Reason 235 I love living in the city: Banjo Night at Lincoln Restaurant!

I came home craving Chinese food and seemed to have convinced Nolan that he also wanted Chinese.  We hadn’t ventured out for Chinese food since moving into our new place but knew of one restaurant up the street, about a half-mile east, so we left our apartment seeking egg rolls!

CLOSED MONDAYS is what we found when we arrived.  Not being overly ravenous we continued south on Lincoln Avenue thinking, “how far could another Chinese place be?”  On the next block, 10 minutes later we found another CLOSED MONDAYS deflating our craving for egg rolls!

The next best thing we saw read BANJO MONDAYS!  Somehow we just couldn’t resist the gravitational force from that plastered sign in the diner window! Time to investigate!

Is there such a thing as a dive diner?  If so, Lincoln Restaurant might be the epitome of dive diner.  Their burgundy chairs with brass rivets, old musty red carpet, brown tile, faux-wood Formica just yells dive!  But we were greeted with the most sincere cheerful woman that was so excited someone under 65 might be interested in their Banjo Night!  We entered the back room 20 minutes before the band started to filter in.   A couple cheep beers and pork chops filled out mouths so we couldn’t gape at the scene from Cocoon we were suddenly apart of!  

Nolan and I along with the crying toddler at the table in the corner and the new trainee waitress lowered the average age of the room to about 72.    We had just entered Jessica Tandy, early-bird-special, blue-haired Mecca!  I couldn’t keep a straight face or my mouth closed most of the night.

At about 7 we noticed black instrument cases and music stands gradually fill the end of the room creating a circle of chairs for the impending performance.  7, yes S-E-V-E-N banjos, 2 guitars, 1 trombone, 1 violin, 1 clarinet, and 1 accordion, oh and let’s not forget the WASHBOARD that made up the group – WINDY CITY JAMMERS!

I even found a youtube video of them playing at Lincoln Restaurant! 


Later on we learned from Edward, who had been the guy trying to lure all the kids to come strum his banjo that the group has been playing for 30 years, he has been with them for 9, he was 70 years-old and has been playing since he was 11.  He also was kind enough to tell us a little bit on how to play the banjo.

Nolan promptly said, “I want to learn how to play an instrument,” something I hear him say every couple months since I’ve known him.  But this time it was accompanied with, “so I can have something to do when I’m old.” 

This time I think Edward convinced him he NEEDED to play! 

We’re now taking donations for a banjo for Nolan and earplugs for Camille!

Spring Cleaning - making donations!

While I was in Las Vegas over the weekend I spent a better part of a day purging  items from my mom's house!

One item being my high school letterman's jacket the other, a prom dress!  It's been nearly 10 years since I wore my prom dress, and I hate to admit it, but I never even had my letter sewn onto my jacket - my letters sit in a drawer now!  

I knew the athletes at my Alma mater still wore the same jackets so I meandered down to GVHS to see if they could find a good use for it - I figured there had to be a worthy athlete that couldn't afford one - I paid $150 in 1999, heaven knows prices have only gone up!  I was in luck!  The Athletic Principle's Secretary - yes apparently everyone has a secretary - said she knew exactly what they'd do with it.  She asked permission to use it in a raffle they were holding in a few weeks for a football player.  He has leukemia and they are raising money for his wish sponsored by Make-a-Wish Foundation, a trip to Hawaii for him and his family!  I am glad that I could do my part, clean out my mom's closet and give a little so this athlete could gain a lot.


My second donation was my Junior Prom dress - I think I have a photo somewhere...  Sometime ago I heard of a organization based out of Minnesota that received donations of old prom dresses and seamstress' time to produce new fashions for current high school girls' proms.  This ran through my head when I began my search for a good home for this said year-2000 prom dress - has it really been 10 years!?  So I looked up to see if Vegas had a similar organization.  Again, I was in luck! I found The Prom Fairy Foundation in Las Vegas to participate in a worthy cause!  In Vegas there were a few locations - so if you'd like to donate your dress, you can find a location using this site: http://www.donatemydress.org/donate.html.

Happy Donating!