This week is something of an anniversary for me. In July of 1977, at age 20, I left Pennsylvania on a two-week bicycle trip to New England, with the somewhat vague destination of Cape Cod in my mind. Along the way I met some folks who suggested I visit Block Island, which is off the Rhode Island coast. I arrived on Block Island July 12, and two of the first people I met were a couple of bartenders at a pub called the Yellow Kittens, named Lou Elia and Bill Dunleavy. Louie and Bill invited me to stay over at their place (they were impressed that I had come all that way on a bicycle) and over the next few days, convinced me to stay on Block Island rather than go on to Cape Cod. Not only did I stay; I quit my job in Pennsylvania and spent the summer, then returned for summers and, for three years year-round, for the next twelve years. Living on Block Island changed my life more than anything I can imagine; it is why I'm still in New England thirty years later. I should also mention that over the years I've never seen Lou Elia again, and heard that Bill Dunleavy lives in South Carolina.
This morning, following an early-morning meeting in Rhode Island, I decided to go have breakfast. On a whim, I went to a small waterfront restaurant in Jerusalem, Rhode Island - a place I've never been before. I finished breakfast and was reading the paper, and looked up to see a man talking to the waitress.... it was Bill Dunleavy. I spoke to him, told him who I was, and he remembered; then I told him he and Louie had been on my mind because it was thirty years to the day when I first met them. Bill said he was in that restaurant, with his wife and sister, because his niece works there. He also said he's on Block Island for the summer with his sailboat, and that Louie will be there this weekend. I'm going to HAVE to go there on Saturday.
I'm stunned.... I am not someone who thinks a lot about coincidences, but this one has my head spinning.
Posted by John Arnott (Member # 215) on :
Thats amazing Cam!
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Go there and enjoy!
Posted by Dale Manor (Member # 4858) on :
Should be an interesting little visit Cam....have fun!
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
I don't believe in coincidences. I think it part of the big plan. You were supposed to be at that restaurant. Why? I don't know. He does, though...
Have a great time visiting with your long lost pals!
Posted by W. R. Pickett (Member # 3842) on :
...Bruce said it, there are NO coincidences. It didn't matter where you went Cam, you were DESTINED to cross paths w. your old friend. Fate is unavoidable...
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
Holy Cow Cam, Yer oooold!
Nice story! All of us have been affected by people who touched our lives in one way or another. It's amazing how many times we try like crazy to engineer something that happens much by accident.
I don't believe in fate, but I love it when a pleasant unexpected event crosses my path.
Have a great time!
[ July 12, 2007, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
Spirit of nature. Nature of spirit.
?
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
if you dont do it...WOULD BE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF YER LIFE.....if you get a chance pick up the book CELISTINE PROPHECY........after this experiance you will really enjoy reading it.
[ July 12, 2007, 07:50 PM: Message edited by: old paint ]
Posted by kent moss (Member # 4295) on :
Something magical about being near salt water.
Cam,U always remind me of the great sign meet in Stonnington, CT
Posted by J.G. Kurtzman (Member # 1736) on :
Cam; Can't say what it is about the place, but the energy there is what made the trip worth while. Used to go there a lot in the 1980's and stay with "Thirsty Joe" who had a house near the airport. Staying with him and his family was unforgetable with a lot of home town conversation of when we were in school together. Joe had 200 lobster pots at that time that had to be checked every other day, 100 being on the Neck end of the island, and the other 100 on the south end. Sure...Get up and be on the boat at 5:AM, assist him with banding lobsters and rebaiting the traps till 10:AM. After returning and securing the boat,he sends me to the charter boats seeking "Racks" (fish bones left after the fillet is removed) for baiting tomorrows traps while he goes to Freddy Finns with all the lobster, but buys me lunch. NOW....we go home to rest, I think, however, next to the phone on the wall is a list his wife left that extends all the way to the floor. Joe had a 1 acre garden and sold produce and flowers to most of the restaurants on the Island. Pick and place everything in the back of his station wagon and deliver to the proper restaurant. Of course one had to have shot and beer at every stop, and you know how the sun hurts your eyes at 3:00 in the afternoon, so the bar was a good place to be. By 4:30 we head home again to call it a day. After collapsing on the couch,I hear "Get Ready", we're going to go out for dinner with "Jersey Stan", and there's a new band at Captain Nicks. So after dinner we had to stay for last call at Captain Nicks and talk to the band guys. Now its 2:30AM and NOW we need to go home and sleep because we have to get up at 4:00AM and do it all over again. That was 25 years ago, and Joe is still alive. His kids run "Rebecca's" Seafood Takeout in Old Harbor, and the public beach concession, and his wife works in the Chamber Of Commerace. Joe closed the garden and built a 4 bedroom rental, owns a restaurant in Jupiter Fla. and takes his 38ft custom offshore to the Bahama's for two monts every year. This guy never graduated high school, and from what I can remember still owes detentions to junior high.His motto is "Better to owe it to you than cheat you out of it" Coincidence for me was when I ran into my long ago female lettering apprentace while on the Island one year.Ellen went on to become a fashion illustator in Manhatten, and currently lives on the "Neck". Another subject I might mention is while at a party on the Island one night, met a fellow who was from Kittery Maine. Eagles became the subject, and said that his family was the recepiant of a few Bellamy Eagles. My reaction was show me, and so he did. I have digital pictures of one that is questionable because the motto is "Live and Let Live". The Portsmouth Museum says Belamy never made that motto, however it may be one from Bellamys apprentace who was capable of duplicating his style perfectly. If you like, I can email the pics to you.
J.G. Kurtzman john@kurtzmansigns www.kurtzmansigns.com Posted by Cam Bortz (Member # 55) on :
Kurtzman, I know "Thirsty" Joe Szabo and Jersey Stan Balles, I spent most of the eighties on Block and probably know most of the folks there that you know. Here's a few names to jog your memory - Rob "Rabbi" Eisenberg, Charlie Dodge, John Henry Tripler, Steve "Kahuna" Marks, Joe "JP" Pokraka, Roger Aubut, Vinnie McAloon, the late Dickie Kiley, I could go on...
The Block can be a tough place to go anymore, emotionally. So many old friends and and acquaintances have, as the Irish say, left for heaven without warning. It was a great place to be in my 20s. It would still be a great place to be if I was still in my 20s, but I'm not, so it isn't, anymore.
OP, I read Celestine Prophecy years ago. Typical New Age psuedo-philosophical fakelore rubbish, about what I would expect though. Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Donch'a love it when that happens??
Nice to see ya back in the 'Ville Cam . . .
Have you forever forsaken the South?? What about Mississippi?
.
.
[ July 13, 2007, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: Sheila Ferrell ]
Posted by Ricky Jackson (Member # 5082) on :
Billy Bob beat me to it: It is your destiny to go Posted by captain ken (Member # 742) on :
its a small world after all... I just did some math too, and i agree, yer old...
for me its coming up on a 20 high school thing, I finally get to talk about "the good old days" rescently I was going through my email, as I do daily, deleting all the offers from African dignitarys and mortage refinance spam when I came across one from an odd US Navy adress. turns out its my oldest childhood friend Paul my best friend in 2nd grade.... until High School, after we graduated I went to art school he went into the Navy, 18 years later he is a Lt. and was sending me the email via a ship to shore somewhere out at sea. Saying...
"Hey Ken I had some down time and was searching names on Google, and clicked a pinhead Lounge link and low and behold it was you, great work.. so Ken your a pinhead now?" I replyed...."thats 'Captain' Ken to you, Leiutenant...lol, and yeah im a pinhead now"
Posted by Nancie W. Phillips (Member # 3484) on :
Neat how life sometimes works, Cam. I wholeheartedly believe that nothing happens for no reason...
Posted by Cam Bortz (Member # 55) on :
Quick update... Deb and I went to Block on Saturday morning, had breakfast, rode bikes, rented kayaks for an hour or so paddling around the harbor, had some quality beverages and lunch, and about 4pm we met up with Louie and Bill at the Oar, on of the Island's renowned gin mills. It was so great to meet up and reminisce; we all remembered things from that summer that the others had forgot - like Bill giving me sailing lessons, and Lou's girlfriend waking us early one Sunday morning and dragging us, very hungover, to Mass (and I'm nothing even close to Catholic!). All in all a great day.... and yeah, we were all in awe of the coincidences of life.
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
Wow, what a great story Cam!
Where are you from, in PA?
I was hoping to go up east to the Maritime Meet, but nope, not this time.
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It was a great place to be in my 20s. It would still be a great place to be if I was still in my 20s, but I'm not, so it isn't, anymore.![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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