Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The harbor in Atlantic Highlands, NJ

On Saturday, The Gryphon and I attended his 21st high school reunion. A series of fortuitous events led up to this.

First of all, whoever was organizing his class reunion didn't get things organized in time to hold a 20th high school reunion, so opted for a 21st instead. This is significant because The Gryphon lost touch with his high school friends about 10 years ago. In fact, if it hadn't been for the fact that we attended a friend's wedding a couple weeks ago, we never would have found out about it.

Add onto that the fact that we hadn't initially planned on stopping through Red Bank on the way home, but we'd had some time to kill before we'd arranged to pick up my dog, Una, and I suggested we check out some sights in the area. That's when The Gryphon suggested stopping through Red Bank. That's why we stopped in the hobby store run by the mother of one of his best friends from high school.

He got contact information for his friend, got in touch with him, and the friend told him about the reunion. After a brief discussion with me about it, he signed up. So if it hadn't been for this rather circuitous series of events, he wouldn't have even known about it.

Although it was sort of last minute, we managed to get our pet sitter to watch Una overnight and contacted somebody to look in on our kitty, Luke.

The event was semiformal, so fortunately I had the black Michael Kors dress I wore to the black tie optional event at my dad's medical convention. The Gryphon had his new suit, so we were set.

We left early enough on Saturday so we could stop through some other places The Gryphon had lived as a child. He moved about every two or three years as a child, because his father was an architect and moved to be near projects he was working on. They were all within Monmouth County, and the distances between the towns was not great. Although once The Gryphon was school age, it often did mean switching schools.

When we passed some of the projects his dad had designed, such as condos or office buildings, The Gryphon pointed them out.

The first place we stopped was Atlantic Highland, which the Gryphon described this as Vermont by the Sea: a lot of small winding roads and small, simple but elegant houses sitting on hills or on overlooks over the harbor.

We parked first by the waterfront, which The Gryphon told me was really worth seeing, much more so than the little dock area on the Navesink River in Red Bank. Sure enough, across the wide harbor, he pointed to a distant skyline. "That's New York City."

"You're kidding," I said. But sure enough, in the distance, cloaking in misty blue, you could make out the familiar skyline, including the Empire State Building.

I took a picture of The Gryphon with the skyline in the background (which is to his left in the far distance). He did the same with me, but even after he loaned me a hair fastener to sweep my hair into a ponytail, it blew all over. Admittedly, the direct overhead light was far from flattering.

Then we walked down the dock and looked at the boats. There were a number of party fishing boats there, hoping to attract customers. It seemed to be a slow day.

We also noted a memorial for 9/11, which consisted of a flagpole set into the pavement, surrounded by memorial bricks with people's names on them.

Then we got back in the car and took a ride to find the house where he'd lived during third and fourth grade. It was on a little residential street that overlooked the harbor, and it was currently blocked off at one end for bridgework. Fortunately, that was past the place where he'd lived, so we could make it that far. Unfortunately, the residents have put up a privacy fence and you can see nothing of the little house overlooking the harbor.

We turned around and headed for the place where he'd lived in fifth and sixth grade, just down the road in Navesink, which was on the way to Red Bank. Along the way, we pulled over at a German restaurant that topped the hill and took in the view at the overlook. We put some quarters into the binoculars to get a better view of the city, and I even discovered I could get a halfway decent picture by holding my camera up to the eyepiece.

The house in Navesink was also along a body of water: the Navesink River. It was originally a carriage house behind another property but was rented out separately. Since then, it had apparently been sold and somebody was nearly finished with massive renovations, which included new additions, new siding, new windows. The Gryphon said that the modern blue home with large picture windows looked nothing like the little carriage house he'd lived in.

As we drove, he pointed out other landmarks, such as the schools he'd attended, the libraries he'd frequented, the places he visited, like a little pond where that used to freeze over in the winter, which was also a great place to picnic in the summer. So we had a nice little trip down Memory Lane.

We were both hungry by that point, so we stopped in Red Bank for something to eat. We wondered downtown, trying to figure out where we could get something simple and light. Finally, we settled on the Broadway Diner, which had gone through several owners over the years but which The Gryphon had never entered. The menu was diverse, with some lighter fare. I ordered a veggie wrap and some barley soup.

The Gryphon wanted to stop in again at Hobbymasters to say hello and to find out if his high school buddy was around. He wasn't, but we said hello to his mom, stepfather and younger brother. Then we took a good look around the store, including the model trains upstairs, where they had a nice HO set up. We said good-bye then and took off for our motel, and The Gryphon called his friend and left a message on his phone.

It was a relatively short drive to the motel where we'd arranged to stay. Now, it's a bit risky to book reservations with place sight unseen, as we soon discovered. When The Gryphon called, there were no rooms available at the Sheraton Hotel where the reunion was being held. The nearest regular hotel was a lot more expensive than we wanted to pay, on top of the fees for the reunion of about $100 per person (which got you a buffet and an open bar).

So we agreed to stay at a cheap motel just down the road from the Sheraton, but we knew nothing about it except where it was and how much it cost. As we drove up, the first thing we say was the old neon sign, which bragged of phones and color TV.

The place was a time warp, and time had definitely warped it. It was probably built in the 1950s during the motel craze, and it consisted of individual units and a separate office building. It seemed as if nothing had been replaced or updated for about 50 years. Or at least 30.

When we entered the office, I told him that if Norman Bates greeted us we were leaving immediately. Instead, we were greeted by an Indian family, including numerous children running around, playing, following the women who were taking linens to one of the rooms. The patriarch was in the aging office, watching a golf game. Behind the counter an ancient switchboard was visible, which might or might not still be in use.

He consulted a hand written piece of paper for our reservation, and after The Gryphon filled out a card and paid him, he gave us the key to room 20. We decided on the way over that as long as it was clean, we'd put up with it.

Sure enough, there were clean sheets, and the bathroom was clean. However, the furniture was on its last legs and the carpet might even have dated back to the original decor. You could probably find enough decent furniture at Goodwill to replace it and make it more welcoming, but I have a feeling the family was struggling to make a profit as it was.

By this point The Gryphon was apologizing profusely to me, but I told him we could make the best of it. After all, we wouldn't be spending a lot of time there. And also, I needed a nap before the reunion and didn't want to run all over town looking for new lodgings.

We agreed, however, that the next time we needed to find a place sight unseen we'd consult a place like Hotels.com.

After the nap in the comfortable bed, though it was a little soft, we got up with plenty of time to get ready. I managed, through use of hair gel, to make my windblown hair presentable, and we donned our semiformal attire.

It seemed a little funny, as we got in the car, to be leaving this rundown motel in all our finery.

The retro image on my makeup bag fit right in with the hotel room.

More from the reunion weekend:

June 13, 2006 - Old Times

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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