Rhinebeck

To my dismay, I was not invited to Chelsea's wedding. However, I have spent time in Rhinebeck, although its been almost 30 years. It was there, one beautiful early fall day, that I got picked up hitchhiking by Barney Martin, the actor who played Jerry's father on Seinfeld. He was a friendly resident of that quaint town.

There was a great old timey smoke shop on the corner of Route 9 and East Market, the town's main street. There we'd buy the great papers of the day; The Poughkeepsie Journal, The Middletown Times Herald-Record, The Kingston Freeman and, on the occasional Sunday, The New York Times. I also frequented the breakfast joint across the street, which is probably long gone. The patisserie, or whatever has replaced it, is doing a bang up business as I write.

I never hung at The Astor Courts but I do remember having a few beers on the lawn of The Vanderbilt Mansion a few miles south. There's a lot of history in the area. New York's original capital, Kingston, was across the Hudson. It was in that city's old Rondout neighborhood that I lived for the majority of the time I spent there. It had been gutted by urban renewal but was on the comeback trail in the early 80s. Per Wikipedia, it "is home to a large number of art galleries." I guess they had to wait until I split for it to really take off.

That's all folks. I need to hit the SLA and I got stuff to do today. Learn to embrace the mediocre post.