You Can’t Go Home Again
I once read the novel You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe and have always pondered on the sentiment.
Last week, I went “home” for seven days to attend my nephew’s wedding in the small town of Rosendale, NY. It was the first time my family had been together since we had a memorial service in NJ for our mother who died from complications of COVID in 2021.
I traveled with my son and my partner, who never had the pleasure of socializing with my extended family; two brothers and their wives, three sisters and their partners, all of our children and their partners. We are indeed a force to be reckoned with. Everyone got along famously and my partner was well received by all. Always a good thing!
Our first stop was to my brother’s house in NJ. We slept in the same room as a hedgehog, who we learned the hard way is a nocturnal creature; one who runs on a wheel like hamsters do, but in a bigger, much louder way. I was told that they run on the wheel to stimulate their poop and when I took its wheel away at three AM, I lost more sleep worrying that he might explode and that I would have some explaining to do in the morning.
I surprised my partner with tickets to a sunset cruise on the Circle Line around Manhattan. The weather was perfect, the tour guide informative and we hit no traffic in or out of the city. That cruise never gets old. We had not been in NYC since before COVID and we were happy to see the city in all its vibrancy.
The Circle Line cruise never gets old.
The next day we visited with a friend of mine who recently lost a child and ate at Jefferson’s Cafe in the south end of Montclair. It was important for us to be there for her. Grief is a bitch as we know all too well.
We stayed a night at my sister’s apartment in Yonkers. The weather was superb, the best the Northeast has to offer. We discovered Stew Leonard’s with its miles of aisles of prepared food and we feasted like kings. It was nice to sleep with the windows open. In Florida, our air conditioner is on 365 days a year.
The wedding was held at a converted church in Rosendale, NY, a small town with charm oozing from every corner of its one main street. The ceremony was held outdoors with some kind of wispy substance flying around like fairy dust.
Dante & Mia Loxton
Dare I say magical? My ex-but-we-all-still-really-love-him brother-in-law got himself ordained in order to marry them and it was simple and lovely and sincere. The kind of wedding where you just know the couple will make it.
The night of the wedding we stayed at the Rodeway Inn in New Paltz. It was basic, clean and cheap. Our plans were to visit a friend in Piermont, but we forgot it was Memorial Day weekend and the traffic was considerable, so we headed back to NJ for my nephew’s 10th birthday party. He is a sweetheart and I’m glad I was there for his big birthday.
We flew back to West Palm after seven days and were happy to leave from Terminal A, a brand new, beautiful and efficient terminal at Newark Airport.
The new Terminal A at Newark Airport
Apparently, you can go home again. Just make sure to get a round trip ticket and leave your car at the airport.
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