Larry Pitts, a friend I have known since 1957, gave me directions to his home and asked that I call him when I crossed the state line and was about 30 minutes out. I was using my GPS as a map and an estimator of when I would arrive. The ol’ GPS said I was about forty minutes out and I had just crossed the state line so I waited ten minutes and called Larry. I kept watching the highway signs and they were not jiving with Larry’s directions. When I saw the exit for Gary it dawned on me I had made two errors; I was in Indiana, not Illinois, and the GPS was on Central time while Shirley and I were on Eastern time. I called Larry and revised my ETA. He got a good chuckle out of that.
I arrived at Larry and Judy’s house at about 1:30 CDT. I have known Larry since 5th grade at Hayfork Elementary School (which may help explain my lack of geography knowledge. To date, HES has not produced a single Nobel Prize winner.). Larry left in our senior year but will always be a member of Hayfork High School Class of ’65.
Larry showed me around town and then decided to attend the Cubs game with me. He went on-line and tried to get a ticket near my seat. Tickets were available but not near me. He was told we could probably exchange my ticket at the box office, buy another ticket and get two seats together. Sounded good. We took the train from Wheaton to downtown Chicago then took the el to Wrigley. I am very glad Larry was there to act as the FIG (faithful Indian guide) . I would still be wandering the streets of Chi-town. We got to Wrigley Field, did some ticket magic and ended up with two seats directly behind home plate.
I have been doing the “best park so far” thing but the last three parks just don’t fit into a “best park’ mold. Fenway is charming, even though I had a horrible seat. Yankee Stadium is awesome in the classical definition of the word. Wrigley is a park all unto itself. There is no big scoreboard, and there shouldn’t be. If you don’t pay attention you don’t know who is at bat, who is pitching or what the count is. And at Wrigley that is the way it should be. I kept looking around at the park and the fans and felt like time had stood still for a few decades. There were 37,000 happy fans at a Tuesday night game against the Rockies. All 37,000 were there for the love of the game. And, by golly, the Cubbies didn’t disappoint. They came through with 6 runs and beat the stinkin’ Rockies handily.
The seat mate charm reappeared and we sat next to three young men who were Yankee fans but were in Chicago on business and decided to drop in on the “Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.” Steve and Jeremy are from NYC, and Rob is from Jersey. All three were very good baseball fans and seemed to enjoy the game.
After the game we got back to Wheaton at around midnight (CDT) and after a great night’s rest I went for a very nice walk/run on Wheaton’s Prairie Path, which is a decomposed granite pathway through neighborhoods and park settings. Wheaton is a very nice town and Larry and Judy are great hosts. That’s all for now, time to get ready for the Art Institute and the Sox game.
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