My wife grew up in a small farming town in Northwest Illinois. She attended a small catholic grade school and went to the public high school in that small town. She has kept in touch with a group of girls who went to Kindergarten through high school together. Most are Irish Catholic while she had a mix of Polish, Lithuanian, and Belgium Catholic. When she was growing up her dad who was this tall athletic blonde haired blue eyed drinker had been brought to America from Lithuania when he was four years old. He was a milk truck driver and later owned his own butcher shop in the town called St. Charles where Bob would come up to the flea market and sell his Juke boxes to wealthy folks who worked in Chicago. Her dad had a cottage on the fox river where at five years of age she would go unsupervised onto the river in a row boat. She became a river rat as a little girl and today at 64 is married to a river rat. Her father was friends with the original Tarzan, and he would come and visit him as the whole town would watch the two of them get drunk and jump off the huge train tressle at St. Charles which crossed the fox river.....insane. So about 1950 this butcher sold his shop and bought a tavern in the small town my wife was raised.
It was an old hotel which Abe Lincoln had stayed in and was across from the historic railroad station. They lived upstairs in the hotel section of the building which was no longer a hotel and operated the bar. Her mother would cook fried chicken on weekends and farmers from all around the area would eat and drink in their establishment. Her father was quite the magnetic personality, but his drinking continued to become more of a problem, and the nuns were disapproving of the bar business and told my wife she was going to hell. Well those little girls who grew up with her......about 12 of them show up when they have a full breakfast club, are coming over this Thursday. They are bonded for life and like her father my wife is the glue which seems to bond these people together. Her sense of humor and down to earth approach to life anchor this group, but they revert back to little girls when they get together.
There was not much diversity in rural NW Illinois. The Irish and Germans migrated in the 1850s and farmed the land. The most diverse member of their breakfast club was the town dentist's daughter who was Jewish and was loved by the entire town as there were no blacks or hispanics in her school. They all went on to careers from janitors, teachers, bank executives, librarians, and business women, but most stayed home on the family farm and farmed and raised their families. The farm families struggled when she was a little girl, but today with a global market they all enjoy multi six figure incomes. Yet, when these ladies get together for their breakfast club they are these sixth grade girls giggling and having fun as they deal with the loss of spouses. The sad reality is out of the 12 about four have already lost their spouses as the reality of men dying earlier than women sets in, they always have the companionship of their breakfast club. Now dollars to doughnuts you will find me nowhere near the house Thursday because they insist to come bother me in my lazy boy as they want to peak at the dying guy......and then whisper to my wife......he still looks so good. I am so happy for my wife. In this increasingly mobile society, these 12 girls have captured a time long passed when small town folks spent a life time together and did not need a therapist or anti depressants but found sanity in friendships.
It was an old hotel which Abe Lincoln had stayed in and was across from the historic railroad station. They lived upstairs in the hotel section of the building which was no longer a hotel and operated the bar. Her mother would cook fried chicken on weekends and farmers from all around the area would eat and drink in their establishment. Her father was quite the magnetic personality, but his drinking continued to become more of a problem, and the nuns were disapproving of the bar business and told my wife she was going to hell. Well those little girls who grew up with her......about 12 of them show up when they have a full breakfast club, are coming over this Thursday. They are bonded for life and like her father my wife is the glue which seems to bond these people together. Her sense of humor and down to earth approach to life anchor this group, but they revert back to little girls when they get together.
There was not much diversity in rural NW Illinois. The Irish and Germans migrated in the 1850s and farmed the land. The most diverse member of their breakfast club was the town dentist's daughter who was Jewish and was loved by the entire town as there were no blacks or hispanics in her school. They all went on to careers from janitors, teachers, bank executives, librarians, and business women, but most stayed home on the family farm and farmed and raised their families. The farm families struggled when she was a little girl, but today with a global market they all enjoy multi six figure incomes. Yet, when these ladies get together for their breakfast club they are these sixth grade girls giggling and having fun as they deal with the loss of spouses. The sad reality is out of the 12 about four have already lost their spouses as the reality of men dying earlier than women sets in, they always have the companionship of their breakfast club. Now dollars to doughnuts you will find me nowhere near the house Thursday because they insist to come bother me in my lazy boy as they want to peak at the dying guy......and then whisper to my wife......he still looks so good. I am so happy for my wife. In this increasingly mobile society, these 12 girls have captured a time long passed when small town folks spent a life time together and did not need a therapist or anti depressants but found sanity in friendships.