Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ron and Joe Go to White Castle (Day 4)

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An old catcher, second baseman and shooting guard told stories about how great they once were in Whiting, Ind.

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You can usually find the Cubs' pennant hopes at the bottom of the Chicago River.

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Here's an idea of what it's like to watch a Cubs game from Des Moines. This picture was taken from our seats in the left-field corner.

A lot of people (at least in Maxwell Smart terms) have been calling and E-mailing, wanting to know how my Midwestern vacation -- a k a "Ron and Joe Go to White Castle" -- turned out.

(Joe is my brother-in-law from Kansas. He did the driving while I made silly home movies.)

So shine up your white patent leather Clark Griswolds and let's go for a ride:

DAY FOUR

Indianapolis to Chicago

I hadn't been back to my hometown of Whiting, Ind., since my dad died in 1993. That was a big part of it. The other was that I felt like a stranger there. Thirty-four years is a long time to be away.

We were passing close to the cornfield where those Chicago racket boys buried Tony the Ant and his brother in a shallow grave when Joe convinced me we should stop. "It's your hometown," he said.

We went to my high school baseball stadium, which didn't look like a stadium anymore. The big wooden grandstand was gone. So were the giant elm trees just inside the outfield fence. Joe illegally parked the car so he could put his hand in Lake Michigan, its frigid waves crashing against the rocks just beyond the right-field fence.

"Don't worry about the car," I said, noting a sign that said the honorable Joseph Stahura was now mayor of Whiting. He was "Axle" Stahura in 1974, the catcher for the Whiting High Oilers baseball team. "I know somebody in city hall."

My mom told me that another old pal was a Whiting cop. So feeling nostalgic, we dropped by the police station and I left my card. The dispatcher said Traffic Captain Jack McNinch was on duty at the Memorial Day service on 119th Street next to city hall. You should go by and see him, she said.

We parked the car a block away because Jack's police cruiser was blocking the street. You should have him smile when he saw me walking toward him.

A few minutes later, the honorable Joseph Stahura -- I still called him Axle -- saw us chatting on the street like a couple of old men, which, somehow, is exactly what we had become.

The three of us spent the next hour talking about the games and the girls -- not to mentioned the 34 years -- that had gotten away.

I could have stayed all day, but we had Cubs tickets.

Eventually, we headed into Chicago while Traffic Captain McNinch, the best damn shooting guard on the Whiting police force, headed in the other direction. He turned on the police lights and blipped the siren when our paths crossed.

I'm calling it my first police escort.

DAY FOUR RECAP:

--- Distance: 164 miles.

--- Memorable line: "I do" -- girl wearing Purdue sweatshirt to guy wearing Purdue sweatshirt sitting in front of us after his wedding proposal flashed under the Wrigley Field scoreboard.

--- White Castles: Lafayette, Valparaiso, Hobart, Merrillville, Munster, Hammond, East Chicago and the best White Castle of all, at the intersection of 119th Street, Cleveland Ave. and Indianapolis Blvd. in Whiting, Ind.

--- Lodging: Tiki Motel in La Salle, Ill. If you leave the Cubs' game in the seventh inning because it's too cold and you want to avoid Chicago traffic the next morning on the way back to Kansas City, the Tiki Motel is a good choice. The keys to the rooms are attached to those old school green plastic fobs. I was a little unnerved, though, by the Tony Perkins lookalike working the front desk.

--- Best beer: Old Style at Wrigley Field, served in a can with the Cubs' logo. But I only had one because it was so darn cold.

--- You should have seen: The look on Joe's face when he walked up the steps below and saw Wrigley Field for the first time. Welcome to the cathedral, brother-in-law.

--- Playing in the CD deck: "My Hometown" by Bruce Springsteen; "Sweet Home Chicago" by Jake and Elwood and the rest of the Blues Brothers.

--- Sports event du jour: Pirates 10, Cubs 8 at Wrigley Field. The Cubs rallied four times to take leads -- and blew every one. But I refused to blame Steve Bartman.

--- Next stop: Des Moines.

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