Lads in the Land of Lincoln

 Lads in the Land of Lincoln



                          beautiful Utica


      The caveat here is that I was not privy to the stories here but only heard tell of  them from Greg after one of the great American Road Trips with Cousin Kent. It has been discussed how the young men set out to "all come to look for America" as Simon and Garfunkel sang on a tape playing in the Datsun rolling east. On this journey the fellas were going to visit Utica Illinois were one of the long line of Patrick Sheehys laid an American foundation for these Irish peasants as Greg called his ancestors. As was also the custom Lysergic acid diethylamide was ingested and when the young men arrived in the ancestral land the drug or the residents gave a distinct impression of inbreeding in this rather unremarkable town now known as "the gateway to Starved Rock State Park." As both Greg and Kevin described the unsightly inhabitants as a race of horseheads. Maybe it was just plain midwestern canal dwellers seen through psychedelicized eyeballs. Utica is about one hundred miles southwest of the city of Big Shoulders and big buttoxes called Chicago. The young gents were going to visit a sophisticated couple who were friends of Maureen and admired by Greg to the point he practically reproduced his visit to their apartment word for word. Both Cathy and Walter Clemens were successful attorneys and Greg marvelled at the fact that when Walter returned from the office he would retire to his bedroom, wash  and shave his face, change his shirt and tie and come to dinner thus refreshed and ready for cocktails. I believe a good part of the foundation of "Manspeak" discussed earlier comes from the crisp eloquence of Walter. "Gregory! It is not going to rain!" was something Greg said often for no reason whatsoever but that it tickled him to speak like Walter.



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