A Perfect Day with Danahey on the Loose

You might not think a damn-near-perfect day would get underway by going to the gym, changing into a kilt, and then dropping off electronics for recycling. But it did.

The fashion choice was made for hitting a Celtic fest, Shenanigans on the Green, in Hoffman Estates. As per our tradition, Best Fest Buddy Tom and I wore kilts to the event.

Recycling was on the way to the gathering. Kilts provide central air conditioning in summer. This time, for some reason, the garb turned us into low-key, sort-of celebrities.

My first brush with fest fame—at least in my mind—came after I took a selfie with a statue of my long-lost twin, Shrek. Not sure why a place called the Hideaway Brew Garden has the big green Disney dude on display, but hey now. You’re an all star.

Anyway, a woman saw me and offered to take better photos. I knew she wasn’t trying to steal my phone—because it’s an inexpensive Android. She was being out-of-the-blue nice to me in my green garb.

Then, while milling about the merchandise tent, people asked if they could take photos with either or both of us. I wondered if we were being mistaken for other people. Somebody wanted by the law, perhaps? Over-55 influencers? Guys who wandered off from the senior center without telling their families?

The fans included a T-Mobile guy giving out plastic cups and two guys hawking solar panels. What either product has to do with anything Celtic is anybody’s guess.

Anyway, next we decided to do a whiskey/bourbon/rye tasting. While sipping our small samples, people came up to us and started conversations. Sure, Tom did look a bit like Scottish Santa, or a dapper publican. Maybe that was it.

Either way, the kilts had never worked this well as magnets for drawing curious, friendly attention and pleasant small talk. We should become brand ambassadors. For what products, I’m not sure. Depends on who’s offering. Pun intended.

If that weren’t enough fun for one day, that evening we hit Jamboree Days, a fest in a park near where I live. This was a revival of a big town party held every summer from sometime in the 1970s until 1998, before being revived this year.

We stayed kilted. Again—some saw us as a photo op, which was fine by me. Had this been a Jamboree Days 20 years ago, there would have been a good chance somebody would have tugged on the kilts, hoping for the big reveal, or at least spilled a light beer on our tartans.

Times change. This was a mellow evening, one for the Modern Maturity set. That’s to say it featured bands that personally knew the Flintstones: The Buckinghams, followed by The Ides of March.

Apparently, The Buckinghams played Jamboree Days ages ago, and the version of the band that Saturday night featured some original members, even. One joked with the crowd that his doctor had come to see him. He must have one of those extra-premium Medicare supplements! They were affable, sang their own hits, a couple of new numbers, threw in a tune from a fellow Chicago-based ’60s act, the Cryan’ Shames, and even one from Van Morrison. The band featured a horn section, too—nice to hear that, since it would be easy enough these days to have a keyboard simulate those charts.

A mid-sized, mostly older crowd meant not a lot of dancing, and not a lot of drinking—just water for us, in fact. Just older folks sitting in their lawn chairs enjoying a pleasant evening in a summer where there’s been way too much schizo weather.

Chicago’s Ides of March, of course, had one big hit: “Vehicle,” the catchy number from 1970 with the creepy lyrics about a friendly stranger in a black sedan. A bit before my time, I had forgotten that they had jangly, harmony-laden tunes like “You Wouldn’t Listen” and “LA Goodbye” in their songbook. The Ides had a horn section, too, and a light show to boot.

I had also forgotten that Ides main man Jim Peterik had co-written songs for Southern rockers .38 Special, including “Hold On Loosely,” “Caught Up in You,” and “Rockin’ Into the Night.” I felt my hair growing back into a mullet when the band played those songs that Saturday.

I did remember Peterik led Survivor and wrote “Eye of the Tiger” for the Rocky movie that featured Mr. T as the villainous Clubber Lang. Survivor also scored hits with the cheery “High on You” and “The Search Is Over,” the perfect, ultimate ’80s prom and wedding-reception slow-dance tune. They had nothing to do with Survivor, that stupid CBS so-called reality show.

Alas, Survivor and 38 Special tunes made me miss Spring Hill Mall from near where I live, which has been torn down as it awaits redevelopment. Is it wrong that the music made me crave a big, greasy slice of Sbarro? To make up for that, I shared a bowl of what was left of brisket ends and some cornbread being sold out of a food truck with a doctor buddy of mine who hung out with us. Food trucks reminded me of Austin, Texas. We didn’t have food trucks back in ancient Chicago. Just ice-cream trucks constantly playing “Turkey in the Straw.”

Tom and Mark smoked huge-ass cigars that were big enough to last through both sets—and then some. We politely sat away from the crowd, who probably didn’t want to be reminded of the Canadian wildfires. Brisket, cigars. Good thing a doctor was with us. OK, she’s a retired family physician, the old fashioned kind that delivered babies, too. By the way, she plays accordion with a folk act. Their own show the next afternoon in a local park was called off on account of rain. That’s how this summer has been.

After the show, the Ides met fans and signed stuff at an autograph table, much like The Buckinghams did. By the way, for some reason my text called them a rhyming name that begins with F. Who would do that to ham, anyway? Tech frequently frightens me.

Mark and the doc left for their homes. Tom and I wound down the night with a couple of perfect pints of plain on the patio at Rosie’s, our local. The barkeep joked that when a regular named Cesar comes to the pub, he plays the Ides big hit.

We ran into some friends there and talked a bit with a big guy who wants to get a kilt of his own. Even heard from a man who played in a band we missed that was on before The Buckinghams.

With all that’s going on in the world, in my life, in my friends’ lives, in anybody’s life, really, it was nice to have a day like this.

I said thanks to Tom when he dropped me off back at my place. Pretty sure he said the same: That made for a perfect way to end a perfect day.