Item from the Past: January 2002

A holiday's a holiday, even though I will be doing for-pay work on MLK Day, because I must. But I will skip blogging tomorrow.

Last weekend it touched 60° F for a brief moment. We drove out into the exurbs, just beyond the pale of metro Chicago (which is, however, extending its pale ever westward), to a spot called Silver Spring State Park on the map, but known as Silver Spring Fish & Wildlife Area according to the signs on site.

But I would call it a park, in that we saw no wildlife except birds, and only a handful of fishing enthusiasts. But there were park benches, very new playground equipment, muddy walking trails and a view of the Fox River. Heck, there was even a large family barbecuing their lunch to the sounds of Spanish-language radio coming from their van. I could have closed my eyes and imagined I was in Breckenridge Park [in San Antonio]. We had our own lunch at a picnic table, kicked a ball around, and let Lilly wear herself out on the playground equipment.

The evening before Yuriko and I had a night out without Lilly, who was in the care of my co-worker Christina, who actually volunteered for the job, and did so well at it that Lilly didn’t want to leave her apartment when we came to get her. She had building blocks, paint for her nails, paper and crayons, all sorts of fun things.

In the meantime, we went to the Old Town School of Folk Music, a Chicago institution, to see Weavermania!, a fine show if you have any recollect or fondness for the original Weavers. Don’t ask how I developed this fondness, but it began with an old Pete Seeger album I bought in Nashville long ago, in the days before CDs. The four Weavermania musicians do their best — and it is very good — to recreate the music and stage presence of the originals.