Bob Koester! not Dave! Well I'm gettin' old(er). Ya know, I have such GOOD memories of that city. Mike Green's old red '37 knuckle head. That I sometimes forget I only lived there from 1963(late) to 1966! Those must have been extremely important years. (Tom ....enheimer by the way, and thanks for remembering!) Yow! Jacqueline Harrison's incredible paintings (I visited with her in 1995). I had forgotten about the Fret Shop and Jim Kweskin! The Southside. Pepper's Lounge, Silvio's on the Westside. Well this is definately creeping thread fer shur. But Chicago, even though I lived there for slightly more than two years had been part of my life ALL my life. I was born and raised in Milwaukee and Chicago is where we went to do stuff. My Grandfather ran both the Morrison and Southmore hotel dining rooms. He was a chef and a Maitre D'. A drinker and a pony-player and had a huge collection of friends of "importance" from EVERY walk of life. My uncle Ted played in many of the clubs there and in Milwaukee. Beiderbeck,"Wild" Bill, Teagarden, all played with him and/or played his music or his arrangements (He wrote "Serenade to a Jerk" and "Overheard in a Women's Washroom", really!) He was a member of Davison's Beau Brumells for a couple of years. Born in 1907 and died last year out in Laguna Niguel, California. My Aunt Catherine "Bunny" Smith, Ted's "kid sister" was a genuine "flapper". She claimed she once went to a party thrown by Frank Nitti AND that she knew Elliot Ness. She was even more of a character than uncle Ted.

As we trade this nostalgia back and forth I find myself longing to see Chicago again. When I get back from Yellowstone this season, I think I'll ride the Indian on up there and hang out for a couple of days. Eat me some Yacht Club pizza should it still exist.

CB