Dancing in Madison, drinking in Bolingbrook

In Madison, Wisconsin there is a bar called the Crystal Corner, and on a recent Saturday night it was filled with middle aged white people trying to dance to the music of the Rousers, a rockabilly band.

I have given up on trying to dance in public, which I used to like to do. I still might after a couple cocktails at a reception or backyard gathering, but once I hit, let's say 30, I just felt plain silly and self-conscious. Then again, I have a new unnatural fear of dying alone and being eaten by a cat. And I don't even own a cat. So what do I know?

I do sort of admire folks who aren't afraid to bust bad moves, which were on ample display at the bar. Good for them. Dude, if you want to break out your snake skin boots and motorcycle/bowling shirt to writhe away the evening, more power to you. Same to you, lady in boots and short shorts, moving like a puppet being jerked off its strings.

And kudos to the large 50something woman in the madras dress who would get up from her wheel chair to crochet in time to the tunes. Who knew making a scarf could be so much fun?

The band was older, too, which was nice to see - a place packed, not catering to the target 21-35 audience, and not a chain.

Eccentricities are for college towns, older places and big cities I guess. They are kept undercover in the suburbs, especially the rapidly growing ones sprouting up around Chicago, where everything is shiny and new.

Case in point: I went to an opening night for a perfectly pleasant place, the first Chicago area Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant in Bolingbrook. I am familiar with the small chain from its garlic fries sold at San Francisco Giants games and from its location not far from the park which has a great view of the Bay.

The Bolingbrook one is in one of those upscale outdoor malls, tucked away next to a Bass Pro Shop and across the highway from an Ikea. That Bolingbrook is now a high mortgage district is perplexing for a couple reasons, one being it used to hold a strange combo of mall and indoor amusement park where they filmed part of The Bllues Brothers.

The other is it is almost smack dab in the middle of a tornado belt, and on Google maps not far from the aptly named Plainfield and Downers Grove, and blending in with those two towns, Naperville, Woodridge, and the better parts of Aurora. In fact, I think they should call the area The Blends, much like I call the indistinguishable subdivision hub running from Aurora to Crystal Lake, Randallville.

Thing is, new vinyl-sided houses in The Blends, standing where corn once was, go for $400,000 or more with $6,000 tax bills. But there are plenty of Kohl's stores and car washes and up and coming deli places like Pot Belly's, which is a good place. In fact, none of it is really bad. It's just like every other place that has the better stores.

You really don't have to drive that far anymore to get to the shops you like, certainly not as far as you probably do for work - especially if you work at one of those shops and can't afford to live in the Blends and have to get home to Joliet.

Where is the new, Midwestern John Cheever, I wonder, the guy who chronicles the lives of people who can, or at least try, to afford such lives? What kind of money do you need? What kind of hours do you put in? What's the commute like? What are the pressures of keeping up with the Dow Joneses? How long will it take for the trees to grow? Are the kids all on Ritallin?

And when will I-355/55 construction finally be done, so things can finally run full bore?

None of this is to knock Bolingbrook. If I had a family and money I might consider moving to such a place. It's not as expensive as the $600,000 you might pay for a brick bungalow in Chicago. There are plenty of highways for escaping to a vacation home in another state.

And Gordon Biersch is a nice place to go for garlic fries and boutique beer.

But I wonder where, if anywhere, the middle aged folks out here head out to dance or hear a band that is not a tribute to, let's say, Jimmy Buffet? I'm guessing most of them are like me, and don't dance much anymore.