I just got off the phone with a dear old acquaintance, Tom Musante. Today is his brother’s birthday… Tony Musante (of “Toma”) fame. I don’t know how I started doing this. I think I saw his birthday listed in the paper one morning and I called Tom. Of course I haven’t talked to him in a year, so we a lot to catch up on. He’s retired and living large on Cape Cod… life is good. Tony’s in Rome doing a movie. Now there is something I would like to do… spend MY birthday in Rome.
Ruth Ann and I did another three laps tonight… she had to come (those caregiver rules), but really didn’t need it after the workout she got doing aerobics this morning. I’ve got PT tomorrow… still working on that balance. It’s getting better. I can now close my eyes and it’s probably TWO seconds before I lose my balance!
I mentioned the other day that Tony and Leonora had left on Sunday… we really miss their company.
I met Tony and Lennie way back during high school… we went to different schools, but Ruth Ann was the connection. Tony and Ruth Ann were first cousins and also only children. The families were close and Tony and Ruth Ann grew up practically as brother and sister. We got to be friends immediately and spent a lot of time double dating all through college. Weekends, semester breaks, summers… always together. We had some of the greatest times… going to the beach or up to Vermont for the day, or just hanging around eating cream puffs at Auntie Angie’s (my Mother-in Law).
Tony had his pilot’s license and he wanted to take Ruth Ann and me for a ride. We met at Meriden Airport and squeezed into a Cessna 172… Ruth Ann in the front seat. The look on Ruth Ann’s face was priceless: white as a sheet! It was my first time in a small plane, too, but I fell in love with flying. By the way, no matter how large the plane (even a 747), she has to drug herself to make the trip.
On one of the excursions we took, Tony and I went to Brainard and rented a 172. Back in the late 60’s you could rent a plane for less than $20 an hour. He needed some landing work so we went to Westfield airport in Massachusetts. When we got there, we decided to get a cup of coffee and some pie at the coffee shop. We started gabbing and got up and walked out without paying… didn’t even leave a tip! I think there’s a poster in the Westfield airport lounge with our pictures.
Our stories of camping are legendary! The first trip that we took together was with Tony’s new trailer to Virginia… Yorktown, Williamsburg and the other historic places. We did this during the 1979 oil embargo by OPEC. Our Suburban towing a 26 footer got about 7 MPG, his LTD got a little better. Because he was a newbie with trailering, we stopped overnight and the way there. No big thing, but he didn’t like how I dumped my holding tank.
When we got to Williamsburg, Heather (their daughter) really started to act up. Becky had just turned six and she and Heather were playing outside, when a blood curdling scream overtook the campground. Heather at taken a swing at Becky and Becky hauled off and decked her. All we remember hearing was Heather screaming “She broke my bones!!!” Ruth Ann and I had to have a talk with Becky, all the while trying not to laugh. We HAD told her to defend herself (all boys in the neighborhood), but cousins were off limits.
I have a TON of fodder on Tony… WATCH THIS SPACE!!
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