Farmer’s Tan

This Walter and I pseudoed each other at the Young Men Community Auditorium every Tuesday/Thursday at 10AM for 2 years. I was living on the West Side of Chicago (the point past Kedzie) and was 16 years old. It was the only place I was allowed to vacay from high school when mom was at work. I would stay there until about 1pm, with cool-down and stretch, and then always the same Subway for a turkey provolone footlong with a large raspberry ice tea.

Back then I had a disc player with a radio connected to it; embedded in it. Then mom bought me an iPod 📱 and it completely changed my music and exercise experience. I remember she inscribed my name on back and I told her to remember my middle name Raquel.

I never caught his real name before he made it big into the SNL (Saturday night live) scene, my closer and all, but one day while on the treadmill, he was taking too much time on the weights in my direct line of sight to See Me instead on the mirror 🪞 panes, and before working out 🏋️‍♀️ his legs, he ended up raising his left or right plain white sleeve, and literally, his ‘ceps were half yellow half brown.

It was awful and I was 1 minute late next Thursday.

Love you, Panera’s Bread. 🍞

Can’t wait for you to level up on the brown sandy beaches of downtown Illinois.