Hey, Eisketeers! (Might as well make some use of the last name. As you are about to find out, I had a "meeting," if you can call it that, with two people responsible, remotely responsible, but responsible nonetheless, for Steven Long Eisenpreis' creation, and I am about to tell a very Long story about the middle name too.)
As you may recall, trying to get a Lyft from Mount Airy Lodge to Wilkes-Barre, one of the largest cities in Pennsylvania and the town where my mom Bettijane was born, was no walk in the park, and by the time we realized we were five minutes late and we had to call the Rabbi who was guiding us through the cemetery where our ancestors were buried to tell him we were going to be a LITTLE late. As I went to the casino entrance of Mount Airy looking for our driver, I put in another call for a driver, and what do you know, there was one in the neighborhood who was about to let a passenger out. 15 minutes and a text later, Jennifer, our new Lyft driver, drove up to the entrance, and led us through the beautiful Pocono Mountains and the kind of small towns every Manhattan neighborhood aspires to emulate right into the heart of Wilkes-Barre,which has taken a few poundings from Mother Nature, 9/11,the 08 recession, and the broken promises of the last Presidential administration, but manages to keep on swinging. After a mixup as to the exact coordinates of the Temple B'nai Brith Cemetery, to use its full name, we were finally greeted by our patient and jovial rabbi, and I visited the plots for my paternal grandparents, Sigmund (the inspiration for my first name, betcha didn't know!) and Claire. I told her to stay. Right. Where. She. Is. (That's a story for another time.)
On the other hand, we had a better time, or at least as good a time that you can have in a cemetery any day before Halloween, exploring the history of the Longs of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, including Simon who used the war in California with the Indians as a selling point for his department store on Public Square (for reasons that mystify me to this day), and when we made it to the graves of my maternal grandparents, Carol Hess Long and Clinton Mayer Long, I extended my tradition of giving Pop (as I called CML) the baseball cap of the World Series champion (The LA Dodgers won a VERY strange year.) to Nana (Carol) by giving her a cap from the Jimmy Fund, the Boston Red Sox' initiative benefiting Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute. I may hate the Red Sox on the field, but they do so much for the community, and that makes them the broken watch that's right at least once a day! After the Kaddish and a visit to the marker of David Baltimore, the owner of NBC affiliate WBRE-TV and its radio sister who, it should be noted, employed the aforementioned mom, and to him, thanks are due in perpetuity. (FYI, WBRE's radio stations are now owned by Audacy, formerly Entercom, formerly CBS Radio, and the TV station has since combined its newsgathering operations with CBS affiliate WYOU,formerly,WDAU, the sister station of Philadelphia Eye station WCAU,and they are currently under the stewardship of Nexstar, which has converted superstation WGN America into NewsNation, a truly fair and balanced channel. ) After this family reunion,the Rabbi gave us a lift to Public Square, and after a search for something to eat (We both agreed that Chik-Fil-A was OH-YOU-TEE for so many reasons!) we happened on this nice Italian restaurant and we took another Lyft back to the hotel where I hung out before heading out to PNC Field in beautiful Moosic, the home of Montage Mountain, a popular ski resort, and seeing the Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre Railriders, the Triple A affiliate of my beloved Yankees, begin a very exciting game against the Washington Nationals-affiliated Rochester Red Wings. Ordinarily, I would hang around to see a Yankee-related team win in extra innings, but my phone was rapidly running out of juice and Mom was kinda (Understatement of the year!) worried about my being stranded in No Man's Land, so I decided to leave just before the seventh inning. Anywho, PNC Field is a very beautiful modern facility, and the in-game entertainment is just as fun, especially the race between characters costumed as Yankee legends Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Billy Martin. (Sorry, no player autographs, but high-five their mascot Champ!)
As for today, I did some gambling, but I stuck to eighteen bucks in loose change that I had saved at home. I remembered what Mr. Rogers said about knowing when to fold 'em!)
I'm either going to swim or work out or do both, but tomorrow we'll be back in the Apple, and I'll be more ready to take on Cleveland and my return to the working world in the Fall. Things are going great after that miscue, and I believe they're only getting better!
Finally, good luck to our athletes in Tokyo. Usually, I would say, "Wish I were there!", but since Tokyo is under a state of emergency, I'll have to change that to "Wish you were here!"
Steve out!
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