I found a new friend this past year who is 82. Ralph is a really
neat guy, the father of my new sister-in-law, Julie. Ralph and I
are as different as night and day.    
 
He is thin
I am heavy

He is gray
I'm not there yet (quite) 

He was born and raised in New York City
I come from small town Springfield

He loves listening to Sinatra and big band
I love pop music from the 70's

He does not like change of any kind
I enjoy new adventures

Ralph is Jewish and enjoys listening to Christian speakers
I am Christian and love Jewish history

He loves to watch old movies
I can spend hours in a good book

He has no use for modern technology
I practically live on my computer

Yup. Ralph and me.
Born in different generations, and just like night and day.

When I met Ralph at Thanksgiving in 2004, we hit it off right
away. He and his dear wife, Marie, came down to check out their
(possible) future son-in-law, my youngest brother. (Andy must
have passed the test - he & Julie were married onSeptember 3, 2005).

I found out quickly what is so special about their family. Huggy,
noisy, love good food, a bit hot-tempered, but quick to forgive
and forget, caring, and will welcome you anytime. The main thing
I have come to love is the incredible sense of family. Family is
everything to them! Now Ralph and Marie have graciously embraced
us into their family, too. We are so blessed!

Now - you may be wondering what all of this has to do with an
article on Cape Cod. Well, I just have come to love talking with
both Ralph and Marie. And, although I am more like Marie, I
realize I have something very dear to my heart in common with
Ralph, too.

We both love our special memories of our past.

You see, my love for Cape Cod and the sweet, sweet memories I
have of it are so precious to me that I wish I could go back to
that time - to those vacations spent camping in Sandwich. A
carefree time of Marco Polo in the pond one minute, and racing
up to the "trading post" the next. Laying on blankets after dusk to
take in an old movie shown on the back of a barn - I think we did
more star gazing than movie watching. A bunch of our cousins
and us would pile in our station wagons, and our Dads would
take us down to Frannie & George's for a soft serve and then on
to Sandy Neck Beach at the north end of the canal. We'd walk as
far out as we could on the rock jetty there, inventing some childish
fantasy of who we were and what we were doing.

Yes, Ralph and I really do have a lot in common after all. We wistfully
think about the days when times seemed easier, less complicated. 
Email or gigabytes or cell phones not even invented yet.