I received an email flier a while back from my pal betty who you met in past entries Before The House Comes Down and Odds, Ends and Friends. The email invited us to a concert to benefit The Guild for Exceptional Children, a unique non-profit agency in Brooklyn that addresses the needs of developmentally disabled youngsters and adults. betty, her brother, her husband, and two of their four children would be performing. I RSVP’d to reserve one ticket for me since Husband was unavailable that evening. Daughter responded by volunteering to assist, and in so doing would be in a position to sell me raffle tickets, which you may recall I find impossible to refuse.
The benefit was held at the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church in the heart of the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn with its spectacular views of the Verrazzano Bridge. This area achieved pop-culture status with the release of a certain John Travolta movie in which he transformed the white suit from Good Humor to Sex Symbol. The church was built in 1890 and is a beloved landmark with its sandstone clock tower and majestic presence. It now needs repairs reaching to the million$ so the plan is to tear it down and rebuild it. This past Friday night is probably the last time I will be graced in its current presence.
Sitting in the pew behind me, my friend Annie leaned over and said she had wanted to comment on the blog entry I’ll Be Seeing You in which Daughter’s LASIK surgery was recounted, but she couldn’t navigate to the comment page. Annie, this is for you: At the bottom of each entry you can click on Add Comment and that will get you there. You can also go to the left sidebar and click on the entry you want and scroll down to Add Comment. If the entry is no longer there, enter a key word like ‘lasik’ in the search box. All entries containing that word will appear. Choose the one you want and scroll to the bottom and click on Add Comment. I’m waiting to respond. No pressure. In the meantime, to Gotham Lasik on West 56th Street: Nicely done.
The concert featured both seasoned and upcoming musicians playing together for the first time and sounding like they’d been performing regularly. They did everything from soulful ballads to foot-stomping anthems with people dancing in the aisles and joining in the chorus. In addition to betty’s lovely voice, there was her husband’s mean guitar and the vocals of her brother, who out-Tom Petty’d Tom Petty. He took the place apart. I asked for his autograph, he was that good. He said, “Cut it out. Buy another raffle.”
But it was listening to the betty kids that brought me back to the basement. betty’s son remains one of Daughter’s best friends since age 3 and Son still sees betty’s daughter at parties. Watching them onstage twenty years later, their delicious harmony and quirky song lyrics reminded me of lazy afternoons chatting in betty’s living room while our six kids played a level below us. The betty basement was a neighborhood urban legend. It was so dense with toys and make-believe that the actual floor was not visible. It was literally a minefield of entertainment. Visiting playmates were warned not to remove their shoes in the betty basement or they may never be found.
One afternoon, the troop of them marched upstairs after a hard day of play and we all noticed that Son was wearing one sneaker. We stood in a circle in the betty kitchen staring at Son’s three-year-old feet, one of which wore only a sock. betty shook her head with concern. Only the Ark of the Covenant had been looked for longer than missing footwear in the betty basement.
betty: You’ll need to form search parties. Divide yourselves up.
The six kids filed toward the steps with me behind them. betty grabbed my sleeve.
betty: Let them go. You can’t go down there.
OSV: Why? Because I’m an adult?
betty: No. Because it’s a mess and you’re you. You wouldn’t make it out. You’d have to clean up.
OSV: Well, what if they don’t find his shoe?
betty: Can he hop?
Which was how we got home that day. The shoe turned up a month later, like a prize in a Cracker Jack box. The best friends we’ll ever have are the ones who know our quirks and love us anyway. The history of a real friendship goes on forever. Even when we no longer live just a hop apart.
Daughter brought her camera to the concert for all the Exceptional Children
