I was sick last weekend. I probably had H1N1. I slept a lot, about 17 hours over Friday afternoon and night and more early this week. The rest has made me feel unlike myself. My senses prickled yesterday and today for minutes at some fresh, new feeling that was old at the same time. I felt like a younger person jogging under a bright sun. Is it really the rest? Could it be the spirit of the holidays?
I want to put some sort of reason behind these fleeting bright flashes. Sleep.
Seeing old friends over Thanksgiving was important to me. Libertyville has only three bars, and they all thrive on the same downtown block. Every Wednesday before Thanksgiving, all three fill to the twinkle light windowsills with Libertyville High School alumni of different ages and generations. Walking into any of them is like watching one of those old films that you could only see in a wooden box through a viewing window after turning a crank. Of course, I have never done that. But seeing his face and her face is almost like watching your life flash before your eyes.
I saw one girl whose name I could not remember. I felt detached enough from the reality of her presence to point at her with an outstretched arm.
"Don't do that," my friend said, snuffing out the finger.
"Is that . . . who is that?" I asked. This particular girl was not even a friend of friends in my high school days, but seeing her was sort of refreshing. We both had nowhere else to be on the eve of Thanksgiving. It made me so happy. Libertyville felt like home again for the first time in years.
Island Tap, Libertyville. Growing up in Libertyville in the 1960's and 1970's I was afraid of the Island Tap. I avoided it because I imagined that some sort of grizzled beasts pushed by a drunken haze would step out and force me into the back seat of a car from Mundelein. On my adult trips back to Libertyville, I have taken to drinking at the Island Tap. No grizzled beasts are currently found. They might be upstairs at Mickey Finns. Dave LHS 1975
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