More Memories

It is pouring down rain today, which causes me to push my errands back until the rain stops. As a result, I have more time to reminisce about Thanksgivings of yore. Since we stuffed ourselves full of turkey, the natural thing to do the day after is go out and walk around. It seems everyone in the country shares that desire and thus we have the busiest shopping day of the year. Some years we would just go to Oak Brook center, which is less than a mile from Grandma's house. It is an outdoor mall that has every shop you could ever want or need. My favorite place as a kid was, of course, the candy store. I think it was called The Confectionary. My favorite thing to get was a plastic bear filled with candy. I don't even know what kind. Other years, we would brave downtown and hit The Water Tower. The Water Tower is a multi-level shopping experience. Parking was hard to find, and the place was crowded beyond belief. We used to joke that if we picked up our feet while in the crowd, we would continue to move. My brothers always wanted to visit the fan stores, being the biggest Bears and Cubs fans this side of the Mississippi. I don't know that I had a place I always wanted to go. I was just along for the ride. (I'm sure someone remembers differently. Feel free to comment!) That night, we would have dinner at Carson's. It was, as their slogan says, The Place For Ribs. In all my years of eating there, I think I only ordered ribs once or twice. I always had chicken and a gold brick sundae for dessert. I remember several years (which for me morph into "always"), my uncle would order a salad, the idea being he was on a diet. Carson's didn't have an ordinary salad, though. They had what they called a "garbage" salad. If you could think it, it was in that salad. They probably threw in a couple of ribs for good measure. The lobby of the restaraunt had an old PacMan game. We never put quarters in to play, but we always fought over who got to sit there. One year my aunt, who is so funny, went into the restroom while my sister was in there, disguised her voice, and asked "Is there a Mary Ellen in here?" This little voice answered tentatively, "Yes." We laughed and laughed over that one. Although, if it had been me in that stall, I may not have answered, I would have been so freaked out that someone who didn't sound like a relation, knew my name.