The 11th month

Is it just me, or does November seem to be dragging, and dragging, and dragging ...

Maybe because Thanksgiving was so early, but this month just doesn't seem to be ending. That said, I've been recollecting on Novembers past, thinking about three, 25, 20 and 10 years ago. Allow me to reminisce:

-- 1982: This might be the one autumn from grade school I remember the most vividly. I started my first paper route, the Harlem-Foster Times weekly, the day after Election Day, and the paper pulled a Dewey-beats-Truman in declaring Adlai Stevenson Jr. defeated James Thompson for Illinois governor. So the first news I ever delivered was inaccurate. Also, I remember watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and seeing Laura Branigan sing "Gloria" and Paul Williams sing "You and Me Against the World" to a giant Olive Oyl float. Only significant because Wife remembers the same parade moments, meaning at that time, 11 years before we met, we were watching the same thing.

-- 1987: I went on a mildly intense retreat 20 years ago, and it really seems like yesterday. I know I say that about a lot of things, but it so applies here. I also remember Thanksgiving that year watching MTV by my grandparents' house and seeing videos for "True Faith" by New Order, "Is This Love?" by Whitesnake and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle.

-- 1997: Ten years ago Wife and I saw "Rent" in downtown Chicago. Theater in Chicago might not be the same as it is on Broadway or in London, but it's still miles above other cities. We went across the street after the play to the bar of a nicer restaurant to watch the end of the Wisconsin-Michigan game, then met friends out for dinner. Being in downtown Chicago is an experience, more so than downtown Milwaukee or Madison (and way more than Salt Lake City), and for one day, it felt great to be a Chicagoan, even if we were living in Madison.

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