VACATIONS FROM HOME: September 2021

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

SHUT UP AND EAT

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA ROAD TRIP
Janet and I have been together quite a while now and have traveled quite a number of places and can regale you with tales from the road…sort of what I am doing in this blog. Recently we hosted a number of friends for the weekend and we got to talking about one of our trips to New Orleans and beyond. Hurricane Ida’s destruction was still fresh in the news.

For most of July 2008 we had crisscrossed southwest Louisiana in exploring this beautiful resilient area and I had kept a blog of those travels. It was called "Cajun Country Travels," and except for one last entry when we revisited New Orleans to visit my daughter, the blog ended in 2008. This particular blog “VACATIONS FROM HOME” started in 2009

At first, our friends were incredulous, possessing an east coast bias that there was no such beauty beyond their horizons, but as Janet and I spoke of our long-ago travels we could see a hint of appreciation in their faces. They may never travel there themselves; few have the inclination or the luxury of time; but it got me to rereading my old blog, "CAJUN COUNTRY TRAVELS", and I thought you, fair and devoted readers, would like to as well.

CAJUN COUNTRY TRAVELS BLOG.

By Greg Dunaj

Friday, September 10, 2021

DEATH IN MY BACKYARD

REMEMBERING 9/11
I was born in Newark and raised just across the Passaic River in Harrison, New Jersey. From our “tar beach” on the roof of the three-story tenement my father owned we could watch the planes on their final approach into Newark Airport, a hint of the World Trade Center glinting in the afternoon sun. It was a short walk to the PATH train and for a long time the fare was 30 cents and in less than a half hour I could be under the WTC.in Lower Manhattan.

My father was born in that tenement. He always lived in Harrison. He had a job at the RCA building down the street, property first purchased by Thomas Edison. He had the job out of high school and after being drafted and serving at the Normandy invasion, came back to the same job. Through the GI Bill he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Philosophy at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City.

He never got a driver’s license. Mass transit like buses and PATH and his feet got him where he needed to go. And, he would drag us all over God’s creation. We once took a bus to Newark Airport and talked our way onto a terminal and a plane and the pilot graciously let us look at his cockpit. But, those were different times.

We once took a bus to go to the Statue of Liberty. We only got as far as the pedestal. Mom was afraid of the height.

We often went into Manhattan via that PATH service. He brought us to the building site of the World Trade Center and later when completed we rode the elevator to the top observation platform. Mom didn’t go on that trip!

On other trips to Manhattan, we walked to the Fulton Street Fish Market and Fraunces Tavern or took a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

FRAUNCES TAVERN

For a subway fare we could ride the trains all day and sometimes we walked around Times Square. It was a sketchy area back then. Sometimes he walked us around Greenwich Village and we would cautiously eye the hippies gathered in Washington Square Park.

But my father especially liked the financial district. He was so proud of the massive building. Coming up out of the PATH and you were right there, the towers looming far above us. He got a kick out of the ball sculpture between the two towers. He once had us all lie down to stare up at these majestic towers and we could swear they were swaying as if alive. Some of my fondest memories are of my father taking us to see them.