Senior Slant

Irish Kemp - May 09, 2008

Back to the future. Our hopes of a green, green world are wallowing in red. Using our natural resources to build an energy-producing wind field is too costly a project, so sez the government.

Along with gas, the price to go solar is no longer an option. Forget the chicken in every pot! I’m gonna’ plant me a victory garden. String beans, tomatoes and a few environmentally correct fruit trees sounds good to me.

In the olden days, every yard had an apple, pear or cherry tree plus a grapevine, just for the pickings. I was going to plant those bread and poppy seeds I bought on the Boardwalk, but my beloved Dad’s “Do you think money grows on trees” still rings in my ears. I’d hate to prove him wrong.

Pollinator bees are disappearing. Are the days of wine and roses and fields of golden grain over? Am I psychic or psycho? My initial, victory garden column was written last Tuesday. Sunday’s Washington Post was chock full of victory garden “how-tos.” I’m feeling totally scooped by this mental telepathic plagiarism.

May is my favorite month. A memory-zinger for sure. Most Catholic school kids practiced more for the May procession than any other big event in their lives.

Let’s hear it for the birthday kids, Pete O’Connor, Dean Vilsack, Jim Geslois, Anna Forestrom, John Kemp, Nancy Micalizzi, Ann McDermott, the Rev. LaBarge, Rita Tindall Lorrie Dolan, Bert Jones, Cathy Bocci, Marcia Edwards, Phyllis Gaffney and my daughters, Kathi and Pat, and youngest son, PJ.

May was a great month to set sail on the sea of macaroni … sorry ’bout that slip of the lip, I meant matrimony. Just ask golden agers, Jack and Rosemary MacAleer, Bernie and Dean Vilsack, Bill and Kathleen Hensler, Jim and Mary Moeller, Earl and Pam Jones and John Sweet and his sweet Marie how they managed to keep their boat afloat through many, many years of meatless Fridays, blitz, bliss, blisters and turbulent seas before landing on the shores of Delmarva.

Thanks to the hundreds of volunteer hours these folks served for the good of the community this is, indeed, the land of pleasant living. Congratulations, kids! If you cross paths with the youngest than thou, anniversary kids, Steve and Tracey Drocella and John and Marie, give ’em an extra big hug for me. These folks are keeping a low profile these days. H’mm! Could they be traveling, incognito to avoid the local paparazzi?

Sorely missed around our community are the one and only Bev Townsend and her luv, Frank. Bev is a major cog in the wheel that keeps the Play It Safe organization rolling year after year. The Townsends are also rabid Redskin fans. Hurry back kids, we really love and miss you guys.

Oh yeah, folks, it’s that time of the year. We have nothing to fear if the hundreds of 2008 graduates coming to OC celebrate their first step into adulthood, sans parents, use their time and money wisely. Keeping ’em busy an out of trouble with the town’s finest and getting them back home safe and sound is a major project. If you are the parent of a beach-going ’08 graduate, play it safe. Warn them, that parental tough love could kick in. With gas prices soaring, they could end up as guests in the local hoosegow for the entire week, while their friends party hearty without them.

Tell them to check the Internet to find out about all the activities for ’08 graduates, such as dances, bowling, basketball and volleyball competitions, paintballing, miniature golf and karaoke, that the “Play it Safe” organization offers them absolutely free.

Oh yeah, let ’em know that with their winning ways, they don’t have to drink to jive! Candid cameras will be everywhere. Building memories that they can live with and show to their own kids years from now is what this life-saving project is all about!

Congratulations to Muffler Master’s bowlers Bill Neyen, Mary Watson, Helen Nappier, Ken McFarlin and Cap’n Carroll Chaney for winning top spot in Ocean City’s senior bowling league finals.

The Rhode Island trip’s a go — call 410-250-9043 for info. C U in OC.

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