30 years ago

In the region of Lake Placid, NY, summer of  1983

Some of my new parishioners in Bend have become quite interested in my blog, checking it as early as 6 AM, wondering why I was late in posting my daily entry. I know also they are looking forward to my presentation about my home country of Malta, set for December 5, but today I'll go down memory lane to 30 years ago, when I was settling in my first parish in New Hyde Park on Long Island. The first photo shows me in one of my favorite T-shirts in Lake Placid, during a summer trip with my former Pastor.

Before a bike-trip of 120 miles to Montauk Point, NY

The second photo shows me with 4 altar-servers on one of our bike-trips to Montauk Point, at the very tip of Long Island, a 120 mile bike ride which took 2 days to cover. We were supposed to take our bikes back on the train on our return trip, but were denied traveling with our bicycles. And so I had to call my pastor who came to our rescue and picked us all up in a van he had to borrow.

Fluting away on Saranac Lake, NY

The third photo shows me playing the flute on Saranac Lake in upstate New York, during a week-long summer vacation. I learned the flute by myself and have been practicing on my own ever since. Incidentally yesterday, during the school Mass I played the Thanksgiving melody "Simple Gifts" with a quartet of school children in chorus, Alycen, Emily, John and Charlie, accompanied by their music teacher Colleen Rastovich.

With parents by Twin Towers, 1983

 The last photo shows my parents and myself by the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers, again in New York, during one of their visits they made to my parish at Holy Spirit. In all of these photos you can see a skinnier version of myself, coming from Malta in 1981 at 130 lbs, gaining 10 lbs every year until I reached 170. Then my weight stopped and stayed at 170 lbs ever since, eating as much as I want and anything I want (except for pumpkin pie and macaroni and cheese)