And Now The Story

I woke up at 8:00am this morning after a restless night laced with uneasy anticipation of the noon arrival of Scott Reed and Ben Sears. What had they planned? Where were we going? What was going to happen???????

As directed/ordered I dressed in black and was ready for their arrival. A few minutes after noon the doorman-buzzer rang and Georgie said that Scott was here. I told him to send them up and he did and the adventure began.

They refused to tell me where we were going and/or what we were going to do for the afternoon. When we got to the street, parked in front of the apartment was a purple Mini Cooper. Oh my God!! They had rented a Mini Cooper for the day. Awesome!! I love this make of car and will own one in a nano-second if and when I ever again need to have a car of my own. They knew how I feel about the Mini Cooper. A great beginning. We got in, with Scott driving, me in the passenger side and Ben in the back seat. They still would not tell me what was going to happen.

We turned South and headed downtown, making it over to the FDR Drive and then into the Lower Eastside. I was still clueless. We drove around this area a bit and then headed over to Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge but after driving around Brooklyn for a bit we came back to Manhattan, again via the Williamsburg Bridge. What the hell? Now I was really confused.

The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was next and when we exited Scott got on the freeway leading to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which leads to Staten Island. Ah ... now I had a clue ... we were going back to Staten Island. Last year for my 73rd birthday they took me over to Staten Island for my very first visit there.

So, over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge we went, my first time on that bridge since I ran in the 1978 and 1979 New York Marathons, and then we were on Staten Island.

They still wouldn’t tell me where we were headed but at about 1:15 we turned onto Goethals Rd and then into the parking lot at Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse. This was our final destination. How had they chosen this place? Simple. They just googled steakhouses on Staten Island and then selected Charlie Brown’s. Made sense to me.

We had an awesome lunch and a great time together. We talked about a lot of things and stuff including my upcoming Japan/China trip. The food was great and we all ate too much, topping our meal off with a decedent frozen desert, which we shared. They picked up the tab.

When our meal was over we had our picture taken and then we headed back to Manhattan, this time with Ben driving and Scott in the back seat. We retraced our route and I was back in the apartment at 3:40pm. I have to admit that I was overwhelmed with emotion over the fact that these two young men had devoted this much time to me. Why was I so emotional? Because, they both are in school and also have jobs and this was their first free time together in about 2 weeks, and ... they chose to spend part of it with me, just like last year. Wow!!

Speaking of last year, I also want to share with you what I wrote about Scott and Ben and our 2007 Staten Island adventure. This is from the May 26, 2007, Newsletter --
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"I must honestly say that the highlight of the time was something entirely different. On Saturday, May 12, Scott Reed and his boyfriend Ben Sears gave me a belated birthday present. They surprised me by taking me on a trip to Staten Island via the Staten Island Ferry. Neither Scott nor I (I hate to admit) had ever been to Staten Island. We had joked many times about making a trip over there but never had. They planned everything without letting me know where we were going or what we would be doing. They absolutely refused to tell where we were going. When they picked me up at 2:30 I had no clue. They then took me on a 90 minute circuitous trip on the subways to further confuse me, and they succeeded. It was not until we finally ended up at South Seaport that I knew we were Staten Island bound.

We took the Ferry over to the Island and then rode the above-ground train the entire length of the Island ending up to Tottenville and back to the Ferry station. Then we returned to lower Manhattan where we had dinner at a restaurant called Big Daddys. I was back at the apartment around 9:30 overwhelmed with the fact that these two vibrant young men had opted to devote 7 hours of their time on a Saturday to a 73 year old uber-sarcastic guy whose legal name is now Billi Pod. So, again, thank you guys from the bottom of my heart."
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So, again, thank you guys from the bottom of my heart!!!

Oh, in the picture below Scott is on the left and Ben on the right.

Bill
wanjr@aol.com