50+ Lifestyles

IN and OUT of the Quad-Cities

Contributed by
Gail McPike and Toni Hall

Soliloquies

Only the good Lord knows the pain, suffering and mental anguish that rains down on your humble 50+ Lifestyles
correspondents. Allow, a for instance…  Today is deadline day; numerous reminders stare out of our in basket like
hungry crocodiles waiting for lunch. Remember Clark Kent’s hardnosed editor, Perry White?  Recall how gruff he could be with Clark Kent, aka, Superman in disguise?  We can tell you the big boss around here can get pretty gruff when articles roll in a week late; it must be an editor thing.

So once again we find ourselves handcuffed to a typewriter while the sun shines and birds chirp. It is a fabulous spring day, and truth be told, we should have done this last week while April was blessing us with thunder showers.

Keeping with our tales of torment, we are going to pepper this piece with real world glimpses into our process.  For those of you who are into great literature, the official word for the practice is soliloquy.  Remembering back to your eighth-grade literature class, you probably remember the old “To be or not to be…” lines from Willy Shakespeare; that was a soliloquy. Ours will be easier to read and require no strange middle-ages outfits to recite. So here goes….

Soliloquy Numero Ono – stage left, standing by the window with coffee cup

Oh woe, suffering and scourge upon scourge. Why are those robins so happy? Could they be the early bird who got the worm? Poor worm…  Why didn’t we get up early and start this article before it got so nice. And, look at that darn black squirrel, why is he so happy? Maybe he did his typing last week so he could play in the tree now.

Returning stage center and our article in progress

May is such a great month. It’s a celebration of spring turning to summer, May baskets, Mother’s Day and all the fabulous blessing we’ve received from our mom’s over the years, wedding planning, flowers in bloom, early summer lawn parties, graduation parties and jubilation of youngsters preparing for their big escape from school.  It’s the start of barbeque season.

The great Barbeque Soliloquy

Darn, we’re just starting to make a little headway on this article and the talk of barbeque is making us really hungry.  Even the neighbor burning some brush a block away smells like hamburgers sizzling on an open grill. If only we hadn’t procrastinated we could be following our noses to some rib shack for a big plate of barbeque.

Once more seated in front of the typewriter

Besides the fine flowers, lovely weather and Mom’s day, May is the official start of Sangria Season. Over the years, a good many folks in our part of the QCA are blending up special batches of their own. We believe the practice has produced a marked uptick in the overall economy of some parts of California.

And, while speaking of official starts, for those of in the QCA, May is like the grand opening of summer events. Nowadays the Farmers Market is open year round, but by May things really start heating up. The nice weather brings more vendors, fresh veggies, cool new plants for the garden and our favorite creators of yard art. Be sure to mark off a portion of your Saturday morning to check things out down at the old rail road freight house in Davenport.

Cinco de Mayo

(That’s May 5th for our non-Spanish speaking friends) is coming to town.  Each year, our friends at Rudy’s Taco’s original location in the Village of East Davenport hold a great outdoor event to commemorate the day.  There is great Mexican food, lots of merriment and music flowing pretty much all day. In many ways, this is the prelude to dozens of celebrations during the summer.

The Great Mexican Food Soliloquy

We are hungry as baby wolverines.  Everything keeps leading back to food.  A taco sure sounds great about now. We could be seated in the warm sun, tropical breezes blowing in our hair, the taste of fresh Mojitos touching up against our tongue. Got to snap out of this, we’ve got to get back to finishing up or the editor will kill us.

Back to the Freight House and our new Food Hub

The QC Food Hub is a cool organization designed to connect farmers and food buyers in our area. We are going to skip past all the inner workings and get the good stuff.  The Food Hub can best be described as a cool grocery store that only stocks food produced locally. It’s in the old Freight House building at the corner of Ripley and West River on the Davenport Levy.    We have discovered some of their salads and home-made kimchee are to die for.  Their breads are hand crafted and they have a section that sells art and yarn – need we say more.

The Parting Soliloquy

Finally done.  The only thing standing between us and lunch is handing this puppy into the editor.   Maybe we should bid our readers a great May…