Fox’s Midwest “You can go home agin” Reunion Recap

Late October, 2008

It’s been over a month since our reunion. Been meaning to write down a recap but haven’t had a chance till now. Considering how fuzzy everything was during the reunion, and that it was over a month ago, I can’t be held accountable for any of the details in this story. Also, I’m writing this from my point of view – my memories, thoughts, feelings will be interspersed. For example, I’m liable to go on and on about my golf game, babertizing it. So this might make for fairly boring reading. Oh, and another thing, as I am writing this I jumped back and forth between present tense and past tense. Sorry.

I’ve embedded some photos here but don’t forget that there are more photos in the gallery.

Wednesday night I slept at a hotel near the Philly airport since I had such an early flight. This was a mistake, since I only got a few good hours of sleep. Lack of sleep would be a theme for the weekend.

Thursday – Miracle Day

Great day! And it has the most photos. Flight was nice enough. Met up with Andy and Albert at the airport easily, in fact all of our golf bags came out in the same little corner of the baggage claims area. Gabes picked us up and we were off and running. Traffic was heavy but Gabes worked through it, avoiding some major backups. He’s a smart bleeper. Stop at our hotel where I present Gabes with his fantastic trophy for winning last year’s football prediction contest. Gabes sheepishly accepted the expensive Notre Dame football history book – I’m fairly sure he didn’t know what to make of it at first, which made the whole thing worth the $5 I spent on the book at a Five-Below store the previous day.

Hop in Hans’ car and we head to Wrigley. We park near his son’s apartment and have an interesting walk to the ballpark, through the neighborhood and then out onto the “main” streets of Wrigleyville. There are drinking establishments all over the place. This is where things start to get fuzzy. I’m not sure what bars we went to before the game, after the game and before dinner, and after dinner. Here are some things I do remember about the bars that day:

• When we first got to Wrigleyville we all met at a bar on Clark Street and had a snack and some drinks.
• I think it was just after that when Andy wandered off “just to check it out” Merkle’s. Several minutes later I volunteered to retrieve him, knowing full well we would have a beer in the place. We did, Andy entertained me with the story of Bonehead Merkle, and soon about half the guys joined us while the other half went to the park, I think. We had at least two rounds at Merkle’s.
• Somebody bought me a beer or two in the park. Thanks!
• At some point I went in the Risque Café and Brewery and had a beer. Don’t know if anyone was with me or not. I think maybe Mags? Whoever was with me I want to thank them now for the mesmerizing conversation we had. It was unforgettable.
• I think it was after dinner that Jack ended up as a doorman at some bar. This was the same bar where the drunken blonde was acting very friendly with some of our group, and we met the guys from Ireland (?) who were heading to the Ryder Cup.
• I left “early”, with Hans and Albert I think, back to the hotel. Albert was already snoring loudly when Gabes showed up a little bit later to sleep on his cot. He had lost the rest of the boys. He said they ditched him! Turns out that while he was in the men’s room they had moved to a different part of the blues bar they were in so they could hear the music better – and Gabes thought they’d left. Gabes - ND Class of ’74. ND just doesn’t get people like Gabes anymore.
• Gabes decided to make Al’s snoring concert a duo and an hour later, just as I finally managed to fall asleep, someone (Andy?) POUNDS on the door and scares the living crap out of me ... the boys had left their luggage in our room and had to retrieve it … after that I slept great, for about an hour or so.
• Here are photos of Risque and Merkles. What were the other establishment names?

The ballgame itself was great. As were the seats. At one point I took a long walk around the park, soaking in the atmosphere and taking lots of pictures. Here’s one taken from the second or third level, looking down on our group:

Here’s a closer view (this is not the same photo you morons):

And here’s one of Jeff Samardzija pitching. He pitched well:

The Cubs won the game despite being 4 runs down with 2 outs and nobody on in the ninth! Incredible. But the most amazing play was Mags leapping gracefully into the air to snag a high foul pop that was heading right for us in about the 5^th inning .. Well, ok, he tried to duck outta the way, let it land, and then sprawled onto his knees to grab the ball - but grab it he did. And then, to wide acclaim, he proceeded to make life good for a little boy sitting behind us:

After the game we hit some more bars and eventually made our way back to Brian and Kevin’s apartment where we feasted on grilled steak. It was very cool how the young men and women made us feel so welcome and at home. Of course, after dinner, out to some more bars, as already described above.

Friday – You Can Go Home Again

We say goodbye to Gabes and are all ready to hit the road – until we learn that Prep’s car is dead. But after an emergency jump Prep drives Mags, Al, and I down to South Bend on a bad battery. The second half of the trip was spent listening to Al’s business call. Pretty funny/entertaining stuff actually. Al bounced among being persuasive Al, ticked off tough guy Al, humorous Al, thoughtful Al, and back again.

We drive straight to BlackThorn. As everyone else is warming up I’m fielding a phone call from my son Tom, a freshman at college. After a 15 minute chat I say I have to go and he says, honest to god, “Oh, just one more thing dad, can you explain that derivative thing to me quick cause I have a calculus test Monday”.

The scores at Blackthorn, in my foursome, are

· Hans 41 – 41 = 82

· Jack 44 – 44 = 88

· Fox 47 – 52 = 99

· Mags 63 – 58 = 121

I essentially play bogey golf the first eight holes, and double bogey golf the last 10. This pattern continued the rest of the weekend. Why? Maybe not enough stamina from too much drinking and not enough sleeping? Maybe too outta shape? Maybe I lose concentration as I start to ponder the deep mysteries of the universe? Maybe I’m just a lousy golfer?

After the round we check into our hotel. The Waterford Estates, just north of the turnpike on Michigan Avenue. Prep and I spend about 30 minutes wandering around trying to locate the hotel rooms with the correct numbers. We are also ND grads and they won’t see the likes of us again either.

Showers and a quick beer or two in out large common suite, then head out to Rocco’s for dinner. There we meet Jack’s daughter Amy and a bunch of her friends. NICE girls! Healthy. Rocco’s is much as it always was .. if you ignore the big extension in the “back”. We sat in the original dining room and it was amazing how familiar it felt .. I swear it still even has the same photos on the walls as it did in 1969.

After dinner we visit the young ladies in their apartment complex... but rather than their place we all “head over to see the guys”. These are a bunch of Domers who are friends with our St. Mary’s girls and who live nearby. We are only going to stay for “15 minutes” but they are all so nice that we ending up staying for a good hour and a half. They treated us to beer, good music, and some entertaining beer pong games. A strategically placed bank shot by one of my opponents off my nice partner completely ruined my concentration for the rest of our match. Back to the hotel where the golf bets are figured out (who won the putting card game [you pay for every three putt and get a card for every one putt]) and a late Scat game begins, all in our “suite”. I sat out the Scat and in fact many of us headed to bed before the game was done. I think Andy won? I sleep a little better – I think I’m getting used to Albert’s snoring.

Saturday – Irish Win!

Game day .. but first a round of golf. Our official tourney. We play at ND’s Warren course. Whoever’s camera was used to take the group photo on the first tee on this day – if you send me the photo I will post it for all to enjoy.

The course played tough. Early on the dew and air were heavy, the rough was long all day and the omnipresent high weeds were always there to welcome any balls hit even a little bit off line. I played with Andy, Prep, and Sobo. I tried to play smart and not try to do more than I was capable of - to some extent this approach worked. I was hitting my five iron well, so I just kept hitting it whenever I had the chance, even if it would leave me short. But on the par 4 number 8 disaster struck, as I hit a nice straight approach shot with that five iron – beautiful shot EXCEPT my alignment was wrong so I ended up in the high weeds near the green (exactly where I was aiming – as Albert has told me before, it takes NO athletic ability to align yourself correctly – and yes, I displayed NO athletic ability on this hole) ... then instead of taking a 1 stroke drop I decided to be a hero and hit the ball out of the crap. Seven strokes later (weeds, weeds, rough, trap, three putt) I finally put the ball in the cup. Within 15 yards of the green in 2, I take a 9. I figure this knocks me out of the running for anything but I continued playing OK to mediocre (which on this day was actually good!) until down the stretch I implode once again and close with two quadruple bogeys on the last three holes. Shoot.

Here are the gross and net scores (ordered by net), followed by the scorecards:

Name	Gross	Adjustment	Net
Andy	115	-34	81
Hans	91	-8	83
Albert	92	-9	83
Fox	106	-21	85
Sobo	100	-15	85
Jack	105	-14	91
Prep	109	-16	93
Mags	137	-36	101

Congrats to Hans for winning low Gross (again) and to Andy for winning low Net (again). Well done!

Back to the hotel to watch the game .. or shower .. or nap .. or whatever. The game isn’t pretty although early in the 4^th quarter we do “pull” within six points, so it wasn’t a complete disaster. We lose to Michigan State, at East Lansing, 23 to 7.

So why did I write “Irish Win” in the Saturday header above? Well, I personally pull in all sorts of loot being on the winning foursome, winning a skin or two, winning the putting card game and then winning the evening’s scat game. On top of all that I return to the Suite after everyone has crashed and claim the attached bedroom – I have a single for the night. A quiet one. So I win all kinds of ways and I’m Irish, right?

After the game I head over to campus with Prep, Al, Andy and Mags. We enjoy a nice walk around campus - a stop in Zahm, a prayer at the grotto, through the Admin building, and a look around the student center. Plus, of course, a visit to the bookstore – MUCH less crowded then when I was in here the week before, at 10 am, on a home game day. The trip to campus is topped off by another dinner at Rocco’s where we buy enough food to ensure we have plenty of take-home for the guys back at the hotel and then proceed to eat it all. Back to the hotel for the card games, more drinking (although everyone is slowing down), and finally a decent night’s sleep.

Sunday – A Great Wrap Up

Lots of goodbyes. A “quick” stop for a coffee and a Latte and we caravan back towards Chicago. Prep drops Albert and I off at Edgewood Valley, Hans’ club, and Prep heads off toward the sunset... it’s still early in the day but you know what I mean. Andy, Albert and I are treated to a fine afternoon at Edgewood Valley – it’s another beautiful day for golf and the round flies by. Every time we turn around it seems as if Hans is introducing yet another club member to The Zookeeper – Andy is quite the celebrity here as well he should be.

This is the first time I ever played with a “fore-caddy” who runs out ahead of us to help us find our balls. Good thing. we needed the help. By the end of the day I’m asking him to go stand in the fairway because it seems wherever he tries to hide I hit my driver straight at him. A beautiful course, a shower and a nice lunch while watching the US all but clinch the Ryder Cup round out the weekend in high fashion.

And on top of all of this when I get to the airport I discover that I can hop on an earlier flight – which is why I never did get to say goodbye to Andy and Albert at the airport. No worries... we’ll all do this again soon, right?!