You read the question correctly.....when was the last time you did something for the first time?
For us it was while we were on vacation week before last. Bruce and I were whisked to the ER in the back of an ambulance. Lights flashing--sirens blarring! Don't get in a panic, Baby Moore is fine. In fact, the ambulance ride was not for me or Baby Moore, but for Bruce.
While in Boston, we ate lunch at the oldest resteruant in the US. Durgin Park dates back to pre-revoluntionary days and sits in the shadow of the famous Faneuil Hall built in 1742 as a marketplace in the city.
Durgin Park is a family style resturaunt with long tables. You sit at a table with people you don't know. It makes for an interesting dining experience. Two bites into our meal, Bruce swallowed some bones from the fishcakes. He went downstairs to the men's restroom to try to cough up the bones. I remained upstairs. After 15 minutes passed, two men at our table suggested Bruce eat some bread to force the bones down.
So, I go downstairs with bread and water in hand to find Bruce in the men's restroom hunched over the sink still gagging. The resturaunt has a doorman who works the crowd and gets passerby's to eat there. This doorman had the restroom door flung wide open for all to see Bruce. He stood in the middle of the doorway so as to block anyone from entering. Now what was so funny about this is that the doorman is seriously like 80 years old and all of 4 feet 11inches tall! He wore an old-timey hat and talked with a Jimmy Durranty accent. As Bruce was desperately trying to get the bones up, the doorman was admonishing Bruce with all these cliches, "Son, you gotta take care of your health." "If you don't care of yourself who else will?" "If it was me, I'd call 911." And on and on.....
By this time there was a long line of men waiting to get into the restroom. So the manager had all the men start using the ladies restroom. Hince another situation insued of women who couldn't get into the ladies restroom! Finally, Bruce consented to the doorman calling 911. We were escorted back upstairs to sit and wait for the EMT's. We waited for what seemed like forever. In fact, our waitress came by to check on Bruce. Her contribution to this whole event was when she looked at Bruce and said, "Gosh, it sure is taking the ambulance a long time to get here. Good thing this isn't a real emergency".....as Bruce is coughing and gagging for air!
Finally, help arrives. They assess the situation and tell us they can't do anything for Bruce but will need to take him to the ER. We hop in the back of the ambulance and they take off. Two doctors and five nurses later, the bones are removed from Bruce's throat. It was such an ordeal, that nurses attending other patients came into our room just to see the bone. They weren't satisfied until the bone was dug out of the trash for all the nurses to see. (One nurse did ask if we wanted to keep the bone. We politely declined.)
I just realized today that every Moore Family vacation we have taken involves some crazy story surrounding food! Last year, we had the Paula Dean story. This year Durgin Park.
The pictures are of
- Faneuil Hall, a markeplace for Boston built in 1742. Known as the "Cradle of Liberty" because revolutionary meetings took place there.
- Bruce in front of Paul Revere's house. He purchased it in 1770, but it was already 100 years old at that time!
- The old North Church where laterns were hung to warn that the British were coming.
