A Little More Time Travel

It's been a busy weekend. As I mentioned in my previous post, on Saturday Diane and I drove to Larchmont, NY (a 499-mile round trip from Cape Cod) to share a meal with several other members of the St. Augustine School class of '58. A small but select group of six classmates (including me) attended, along with several of our wives, plus a few non-classmates from the same neighborhood.

Surprisingly, I actually recognized a few whom I hadn't seen in over 50 years. One gentleman commented that he recognized me as soon as he entered the restaurant, even though my back was to the door. I purposely didn't ask which of my physical attributes led to this moment of recognition.

We enjoyed some wonderful Italian cuisine served family style at Augie's Restaurant, an establishment that didn't exist when I lived in the area. (My family moved from Larchmont in the early 60s.) And as we ate we relived many memorable moments, the kind that made those days very special. In some ways, those years between 5th and 8th grades were among the happiest.

While we were in town, I took Diane to my old parish church, St. Augustine's, a beautiful church of the kind they no longer build. The only changes I noticed were the absence of the marble communion rail and the addition of a free-standing altar. The high altar is thankfully still there, but obviously no longer in use. Also the tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament was moved from the high altar to a side altar. Other than that, the church looks much as it did when I was an altar boy there so many years ago. I even peeked into the altar servers sacristy and found that it too really hadn't changed all that much.

St. Augustine Church on Larchmont Avenue in Larchmont, NY

We also swung by my old neighborhood. I marveled at the changes to the home in which I grew up, and then chatted with the younger brother of a childhood friend. (He was mowing the front lawn of his family's home.) The Flowers family lived across the street from us and the two eldest of their five children were about the same ages as my brother and I. Apparently they have decided to keep the home in the family, although most of the "kids" now live in New York City where they run the family business.

Walter's on Palmer Avenue in Mamaroneck, NY

Then, on the way out of town, we stopped at Walter's hot dog stand once more (I mentioned Walter's in a previous post last week) so I could take a picture. I never understood the significance of the rather unusual Asian architectural motif of the structure, but Walter's serves great hot dogs, and is certainly worth a visit should you ever be within 20 miles.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and so after Mass the grandmothers prepared a wonderful brunch. Joann Green, our hostess during our stay here in Harwich, really did 90% of the work. She ended up feeding seven little ones, aged eight and under, and seven adults. And as you can see by the picture, Joann and Diane apparently didn't mind slaving away in the kitchen on Mother's Day.

Diane and Joann preparing the Mother's Day brunch.

As I said above, it was a busy but very pleasant weekend. I relived some fond old memories and we created some new ones. What could be better than that? Yes, just being is certainly very good indeed! Deo gratias.