The last day of the 2022 Saltaire Camp Program run by Camp Director Molly Davis (center front row). (Photo by Catherine O’Brien.)
By Hugh O’Brien ~ Well, I’ll be jiggered, as they used to say out west. Hard to realize the season’s almost at its end. Seems like only three months ago we were marking Memorial Day while looking ahead to the summer just then peeking over the horizon…oh, right, it has been three months. Goes faster and faster, doesn’t it? Anyway, the wrap-up….
End dates: Northwell clinic (Sept. 6); Post Office (Sept. 15); Market (Oct. 9); Mondays-only refuse collection resumes Sept. 12; lifeguards through Labor Day, then weekends-only at limited locales through the month; the Club and churches will keep their parishioners apprised. As will Saltaire’s own Mario Posillico, from whose weekend updates I liberally borrow, or “steal” as we say in the news biz, and who you can rely on throughout the year for the latest and greatest updates, which at least makes penning this final column easier. And special thanks to Molly Davis, Kate Valente and Rich Wilde for their relentlessly skilled helming of, respectively, the camp, library and lifeguards this summer, with more and better to come following their well-earned nine-month breather.
Things to come, with apologies to H.G. Wells, include an encore SVFC Pancake Breakfast, Sunday, Sept. 4, from 8 to 11 a.m., the softball championships all weekend long, and the Labor Day basketball tournament. And the last big event of the season, the SCA Fall Festival, Sunday, Oct. 9, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., on the Market deck, with costumes, a hayride and trick-or-treating, one of Saltaire’s most ingenious innovations – kids get two Halloweens each year! This is why we’re known as a family community.
To which, to wit, the 23rd Annual Perlberger Cup soccer tourney was won by Ralph’s Red team, heralded by His Ralphness. Lots of congratulations to all players, with the closing ceremonies graced by the presence of none other than Chuck Jones, innocently passing by at the propitious moment.
On an unhappily somber note, we mark the passing in these past few weeks of three longtime Saltairians – Mark Blau, Joanne Koch and Anne Kelly – treasured friends who accomplished much and touched so many, each of whom we thank for enriching our lives and this community.
One bit of news that just broke today, and this, as we like to proactively protest, is true: the State of New York now requires anyone purchasing aerosol cream products (like Reddi-wip) to show ID to prove they’re 21 (because teens inhale the nitrous oxide to get high). Just last week I had to send a letter to the governor asking that villages be exempted from having to allow cannabis shops, while all the while the real danger lay in Patrick’s dairy section. Squirty!
Quite a year it’s been, as the sun sets sooner and we start the slow slide toward 2023. Hopefully we’ll all be back, new and improved, next May. But whatever you do, remember – be good winter people.
