Mrs. Teabody Goes Gatsby

Pete, H. and Don-o Together at Rillo's

Nostalgia has been described as a wound of the heart and was once thought to be a sign of depression. However, in more recent years nostalgia has been regarded in a much different light showing that sharing stories of the past is a way of underscoring the connections that made life more meaningful. When old friends and/or families sit together in a room sharing happy stories from the past, the temperature of the room actually rises, according to recent studies.

Good Morning from Chez Teabody  where everyone is stirring about in these pre-dawn hours in preparation for a long journey full of excitement, adventure and nostalgia. Mrs. Teabody has made it a point in the past few years of reconnecting with the people who have played important roles in her life in all of its stages and the results have been much more than gratifying. They have also been rejuvenating. Pictured above are two friends who were a huge part of her life during her early twenties when everyone is searching to find exactly who he or she is as a person completely independent of family. Mrs. Teabody could not have asked for better company.

1971 was not the best year to graduate from college with a teaching degree. Colleges were filled to the brim with young brilliant men who did not want to go to Viet Nam and Mrs. Teabody found herself not quite cutting the competition when school districts could have Yale graduates on their faculty. One MUST work, of course, and Mrs. Teabody holds no snobbery toward a job in service. No one who has had her teenaged face smacked  twice a day by a filthy, moist dairy cow's tail feels above any kind of work. Rillo's in 1971 was on the upswing and Mrs. Teabody joined the team where a very young Nick Rillo was running a restaurant with the kind of expertise one expects from a much older man. He was a GREAT boss with an impeccable work ethic matched by his love for good music. His staff with the exception of one dishwasher and one bus boy were all college graduates and four or five were students at Dickinson Law School.  Rillo's attracted a very diverse clientele, among them many young gentlemen from the nearby U.S. Army War College. Friday nights were especially busy but staff remained cheerful because when the restaurant doors closed at 11,  Nick turned on the music and employees and  some of their friends could stay for the fun.

"Pete and Myron" were regular customers to Mrs. Teabody's section and she was always glad to see them because they were ridiculously entertaining. No one in Mrs. Teabody's experience has ever had a quicker wit than has Pete. After a few months, this dynamic duo were joined by a very youthful "Don-o"-- everyone had a nickname except for Pete -- and the fun notched up considerably. Because they were in the Army, they had to maintain a level of fitness which is how Mrs. Teabody found herself on a racquetball court for the first time. There were also climbs and cubing and great measures of bon homie  and summer days that I thought would never end. After Mrs. Teabody's  college friend, Mar, took up residence in the country, the friendship extended to weekend picnics and barbecues with lots of experimental cooking and perhaps a bit too much Boone's Farm tipple. Sadly, things had to change.  Pete left for Bucknell  and "the steam team" made one memorable visit to his apartment  with a cooler full of ingredients and Mrs. Teabody's much-used Mastering the Art of French Cooking to cook one last spectacular meal of beef bourguignon followed by Cherries Jubilee for what is a meal without at least one dish requiring flambé? There was a great deal of wine involved in the cooking process, a great many brave ideas but the beef casserole and the cherries dessert moved along in their preparation. At the end of the cooking process the beef is to be basted  several times with the sauce. Mrs. Teabody had forgotten her basting brush and lamented the fact to which Pete held up a parsley bunch and said, "A little more soul, Toots". This was so much the spin of Pete.  Note taken. Such easy smiles, such willing attitudes. Looking back it seems impossible to have ever been that young. That was the last time Mrs. Teabody saw Pete for forty-two years though yearly Christmas cards managed somehow to link present with past over the years. Don-o remained in the area for a few months longer as a wonderful friend for racquetball and music and fun before Mrs. Teabody decided a graduate degree was worth pursuing. Separate ways to lead separate lives.

On Valentine's Saturday 2015 Mrs. Teabody noted a well-dressed  couple entering her shop. Busy in the back, Mrs. Teabody called to them asking  if they'd like a cuppa. They responded yes and Mrs. Teabody approached them asking which sort of tea they liked when the gentleman said, "We're actually looking for 'H'," another nickname from the past. Instantly Mrs. Teabody knew it was Pete in the company of "Irene" of the forty-two years of Christmas cards. What a flood of emotions! What a moment! They were on their way back to Bucknell to celebrate Valentine's in the place where they had met and fallen in love. A happy hour of catching up and reminiscing ensued. All too soon it was over but not before Mrs. Teabody had the opportunity to thank Pete for being such a positive influence in her life. One MUST do that, you know.

An E-mail arrived a couple months ago from Pete noting that Don-o was heading east to Philly for a family fete and  maybe a reunion at Rillo's was in order as Don-o and wife Peg made their  way homeward to Wisconsin. Could Mrs. Teabody join the party? Mrs. Teabody could and did. These three couples met in the parking lot of Rillo's on a sunny September day and it took about three minutes to talk easily and start the trek down memory lane. Once inside there was much talk of remembered shenanigans and enough Lambrusco-- the wine of the era--to make a toast to friendship and happy days ahead. Spouses were wonderfully indulgent all the while. All too soon the happy time came to a close and it was Don-o's lovely wife Peg who captured the parting snapshot above.

Mrs. Teabody received the nicest and funniest E-mail from Don-o just before her trip to London and in a easy back and forth, Mrs. Teabody shared the following thought with Don-o: "I feel so sad that this much-anticipated meeting is now a thing of the past. We had some very wonderful times at an important stage of our lives and those experiences have colored at least part of my whole life. I never think of you or Pete or those days with anything other than happiness and gratitude."

Perhaps Mrs. Teabody will never see Don-o and Peg or Pete and Irene again. That's not the point. That clinking of glasses of Lambrusco across the center of a table in the place where this friendship was born was enough, an homage to the power of thought and remembrance when the world was very young and new.