you need shorts and sleeveless tops, so those are staying packed up. This afternoon/evening it has been raining, raining, raining – kind of dismal, really, but necessary as it has been very dry.

I guess the dry weather during this year means we won’t be in for a spectacular fall in terms of the colors of the trees. I was worried that it was going to be like in Madrid – the leaves just kind of go brown and fall off the trees. Today on campus, however, I did see a few trees brushed with orange, and in the park this morning there was a promise of maybe some color changes coming up. Tower Grove Park really can be spectacular in the morning sunlight. One of the pathways has a bend in it that allows for a view of a grove of large old oak trees, nicely spaced to let the sunlight filter in. That always makes me feel fairly mellow, that is until this morning a hawk swooped down and almost got a squirrel.

I now have a companion on my walks. Mary Sue has a dog, Polly, (of uncertain breed(s)), who loves to go for walks in the park. She pulls me along and gets me trotting, only to stop abruptly to leave her mark after sniffing to see if it’s in the right place. She also went after a couple of squirrels today, but they seem especially energetic at this time of year, I suppose getting ready for the winter. I wonder if she is any protection against a hawk (although she IS on the smallish side...).

Not a lot going on during this past week, as I was busy catching up after the trip to Oregon and the stomach flu. However, last Friday I was tipped off by a grad student that there is an art exhibit on campus, in a building called Boileau Hall, featuring the works of 9 SLU faculty members, plus other artists. Boileau Hall is a small building, located on the edge of campus, and I probably would never have noticed it or known that it housed an art exhibit if the student hadn’t mentioned it. It was quite a treat for a Friday afternoon. I was particularly taken by some paintings by Tony Chimento, of “simple” things like everyday rooms painted in bold and vibrant colors with many sharply defined details strewn about, and these incredible canvases depicting paintings of glassworks by Charles Lotton, also bold in their pinks and yellows, and very swirly and pleasing to the eye. Much more soothing were the photographs by Sharon Pollack, of “little” serene moments, like an elegant wrought-iron stair rail in sepia. As far as I can figure out, she is the only faculty member of the three I just mentioned…so I’m not sure what the connection is with the others, or how their work got to the walls of Boileau Hall.

Unless there is some connection with the Saint Louis University Museum of Art, which I haven’t been in to see yet, nor the St. Louis Art Museum. Well, Shirley arrives tomorrow for a 10-day visit, so museum visits are on the agenda (along with a visit to the Samuel Cupples house – a historic mansion which is located on the campus as well). We have a road trip to Rockford next weekend, so that will also keep us busy. A high school friend of mine, Colleen, will roll into St. Louis with her 10-year-old daughter and their mini-van next Friday to pick me, Shirley and Diana up. Then we head up to Rockford (Diana, for some reason, is rolling her eyes at this road trip!)…one highlight of that trip is another friend, Sue Deery’s, 50th birthday bash. That’s Deery of Rockford Speedway fame, so, yes, the birthday bash is taking place there, complete with race car rides. On the way back from Rockford, Shirley, Diana and I will be dropped off in Springfield, Illinois, where we plan to catch the Lincoln Library. Looking like an interesting time ahead...though I'm half a mind to skip the Library and come straight back to St. Louis...Dylan is playing here on the 22nd, with Elvis Costello and Amos Lee. Sigh...Diana is taking two history courses on Lincoln, so I suppose I'll do the "right" thing. I WON'T miss Neil Young on November 18th, however!

….Hello Agan, Summer!

Yes, it’s October, and temperatures here in St. Louis are still in the high 80s low 90s (so 32 degrees C predicted for today). It’s still hot and sticky.

It's been a while, but I haven’t fallen off the edge…though almost! Last weekend I was in Oregon, visiting my friend from childhood, Lisa. She moved out there a few years ago, to a position at Oregon State in Corvallis. She bought a house about an hour away, in a town called Newport, right on the coast. Thursday night, she picked me up in Portland, and we spent the night there (Lisa has recently moved to Portland, as she has taken a new job). On Friday we got up and drove off to Corvallis. I kept saying how beautiful it all was – so green, so hilly, and so many trees! She kept saying, “Just wait!” And she was right. When we got to Corvallis we turned onto Highway 20 and headed to its western terminus on the coast at Newport…and what a drive!! Huge Douglas firs blanket the hills and peaks, except the scarce but sudden and very bare patches which have been recently logged, covered by stumps and branches (though, apparently, logging is very controlled). Still, I was amazed by the amount of trees. And then we arrived to the Pacific Ocean! Newport is a beach town, and Lisa’s house is - still is, though she is selling it as she’s moving to Portland :( - such a cool beach house…craftsman style, with dark green paint and red trim (see photo), with hardwood floors inside. Downstairs is mainly one big room (combined living dining and kitchen – though the kitchen has this cool slate floor) with lots of windows and so lots of light. From my bedroom window upstairs, I could see the ocean, off just a couple of short blocks away. We drove down to the bay, and had some delicious crab cakes next to the harbor. Then we drove along the coastal highway, exploring some of the towns, like Depoe Bay and Lincoln Beach. We managed to get some shopping in along the way as well (including the outlet mall in Lincoln Beach), along with stops for some beautiful views, with cliffs and sandy beaches and waves piling in off in one direction, and the ocean stretching away to the semi-circle of the horizon in the other.

We slept at Lisa’s beach house that night, and the next morning, went for a long walk on the beach. We drove back to Portland that afternoon (ok, with more stops for shopping along the way), and Saturday night went out in downtown Portland.

I really like Portland – it’s a city with a live and vibrant city center. People actually live there, so when we went out on Saturday evening, there were people out and about “keeping Portland weird”, which is their goal of having local businesses and residences in the center. We went to a huge book store called Powell’s, open until 11 every night, and which takes up a whole city block. It’s got new and used books, all sorted out into “color” rooms – e.g. the Red Room for philosophy, self-help and linguistics, the Purple Room for sociology, Rose Room for health. Then we went out for dinner at some time after 10 (yes, actually Spanish dinner time is quite do-able in Portland - quite a civilized place, in my view).

We were lucky with the weather for most of the weekend – very fall coolish weather temperature-wise, and not much rain, and even some sunshine. However, Sunday it rained all day! Still, we had a great brunch in downtown Portland – I actually had fried chicken on top of a waffle (with maple syrup on both) – believe me, it was a lot more delicious than it sounds!! We drove around Portland, and I got a feel for the scope of Forest Park, the largest woods in an urban area in the U.S., and also drove around Lake Oswego, just south of Portland, where Lisa hopes to buy a home (fingers crossed!). With a bit more shopping, a nice meal in a French-style restaurant, and a lot more of something we did a LOT OF all weekend – TALK – Lisa & I finished off my unforgettable visit to Oregon. I left the next morning (Monday)…

...after flying all day, back to St. Louis…to the heat! I think my system was shocked a bit by the weather change, the change of scenery, the change of time…I came down with a horrible case of stomach flu on Wednesday…still trying to get over it.

This morning, Diana and I did manage to climb up the 198 stairs in the Compton Water Tower, just 2 blocks up the road from us here in St. Louis. It only opens the first Saturday of each month, so we took advantage of the height of the tower to get some fabulous views of St. Louis. We took pictures (Diana FINALLY got her camera back from a friend who had been safeguarding it) but…of course the cable to connect the camera to the computer is back in Madrid, so we’ll have to wait for those pictures another day…maybe it will be cooler then.