Ebb Tide
August 4, 2017
Well I guess I forgot to read my Duckdr on the Duckinet….that must have advertised My Pond holding a “Splash Party” this weekend……
As I was no sooner home from the Libe and reading the NYT to look up and see all these Mallards (10) and Canadian Geese (4 Really overweight ones)…in line for the buffet table…so I had to don my Toque and throw on my Chez Panisse apron and get to work…….
And Lord in this heat….but I guess it is Hot all over… one has to eat…so a chef has to serve meals…..
They enjoyed the wine and wanted more vittles so I had to prepare another batch…..it is interesting as I so wish I could identify these guys….but they are molting…which I can identify with as I Certainly would not be caught out in the heat at Spencer’s with so many feathers on…and the males have taken off their necklaces…for the summer….
I really think this group must have been from Phoenix…as they Really had no table manners…and ate so so Fast……and kept nipping at each other…
I mean in Palm Springs so many of us are in the later part of our century…and have dietary restrictions…
some of us no teeth…..some just like to relax after many a decade of working for the public…so we down here eat a little slower than these guys from Phoenix…..
(yes we eat earlier…some like to get up and see the sunrise… and in my case do a morning walk at 7 AM after the gym….some might consider us cheap but we are on a fixed income…which alas we Never had to experience before…..but in my case Life Could Not be Better)
As I cut the cord and Only stream shows….and then listen to the BBC to avoid the browbeating of the US news….I just recently dropped “Acorn TV”…which showed up on my credit card tho I am an Anglophile I had forgot I had subscribed to it….well my subscription goes for 2 more weeks so I perused what they have
Found this Telenovela…made in Australia “A Place To Call Home”…..
Well I got hooked when this Beautiful blonde was at the railing of an ocean liner….looking out at a Full Moon….as the waves peaked to fall …and as one of my Favorite songs played “Ebb Tide”.written in 1953..made popular by the Platters in 1960 …and then by Lenny Welch in 1964 (listen to it onYouTube)….it was the theme song for the movie “Sweet Bird Of Youth” that a young Paul Newman was in…..
It was a song popular when I fell in love… very very strongly with a girl whom I wanted to marry at the time….(this was before I KNEW I was gay)….I saw her for the first time when I was out sailing at Cape Cod with my friend Kenny Morse whose father was Assistant Secretary of the Navy….tho I think that might be wrong….but we had been out on the ocean and arrived back at port when Molly’s boat arrived with many a handsome man handling it….
She was Gorgeous…shoulder length blonde hair…buxom….with the warmest of smiles…..and this song “Ebb Tide” was playing on Kenny’s boat’s stereo….(listen to the song and think of young me all of 17)
I was always such a skinny introvert, bullied by others but somehow got up the balls to ask Kenny for her family’s house number here at the Cape…which he gladly gave me…”Saying Good Luck Matteson…she has 8 million suitors”
I amazingly got a date with her…borrowed Kenny’s father’s MB to take her out….
Well her house was on THE cliff overlooking THE Cape Cod Bay…..I drove up the circular driveway quite nervous….
A butler with white gloves opened the door and called up on the house phone to announce me to her mother who came down the circular stairs on a cane (she had had polio)
…..she shook my hand and led me into a drawing room overlooking the bay…and what I noticed there was a telescope aimed at the bay….so Mrs Houston must watch the coming and goings of Molly often…..
Molly came in looking more radiant than the sun…..my breath was taken away…..where we went that night…I do not remember as it really does not matter…
As I Never had been Sooo in Love……..
(if you are a romantic listen to Lenny Welch’s “Ebb Tide” on YouTube…if you are Not it doesn’t matter)
And then what happened with Molly, Rob? …the rest of the story??
Give us a picture of all of these ducks!
Do not leave us hanging Rob, do tell. We will not judge if you had clam that night but there has to be more to this prom night.
Great story/memory – including the duck cuisine part! Now let’s hear chapter two since you’ve left us all hanging! xxoo
Great song, yes… try Frank’s version too: https://open.spotify.com/track/4UuXBzJ54m3E1nI9pMNGIG
Beautiful tale. Beautiful song. Glad you didn’t pick “Old Cape Cod” by Pattie Paige.
it’s a charming song…. but it just would have ruined your story!