One year ago today, on Thursday, January 23, 2020, Susie and I ate our last inside meal at one of our favorite restaurants, Angelo’s Fairmount Tavern in Atlantic City. We’d been steady Thursday customers for a long time, and we were saying goodbye as we were preparing for what at that point, was planned to be two months in Florida, and were in our last week in the cold of New Jersey. We were making choices of clothes to take with us, getting the car serviced, I was making a last minute trip to the dentist, Susie was getting her last hair and nails done, and we were looking forward to spending the months of February and March in Florida, and previewing the Summer of 2020.
One year ago, we had no idea that there was something called Covid-19 that was making people sick in Wuhan, China, or that there had been a first US confirmed case in Washington State. We had no idea that we’d be dragged into a Pandemic, or that we’d be wearing masks when we went out, or that our life would be impacted by this disease that would ultimately kill hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans. We had no idea that we wouldn’t see our Kids and Grandkids for a year, or that we’d wave at neighbors and friends, or that friends who are like family would get the disease.
One year ago today we were smug, thinking that something like a Global Pandemic couldn’t affect our lives here in the United States of America. Little did we know that it would end employment for our sons Kenny and Chris (the Entertainers), force our other children (Billy and Lori and Krissi and Mike) to work from home, and change all our lives like nothing had in our lifetimes.
The last time Susie and I ate inside a restaurant, was on March 13, 2020, at a Cracker Barrel someplace in Virginia on our way home from Florida. When Angelo’s opened their great outside dining during the summer, Thursday nights became Angelo’s Thursdays again. We saw all our regular friends, met a couple of new ones, and got to enjoy our weekly dose of the Mancuso Family and the wonderful food they create. It was great to be back at Angelo’s, but it wasn’t the same.
One year ago today, we had our last martini at the bar at Angelo’s with our bartender and friend, Michael, ate our last meal inside at Angelo’s, saw our Angelo’s Thursday friends Theresa, Patti, Rhonda, Christina, Ed, Gina, Christopher, Victor, and Trinidad. We miss the bar, the restaurant, and the people! We survive now with Angelo’s take-out, and we’re waiting for our time to get the vaccine, but we won’t eat inside till we’re protected.
Hope to see you sooner rather than later friends…we miss you!
R New Adventures 
For Jeanne & I, other than not being able to visit with family & friends, not dining out occasionally is the most difficult pleasure to forego as we minimize our risk to being exposed to the Corona Virus.
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Hi Frank and Susie!
Dear friends, your wonderful posting reminded me that, indeed, it has already been a year since so many facets defining our daily lives that we have always taken for granted have been curtailed or put on indefinite hold. We are also so eager to see our children and grandchildren again, and it is painful not being with them, especially during holidays and other special occasions. Still, we are able to remain in close contact with them and look forward to seeing them when the current lockdown is eased.
Like yourselves, Susi and I also very much miss our regular visits to the nearby restaurant (The Gasthof Alpenblick) in the village of Pflach where the best schnitzels in the universe are prepared, and the wonderful family run Roter Stein – a lovely inn upon on the mountainside in Klein Stockach – where a grand feast of local dishes cost less than a night for two out at the movies. Susi and I are ‘regulars’ at both, and the families that run them have become good friends. It is these and the countless other small family business that have been hurting the most this past year; we can only hope that the help they have been receiving from the government is sufficient to keep them all in stable condition for the duration.
As with everything else, this time of pandemic will pass, at which time, we shall all rejoice mightily indeed!
Much love from your friends in the Tirol!
– Andy
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Frank and Sue…as usual, thanks for the trip down memory lane. Sitting on a warm beach right now sounds wonderful…or sharing the stories of Kenny/Chris on a cruise. It helps to remind me that we’d better celebrate today..(even as cold as it is!)…and you know what…today is pretty darn good. I miss our friend gatherings…but this too shall end and then it will feel sweeter than ever to gather on the porch once again! Be well!
Patti 🙂
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Both our airlines payment and cruise line deposit, we have been notified, will be good to use through 2022. The travel industry understand that 2021 will be another year of 2020.
Sue & I have began to travel in September of last year. We stayed in a cabin on the beach and brought most of our own food, supplemented by take-out and all our own bed linens etc. That worked so well we stayed in another cabin in the mountains doing all the same things we did at the beach. December saw us stay in a Bavarian Chalet in WV.
We just spent a weekend in Ocean City, MD in a brand new hotel that opened in August 2020. It looked like we may have been the first people to have ever stayed in our room. No one was there and our time was spent visiting the wild horses of Assateague Island.
We’ve learned how to adapt to COVID-19, always wearing our masks, socially distancing (or we don’t go there) and using lots of hand sanitizer.
When we’re home, we make all our meals at home and our shopping trips are planned for quick in & out, often going at times when the market or store is practically empty.
It’s been quite an adjustment and like you, it has been nothing like we’ve ever experienced or heard tales of past generations experiencing.
I’m sure many of the protocols we’ve implemented will be staying with us in 2022 and beyond.
Stay Safe and thanks for the memories.
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