In blowing in like a lion. It's not the weather of March. The NCAA Basketball tournaments arrive, distract us and are soon history.

It makes me think of all the underdogs I circled in brackets past. Remember Gonzaga? Couldn't even look it up on Wikipedia in 1999. Somehow we all learned the story.

In 2000, I even put on a red sweatshirt and drove to a tavern across the state line to be a fair-weather Cheesehead. Don't tell anybody though.

 

What are your favorite Cinderella stories of the Final Four? 

Here's a thought after watching the 2010 ball drop:

 

Remember all of the conspiracy-theories and general paranoia that came with the coming of the year 2000? Bomb-shelter builders, dihydrated food and generator sellers made out pretty good. I was most worried about my Windows 98 computer.

 

I also remember that Peter Jennings was on the air for 24 hours straight and that my cousin Phil got a good deal on a generator a couple weeks later.

Your memories?

 

I took my nephew to Nickel World the other day. While he was spending every nickel from my ashtray, trying to collect those coveted tickets, I was checking out the "Free Game Wall".

There it was! The game I spent a lot of my Milk Money on: PACMAN. I still had the touch. I came about 500 from getting the high score, all for free. 1000% cheaper than Aladin's Castle.

 

What were your favorite arcade games and where did you play them?

 

 

It's time to go to the mega-store located in the former computer, electronics or linens superstore and pick out a costume for Halloween. It's a ritual I look forward to every year. Who knows, I might just get invited to a Halloween party this year.

 

My childhood memories included much repressed embarassment about the costumes mom made me. The worst was when she went to Quality House and bought some shag carpet remnants so I could be a Wookie. Sorry, there's no known photograph of me in that get-up.

 

Tell me about your favorite (or least favorite) costume.

My most vivid childhood memory of fall happened while going for a drive in the family Vista Cruiser. It was a day with a temperature in the 80s, so we had the windows rolled down. (Hand cranks, no A/C).

My eyes burned as the smoke from a thousand piles of  smoldering leaves entered the Oldsmobile. The smoke was so thick that Dad nearly missed the ramp to the Whitman Street Bridge. Ahhhh, the freshness of Fall.

 

What are your more pleasant (or not) Fall memories?   

If you're from around here it's just called "Waterfront". It's Illinois largest music festival, and full of great memories since I've been to every year's festivities.

 

Remember when Cheap Trick packed in 10's of thousand at the Rock Stage in The Waterworks parking lot (The lot is smaller now and hosts The Oasis stage).

 My most interesting memory comes from sneaking into Davis Park to watch Steve Miller's souncheck and listening to him yell at the subordinates in his band.

 

What are your memories? How many Pork Chop Sandwiches did you eat in a sitting?

 

Let me know. 

My family spent a lot of summers trekking to Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin. We always camped for what seemed to be two weeks straight with no electricity. We kept our perishables in an old ice box that had to be replenished with what seemed to be an 80-pound block of ice every few days. It was a long walk from the South Shore Store and Snack Bar with those tongs in my hand.

 

When I hit the teenage years, the gang would get a site at Oakey's Orchard on Harlem across from Rock Cut. I can't write about some of the things that happened there, because Mom reads this Blog once in a while. Don't look for it; it's a bunch of houses. 

Do you have some good camping memories?