“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend” An old Irish Proverb
As I walked today’s Camino, I remembered one of my favorite and funniest moments during the summer of 1963. I was 8 years old and as Dennis and I played wiffle ball in our backyard, we saw a white truck with the name Bekins in clear blue lettering pull up to the house next to us. Some new family from the Midwest was going to rent the house for the next year or so until the renovation on the house they had bought on Beverly Road was completed.
So this was really exciting news. Who’s the new family? Are there any kids our ages we might be able to play with? Gosh, that truck parked on the street was huge. Dad came outside where we were playing and told me to walk over and knock on the door and give our new neighbors this brown bag filled with tomatoes from our garden as a house warming present from the Kirnan family.
Dad was a master gardener of tomatoes and took great pride tending to his garden every summer. I was a little nervous in doing this because I wasn’t sure about whether I had our neighbor’s name right. I am sure in retrospect that Dad said their name was the “Bettens” but I was confused by the blue lettering on the truck that said “Bekins”.
As I walked over to their front door, I kept rehearsing what I was going to say. So I knocked on their door and Mr. Betten — a big burly man who was chomping on a stoagie — said “Hi there young fella” and I quickly responded “Hi Mr. Bekins, my name is Jackie Kirnan and I live next door in the gray house and it’s so nice to meet you. My Dad wanted to give you some tomatoes from our garden.”
Mr. Betten couldn’t have been nicer as he graciously accepted the tomatoes and said “Thanks Jackie but we are the Bettens. You probably got confused by the name “Bekins” on the truck”. So we both laughed about my mixup and this incident became famous through the years as our families became very close.
Mr. and Mrs. Betten had 9 young children at the time — Terry and Cheryl — Cathys friends, Scott, Randy — Dennis’s friend, Rickie — my friend, Mark, Chrissie, Laurie — Mary Claire’s friend, and baby Brad. A year later, they moved one street above us to Beverly Road — where Chris and Mary Claire later had a home and where Molly and her family currently reside. That house was palatial and the Bettens built a really great tree house for the kids and we installed a rope system from the top of the tree house to a pole close to the actual house and used old pieces of carpet to slide down the rope. It’s amazing that none of us ever fell or got hurt because at eye level, that tree house was as high as the third floor of the main house.
Dad and Mr. Betten — his first name was Fran — became really close until they moved down to Florida during the 1970s. So many of our neighbors and family friends admired Dad as not only the Marine hero he truly was but for his quiet demeanor and keen sense of humor. Parties at our house and the Bettens were great events.
As I continued my walk, I kept thinking about how Dad always made everyone who visited our house growing up feel welcome — Grandma and Grandpa Flaherty, Uncle Danny and Aunt Kathy, Uncle Nicky and Aunt Pat, Aunt Sue and Uncle Bill, and of course Aunt Marion and Uncle John. So many breakfasts, lunches, and Sunday dinners with Dad as the master chef. I think it’s really funny that we always ate our salad last — Dads mayonnaise based dressing was the best. There was always just a little left over that Dad would put in this green bowl in the refrigerator. And then before the night was through, one of us would devour the leftover salad and even drink the salad dressing itself — it was that good — especially ice cold.
Thanks Dad for that moment and for teaching me how to plant and take care of the tomatoes. You were the first master gardener I ever met and the best! Love you and miss you Dad, Jackie
