After our day of torrential rain yesterday we woke to
sunshine and a day that was almost too hot! As I had a dinner date with my
school chums, we all went out to Conceptions Bay to enjoy the lovely weather
and bore our children with tales of their parent’s dating days! By the time we
got ourselves in gear from our very
late night on George Street, we were driving along Conception Bay highway with
grumbles from the back seat about being hungry. We stopped at Sobey`s and while
the boys went into the Liquor Store to find treasures for home, the girls went
into the grocery store to create a picnic. Topsail Beach next stop!
While we had originally planned a hike up George’s Mountain,
we were so hot on our picnic at the beach, we decided that driving from beach
to beach around the bay is a much better plan! Manuals, Fox Trap, Kelligrews, Upper
Gullies all the way to Holyrood to explore the place where I spent my teenage
years, where David and I met, the place I think of as home. We parked at the Beach Cottage, the place where David and I
first met. The last time we were here it was closed. Apparently now it’s opened
under new management and the new owner is a second cousin of mine! Nobody home
so we must be content to take a picture with the kids on the front step where
it all happened!!
Across the street is a new place called the Station Diner.
We learned that it has been opened by the couple who used to own the Beach
Cottage – the lady who introduced David and me all those years ago! She is also
not in so we struck out with connecting with people but our walk about town and
along Holyrood beach is no less enjoyable. I pointed out wild raspberries as we
walked along and I think the kids were fascinated to see them somewhere other
than a farm or grocery store in such profusion! Everyone picked and ate a couple
but we had trouble dragging Mary-Kate and Michelle away!
I was able to show them the house we grew up in (for all the
growing up I’ve done!) We stopped and looked at Boland’s Pond where I learned
to skate, and where I broke my tailbone in said pursuit! We drove around North
Arm and saw my elementary school, Crosbie’s summer home where we swam in the
indoor pool once a week throughout the fall, winter and spring when they weren’t
there, Harbour Main and finally Avondale for a stop at my sadly abandoned
junior high school and finally to Roncalli the home of all or my wonderful high
school memories that I obviously had to share – my poor children!
We were still early for my dinner date and it was still too
hot for the hike up the mountain so we went back to hang out on Holyrood beach.
In typical fashion my children were well able to amuse themselves and created
various games and competitions around throwing rocks in the water! David and I marvelled
at the life that has led us here. Little did we think when we did much the same
thing, 40 years ago, that we would be sitting here with two of our four
children all these years later! Andrew and Mary-Kate realized that they are
both older now than David and I were back then!
They dropped me at the Tea Room on the South Side and came
in long enough for me to show them off to my old high school chums! My friend
Trudy is always so good about gathering people together when I come home. I
always feel a little sad when I think about the times I miss with them, but
they assure me they only ever really get together for funerals and when I come
home (my cousins said much the same at the reunion!) Perception is a funny
thing I guess! No matter though, within minutes of us sitting in front of a huge
window overlooking the bay, in the ginger-room that has been reserved for us,
we are reminiscing, catching-up, talking and laughing hilariously like the last
almost 40 (yikes! how is that possible?) have not separated us!
Following our delicious dinner (seafood chowder and fish …again!
Growing fins I tell you!) Trudy, ever the one of us with a master plan, insists
that we go to Holyrood beach for a photo shoot. Kathy’s husband Don (they were
dating back in our high school days so we all grew up with Don too) was
conscripted as reluctant photographer and as the sun set on the bay we laughed
until we hurt! It amazes me that we managed any nice pictures since most of the
time was spent with most of us doubled over and useless with laughter! At one
point we would all try to sober up for another picture and some would say, “Yes
we have to stop! We’re all middle-aged now with youngsters. We can’t all laugh
like this without havin’ to pee!” …and the laughter would start again. Or in
trying to walk up out of the water in our bare feet, on the shifting rocks, and
Don had to help us he pointed out, “B’ys the last time I was here with all of
ye, it was easier to get ye all movin’ and I didn’t have to haul you out of it!”
Maybe you just had to be there, but the laughter that followed, it’s a wonder
we didn’t all drown! By the time we finished we had gathered a bit of a crowd
who came down to see what all the fuss was about. Someone muttered “Carryin’ on
like a bunch of teenagers” and we were off in gales of laughter again! It truly
was the kind of night you might see in a movie and wish you could be part of!
If laughter is the best medicine we were all well medicated by the end of the
evening! Not wanting the evening to end we went back to Kathy’s and Don’s to
enjoy wine on their back deck and watch the moon come up over the harbour. Oh
what a night!
I drove back to the city with Lolie and met my gang who had
gone to Moo Moos for ice cream and to listen to the Folk Festival at Bannerman
Park. While the kids are listening to The Once, Grant and Ruth were standing
talking to someone who looked familiar to me. After a bit of a guessing game I
had another little reunion with Aidan Maloney. He was a year ahead of us in
school but growing up in the same town we all knew one another. He works at CRA
with Ruth and lives in St. John’s. He has two sons who are musicians, one of
them the drummer with Hey Rosetta so I know Jonathan will be impressed!
What a wonderful day this has been for catching up and reconnecting.
Seems the older you get the more valuable this becomes. By that standard, today
was priceless.
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