Long Island Living (East Coast Trip part 1 of n)
In 1963, my grandparents on my father’s side moved into a house on Long Island, which any New Yorker will tell you is the largest island in the contiguous 48 states, an achievement akin to having the largest nose in Ireland. Speaking of Ireland, more people live on Long Island than in Ireland. At almost 7.6 million residents, Long Island is so crammed with people I saw some of them falling off the sandy beaches and into the water today, possibly trying to swim to Ireland where the population isn’t quite so densely packed.
As I said, 44 years ago the house in which I am currently typing this blog entry was purchased by my grandparents on my father’s side. My father himself moved in too, although he spent significantly less time at this house compared to his younger siblings. It’s quite strange to be back in this house because I came here frequently as a child; I remember crawling up the front steps and sticking my head in between the metal slats of the banister. It’s also a little strange being here with my wife; the last time I was here (in 2002), I hadn’t met my wife yet. And, of course, it’s hard for me to forget the birthday I spent in this house back when I turned 4 years old. The chocolate cake had tiny fingerprints on one corner by the time we were supposed to sit down and celebrate. I was framed, I swear.
So it is upon this backdrop that Vacation 2007 begins. I spent the first day catching up with my grandparents, eating a lot of home-cooked food, and looking around Costco to see how the Long Island version compares to the Costco locations in and around Seattle (the ancestral home of Costco). The biggest difference? You can buy beer, but not wine, at the Long Island Costco. New York’s liquor laws are interesting to me. For example, did you know that if you own a liquor store within the state of New York, you must be the sole owner of the store and live within a set distance from said store? It’s all true, if you believe Wikipedia. I’m heading to Virginia next, where any wine over 14% alcohol by volume (ABV) is sold in state “ABC” stores only, apparently. Perhaps I’ll go for that nice, mild white wine rather than the 16% ABV Zinfandel, eh?
In terms of strange stuff that has happened so far during the trip, the list is fairly short:
- When I asked the stewardess on our flight whether she could take my wife’s food tray away, she said “NOW?!” This was in first class.
- At least several extremely tan people asked me at the airport whether the luggage being disgorged into the baggage claim was from their Fort Lauderdale flight, and whether I worked for the airline. I guess I was flattered that, with long hair and a beard, I looked like an airline employee.
- When we were at a store today, a female senior citizen body-checked my wife into a display of pretzels without noticing. Bill Laimbeer would have been proud.
- I had my first real bagel in about five years…very nice.
- Cantaloupe is a type of “musk” melon, which is what they seemingly call cantaloupes here. Huh.
- I watched a man in an SUV plow his massive vehicle into a shopping cart, which was already touching a parked car. No serious damage seemed to be done. The driver took the cart into the store after dislodging his bumper from it.
- In the same parking lot, at about the same time, I watched a car try to pass another car on the left…within the parking lot…with pedestrians everywhere…while a car was trying to back out of a spot. Nice.
- And finally, my grandmother’s tomatoes outshine anything from the store. Impressive! We also had Long Island sweet corn with dinner. Wow…very impressive.
Tomorrow the plan is to find a replacement for my wife’s carry-on bag, the zipper on which has rendered the bag useless. And with that, it’s time to go to sleep and pretend it isn’t 3 hours earlier than it is now.