Sunday, September 07, 2008

"and now, I 'spose its time for four cones..."

It's Iowa! Welcome back, Cotter... The land of eye contact and steak and potatoes...

- Mom goes to work, I clean the kitchen. We run to mom's car mechanic (at what used to be "Homer's" and is now called "Not-Homer's") about four times.

- Mom makes steak and potatoes for dinner. Literally. Delish.

- Drive about 30 miles to Vermillion S.D. to visit my old high school buddy Brett. Brett now lives in a huge trailer, smokes Marbarol Reds, works as a killerdiller baker in a grocery store, and can't stop telling stories or giggling. We go get drinks at the PrairieInn, a combination bar/hotel/bowling alley. It felt like coming home -- seeing Brett was... awesome.

- Wake up at 11?! Drive back up to South Dakota to meet my grandpa and his girlfriend at a joint called "Tobie's". Grandpa seems to be doing awesome, seems sharp as a tack, and despite some physical problems which are in-general sad, is currently doing a lot of stock day trading on the internet. This gives my mom tiny heart attacks.

Tobie's is rumored to have the best fried chicken in the area... Ohmigod.

* I demolish what was once the breast of a living thing. The skin is incredible. It was foodpornirific.

* Everything on my plate was a varying shade of beige. To drink, coffee. We danced the light brown fantastic.

* Pam, my grandpa's girlfriend, was being harassed by a fly. She asked the incredibly nice waittress for a flyswatter, smashed the bug into another table and said "Got 'em"

* After Pam had killed another fly, and we had devoured whatever was on our plastic plates, Grandpa says to the waittress, "Well, I 'spose its time for four cones." At Tobie's, I think as part of the meal, they give you ice milk cones. Almost as a reward. Brilliant!

- Pam & Grandpa have permission to go get some free apples. We drive to Tobie's widow's place (Tobie was a pretty wonderful guy) where we're supposed to pick windfall apples (apples that are already on the ground). Pam starts picking apples off of the trees. Mom and Grandpa begin to get nervous. Pam comes up to me, with an excited mischevious look on her face and says "Look wat I found. Pears." Indeed, Pam found this widow's pear tree and was picking un-permissioned pears. Scandal! This is when I realize that my grandpa's 91 year old girlfriend is trouble. However, she likes to make you a partner-in-crimes, and suddenly here I was, already to sneak pears with Pam. Super trouble!

- Mom makes a mention to grandad about Pam's unlicensed "tree" apple stealing, and Grandpa sighs, and says, basically, that he would move out of Pam's place "if only I could tie by own shoes..."

- As mom puts it, the generation who grew up during the depression are this mix of incredibly generous and incredibly cheap. It's true.

More stuff later. Thinking of the Bozics -- love to all!! :)

Onward.

1 comment:

Tara said...

You saw Brett? I'm assuming it's the Brett I know. Oddly enough I was wondering what he was up to. Thanks for the sprint down memory lane. Or not. I'm not sure yet, it's still early and I've not yet finished my coffee.