On the 9th anniversary of Rip’s passing, Cherry and I went to Forest Park Lawndale cemetery. I flagged down a passing maintenance guy and had him clean all of the ant beds from around Dad’s WWII plaque. Really nice guy and he did an good job of getting rid of the ants.
Then we walked around the Garden of Gethsemane Catholic section for an hour or so remembering so many of the surnames that were on the stones. On the way home we took a reminiscing tour of the North side. After almost getting run over by a big red traveling billboard of a van with a Polish eagle on the side and a driver that I know well, we stopped at one of our old customers, Triple A Restaurant on Airline, for some delicious chicken and dumplings.
After lunch we went next door and took a walk through the back of the farmers market to Flores Spices where we used to buy bulk spices in our old jerky and summer sausage selling days. We then drove down Robbie Street where my mothers family lived, then over to the corner of Omar and Norhill where I spent the first 2 years of my life. We finished the afternoon with a couple of ice cold Budweiser’s (a tribute to Dad) and a nice conversation with Rose at the famous Rose Garden on Link Rd. Nice day churning up old memories but I’m still feeling a little sad.
