I’m somewhat familiar with the area, I looked it up on Google Maps; Apparently, someone in South Elgin changed some of the street names! I had to use my GPS so I got there at the 11 AM buzzer. I couldn’t believe all the people there! The two commemorative trees were a River Birch and a Beech Tree, they were both over 20ft tall located between the Fox River Bike Trail on one side and the Fox River on the other side. They had a representative from the park district to answer all tree questions, like why do trees have leaves? Can I carve my initials on the tree? Can I build a tree fort in the tree? Can I hang my hammock on the trees? Does the park district hang Christmas Lights on the trees during the holidays? The plaques were not ready maybe they didn’t know how to spell Laura.
We shortly adjourned to Laura’s brother’s (Larry) estate, which was about a mile away; there was plenty to eat, beer to drink, and tales to tell. I would estimate the crowd to be around 100 people! 20 from Paramount; many of which I haven’t seen since COVID started. So I got to fill them in on the latest jokes. This “event,” was so much more enjoyable than a conventional depressing funeral, it was “A Celebration Of Life: dress causal and it was hot. Some of the members I talked to included;- Diane & Rob; Nan & Gary; Johnny A; Jim N, Milanne & Dave S; Lori; Nancy C; Pat & Jean; Linda P and Dave; Dan B; Barbara S, and a bunch of members who will feel slighted by me. They posted photos of Laura’s life. Unfortunately, we’re all getting older; there’s only one thing worse than getting old and that’s not getting old. We no longer throw ice down each other backs (we’ve grown so sophisticated) however Johnny was pretty good at splashing me with ice water., which did cool me off somewhat. It’s always entertaining to shake up a few beers real good and see what happens when an unsuspected victim opens one of them, a great beer gag that never gets old.
Eventually, it started raining, which wasn’t a problem because we were all seated underneath a huge covered roof picnic area. We also posted notes to Laura on a Miniature Viking ship that was ceremoniously burned in a nearby pond in true Nordic fashion. Unfortunately, the Viking ship floundered and flipped over before completely burning up, but the thought was nice. Anything to do with fire excites us guys. Plus it reminded me of Johnny’s boat because it was hull side up. Johnny told me he stopped his yacht from flipping over by keeping 20 cases of beer in the hold.
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