Old Friends

Old Friends   …   Sunday 7th October

We had a really great time catching up with John Higgins and meeting his two children Dan and Emmy Lou for the first time. John was best man at our wedding on a hot and sunny day in August, more than a quarter century ago now. He is also a chemist and first met Gloria when he was assigned to work on the bench next to her in the Brown University chemistry labs. This was a scary experience for John (~ 5'9" and 170lb of pure muscle) as Gloria (~ 5'1" and 105lb of pure attitude) had started to enjoy the extra space the previously open bench provided! John claims it only took him a day or so to win her round. That's what that "rough around the edges" charm can get you! I arrived at Brown some time later and had the good fortune to be assigned the bench opposite Gloria. (No real estate issues there!). I was looking for a climbing partner and was introduced to John who by that time was working in another lab. He was also a keen climber and we became firm friends. We had all sorts of wild climbing adventures with a bunch of other good friends. Over the years we have stayed in touch and met up occasionally, both in the UK and the US, but it had been a really long time since we last got together and we had never met Dan or Emmy Lou.

It was about 7.30pm and already dark when they arrived at the marina. It wasn't a very nice evening for a dinghy ride with stiff winds blowing across the harbor. We dressed up in waterproofs and life jackets and the 10 minute journey back to the boat felt very exciting. Emmy Lou gets the bravery award - she thought we were headed out into the open ocean rather than staying in the harbor - but she never complained! Once aboard we cooked up "tri-tip" steak on the barbecue and drank a fine bottle of red wine and chatted till midnight. The morning arrived with cold showery weather, and after a good breakfast we headed back to shore. It was a great visit and we are determined not to leave it so long next time.

This afternoon Gloria and I are off to find a bar that is showing the Patriots game. We re-thought our plan to come into the marina fuel dock and decided instead to fill our diesel and water jerry cans each time we dinghy to shore.

Mike

Emmy Lou, John and Dan Higgins - Cape May Harbor