Sunday, May 19, 2013

It's everywhere, isn't it?

After swimming and showering, I struck up a conversation with a kind-looking elderly woman in the high school locker room. We both remarked on how empty the pool had been, but chalked it up to the mild weather and the upcoming Mother's Day weekend. "It's practically a national holiday!" she said.

She spoke of her habit of visiting the Jersey Shore for Mother's Day with friends from Philadelphia. "There might not be much to look at this time, though they are making progress." They are indeed.

Then she mentioned Spring Lake. "You know, the Irish Rivera."

And how she'd once taken friends Margaret and Rose Murphy (emphasis hers, eyebrows raised) from Philadelphia and showed them t-shirts for sale on the boardwalk with the phrase "Irish Rivera" to prove it to them.

"The Kellys had a house there, you know, from Philadelphia? Grace Kelly?"

Well, who doesn't know? Poor Princeton lady, sandwiched between Catholic Philadelphia and the Catholic Jersey Shore.

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