Homeward Bound From A Sunday Drive



Twilight In The Vermont Mountains

 After we'd all settled into the car and gotten comfortable, we'd start the long journey home...

Mom and my sis would have had lasagna for dinner, daddy his favorite spaghetti and sausages (or maybe meatballs) and I would have been happy to be savoring the memory of meat my Ravioli. Daddy would have had a mug of beer, maybe mommy too. I always had milk; I just loved how the tangy tomato sauce and milk blended together to make a somewhat cheese-like flavor linger on my tongue... My sis always had spumoni and I Bisque Tortoni for dessert, while mom liked pie with ice cream and daddy probably the same. They often had a coffee too, so they'd be sure to stay awake for the drive home.

Usually something funny would have happened during dinner. One time, for instance, Daddy noticed that he had been given only one sausage. Usually there would have been two or even three in some of the better restaurants. He waited patiently to see if maybe another one would arrive late from the kitchen or something. When this hadn't occurred in a couple of minutes, he called the waiter over and shined his ever handy flashlight onto his plate, asking if the waiter noticed anything was missing. The poor fellow stared at daddy's plate with a dumbfounded and  puzzled expression on his face... daddy finally told him, after he'd made the fellow squirm, that he was missing a sausage and would the man please bring it to him!

If I recall, the fellow tried very hard to convince daddy that there had been two on the plate, without going so far as to actually accuse him of telling a fib. Daddy didn't take kindly to this, needless to say, but he did eventually get his other two sausages!

My sister and I always kept some deodorant or mouthwash coupons to leave under our plates as "tips" when we'd had such a waiter or waitress. Needless to say, this feller got both!



The Glow After Sunset


We'd all have a good laugh about what had occurred at dinner, as well as which "special" coupons my sis and I had left under our plates...

Midnight Moon Kissing The Predawn To Awaken It

My sister and I would be gazing out the windows, sleepy-eyed or even dozing off... after a wonderful family dinner at some distant Italian restaurant in the mountains of Vermont or maybe the Adirondacks. We might even have been coming home from Canada on the newly complete Northway! Dad was usually driving while mom would be assuring our way home with a handy flashlight and the AAA Road Atlas she always kept nearby.