It was to be the event of our lives -- dinner at the Philadelphia
Cricket Club. We had ascended the staircase of life and Martha
had agreed to come along.
What better way to start than to have poached eggs
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chocolate croissant
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and muesli with honey
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and without flash
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at Small World. It seemed to make Benjamin
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very happy.
We knew things were ok at home when we noticed that Sarah and Lily
had decided to try to kill the television
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before we left.
After negotiating I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike (thank you E-Z Pass),
we were happy when Martha agreed to call
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Joe and Amy and see if their kitchen was viewable. This amused Suzanne
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who then engaged in a long discussion of old times with Martha
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before Bill emerged hoping to be incognito
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but he got engaged in the conversation
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as the topic of gin and tonic's
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came up and was really engaged with efforts to make this conventional
camera
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work while I recorded the beautiful setting
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in their back yard and even took this self portrait
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Blair Witch style.
But, of course, this was all a prelude to the trip down the road to the
Philadelphia Cricket Club,
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Founded 1854 which spread out before us
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much to the amusement of Suzanne and Martha
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as I snapped the tennis courts
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and Bill showed us where the Bar Mitzvah might occur
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as dinner was served
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but not to us, since we were relegated to the bar where Suzanne and
Martha continued the conversation
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and Bill
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seemed ready to have at my wine
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before we were seated.
At the table, Martha
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Suzanne
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and Bill
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studied the menu as I recorded the people at the next table
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before Bill took my picture
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and the tennis courts
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emptied.
Our waitress, Tess
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took this family portrait
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as the bread was served
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and Bill displayed his toes
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that were in great need of a pedicure because we are all aging
too much to be able to handle such things.
My gazpacho
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was good as was the vichyoisse
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and Suzanne's salad
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that served as a prelude to the salmon
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steak
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and pasta
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sans flash
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that filled us up so that only the under-50 person at the table
was willing to try this dessert
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at meal's end.
After capturing the trophies
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the summer camp posters
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the club hoi polloi
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and the brick emblem
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we were ready to head back to reality, such as it is. But, we were happy
to have demystified the Cricket Club, once and for all.
To celebrate, once back in Princeton, I recorded Mike Jennings
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of the German department, Jim Boon of Anthropology
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and Stuart Schwartz
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of electrical engineering in the days that followed.