The perfect opportunity arose for me to visit two of my favorite people in the world, college classmates Bob (better known as Duke) and Kathy Gallagher. Like me, they grew up on Long Island, New York (in fact, unlike me, they are true native New Yorkers, while I only arrived on the fabled Island at the age of two). Fate brought us all together at the State University of New York at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta) (then the State University College at Oneonta or SUCO). Duke, Kathy and their older son Kevin moved to Mount Juliet, a suburb of Nashville, when his job moved them there. Two native Tennesseans, Megan and Michael joined Kevin in Mount Juliet. As the years have passed, our friendship has grown. We’ve seen each other at SUNY Oneonta Alumni weekends and at other occasions. So, when Duke and Kathy announced that they were hosting an event for Nashville area SUNY Oneonta alumni, I decided to find a flight and join them for the weekend. Here is an old photo of them from one of their renowned annual luau pig roasts that I now have to miss because I am out of the country when they occur.

Naples Airport Shuttle gave me a great ride up to RSW airport in Fort Myers, Florida. It turned out that the driver was another former New Yorker, and we had a great time chatting about our former and current home states. I’m not a big fan of “festival seating” so I have not flown Southwest Airlines very often. On this occasion, they were the carrier with a direct flight from Fort Myers, and they do offer the business upgrade that allows the opportunity for a somewhat less fraught seating experience. The flight was actually quite pleasant, but VERY full (and, luckily, I was near the front and wailing baby was at the very back).

After a quick drive back to Duke and Kathy’s beautiful home, where they had invited me to stay, we were joined by two more classmates Ken and Caryn (Iorio) Fichtelman, who drove up from the Villages, Florida to join the Gallagher’s event. I had met Caryn the day she arrived at SUNY Oneonta as a transfer student with her roommate and friend Lynn, who is a childhood friend of mine. Lynn and I are related through marriage (her cousin married my uncle). In Italian American culture, that makes us ‘practically’ family. Anyway, Caryn and Ken just happen to be two of the kindest people I’ve ever known and, as always, it was pure joy to see them again. Ken is a deep thinker. He and I engaged in some attempts to unravel the problems of the world over dinner at “Sam’s Sport’s Grille”, a restaurant on one of the lakes surrounding greater Nashville. Here is a picture of Caryn and Ken, another pig roast picture.

The day of the Alumni party dawned sunny and warm. Kathy had a wonderful breakfast prepared before I even got downstairs. Duke and I watched some English Premier League Soccer while Kathy got ready and prepared for a trip to visit another of our college friends who had just had surgery. We also caught some local news that included a feature on a small town about an or so from Mount Juliet. The town, Granville, TN, has an Andy Griffith Show and an I Love Lucy themed festival. Their town has buildings made to look like Mayberry and residents and re-enactors perform as characters from the shows. For the rest of the weekend, I tried to convince the Gallaghers and the Fichtelmans to join me for a trip to Granville for the ‘Mayberry Days.’ Here’s a picture from Granville’s Mayberry Days. The barber does look like Floyd, don’t you think?

The Alumni Event was held at one of Martin’s Barbecue Restaurants in Nashville.

Martin’s are a chain of Bar-B-Que restaurants with several locations across Nashville. The food and service we received at the Elliston Place location were excellent. Kathy and Duke did a great job and everyone had a great time at the Alumni party. We had alumni from the classes of 1968 through 2017, almost 50 years of Oneonta excellence.

After the dinner, Kathy and Duke took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour of Nashville. If you have never been to Nashville, you might be surprised to see a full-sized replica of the Parthenon.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but it was hard to find a picture that could be reproduced. That is John Thomas who was an important railroad man out front. There is quite a remarkable statue of the Greek goddess Athena inside, but I have not found a free picture of her to include.

We did make the mistake of deciding to go straight into downtown Nashville which is undergoing extensive extensive street renovations that exacerbated normal heavy traffic, along with the normal slowdown from donkey carts, the “bicycle bars” (drunkcycles), delivery trucks and buses, extended sidewalks and so on. The streets and sidewalks are jammed with pedestrians. Then there are the bachelorette parties.

Bachelorettes, many dressed like these women above, visit Nashville in large numbers and that Saturday afternoon was no exception. Apparently, no Nashville Bachelorette party is complete without brightly colored ‘cowboy’ hats. We moved very slowly. But we did see many sites. We passed close to the old Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Old Opry.

We also saw the very sad site of the terrorist bombing that took place on Christmas Day, 2020. A recreational vehicle was blown up on Second Avenue in Nashville. Over three years later, the damage has not been completely repaired. Imagine, then what it must be like for those living in war torn countries where such damage is ongoing. Here is a recent picture of a damaged building on Second Avenue.

We even managed to pass the Tennessee capitol. Nuff said about that.

Duke also showed us Holy Rosary School and Church where Kathy taught, their three kids attended and Duke, after being retired for about 15 minutes, is now volunteering as business manager. Regular readers know, I can’t pass up including a picture of a church.

The day kept getting better. When we got back to Duke and Kathy’s home, we were soon joined by Kevin, daughter-in-law Meg (yep, same first name as daughter Megan) and their two absolutely gorgeous little girls. A delightful cookout followed with the little ones entertaining us. Here’s a picture of “Great Uncle Mark” with these two little angels.

After Kevin and Meg and the Fichtelmans left, Kathy had to make an early night of it because she had an early flight on Sunday morning. While Duke and I stayed up to delve into the deep problems of life and deep meaning of music. There were adult beverages involved.

By the time I awoke Sunday morning, Duke had already taken Kathy to the airport and was back and ready to roll. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and watched the conclusion of Sunday’s English Premier League matches. We agreed on our favorite NBC Soccer coverage crew-Rebecca and the two Robbies.

Our next adventure was a trip to Opryland Hotel, the most elaborate hotel and conference center that I have seen outside of Las Vegas. Duke, having seen my many posts from the Naples Botanical Gardens and other gardens told me that he thought I would really like this place. He was right. Inside the hotel complex were what seemed like acres of trails through exotic indoor gardens. On the higher levels there were shopping plazas and restaurants and floors upon floors of guest rooms.

And then it was time for the final adventure. Not much of an adventure for Duke who had to schlep back to the Nashville Airport for a second time in one day. I get there and find that my 8:10 PM CST flight has a slight 10-minute delay. I hiked back to my gate, quite surprised at the crowds and lines at the in-airport restaurants and in the gate seating areas. When I got to the gate, the delay started to change back and forth, finally settling at approximately 30 to 35 minutes. The fellow sitting next to me showed me a map of Florida covered in storms so, I assumed that might be the cause of the delay. As time marched on, I learned that my plane had landed, and we were waiting for the planes in our gate and the adjacent gate to move so ours could get into the gate. At the same time, a small vehicle with a red light and siren came down toward our gate area. I later learned that a passenger on the flight going out of our gate before us, had been removed from that flight. We finally got the Southwestern call for the “A List.” When we boarded, an excruciatingly long process on Southwest, the pilot informed us that, the original cause of the delays of a number of flights was “an unusual odor” in another part of the terminal that caused that part of the terminal to be evacuated.” Apparently, it was much ado about nothing. I ended up arriving in Fort Myers closer to 1:00 AM EST than the 11:30 promised. Kudos to Naples Airport Shuttle whose driver was waiting for me and in great spirits. We had a lively discussion on the drive home to Naples. I recommend them if you ever need a ride from Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, or Ft. Myers Airports to Naples. Thanks for reading this special edition of Mark in London and the World.

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