Cape May Court House, NJ: Steveʼs 47 Cafe at 189 Route 9 in Cape May Court House was the choice for ʻBreakfast with Daveʼsʼ last gathering of 2011. On this last December Thursday, Jim Colubiale, Eddie Jurewicz, Paul Mathis, Dave Smith and Ray “Snowbird” McAlarnen came together to share some great food and good times, with many laughs on the side.
Steveʼs 47 Cafe menu offers the standard breakfast fare of eggs, omelets and pancakes. However, the menu also contains some unique selections like the “Pigs in a blanket” special, Jimʼs favorite, which consists of two eggs, a sausage, and 2 strips of Bacon each wrapped inside their own pancake. The coffee was very fresh and refills were bottomless, and the waitress did a fantastic job of keeping up with the groupʼs caffeine cravings throughout the meal.
With their orders taken and a fresh cup of coffee and tea in their mugs, Dave entertained the group with the
story of the worst job he ever had. But first Paul gave Dave a brief grammar lesson on redundancy by correcting Dave when he described the job as “the most unique”, arguing that the idea of “most” is inherent in the denotative sense of something being unique. Undaunted, but now grammatically enlightened, Dave continued the story.
Since Dave was a very competitive high school athlete in both wresting and track, he thought that he should work a summer job that would give him a chance to toughen his then 130-pound frame. So, Dave decided that he would work for a landscaping and construction company, and he along with two other wrestlers were given the task of taking full sized railroad ties and drilling spikes into them with a jack hammer. Not only did Dave have trouble hitting the head of the spike with the jack hammer, but he was having even more trouble holding the machine steady when it wasn’t even hammering! Dave lasted about three days. Paul couldnʼt help but laugh because the mental picture of a teenage Dave using a jack hammer brought to Paulʼs mind the image of George Costanza using a jack hammer to find his Phil Rizzuto key chain. “Holy cow!”, the first Seinfeld reference of the morning came early.
Dave also told the group the secret that has kept him lifeguarding all these years. In the summer, the winds
blow off the ocean more than they do any other direction which puts the wind right in the face of the guards on top of their stands. After five hours of withstanding these winds, guards would wear sweatsuits and hoodies to keep themselves warm even when the air temperatures were relatively warm. Dave was even thinking of quitting lifeguarding altogether until his stand partner back then taught him a neat job-saving trick. First, each stand was (and still is) supplied with a beach umbrella. Next, his stand partner took a sheet and proceeded to tie the bottom ends on the back legs of the stand and then pull the top of the sheet over the umbrella, creating a half dome over the top of the stand. Then, the top corners were tied to the front sides of the stand. Miraculously, after the dome filled, the air inside became calm and warmed considerably, making a once intolerable situation not only bearable but enjoyable. Through the miracle of physics, Dave was able to remain a lifeguard for 23 years.
Once the food arrived, Dave still had more to confide to the group. His last two blood tests have shown that Dave has unusually high levels of vitamin “D”, and he wanted to know if anyone in the group knew what this could mean. No one really knew for sure, but Paul jokingly mentioned that this could be a sign of Lupus, which became our second Seinfeld reference of the morning, alluding to the episode where George has a white growth on his lip and when the doctor says he doesn’t know what it is, George questions, “Is it Lupus?” Jim thought that the “D” here could mean “Dave” and that the high levels of “D” simply mean that Dave is full of himself.
As if to take his mind off the elevated “D” levels, Dave began to tell a joke. “A married couple in the back of a cab are talking about….”, he began before stopping short after realizing that he had forgotten what the couple was supposed to be talking about. This was vintage Dave Smith joke telling! As Paul pointed out, whatʼs funny isn’t that Dave forgot the joke, but how he made forgetting the punch line the joke itself.
Throughout breakfast several individuals from LCMR were spotted dining in the Cafe. One of the old janitors was eating at the counter when the group entered, and a female alumni, Barb Schick (class of ʼ82), ate with her husband at the table next to the group. When asked to identify the members of the group, the only person she thought she remembered was Dave. However, when the group asked her for a name, she responded, “John Wilsey?” A more recent male alumni came over to the table to say, “Happy New Year” and asked about Jimʼs youngest son AJ. Finally, Whistling Bill – the Bus Driver came over to join in on the fun for a moment or two. Dave wanted to know if he still had the ponies he would rent out for kiddie rides in the spring, summer and fall, and Bill responded affirmatively pointing out that he was – at this very moment – in the process of hauling some manure. This discussion inevitably led to the Jerry Seinfeld pony remark when he told his second cousin Manya at her 50th Anniversary dinner that he hated ponies and anyone who had a pony, which became the third Seinfeld reference of the morning.
As the empty dishes were bused from the table and the group savored yet another cup of fresh, hot coffee and tea, they figured that the individual tab for this weekʼs pre-New Yearʼs Eve feast would be $11.00. As everyone kicked in their share, Jim offered an end of the year Ten Best ʻBreakfast with Daveʻ moments from the past year of posting on “BreakfastwithDave.wordpress.com”:
- Gene Sole visits ʻBreakfast with Daveʻ to return the bottle of “Wild Turkey: Rare Breed”. “Blue Plate Special”
- The Toast to Gene. “Semper Fi”
- The check incident. “Waiting for the Sun”
- ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ reaches banquet status. “Steveʼs Dirty Dozen”
- The first female ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ celebrant. “Day of Firsts at the Midtown Diner”
- The youngest ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ participant. “Breakfast with Blake”
- The most memorable ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ venue. “The Tuckahoe Family Diner: The Unpetables”
- The most Seinfeld references. “Breakfast with a Side of Tun Tavern”
- Most readers in one day. “Coming Full Circle at the Back Bay Bistro”
- Best post about Iron Man Dave. “Eddie and Jimʼs Iron Man Dave Adventure”
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ʻBREAKFAST WITH DAVEʼ!
Which one is Dave?
