A Day of Chocolates and Intrigue....

It was a hometown getaway...

 

My BFF and I took a road trip to Moline to see another

BFF perform in a community theater musical...

  

We hit Interstate 88 early on Saturday morning and arrived

(breaking land speed records) 

into town with hours to spare before show time...

  

First of all, we Chicago folks know that smaller towns have the better Targets, 

Walmarts and other discounters than the 312 branches...

  

The shelves in the city are picked over, but in Moline, they are bursting with all the good stuff... 

We hit Gordman's for some good basic kids clothes, 

Walmart for more kid's duds and then the dollar store for reading glasses.

  

Ya can't beat a dollar a pair to aid this old lady's peepers!

  But best of all, we stopped at Lagomarcino's for the Easter haul. 

Since 1908, this gem of a soda fountain/chocolate shop has pleased folks for miles around 

with their home made chocolates, ice cream and tasty lunch offerings...

They even won a James Beard award in 2006...  

And Paula Deen has a write up about Lago's in her April 2011 magazine....

But what I remember were the famous Lagomarcino eggs. 

These were giant, hollow chocolate eggs, filled with easter jelly beans and other treats...

.  

The chocolate was hand spun into the egg shape and was at least 1/2 inch thick...

  

So fabulous and not cheap....

  

We knew the Easter Bunny had some serious bank if a Lago's Egg was in our basket...

  

As a kid, my dad ran his architectural firm from the top (10th) floor of the First National Bank building,

where Lago's resides.  

If we were EXTRA good, Mom would take us to lunch at Lago's...

  

If we sat nicely during lunch, perhaps a chocolate treat could be had...

  

Such a special place, and it was jammed when we were there.....

  

When you go home, isn't it customary to eat at all your favorite places?

  

Well, it is for us and we lunched at the Hungry Hobo, 

land of the best subs known to man and where we hung out after the football games as teens...

.  

Next on the gustatory trail was Whitey's Ice Cream for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup shake

and where I had my first job....

  

$2.65/ hour....Now that was livin' large!

  

To finish off our eating through memory lane, we ordered a Taco Pizza from the one and only Happy Joe's....

home of my second high school job, as the ice cream girl....

  

Seems I couldn't stop being typecast in the ice cream role.....

I was hot in my white nurse uniform and red and white striped apron....

Not so much...

So on to the intriguing part of the evening..... 

My BFF, her aunt and I headed to the community theater for the night's entertainment and we stopped by the local HY-VEE grocery store for a quick bouquet of flowers to hand to the star of the show.  

Now I just couldn't grab a sad quartet of limp carnations....

I had to put together something a little nicer.  

Full, white chrysanthemums, encircled by a dozen full daffodils did the trick and we were on our way.  

Before show time we chatted in the lobby with other friends and I ran into my actor friend's mom.  

She also had a bouquet for her daughter and 

suggested I leave my flowers at the concession stand to pick up at intermission.

  

When the show was half over I trotted over to concessions to get the blooms but they were gone.

  

One of the nice ladies who sold soda and popcorn said one of my "relatives" took the flowers...

  

Huh?

  None of my kin was at the show...

We were mystified. 

After the show ended and it was awesome, by the way, we met our talented friend and hugged our congratulations, with one eye open, scanning the crowd... 

And then, sure enough, an older woman strode across the lobby 

and handed MY flowers to another cast member. 

WHAT?!

  It was in slow motion as we watched in disbelief.... 

Well, my BFF's aunt bee-lined right over to the woman and asked where she found such beautiful flowers.

  "My friend BOUGHT them at the concession stand...

 HUH???

  They sell popcorn there, NOT flowers...

  I chimed in....  "Um, excuse me, but I bought those same flowers at the HY-VEE 

and had them specially arranged for my friend, OVER THERE...."

  Of course I said this in the nicest way....

  By this time that bouquet was firmly under the armpit of the back up singer.  

What were we to do?

  I mean, we are in a local community theater filled with a bunch of senior citizens and parents...

This was not exactly a biker bar.... 

Nice, honest people come here, or so I thought....

  I was so taken aback that my BFF's uncle had to give me a can of Budweiser to cool me down.  

PS...The next morning, my talented, gracious actor friend called to say that 

the back up singer heard what went down and gave back the flowers.  

So it ended as hoped, but there is seriously something rotten in Moline,
I mean Denmark......

I still feel good about the place where I grew up, we could ride our bikes all over creation,
enjoy the old fashioned goodness of places like Lagomarcino's, the corner grocery (Fritz's)
and the Belgian Village.

Many friends and family still live there and one old bat who lack a little in the honesty department
is not going to ruin it for me!

I'll be back soon and this time it will be tacos from Rudy's, or maybe a Harris pizza......