Waiting for the Sun

Stone Harbor, NJ: For this first fall October Thursday of the season, ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ wanted to have one last alfresco meal before all the seasonal waterside eateries closed down for the winter or the temperatures just became too cold. So, the group decided to return to Pollyʼs Place in Stone Harbor on 96th and 3rd where they were denied alfresco dinning just this past May by swarms of gnats (see ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ: “Polly wants a Prankster”). This time Paul Mathis, Ed Sherretta, Jim “J9er” Ridgeway, Eddie Jurewicz, Jim Colubiale and Dave Smith braved temperatures in the mid-fifties and ate alfresco out in the shade on Pollyʼs back porch over looking Stone Harborʼs inlet docking area. Jackets and coats were required.

Once J9er realized we were serious about remaining outside in the chill to wait for Dave to arrive (Dave was out making a bus run and was about 30 min. late), he broke down and put on a jacket that he luckily had in the trunk of his car. So, while we waited for Dave, we had our first of several cups of coffee and studied the menu. Pollyʼs offered the basic breakfast fare of eggs made any-which-way someone could want, really moist and puffy omelets that could be made from a wide list of ingredients, as well as thick and fluffy pancakes. All the food was outstanding and portions were sizable.

Dave finally arrived and argued to remain outside for breakfast, pointing out that we will warm up once the sun peaks over the building. The chef himself took our orders, and we settled in to wait for the sun. Since Dave had just returned from a bus run, J9er couldnʼt help but think back to all those fall sports bus ride adventures that he took while coaching at the Erma School of Hard Knocks. When J9er mentioned Dolly, the bus driver, who wore Dolly Parton wigs and had a few other Parton attributes to earn her nickname, Jimmy C. recanted a time the Track team was returning from the State Meet in South Plainfield, New Jersey late in the evening when Dolly nodded-off at the wheel and the mini-van veered off the Parkway waking everyone on the bus as the wheels went over the rumble bumps on the shoulder. Jim made sure to include her in the conversations the rest of the way home.

Daveʼs most memorable bus trip also involved the Track team, but this time Terry was the bus driver and the team was returning from a weekend relay competition at Pinelands High School. Dave asked Terry if she needed directions or any help navigating back to the Parkway for the ride home and she declined. The next thing Dave knew, the bus was on a service road running parallel to the Parkway as Terry asked him: “How do I get over there? I want to get over there!” Jimmy C. offered a final story after Ed Sherretta mentioned how mostly all the bus drivers always felt they knew the shortest and fastest routes to anywhere in South Jersey. Jim agreed and told of a trip to Shawnee High School with Bob. This driver once took credit for discovering the Blue Route as a quicker course to Haverford College during Winter Track, when he made a wrong turn off of Route 206 and ended up on a dirt “alley” road behind some rural houses. Tom Mount, an assistant coach at the time, looked out the window and saw where they were. Mockingly, he asked Bob, “Hey Bob, is this the Brown Route?”

As our chef and waiter delivered our food, he told each of the omelet eaters that this was to be the best omelet they will ever have, and he wasnʼt kidding. The group began to tear into their meals, and the conversation turned to music and concerts as Ed Sherretta was reminiscing about how alluring Fleetwood Macʼs Stevie Nicks looked on stage. In fact, Ed pointed out that at one particular Mac concert he attended, he was next to a girl who asked him if Nicks was a lesbian because she wanted to “make it with her.” Upon hearing this comment, Paul immediately chimed in with, “Not that thereʼs anything wrong with that!” Providing the group with its Seinfeld reference of the morning, alluding to the episode where Jerry and George are mistakenly “outed” by a NYU Student reporter.

As the breakfast munched on, Dave began to place bits of food on the nearby railing in an attempt to entice some of the local bird population to have a little snack. All conversation then ceased as we quietly watched a few brave birds come right up and take the food off the rail. Not satisfied, Dave then tried to feed the birds by hand and had one take a morsel right from his fingers, prompting Jim to designate Dave as, “St. Smitty of Assisi”. Dave then went on to confide to the group that once he found a dead Cooper Hawk in his back yard. However, when he called the Cape May Point Bird Sanctuary to come and remove the bird, they declined saying that they do not respond to calls for Cooper Hawks. So, after further investigating the birdʼs body, Dave discovered a band on the hawkʼs leg. So, he opened the band and wrote to the address found there, explaining the situation. Weeks later, he received a letter from the National Audubon Society naming him an honorary life time member for his thoughtful concern over the dead Cooper Hawk. J9er was impressed, for now Dave is not only a member of the Cape May Shade Tree Commission but a National Audubon Member as well. Dave simply stated he was always thinking of branching out.

By this time, the first rays of the sun were finally reaching over the building and began embracing our back porch table with warm open arms. At the same time, our chef and waiter poured yet another round of coffee and tea leaving the bill on the table in the process. Since Doug “The Calculator” was not in attendance this morning, Jim took the bill, which was for 81.16, but was having trouble with calculating the tab without a calculator. He handed the duty over to Paul who had a cellphone calculator. However, when he handed the bill over, Paul read it upside down. Reading 91.18, he promptly figured that we each owed $20 for the morningʼs feast. Although the cost was a bit excessive, the group begrudgingly forked over their Jacksons. Thankfully, Paul thought this was a bit much himself, so he looked closely at the bill again and discovered the problem before we paid the waiter with what would have been the tip of a lifetime.

After all the excess monies were returned to everyone, which was like an Abbott and Costello routine in itself (“I lent you three so hereʼs a five and now you owe me two…”), the group sipped from their coffee and tea mugs while Ed Sherretta, looking down at the water underneath the porch area, started thinking about all the change he would see under the water beneath the Fun House Pier in the olden days. This opened the door for Jim to tell of the time he had to sub for Bill Noeʼs Special Ed. Class, and Karl Toft took him and his 4 students to the Breezy Lee docks on Ocean Drive to find sea life for his salt water tanks in his Oceanography classroom. Unfortunately for Jim, Billʼs 4 students had no desire to hang out with Karlʼs students and once they arrived at the dock, they started to disperse into to the maze of boats resting up on the grounds. Desperate to keep the 4 together and out of trouble, Jim attempted to tail them throughout the marina. While he was pursuing them along the dock area, he noticed a twenty dollar bill in shallow water right near the bow of a moored outboard. Seizing this opportunity, he gathered the 4, showed them the twenty and challenged them to retrieve it without getting wet since they all had to return to school and class in about 20 minutes. Then, Jim sat back and watched as the smallest of the group was selected to take his shirt off, and then after asking permission to go out on the bow of the boat where the money was, the other three slowly lowered the lad, head first, into the April water to successfully recover the twenty. On the trip back to the school, while Karl was showing off all the interesting marine life that his class found during their trip, Noeʼs 4 students chimed in that they found a twenty dollar bill and proudly displayed it to everyone which garnered cheers and applause from the bus. From that day forward, Jimmy C was know in the Special Ed. Classes as “Mr. C, bill fisherman!”

With that tale, another ʻBreakfast with Daveʻ was adjourned for another week. Pollyʼs Place came through again with fine food and service, providing a beautiful backdrop for some great fun and laughs over another fantastic morning feast. And the birds enjoyed the show as well.