David Vona was my college sweetheart...actually our relationship...on and off spanned from 1982 to 1996... there were long periods of separation of course...but we always managed to find our way back to each other...we ended up marrying other people obviously and now we are both parents and busy with trying to give our children good (read better) lives and smiling through it all. David is a part of the fabric of my life...he will always be...and I know the same holds true for him...my pictures are in family albums at his mothers house...something like 6 consecutive Christmas's worth of me in his family albums...one of the things I loved most about him was his family. It was large and cohesive and dysfunctional and ethnic and loving...there was always something going on...when I look at facebook pictures of his siblings and their children (and his children) I see that the Vona Family Connection lives on...it was awesome...and I loved being a part of it. It probably kept me connected to David a lot longer than the relationship itself...David was way too kind and sweet for someone like me. I was hard on him...he had me at my worst...those late teen and early twenties years when I was grappling with my childhood and partying like a fiend and making really stupid choices... I imagine his wife is much better to him that I was... but we remain good friends...and for that I am thankful.
So after my morning omelet and the fruit, veggie and meat snacks eaten on the way down with my co-worker Dave (strange coincidence) it was with great surprise, nostalgia and happiness that I was greeted upon stepping out of the car by the one and only David Vona!! The race I was timing was taking place in West Newton Massachusetts at a bar called Paddy's. I knew as I drove down there that the likelihood of seeing a Vona at a bar in West Newton was high...so I wasn't totally taken aback... but when someone came up behind me and said, "excuse me Miss but my son said I should come say hi to you" I turned around and there he was...the legendary Frank Vona.....David's Dad....
Frankie was a firefighter in West Newton (or maybe Waltham) but regardless, that end of Newton was his stomping grounds...and there he was....looking almost exactly the same...WAY more the same than David and I look....although when I pointed this out to David his reply was..."yeah, well he looked 70 when he was 40"....(good point David...) Frankie Vona was (and is) a legend...whether or not that is a good thing depends on who you ask I guess...
Like the food has brought up a multitude of memories, issues, and experiences for me...so too did my morning in West Newton with the Vona's. I posted on FB where and with whom I was to which I received a number of replies from BU and Newton folk from the 1980's. (Best decade ever...I still have my blue mascara). As I set up the start and finish ina pouring rain and punched bib numbers into the time machine for an hour, I had a lot of brain time to ponder my life...the college and David years... the Concord and Chaz McCrave, Jim Graham, and Eric Nelson years...and now the Kenny years...my life through the lens of men I have loved and still love...(I love them all you see)... it is sobering sometimes reliving all of these things....(no pun intended there) which is why I think I spend most of my cognitive energy on other people...it is so much easier...I know that this blog is a prime example of self absorbtion...this public diary keeping has often offended me...but as I follow the blogs of others I always seem to learn something new or find something out about myself...(this happens to me when I write this one as well!) so I will post the full 30...even though I write less and less about the food each day...Sunday was easy...a warm oven stuffer roaster for dinner with Butternut Squash and potatoes...very yummy and filling...my new dessert of habit...a protein shake with veggie juice and milk and frozen fruit...my new Klondike Bar...I slept well Sunday Night...fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow...too much to ponder...
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