{"id":1384,"date":"2021-04-22T10:17:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T10:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2021-05-11T22:40:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T22:40:31","slug":"old-friends-bookends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/old-friends-bookends\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Friends Bookends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“If your friends are there, then everything’s alright.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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by Louann Catanoso<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past September *2009, my best friend Alice and I spent a lot of time down the beach together.\u00a0 As we sat on the beach with our sunscreen, and beach umbrella, and \u201cour bathroom\u201d in close proximity, I started daydreaming about days gone by.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I reminded Alice of our Junior and Senior year summers (1972-73) in high school, when we spent every day at the beach.\u00a0 We would waitress till one in the morning at her dad\u2019s restaurant on the wildwood boardwalk, (Reads Sandwich Shop) and then go out till three or four in the morning.\u00a0 We would rise (miraculously) in the early morning hours and go straight to the beach.\u00a0 Most of the time we would fall immediately to sleep on our blankets, (no beach chairs back then) and the beach cleaners would just drive their trucks around us.\u00a0 Alice would always bring her little transistor radio, and songs by Cat Stevens, Roberta Flack, Al Green and Bread, danced in our heads while we slept.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These were the days before water bottles, and cell phones.\u00a0 Instead of sunscreen, we would completely coat ourselves with baby oil and iodine, to get the \u2018best tan.\u2019\u00a0 We always went to Diamond Beach, and we always brought my brothers nine foot surfboard with us.\u00a0 Even though I\u2019ve never been a swimmer, I wasn\u2019t too bad on a surfboard; or so I thought.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I reminded Alice of one day in particular, when she had to leave the beach early to get ready for work that evening.\u00a0 I had off, and decided to stay later and walk home.\u00a0 It was a very hot Saturday afternoon, when I started my long walk back to my house on 19th street.\u00a0 This might not have been so unusual, (as I made that walk many times in my teenage years) but, I was in my bikini, and barefoot, with not a drink in my hand, or a dime in my pocket. (I didn\u2019t have any pockets.)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to make the walk on the street, rather than on the beach.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine why the sidewalks and streets didn\u2019t burn my feet off.\u00a0 For some reason when I reached St. Ann\u2019s Church, on Glenwood and Atlantic Ave., I decided to go in.\u00a0 I had grown up attending this church, and I guess I just felt welcome.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No one was in the church, and I made my way all the way up front, to the right side, and sat in about the sixth pew.\u00a0 It was very calming, with the sun shining through the beautiful stained glass windows, and the curious shadows being cast throughout the entire church.\u00a0 I actually said a few prayers while sitting there.\u00a0 All of the sudden I heard some people coming down the center aisle. They didn\u2019t seem to notice me.\u00a0 I wanted to get up and leave, but I was afraid of bringing attention to myself.\u00a0 But after about ten minutes, when I heard the organist start playing the \u201cwedding march,\u201d I knew I had to get out of there.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t look over to my left to see the bride and groom when I gingerly got up and walked out the side door, bikini and all.\u00a0 I did thank God for that side door once I got outside; and I\u2019m sure I chuckled all the way home.\u00a0 What possessed me to go in that church that afternoon to begin with?\u00a0 I guess it appeared to be an oasis on my long journey from the end of the Crest to North Wildwood.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also reminded Alice of when we decided to move to Florida after we graduated from high school.\u00a0 We left in mid-August, in my old Chevy, with the stick on the column, and got lost in Cape May Court House looking for Route 47.\u00a0 I can still remember the look on the guys face at the gas station, when we asked him for directions to \u201cMiami.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years a few things have changed.\u00a0 My long brown curly hair has been replaced by very short gray hair; and even though we still carry our backpacks, they now hold wallets filled with photos of our children and emergency contact numbers, instead of packs of Marlboros and strawberry lip gloss.\u00a0 Surfing? I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some things never change.\u00a0 One of my favorite 70\u2019s songs continues to be \u201cRainy Night in Georgia,\u201d by Brook Benton, and Radar O\u2019Reilly (from Mash) is still the \u2018man of my dreams.\u2019\u00a0 More importantly, my friendship with Alice has grown deeper with time.\u00a0 We have been there for each other for the past 36 years now, in good times and in bad.\u00a0 When she and I get together, I\u2019m still that impulsive 17 year old girl that sat innocently (while half naked) in church.\u00a0 And at the same time I\u2019m this 53 year old woman that walks arm in arm with her when I\u2019m unsteady on my feet.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoever said the \u2018love of your life\u2019 has to be one of the opposite sex?\u00a0 There is no one else I would rather grown old with.\u00a0 When two people have memories together that span back over decades, it makes you feel like \u201cyou\u2019re every age you ever were.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This story is dedicated to the precious memory of Nick Marmello.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If your friends are there, then everything’s alright.” by Louann Catanoso This past September *2009, my best friend Alice and I spent a lot of time down the beach together.\u00a0 As we sat on the beach with our sunscreen, and beach umbrella, and \u201cour bathroom\u201d in close proximity, I started daydreaming about days gone by.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7,1,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunbythesea.com\/ww\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}