Mustard Seed

On Thursday evening we drove into Chicago from Helen's place, toured downtown and navy Pier, and attended an AA meeting at the well-known Mustard Seed, in north Chicago. We had been encouraged to attend a meeting there by our common Eugene friend, Will, who had started his sobriety in Chicago more than 27 years ago, and had attended several meetings at the Mustard Seed during that time.

While waiting for the meeting to start, we walked around the neighborhood and had a Terry's Red Hot and some bright-colored watermelon-flavored pop for a snack. We then took pictures with long-time member Wong at the rear entrance of the Mustard Seed, and with Caroline in the meeting room. Caroline ran the meeting that night, and told her story before opening it up to sharing with other members. All of the participants were black, but us, Wong, and one other guy, who had fired a lot of people at work that day. There was lots of backup "testimony" during Demetra's sharing. The members all made us Oregon visitors very welcome. Big hug from Judith. Lots of post-meeting conversating with David. Friendly buidling caretaker found an official Mustard Seed T-shirt to take back to Oregon.

T-shirt and photos were for friend, will, who was very happy to receive them as a surprise birthday gift in Eugene during a Wednesday AA meeting on July 30. We also sent copies of the photos and a nice thank you note to the Mustard Seed members when we returned home.

Then had dinner in Greek Town at the Parthenon. Highlight was the flaming goat cheese. Demetra had traditional lamb and green bean dinner, and Bob had Spanikopita. Greek coffee and baklavah for dessert were other highlights of the dinner.

Mustard Seed entrance and Korean rental car.	Wong and Bob.	Wong and Demetra.	Caroline in the meeting room.
Bob taking picture of Caroline and her shirt.	Bob and Deme.	Bob and Demetra in the meeting room.	Mustard Seed: 504 North Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.