Thursday, February 18, 2010

Back to my roots....

I know it has been a while since my last post....but I'm on vacation!

Last Saturday I made a pilgrimage down to the sacred land of Massachusetts in order to visit the fraternal order of Ponticelliopolous. Basically, I went to stay with my buddy Jay, and we had several outings....not the least of which was a trip over to Brockton to hang out with Timmy "Blanche" The Greek. The weekend consisted essentially of eating. Nonstop. This was first evidenced by Jay and I's trip to "Imperial Garden," the epitome of all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurants. Jay and I are still in awe of the magnitude of this place. Here's a sampling: All the usual Chinese foods, fresh shrimp down at least a dozen different ways, Rock crab, Snow Crab legs, whole crayfish, and raw oysters, "shucked" fresh by our lovely little reticent Chinese friend who, for some reason, refused to talk to Jay while he cut the mollusks. After the restaurant, Jay and I retired back to his Blackstone estate, only pausing long enough to change into our costumes for "chatroulette.com" session. More to come on that later. Maybe. Finally, to top off our Saturday night wifeless and kidless adventures, two 31 year old men sat together in Jay's hot tub. Yup. We are still as cool as ever.....

On Sunday, while we waited for Timmy to finish his "errands," Jay and I drove around and took a tour of my old stomping ground: the town of Easton.

The picture above is of Maplewood Restaurant. Well, actually, now it is called the "Plant Depot" or something like that. But, to us, it will ALWAYS be Maplewood restaurant. I really do need to take a whole blog's worth of time to honor the great eatery....but suffice to say right now that both Jay and I's lives were molded by our experience working at Maplewood. THE....and I mean THEEEEEE best job I have ever had.

I almost forget to mention that right before this, Jay took me for a romantic Valentine's day brunch at "The Chateau," which was known to us for years as "Anne's Place," a delightful restaurant nestled right on a lake. The fact that is was Valentine's day and we were alone together on a brunch date without our wives didnt bother us at all.........

And here's one of the most famous signs in Easton:

Muscato stadium is the home of the Oliver Ames Tigers. I still have a lot of "Tiger Pride," even though, by contract (and heart) I am now mostly "Black Raider" through and through. But I can recall several, wonderful, exciting Friday night football games underneath these lights....those were my glory days....I was the best sideline stander in OA history! No....I did start varsity football (I was their center), but was later "replaced" because my strength and quickness had "faded" as Coach Chapman said. Two months later was when I was diagnosed with cancer. Go figure. I can still remember Cindy Handscome (MY cheerleader) as she performed her Friday night ritual: Jared is the boy I want you to know/His name, his game, and his ability/he wears 58 on his shirt/better watch out or you're gonna get hurt! Did YOU have a cheerleader?????? Huh??????

As Timmy remarked, today's Oliver Ames High School looks like a space ship landed on the OLD Oliver Ames; we barely recognized it. In fact, the main entrance NOW is where all the band geeks, Zoofs, and Panaches used to park, smoke their Marlboros, and then run into the school....

Hey, who's that?? It is Batman!
And here's a picture that will come back to haunt me (or one of us) at some point in our sophomoric lives. Jay and I found a sale at "the dirt mall" known as Westgate Mall, and we donned some more of our "costume" gear for chatroulette. Disclaimer: Goldsmith5 is not responsible for the content of anything Greek people wear on his blog.

We won the trophy for being the awesomest everything of all time!

12 comments:

Kelly (Madison's mom) said...

Jared,
Your blog is bringing me down memory lane with the mention of Anne’s Place and Maplewood Restaurant. I met my husband at a Christmas party at Anne’s Place 14 years ago. There was another restaurant in a strip plaza nearby Maplewood too that my family and I used to go to all the time as well that I can’t remember. The restaurant later moved to a place 123 and it didn’t make it for long. Thanks for bringing me back.

Kristin said...

You should have stopped at the Donut Inn for donuts or gotten a slush puppy at little peach.

Did you sleep in jay's bed with him too?

jared said...

cool Kelly! I am glad this brings back memories for you....I really want to help you remember the other restaurant too....where was it exactly? Was it in "The Mulberry" shops across the street? Was it a pizza type place? Or was it in the Shaws plaza or "Whistlestop" village? As you probably know, I enjoy restaurants (and eating) and my dad and I always try to remember old restaurants!

Thanks for checking in!

SING YE said...

WHy you no visit us?

SING YE said...

WHy you no visit us?

jared said...

for the record: Sing Yee was absolutely open.

At 9pm when we drove by, even....

Unknown said...

Great seeing you pal.

My mouth is still burnt from Town Spa Pizza.

Blue Eyes is Amazing said...

FANTASTIC TIMES.

Nannie said...

I think it was the Tally Ho 2

or as my kids use to call it the Tally HO HO.

ortiz said...

There is threeof a kind that will beat a full hous! You forgot to tell everyone that the Maplewood went out of business because you ate the profits. Is that Batman or fatman!! wah wah.

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