Catching Up With Friends

It’s always a joy when you get to hangout with an old friend and catch up on things, specially if it was in the city that you both grew up in.

I hadn’t seen my friend in a long time. We used to hangout a lot in our early 20’s. Back then we were both into completely different things than what we are into now.

But there are a few things that we both still love.

In n Out being one of them. He picked me up around 3pm and we headed straight to In n Out to get some food. We went to the newly rebuilt one at the edge of our city. They had to redesign the drive through because it would create so much traffic. Now the drive through wraps around the building and goes along the back end of the gas station.

We arrived and there were just a few people eating in the tables, most people were ordering food in their cars. It was perfect for us since we could sit down and chat.

After about an hour, the sun began to set, so we headed to Morgan Park.

Both of us hadn’t been to this park in a very long time. It’s changed so much in the past 10 years. Even more in the 20 years since I used to be here daily going into the boxing gym or hanging out under the few trees with my mom, sister and brother.

There's a lot more trees now. They have more bushes and plants too. Before there were big empty fields that made the park look lonely and basic. Now it looks a lot nicer. It definitely a lot more enjoyable walking around it.

The only real thing to do back then was to lie under one of the few trees or play in the playground. Now there is a splash pad, the playground is way bigger and there is more places to sit or walk around. We couldn’t help but remember the times we spent here hanging out with our friends.

Even though there really wasn’t much to do in this park, we would buy some food and come eat it here. There used to be 3 aluminum benches placed randomly in the middle of the field. 2 were under these huge trees while the other was always in the sun.

Rain or shine, it didn’t matter, we would buy a bucket of fries, or some Chinese food and walk to the park and sit on one of these aluminum benches. They’re gone now. Who knows when they removed them.

There are a lot more people at night now. Most play basketball, while other play soccer. Parents hangout out in the area with benches while some kids still play in the properly lit playground. This park is so much nicer now.

It’s kind of surprising how much it changed for the better. It was interesting to see how much our city has changed and how much we have changed as well.