Today is Saturday, May 25, 2024. Elliot and I are back from our little sojourn in Ellenville, New York, most specifically Phillipsport, in Sullivan County, where Elliot attended a bungalow colony from the ages of 3 until 11 or 12. The site is still extent where one person, “Serina,” maintains her home all year round. We’ve been coming up there for the last 20 years or so, primarily in the summer for family reunions and such, but this marked the first time we bedded there for two nights.

I have to say that I found it truly weird sleeping in the country – with no sirens, car alarms, people shouting from their windows – that you usually hear in the city. It was very isolated and the only sounds you might hear are crickets chirping, birds cawing, or wolves howling. Oops, no wolves howling; that’s just found in Universal’s The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney. The silence was so deafening that it was indeed hard to sleep. If you can believe that! I almost believed there were ghosts in the house since the structure has seen so many inhabitants for over 200 years.

The reason we were there was to principally take care of Serina’s 10-year-old dog, Baxter, a cocker spaniel mix, while his human attended a wedding on Friday and a wedding brunch today. We were given instructions by Serina herself on Thursday when we arrived at the site around 12:30. The directions were to take him out right after breakfast in the morning and one more time before it was time for us to turn in. As soon as she left, we promptly decided we would not take him out after nightfall. No way would we take him for a walk to do his business during the night. We preferred to do this when it was still light and we were able to do this successfully since he slept for most of the night. We were honored that he came upstairs to sleep by our bed side for both nights.

Once Serina left, we kept to our own schedule which was to drive into Woodstock on Friday and spend most of the afternoon there. The site of the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival was only about 57 minutes away, and so, we drove there after having breakfast in town at a place called Cohen’s Bakery. At Woodstock, we spent a lot of time just walking around the main street, which was Tinker Street, where The Golden Notebook, a neighborhood bookstore, was located. We also walked into various boutiques and antique stores, where in one I bought a poster heralding the original music festival. Too bad it wasn’t an original; that would have been priceless, but here I paid only $5.

We even had an opportunity to visit the first Cheez-It Diner, located also in Woodstock, at the former Dixon Roadside Diner, which was open only for about a week, whose run ends tomorrow, May 26, but we passed it up. When I looked up its opening hours, I sadly learned that it first opened at 4 p.m. and we were in Woodstock in the early afternoon hours. We would have had to wait more than 2 hours and the sun was quite strong that day. The temperature was in the 80s both Friday and Saturday. Also, we needed to go home to feed Baxter. And upon closer examination of this onetime dining experience, we both realized we would not enjoy a Cheez-It milkshake, Cheez-It-encrusted chickens, or other cheese-laden American classics. In fact, the whole idea of a Cheez-It diner was actually a cheesy one.

The whole experience for Elliot was a bittersweet one since he feels that Serina, who is in her early 80s, will eventually be forced to liquidate the property. She has indicated as much that she will do this sometime soon when we talked to her right before she was picked up in a town car to take her to the wedding in New Jersey. If that occurs, there will be no more bungalow colony to drive to in the summer. There are other houses on the site, but the owners of those houses rarely come out anymore because of advancing age, so Serina is the only one holding down the fort, metaphorically. And when she goes, so does Nathan’s, the name of the cluster of buildings by a shimmering lake that served as a vacation location for families like Elliot’s and many others. For those lucky families in the early 1950s through the 1960s, it was an idyllic setting. A home away from the hot, sweltering city. The noise and the crowds.

I’m happy that I’ve been part of this experience as long as I’ve been, which is over 20 years. And nothing lasts forever, I’m sorry to say.

We had good dinners in town: at Danny’s, in nearby Wurtsboro, and Tony and Nick’s Italian Restaurant, in Ellenville. Twice, we had breakfast at Cohen’s Bakery that had very good challah bread French toast.

All in all, we had a good time in the country, except for the television reception that was not so good. However, Serina has a very well-stocked library and I thoroughly enjoyed going through it for a book to read. We also didn’t lose Baxter who, we were warned, could bolt if we didn’t lock the door immediately. Walking him was hard since he pulled you remorselessly.

Anyway, we left Sullivan County at 11:30 a.m. and stopped in town to browse some antique shops, where I bought a white stand for only $20. We met one owner who thrived on the old days, talking a blue streak about all the celebrities he once knew, people like Gregory Peck, the movie star, and other once-famous names. Oh, he did mention knowing the Beatles, by the way.

Thankfully, there was little traffic heading toward New York, and we got in around 3:25 p.m. We were greeted by our very own Atticus who seemed very happy to see us.

Have a good Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.

This is Baxter, our canine companion for Thursday until today.

Here is the Woodstock poster I mentioned I picked up in a memorabilia shop.