Yesterday was a lazy one for Louis.

I hung around the house all day. Actually, I laid in bed all day! A little TV, some reading and a lot of napping.

Last night started as usual at the Chart Room. I am beginning to feel like a regular. A distinction!

Had a couple of drinks. Chatted with Marty, Captain Peter, Che and Cindy.

Dinner was at Square One. A long time since I have been there. It was good to talk with owner Michael and batender Patrick again. The food was good. As usual! The crowd good, also. Especially for this time of the year.

Then home to bed to watch the basketball game. And again I fell asleep before it ended! One of these nights I am going to last to catch the last 2 minutes of a game. The best part!

I have been receiving comments to my blog lately from someone who calls himself Boss. Turns out to be Bob Marks. An old friend! One I am ashamed to say I have not seen in years.

Bob was an insurance adjuster in Syracuse, NY way back when I was a young lawyer. We became friends. There were several of us. All insurance adjusters, except for me. A wild bunch! Many the night I did not know how my car made the 50 mile trip back from Syracuse to Utica!

As the years moved on, Bob became increasingly successful in the insurance industry. My recollection is that he was with CNA. He ended up becoming a big time executive with them in San Francisco.

Along the way he met Helen. Helen also worked in the insurance industry. She ended up big time, also! She was in charge of all CNA’s asbestos cases regionally or nationwide. A big job! There were millions of such cases.

Both married. Not each other. Both divorced. Both remarried. This time to each other.

They asked me to be their best man. An honor!

The event occurred some 25 odd years ago.

The wedding took place in Portland, Maine. Helen wanted to be married in the same church her parents had married in during World War II.

So to Portland I went! I had never been there before. Nor to Maine.

The wedding took place in the middle of the winter. Cold!

I had a cold when I left and drove to Maine. I arrived in Portland with the cold and left 24 hours later with pneumonia! Not really, but was it cold!

The cold sticks with me. I recall going to a shopping center for some pills to help my cold. This was during a fuel crisis. There was no heat in the shopping center. Neither in the mall areas nor in the stores. Everyone, including the workers, were bundled in heavy coats, hats, gloves and boots.

It was that cold!

The wedding service itself was lovely!

Picture a small Luthern church. Candlelight. Helen dressed in the same maroon suit her mother had worn when she married. Touching and beautiful. So much in love! And still in love a quarter of a century later!

Afterwards there was a dinner party at some old time reaturant. An historical site. For real. The structure housing the restaurant probably went back to the American Revolution.

And cold! The building consisted of only thin clapboards. No insulation. No double walling. No plaster board. Between me the the elements were only the thin clapboards. With spaces in between some of them! So the wind blew in!

A major storm was raging outside! And I with my bad bad cold was sitting at the head table with my back one foot from the clapboard wall!

I thought I would die that night!

The next morning I felt terrible! So sick! I should have returned to Utica as planned. But wise I was not in those days!

Instead I drove to Boston and hopped a plane to Martinique. I figured the sun would straighten me out!

It did!

I went to a Club Med! I spent my days laying on the warm beach watching the topless beauties all around me! If I died, it would not have mattered. I was already in Heaven!

Those were the days!

Bob and Helen, I am glad we are coming together again after all these years. May we enjoy many more together! And yes, I look forward to your Fall visit to Key West! Where no one is ever cold!

4 comments on “

  1. Good Day to you Lou, You know the details better than I. We will be married 30 years on 1/9/2011.
    I have sent you several e/mails in the past. They must be going to your spam. helbob295@aol.com
    Peace to yopu my friend
    bob

  2. Good Day to you Lou, You know the details better than I. We will be married 30 years on 1/9/2011.
    I have sent you several e/mails in the past. They must be going to your spam. helbob295@aol.com
    Peace to yopu my friend
    bob

  3. My oh my! Louis, I am of the distinct impression that you not only have a crystal clear memory, but also one of the more fascinating lives a person could have! Thanks for the sharing.

  4. My oh my! Louis, I am of the distinct impression that you not only have a crystal clear memory, but also one of the more fascinating lives a person could have! Thanks for the sharing.

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