Links hold little attraction for the OGs
DELANSON — A nice morning on April 15, following a really nice day on the 14th, made for a robust group of OMOTM showing up for breakfast at Gibby’s Diner. Add returning OFs from the warm sunny South and the noise level just keeps climbing.
Last week, we talked about an OF and his great big pancake. This week, I could talk about one OF who ordered ham and eggs for breakfast.
He made the mistake of ordering a ham steak and eggs and that ham steak was easily as large as last week’s pancake. It came on its own separate plate! To make a long story short, he had to ask for a doggie bag to take home the two-thirds he could not finish.
After watching the Masters Tournament and its exciting playoff ending after tying in regulation, I was expecting some conversation about it around the tables. Not a word.
I couldn't believe it, so I went around to all the tables and asked who at that table ever played golf and who, if any, watched the Masters on TV on Sunday. Silence, table after table, nothing but silence.
In the end, a grand total of three OFs, including me, had ever played golf. I don’t know about the other two OFs, but most of my golfing career was played at conventions where I spent most of my golfing time waiting for, and wondering where the beer cart was, and why it was taking so long for it to catch up to me. I was not a great golfer, but I had a lot of fun.
So much for talking about golf; it didn't take long at all.
Wanderling feline
At our table we did hear about one OF and his 27-year-old cat. It is a house cat and one fine day it seized an opportunity to see the great outdoors, and left.
Seven months later, while the OF was eating breakfast at home, the cat reappeared and has stayed at home ever since. Evidently the cat had seen enough of the great outdoors and came home.
When asked about what kind of cat it is, our OF, in typical OMOTM style, said he didn’t know; it was just a regular cat. He then went on to tell us of all the ills his regular cat has to deal with these days; there are a bunch of them.
That conversation about a 27-year-old regular ol’ cat who went on a walkabout for seven months took up much more time than any conversation about golf.
Icelandic roadtrip
Also last week, you may remember a discussion about the Pan American Highway from the southern tip of South America to the northern tip of North America. The Ultimate Road Trip.
Well, the OF who was talking about that road trip was not at breakfast with us this week. He is currently driving around Iceland!
Hard to keep track of some of these OFs! I would do that in a heartbeat, as compared to the Ultimate Road Trip. Iceland has some fantastic sights to see, such as big active volcanoes. That would really be something to witness.
Life’s path
I have been talking to one of the OMOTM about stuff. I really don't remember how we got on the subject of his life’s journey to arrive at where he is today. I have to talk to him again, as it has to be a fascinating story.
Like many of us, how we got to this place in life sometimes has very little to do with what we thought we would be doing by this time. If we even thought about it at all when we were young.
As most of you know, I didn’t grow up here in the Hilltowns in the mountains outside of the valley. I was a flat lander. I graduated from Voorheesville’s high school, and worked in the family business in Albany.
I did live in East Berne on Warner’s Lake in the summertime every summer while growing up, starting in 1952. Now I live here year ’round and can look across the lake at the family camp my daughter now occupies.
I write this weekly column about the OMOTM for The Altamont Enterprise and I volunteer my time with the local Kiwanis Club of the Helderbergs, helping the children and some families in the communities here in the Hilltowns. I assure you that this is not what I would have imagined long ago.
The volunteering part is not so much of a surprise. That clearly is the result of my upbringing; it is some of the values my folks taught me. Writing this column is a whole different story.
I think most of us can tell the very same story. I believe we would find a lot of common similarities. Everybody is different, yet everybody is the same.
The OF that was mentioned before, he grew up on a family farm right here in the Hilltowns. He still farms, but his card doesn’t reflect that. It says Pastor, Rock Road Ministries, and that doesn’t tell anywhere near the whole story. I can’t wait to sit down and talk with him; something tells me I’ll be a better man when we are through talking.
Those who stopped talking long enough to enjoy the fine breakfast at Gibby’s Diner were Harold Guest (Happy 89th Birthday, Harold!), Wally Guest, Pastor Jay Francis, Ed Goff, Michael Kruzinski, Pete Whitbeck, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Jake Lederman, Ted Feurer, Wayne Gaul, Warren Willsey, Roland Tozer, Miner Stevens, Frank A. Fuss, Jamey Darrah, Marty Herzog, Jake Herzog, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Joe Rack, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Dick Dexter, Herb Bahrmann, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Elwood Vanderbilt, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Henry Whipple, and me.