Fiesta on the South Side

I'm not sure what the occasion was but South Park was full of Mexican music and flags as well as a lot of older American cars. These folks above were not in line for Reconciliation—aka Confession— I'm sure.

The food was good but the cars were amazing, all in really nice shape, some for sale. I asked one guy why he was selling his car. He told me he had seven other cars of the same make and model and was running out of space in his garage. With a straight face too.

After closely examining the "rumble seat" in this model A Ford, I'm not sure whether I believe some of the stories my parents used to tell about the things they got up to in these seats.





How do they find parts for cars this old? I wonder if we can talk our friends in other countries into developing a hankering for these older beauties?

As we slowly sink as a country to the second tier of world economies, maybe we can promote antique tourism, as I'm fairly sure that the medical tourism business will be in the toilet in a few years. I'll bet our Chinese friends would love to turn that U.S. paper they have into something tangible.

That beauty above I remember. I graduated from high school in 1957. Lots of ordinary people drove these cars in those days. Maybe they cost around $2000, which seemed like a lot to a high school kid in those days, about what two years in a private college cost. I'm just guessing on these prices.

Trip To Bountiful

Saturday was part of the weekend before the weekend after Thanksgiving. So I thought it would be wise to make a trip to CostCo, not only for necessities like wine and crab legs, but also to wander about just to make sure there wasn't anything else I needed, like one of those big flat screen high definition TVs. I love the way they display them. No wonder even a 3 month old baby almost instinctively turns toward the TV set. Something to lust for or to save for, though we seem to have lost the latter habit.



A lot of other people had this same idea. I had to park on the far side of the Shopko lot. I noticed a lot of people were driving around looking for spaces. The licence plates were from far-away counties in Montana (where the heck is #56 anyway?), and from Wyoming, N Dakota, even one from Ohio! I guess these people had not got the memo that we are in a recession which will soon be deepening.



I enjoy checking out other shopper's baskets just to make sure that I haven't missed anything vital and to get some ideas for the next time I come shopping, because it is hard to see everything that is available, especially when you are standing in line to get a free sample of some really good food. The picture to the right is my idea of part of a well-rounded diet. That is 6#!! of pretzels my friends, all low fat and cholesterol free, wow. This reminds me of the little house in which we lived in Harvey Illinois before my father was drafted during WWII. Behind us, in the alley, was a garage made over into a 3 room little cozy shack in which I first learned about the problems of alcohol excess. The nice people who lived there used to have a very large can of potato chips or pretzels on one side of their chair and an empty one for bottles and cigarette stubs on the other side. I remember their son was anxious to leave high school to join the Navy I think. He had to talk his parents into signing for him because he was less than 18 years. I doubt that he returned. I am somewhat skeptical about this memory as we moved back to Hustisford WI sometime in 1944, so that I am only 4 years old. Hmm.

Billings Has Many Good Restaurants

We were a little too late for Farmer's Market on this lazy Saturday morning, so decided on going to the Soup Place, one of our favorites in Billings. They specialize in soups and toasted cheese sandwiches as well as something more substantial in the evening. I had a sampler of the three soup specials today, along with a toasted cheese and ham sandwich. All of the soups were good, but the best was a chicken cheddar chowder, which was very good.

I saw this collection of windows on the way to lunch. Some of our best architecture is seen in our churches.

A Wet September Morning in Billings MT

I was invited to stop in at the Alberta Bair Theatre Saturday morning for a Billings Symphony rehearsal in preparation for the concert this evening. I listened to some interesting stuff, sounded 20th century, maybe Charles Ives and/or Igor Stravinsky. I will find out tonight when I check the playbill. It's always fun to see how magic works or is put together.


After that I wandered down a wet Broadway, sampling strawberry and rhubarb pie, the latter instantly taking me back to Grandma's house of my childhood; and trying an egg roll, which turned out to be mostly vegetables but still fairly good. I was surprised by some jelly which I scooped up with a cracker, expecting nothing but sweetness: there was some jalapeño in it, enough to make your tongue smart if you were not expecting it.


Though some discouraging words were heard, that did not prevent this gay lady clown from doing her thing underneath the protection of some downtown building overhangs.