Destiny

Go figure that I ended up in the hospitality/restaurant business.

Uncle Carl was my great grandmother's second husband, and the

 two of them ran a quite successful bar and grill in Irvington, N.J.

for years.  Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.

  

I'm thinking the guy crossing the street is lucky to be on foot 

instead of behind the wheel at this point.  Too many pickled eggs 

with his shooters and beers.  On the bright side, it looks to be 

early in the day. Hopefully he made the best of it.

Carl, on the left, was proprietor, while Gram was cooking (smiling

from the pass).  Check out the sparkling bar.  The back of a bar 

these days doesn't look a whole hell of a lot different.  He had every

 right to be proud of his establishment.  The Angostura bitters bottle 

has not changed.  A couple more familiar faces were in the crowd:

The man to the far right with fedora and wire-rimmed glasses

was Grampa, Mom's Dad, and her brother Don to his left, 

Mojo's Dad.  To this day, I have an oval platter from Carl's.

As time goes by, I use it less and less.  

In the twenties, Grampa coached the local Rahway football team.

Probably just a club team, they look too old to be High School

kids.  Again, probably no coincidence that I'm passionate about the 

sport.  Although he died when I was about 7 or 8, I have to believe

that he had visions of me playing ball.  The tall guy to his side 

is probably a good indicator of how I would have looked next to

 him.  Just not quite as narrow in the mid section.  It would have

been neat for him to have seen me play.  With a plastic helmet on.