Many years ago I found on the
remainder table at Barnes and Noble a book called “The Tuscan Year” by
Elizabeth Romer. The book is a
combination cookbook, travelogue and tribute to the Tuscan family who rented
Ms. Romer and her archaeologist husband a farmhouse on their property near
Cortona in Southern Tuscany while he worked on a dig in Turkey. The best line in the book is the title of
this post. I can’t tell you the names of
the Italian farm family who were Ms. Romers landlords but the wife described meeting her husband at
a country dance as “I saw him and he saw me and that was that”. I like that
line. If you ever see a copy of the book at a used book store or yard sale buy it. Marilyn didn't need the cookbook and never will but every recipe is one of those simple seasonal dishes that Marilyn is legendary for.
Kingdon Drag Strip, February 3rd, 1963
My buddies and I had a car club
called the “Slicks of Stockton”. For those of you who don’t know slicks are a
type of untreaded tire used in racing. The Slicks were well represented at
racing events all over Northern California but our home track was Kingdon Drag
Strip north of Stockton on DeVries Road. Racing started there in 1951 or so and
continued until the track was converted to a private airport in 1972. February
the 3rd 1963 Kingdon staged a
regular event with the addition of demonstration runs by a jet powered car
built by a Bay Area racer named Romeo Palamides. I was walking down the return
road checking out all the racers when a gal who was dating one of the club
members drove up. Sitting shotgun in her car was a cute brunette with dancing
eyes and a mischievous smile. I found out she was Italian-American and her name
was Marilyn Bertolli. I didn’t want to admit it but I was smitten. Later that
evening I saw her doing the cruise on Pacific Avenue and tried to climb in her
car and give her a kiss. Not the best first impression but we got over it. I
asked her to marry me about 4 months later and the following year April 25th
1964 we married. So 50 years ago Feb 3rd was easily the luckiest day of my life.
See what I mean about the eyes and the smile. I kinda go monochromatic.
Marilyn would never tell you this but she's a special person. She's one of two her age or younger in her Stockton family who speak Italian. And she speaks fluent modern Italian not a dialect. She went to school to learn and made the school a big part of our social life. She was the one who got us involved with exchange students (worth a post or two all by itself). That made 30+ trips to Europe possible and let us meet the most amazing group of people you could imagine.
I was going to do this post on the third but events and my limited blogging skills conspired to stop me. So Valentines Day it is. Later I get to take my sweetie to lunch.
