Spaghetti Lunch with Neighbor Luke - 9/11 Where were YOU on that fateful day 12 years ago - Scott walks himself back to health

 Brought a hot pot of spaghetti to Luke's house on neighboring Sleighride Road. I recognize the house by the three beautiful trees in an island on the lawn.

Luke said his late wife Joan planted them. She was real proud of herself, he said. They were itty bitty trees at the time.

 Everything you look at in Luke's house is beautiful, including this jutting-out window full of plants. I asked him if he ordered any more Hummel figurines and he said No, the company is having some sort of trouble in Germany.

Luke turned 85 on August 25, I believe. His son, Tom, in western PA, painted this card for him. His two granddaughters - Emma and the other one - are standing behind a forsythia bush.

Imagine! I said. He took the time to paint you a card. I told him about the card I painted to Alan Schonberg, which I mailed this morning from the Bryn Athyn Post Office.

My spaghetti features sauteed garlic and roasted pine nuts - which come from pine cones - you can see them on the surface. I sprinkled grated Parm on top.

Valerie, who's staying with Luke, put out a plate of fresh tomatoes from the garden.



Luke enjoyed it and made us some coffee. I remembered that Mailman Bob Handline would come home from work, sit in his recliner, and drink a cup of Folger's.



Then we got in the car, picked up Scott and went on a scenic drive. This is one of my favorite things to do.

Here are some things we saw... a badly burned house in an industrial Willow Grove neighborhood we've never seen before




We drove into Pennypack Trust but no one felt like walking. It was swelteringly hot outside.

I asked Luke where he was on 9/11.

"I was working at my retirement job at Davis Pontiac," he said.

"What a beautiful place that was," I said. "They're long gone."

It was a beautiful long white building in Richboro, PA. Luke, who still speaks with a North Carolina accent, would drive cars as far as New Hampshire or Florida and then bring a newer car home for a customer.

Scott also did that when he worked for "the dealership," but didn't travel as far.

After Scott and I dropped Luke off, Scott asked if I wanted to go for a walk.

It's 92 degrees outside.

Sure, I said, and away we went. On the way home, we checked out Premier Office Solutions on Davisville Road. They sell furniture to corporations.

I told Girard my office is on the top floor of my house on Cowbell Road. He feigned interest.


 
When I got home and checked my sugar, it was a low 64, so I had another bowl of delicious spaghetti.

Scott couldn't stand it and is making his own spaghetti now.