Here is the progress on my short story about my fictional cousin Bobby DiSimone, his wife Patricia, and their daughter Eileen. The first two parts were first written in 2020 and you can see the progress made on that site. The following is what I am doing for 2021:
I am still working on my Trilogy Short Stories. Our main character Bobby (who is also a fictional cousin of mine) has been in Saudi Arabia since November 1990 and once Desert Storm began in January 1991, he was soon on a plane heading to a forward area. While in Saudi Arabia his wife, Trish was understandably worried over his wellbeing. In March Trish and their daughter Eileen and were honored in the Levittown St. Patrick’s Day Parade by the Hibernians because their husband/dad is fighting in Desert Storm with the U. S. Army. Soon Bobby’s unit, the 47th Combat Support Hospital will have its share of trauma patients after the Battle of Khafji. At the end of March, Trish took Eileen to church with her on Easter Sunday and called her parents when they get home. In the afternoon, they joined Bobby’s parents for Easter dinner at the Miller Ridge Inn. Bobby arrived home in early May, when he landed at Gabreski Airport Trish is there with Eileen to pick him up, and several members of his fire company were there to greet him. When they got home, Trish took Eileen and him to a pub in Bethpage. A couple of days later his fire company had a welcome home party for him at the firehouse. We later learn more about the types of patients that Bobby has to treat at the Medical Center’s emergency room. In addition, on Memorial Day both Bobby and Trish marched with their respective organizations and met at the Veterans Park for the ceremonies. Later they decided to go to Roosevelt Field Mall to get some clothes for Eileen and for Bobby, and new books for Trish and for Eileen. The 1991 softball season had begun and Bobby was playing for the Levittown Fire Department. Trish told him that she would like to play in a coed or a women’s league. To hone their skills, they bought a batting tee and a Wiffle ball set and started practicing in their yard, and tried to get Eileen to learn how to swing a bat. Then in the fall of 1991, Trish joined an all-girls softball team called the Jellyfish, who won their first two games. The Jellyfish made it to the second round of the finals before being eliminated.
When 1992 rolled around Trish and Bobby decided to enroll Eileen in a pre-school program for 3 year olds. Bobby will stick to the double shift on the weekends, as opposed to alternate 12-hour shifts. So far, during the rest of 1992, they marched with their Hibernians and the fire department in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and celebrated Trish’s 40th birthday in April when the family and friends bought the 3 of them round trip airfare to Ireland, and then they had to get a passport for Eileen.
I also did some editing on events in 1990, such as the last time that Bobby and Trish were intimate before he was deployed to the Middle East in late 1990 (they made love in the shower) which starts Part III. I also added in Part II (Follow Up) that in early 1990 Bobby and Trish had decided that Eileen was going to be an only child – one and done. To make certain that happens they opted for a vasectomy for Bobby instead of tying Trish’s tubes. I also added to Part II when Bobby and Trish go to St. Bernard’s Rectory to arrange for Eileen’s christening in early March 1989 and Eileen gets hungry so Trish took her to a room down the hall for “Mother herself”, while Bobby and Father talked about baseball, the Levittown Fire Department, and Ireland – also how Bobby met Trish. Bobby and Trish then marched in the 1992 Memorial Day Parade and then went to Flushing to visit the grave of one of Bobby’s old friends, and then drove to Bobby’s parents' apartment to visit them. While there the 3 of them went out for a walk to the Botanical Gardens. Later during the summer Bobby and Trish started planning to go to Ireland in August 1992.
In Part III Bobby and Trish prepared for their August 1992 trip to Ireland and we see them at the JFK Aer Lingus terminal. Trish took Eileen to a news stand/gift shop and bought her a small stuffed rabbit and a copy of The Berenstain Bears and the Truth to read to her while they were waiting to board. Once on the plane the DiSimone family was seated and rested for the trans-Atlantic flight. Trish began to read other books to Eileen - Goodnight Moon and Corduroy. They arrived at Shannon Airport the next morning. Once they got through customs Trish and Bobby decided to rent a car from the Airport to Waterford, rather than impose on Trish’s sister Nora. They also stopped in Clonmel for a late breakfast and Bobby told Trish about his cousin Billy visiting the town in 1976. Eventually they arrived in Waterford and once they drove over the Suir River Trish took the wheel again to navigate the city streets to her parents’ house on Priory Lawn. Bobby, Trish and Eileen spent their first day in Ireland taking naps after arriving at Trish’s parents’ home, thanks to jet lag. After napping for a few hours, the headed into the city center to check out some historic sites that are open, since it is evening now. They also stopped for coffee and scones at the Granville Hotel. After a few hours in the city center, they headed back to the parents’ house on Priory Lawn.
I also edited Part II to fix Trish’s name, as the possessives still said “Pat’s” instead of “Trish’s”, and had to fix the spacing when “Bobby” was typed. In Part III Bobby and Trish are up on their second day in Waterford and after breakfast headed to the city center with Eileen to go to Mass at the Sacred Heart Church since it was August 15th, and then visit the Medieval Museum and then the Waterford Crystal Museum before having dinner at an Indian restaurant on the Quay. Bobby and Trish also had bought some gifts at the Waterford Crystal for Trish’s parents. At dinner, they talked about heading to Dublin in two days. It turns out that I had gotten the days mixed up and had to account for two consecutive days of Mass attendance and went to Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity before they visited the Bishop’s Palace. After lunch, they went to a nail salon for manicures and pedicures for each of them, with a new color nail polish for Trish. Before returning to her parents’ house, they stopped at the dance school she attended before emigrating to say hello to the headmistress and for Trish to dance with some of the students. Finally, they visited a laundromat before they enjoyed dinner at the Flaherty residence. Nora and her family also came by to join them.
The next day Bobby, Trish, and Eileen left Waterford and headed to Dublin. They stopped in Wicklow town for a quick snack and then drove to Glendalough to visit the ruins there, before continuing on to Dublin to check in to their hotel. Trish then sent Bobby out to get tickets for a play at the Abbey Theater and he was able to procure two tickets for Drama at Inish – Is Life Work Living? by Lennox Robinson. After a photo op along the Liffey and O’Connell Street, he walked back to the hotel to watch TV and relax with Trish. In the evening, they went out to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant and then went for a walk to the General Post Office for some exercise and a photo op. After the photo op at the GPO, they walked to the Quays and the Ha’Penny Bridge and crossed it to the south side. They took pix at the Molly Malone Statue and then visited a Grafton Street bookstore before walking back to the hotel. The next morning they walked to the Trinity College museums and gift shop and then a bookstore called Hodges Figgis to buy a few books before going back to the hotel to rest, since they were going to the Abbey Theater in the evening. When it is time to head out to the theater, they first had pre-theater dinner at a Mexican eatery. The Abbey was presenting Drama at Inish at the end of its engagement. After the final curtain went down, they went for a stroll by the Quay and talked about the play. I also researched the play and found it an interesting story. When they had arrived in Dublin the day before, Trish returned the rental car to the agency while Bobby registered them in at the hotel. It was too inconvenient to have the car in Dublin. On their 3rd day in Dublin, they headed over to the Dublin Zoo and Phoenix Park, going by taxi. After visiting the zoo and the park, they walked to the Guinness Storehouse to take a tour, and then to Christchurch Cathedral to visit and photograph. Finally, it was nice walk back to the hotel along the Quay and O’Connell Street. I also edited Part I by adding that both Bobby and Trish learned early in their relationship that they had met the person they wanted to marry.
I added more to Part III by describing when Bobby, Trish and Eileen went by D.A.R.T. to Trish’s brother’s house in Raheny. They were there for dinner and for everyone to get to know each other. After the visit, they took the D.A.R.T. back to Connolly Station and a cab to the hotel, where they relaxed before going to bed. The next morning after washing and dressing, they went out to visit the Capital. Earlier in the Ireland verse, when they are in Waterford, Trish, Bobby and Eileen visited Trish’s friend Maureen’s parents, since they live only a short distance from hers. Also earlier in the verse, I mentioned that when they split the driving from Shannon Airport to Clonmel and on to Waterford, the other adult snoozed. In Part III the family catnaps at the hotel and then after the front desk woke them up they got dressed and headed to the Duke Pub for the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, stopping first at a KFC restaurant for a meal that they shared. From writing about this event, I learned about two women writers from Ireland, Mary Lavin and Eavan Boland. I was going to say that on the following day they would go on a hop on/hop off bus tour of Dublin, but since this is 1992 I noticed that a lot of the sites that they buses stop at did not exist in 1992, and probably the tour bus companies did not either. I had them go on a day trip to Galway instead.
I decided to change Bobby’s surname since Trish and his daughter’s name is Eileen, and Eileen DiLorenzo sounds too much like the All in the Family character, Irene Lorenzo. I made it Bobby DiSimone. For day 4 in Dublin they took a side trip to Galway to check out the sites like the Cathedral, the National University, and a gift shop to buy some Galway Crystal for Bobby’s parents and themselves. After a pub lunch, they headed to the Latin Quarter and then the City Museum by the Spanish Arch. While in the Latin Quarter, they stopped in a gift shop to get Eileen an Irish themed rag doll while Bobby and Trish each got themselves Waterford GAA baseball caps before walking to the Spanish Arch to check out the city walls, the Galway City Museum, and the banks of the River Corrib. Around 4 pm, they decided to have evening tea at a hotel restaurant and before heading back to Dublin.
On the 22nd of August they got tickets for a play at the nearby Gate Theater and then walked to St. Stephen’s Green to walk around the wooded area let Eileen have some fun at the playground. Their next stops were St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then Dublin Castle, followed by lunch at a Nepali restaurant before heading back to the hotel to rest. In the evening, they went to the Gate Theater to see A Month in the Country and they all enjoyed it, even Eileen. After the play, they went to a pub where the parents had Irish coffee and Eileen had orange juice, and they watched a football match on TV. Then they headed back to the hotel to put things away since the next day they were going home. Then the next day on the 23rd, they had to check out of the hotel and then head to the airport to return home. They took a cab to Dublin Airport and after going through customs and security, they boarded an Aer Lingus 747 for the flight home. The plane stopped at Shannon Airport and Bobby & Trish went to the duty free shop to get a few items for themselves and for Bobby’s parents. After they landed at JFK and went through customs, Bobby called his parents who came over to JFK and drove them home. Bob and Angela took them home to Penny Lane and before unpacking, they went out to the 5 pm Mass at St. Bernard’s and then to a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner. When they got back to the house they all watched a ballgame before Bob and Angela left, and then Trish and Bobby decided to finish unpacking in the morning. This is the end of Part III. Part IV will be coming soon. I added more to Part II where some of Trish’s friends from the Hibernians dropped by for a visit two weeks after Eileen was born. While they were over, Bobby made them loose Irish tea, which came out quite well.
I am doing the preliminaries for Part IV and it’s official title will be The DiSimone Family in the 1990’s. I am still researching the 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam since Bobby would be deployed there with a medical unit. I also added a paragraph to Part II when he was deployed to Honduras in March 1988 as part of a medical unit. However, for 1992 so far he took Eileen for a walk in Levittown and worked with her on a batting tee. On his first day back at the hospital, he had some drug overdoses and victims of violence. In September, Trish was back at work teaching. She was planning what her Modern Dance Club would do for 1992 and 1993 and proposed Isadora Duncan as a dancer to emulate.
Trish is back at school teaching and in the middle of September, the 3 of them go to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in Westbury for their anniversary and Bobby’s birthday. On Saturday, they work in their kitchen making Irish goodies for the Sunday feis. Bobby went to work in the evening and had some dramatic cases in the ER. At the feis, Trish got to play some camogie and after the match she introduced Eileen to the sport by having her try to hit the ball and even scoop it up from the grass. Some of the other ladies also helped Eileen, but at 3½, she has a ways to go. Trish also convinced Bobby that Eileen should start to get interested in the sport since it develops discipline and coordination. They also learned about Cousin Billy’s daughter, also named Eileen, who diagnosed with autism in late 1992. Bobby told Trish that his cousin cannot catch a break and that life kind of sucked for Billy when he was younger and re-wrote about how Billy’s life sucked. Both Bobby and Trish agree that Ellen is perfect for Billy. Now it’s October 1992 and Eileen went trick or treating with her parents around the neighborhood. In addition, on weekends Trish is still working with Eileen on learning to play camogie. The 3 of them went to the Veterans Day ceremonies at the Memorial on Hempstead Turnpike. A couple of weeks later the 3 of them went to the Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time as a family, along with Bobby’s parents.
A few weeks later Bobby, Trish and Eileen had dinner on Christmas Eve with Bobby’s parents and enjoyed the traditional and messy seven fish dinner. Then 4 days later the 3 of them went to Lincoln Center to see The Nutcracker and they all enjoyed the performance. The DiSimone’s spent some time on New Year’s Eve with their friends the McBride’s, and helped Eileen celebrate her 4th birthday a couple of weeks later. After Eileen showed some interest in camogie at the last feis, Trish has been working with her to get her somewhat proficient for a 4 year old. Since it’s winter they cannot practice in the yard so in late January Trish took Eileen with her to 7-11 to pick up a Spalding ball and then to the Abbey Lane School gym to practice camogie movements. It turns out that Eileen is catching on quickly for a 4 year old. I also made a few edits to the other 3 parts of the novella
Eileen is getting interested in camogie and Trish is helping her and it looks like 4 years old is the right age to start playing the sport. Bobby also went back to weekday shifts in 1993. We also learned that he is not too fond of some of the other members of his firehouse since after the 1992 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, some of them made advances towards Trish and one tried to grab her private area while they were drunk. She kicked one of them in his jewels and he doubled over. Another one asked her why she did not like drunk guys since Irish were supposed to love alcohol. She responded to him that she enjoys it enough not to make a fool out of herself. In addition, both Bobby and Trish don’t share the ultra-conservative and nationalist views of many of the other members. Later in 1993, Bobby and Trish returned to the softball diamond, and Trish’s co-ed league season began in the fall. Bobby was able to spend time with his redheads, despite working three 1900/0700 shifts during the week. In Part I, I added why Bobby is called ‘Bobby’ instead of ‘Bob’. He had explained to Trish that both he and his dad are named Robert, making him a junior and to avoid confusion everyone called him Bobby.
I wrote more in Part IV. Bobby went to Andrews Joint Base for his two weeks reserve duty. Later in the summer, he and Trish went to see the Mets with Mr. DiSimone and by themselves to see the Yankees. They all agree that the Yankees were the better New York team in 1993. There is also the annual Nassau County Feis and the 3 of them attended and participated. Eileen was getting better at camogie. Bobby is now considering going to graduate school to maybe be considered for a position as nurse practitioner. He does not want to leave the Nassau County Medical Center, and when he discussed it with Trish, he brought up his cousin’s changing careers and that his new career went up in smoke. In the end, he decided to stay put but did ask to be transferred to the surgical ICU should a spot open up (it did in 1994). In mid-November, he considered joining American Legion Post 1711, which is on Jerusalem Road and not that far from his house. I made some revisions in Part IV. Bobby is going to pursue the nurse practitioner course, at Molloy College starting in January 1994, with Trish’s blessing. He opted to stay at the Nassau County Medical Center in the emergency room for now. Bobby has also asked his boss Kate if in the meantime he can get a transfer to an intensive care unit at the Medical Center. Kate told him that she would talk to administration to see what they can do for him. Not much else exciting happened for the rest of 1993 but in January 1994, Eileen celebrated her 5th birthday, and then her parents planned to register her for kindergarten at the Abbey Lane School. Bobby will also start his nurse practitioner program at Molloy College at the end of January.
On January 18th Bobby started his classes at Molloy College and when he came home he told Trish and Eileen about his first day of school since he graduated Hunter Bellevue in 1982, and then went into the bedroom to study, since his life is now centered around studying. I added to Part IV that the 3 of them went with Mr. DiSimone to a Mets game in April 1994, and the Mets won. I also did some editing in Part III when they were in Waterford and visited the nail salon and the dance academy, and well as fixing the punctuation in all four parts.
In May 1994, Bobby had three motor vehicle accidents in one shift, and two of the patients did not make it. Later when he got home he would study some more and take Eileen for a walk, to help him forget the mess that he saw. Trish and Eileen later walked to the Abbey Lane School gym and practiced some camogie drills for an hour. Bobby and Trish each marched in the 1994 Levittown Memorial Day Parade. For 1994, Army Reserve duty Bobby spent his two weeks at Fort Polk with the 115th Combat Support Hospital. Of course, he could not wait to get home. This was definitely the armpit of the country, he thought to himself. While there were no issues with recruits being injured in training accidents, he still had to contend with snakebite victims since there were coral snakes and copperheads in the region. While he was away, the professors at Molloy College cut him some slack and let him take any exams in the form of make-ups when he got back from Louisiana. With not much to do while he was at the Post, he had plenty of time to study when he was off duty. During the summer, Bobby was also at Molly College and took NUR 5100 - Current Issues in Professional Nursing and NUR 5150 - Organizational Theory – one course per summer session. Like the two that he had it the spring term, these were three credits each. With his experience at the Medical Center and in the Army, the first course was not that difficult. Organization Theory was a greater challenge, since he was now a major in the Army Reserve, and he did know something about organizations. Still, he found time to study: on his shift, at restaurants, visiting friends and family. He later managed to pass these two courses with flying colors as well.
I thought that I was at a roadblock in Part IV. What else could I write about concerning what happened in 1994 but not the same stuff/different day? Bobby, Trish and Eileen have participated in Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and other holiday events for several years. Then came the idea - Kindergarten. Eileen turned 5 earlier in the year so it’s time for her to start in September. And she would be starting just after Labor Day at the same school where Trish teaches. Eileen had started kindergarten at the Abbey Lane School, and she seemed to be well adjusted and prepared, thanks to Bobby and Trish sending her to pre-school and working with her when she was a baby and toddler.
In December 1994 the 3 of them went to Lincoln Center during Christmas time to see the Nutcracker, and also have Christmas Eve dinner at Bobby’s parents’ apartment. For New Year’s Eve they all went to the Hibernian Hall. In 1995 Bobby got his transfer to the pediatric intensive care unit.
And during 1995, he will be continuing his studies at Molloy College in the nurse practitioner program. I added more to Part IV and Bobby has new responsibilities as a pediatric ICU nurse. Eileen is now 6 and doing well in kindergarten. And after Bobby saw a few teen drug overdoses, he and Trish hoped that Eileen wouldn’t go down that path in a few years, and that being interested in sports will keep her away from the drug and alcohol addiction path. I added more to Part II, about when Bobby and Trish decided to only have one child and elaborated on why. In Part IV they went out to Calverton National Cemetery on Memorial Day to visit the graves of his and my uncles, aunts and a cousin. It turned out that Trish knew Billy's cousin through the AOH, though not well.
I added a paragraph to Part IV in which Bobby, Trish and Eileen, along with two of Trish’s modern dance students and their mothers, went to the Joyce Theater in Manhattan to see the Batsheva Dance Company perform. They opted to go by LIRR as opposed to driving. After the performance they had dinner at a Thai restaurant on 8th Avenue before taking the LIRR back to Wantagh and then home. They also discussed what they saw at the theater: Martha Graham compositions, as well as works by Israeli choreographers.
I wrote more in Part IV, and on the Internet, I checked websites about camogie on Long Island and it turns out that there is one club that plays in College Point called the Shannon Gaels. But since this club did not come into being until the 2000’s, I had to create a fictional one - the Liffey Gaelic Sports Club that plays in Bayside at Cunningham Park. Trish and Bobby signed Eileen up for Under 8 camogie program and it turns out that she really enjoys the workouts and the practices. I elaborated about Eileen’s rookie season in Under 8 Division. During the “Opening Day” match, the sliotar was hit near her and she was able to pick it up and then hit it into the net for a point. In the end, the Liffey Girls won, 7-5. I am now up to April 1996 and 7-year-old Eileen is back playing camogie. Her team won their first game of the 1996 season against a team from Brooklyn called the Shamrocks, 10-8 at Cunningham Park. Like every other match, the girls lined up and high fived their opponents to tell them that it was a good game. When the match was over Bobby, Trish and Eileen got into the car and headed back to Levittown, but first they stopped at a McDonald’s for a quick lunch. Like every Saturday, when they arrived at #4, Bobby went into the den or the bedroom to hit the books and take a nap. There would be another match the following Saturday, this time in Rockville Centre.
The next day was a Sunday and after Bobby, Trish, and Eileen came home from Mass, had breakfast and relaxed, Trish and Eileen went over to the Abbey Lane School to do some more practicing in the gym. And during the week, Eileen practiced in the yard when she got home from school and before homework time began. When Saturday arrived, they drove to the pitch at Lakeview and Village Avenues in Rockville Centre to face the RVC locals. The team was called the South Shore Gaels, and the Liffey Girls faced their RVC Under 8 counterparts with confidence. The referee called the teams’ centers and a few other players to the center of the pitch and tossed the sliotar to the girls and the match was on. Eileen was a starter and soon she scooped the sliotar up, ran with it towards the goal line, and then hit it towards the RVC goalie, and it went right past the defender, and Eileen scored a point unassisted! Of course, Trish and Bobby were in the stands and elated. It looks like all that practice has paid off. Trish was right - Eileen has developed hand-eye coordination and a sense of discipline. In the end, the Liffey girls won the match 9-5. Of course, both teams lined up to give the high five and to acknowledge that it was a good game. After the match, they stopped at Friendly’s in Baldwin for a quick lunch before driving back to Penny Lane. Once home they washed up and Bobby hit the books for his Advanced Pathophysiology class. I added a little more to say that the Liffey Girls Under 8 team finished their 1996 camogie season with a record of 11-1, and there was a nice awards ceremony at the Queens Hibernians Division 13. It served as a great photo op for Bobby to take pictures of his daughter and her teammates.
In the writings, Part IV, I looked at field hockey programs at high schools and some universities, so I can write about it in my novella. It looks like my fictional 2nd cousin might end up at Holy Trinity High School and then Hofstra or Adelphi. She can play softball at Holy Trinity and field hockey at the university. Bobby, Trish, and Eileen marched in the 1996 Memorial Day Parade and then stopped at Long Island National Cemetery to visit the graves of his (and my) grandparents before heading to Flushing to visit Bob and Angela. Bobby and Trish went for a walk to Barnes & Noble and got books for the 3 of them and then headed back to the apartment to watch the ball game. For dinner the 5 of them walked around the corner to Main Street to a Hunan Chinese restaurant and tried some fairly exotic dishes (at least the adults did). After dinner they walked down the hill to the Botanical Gardens entrance and then back up Colden Street to the building. Bobby got deployed to Fort Drum and was assigned to the MEDDAC unit and the 10th Mountain Division for the two weeks in July 1996. Trish and Eileen drove up to visit him and stayed at a nearby hotel for the few days. When they arrived at the hotel, Bobby drove over to meet them and they relaxed at the hotel before heading to the Salmon Run Mall. This part of the story got me interested in Watertown and the North Country. Enough to maybe visit, but not to live there. At the Salmon Run Mall they checked out the stores and after buying some Mets and Yankees shirts, they headed to the Fairground Inn restaurant for dinner. The next day they went to see a Watertown Indians baseball game. The Indians beat the Oneonta Yankees 5-4. After the game they decided to have dinner at the officers club on the post and the ladies changed back at the hotel. Bobby changed at his quarters on the post. The went to a restaurant at the officers club called The Commons at Dillenback's Corner. While there Bobby introduced Trish and Eileen to a doctor (Dave) and his wife (Joan), and Dave asked Trish what she did for a living. Bobby and Trish ordered light entrees since they are watching their weight. After dinner at the Officers Club they walked around the post and went past the 10th Mountain Division Museum. While it’s closed since it was in the evening, Bobby and Trish made plans for the next day (Monday) for the ladies to visit him during lunch time and check out the museum. Since Bobby was going to be showing Trish and Eileen around Fort Drum, I looked up more about the post (not such a bad assignment), and then also Fort Polk. Most interviewed about Polk said it was the pits, and I also replied about England AFB and how bad of an assignment that was. In Part IV I was able to elaborate on Trish and Eileen keeping busy on Monday by visiting the Salmon Run Mall and also the Sci-Tech Center in downtown Watertown before they go to Fort Drum to visit Bobby. They had lunch at Maggie’s on the Mountain and went to the USO for a visit and photo op. Bobby, Trish and Eileen got together on Monday evening and have a nice supper at the Officers Club again, and the next day (Tuesday) during lunch time Trish and Eileen met Bobby at the 10th Mountain Division Museum to visit it. Bobby, Trish and Eileen had dinner at the Coleman’s Corners Irish restaurant and then went back to the hotel where Bobby said goodnight to the redheads. The next morning, July 31st, the ladies drove back home. Once Bobby was home he was back on the softball diamond. He and Trish kept working with Eileen on her softball and camogie skills, and at the Hibernians, Trish met up with a member who had been inactive for a while. Bobby resumed his studies at Molloy College in the fall, taking the first two courses that required 200 clinical hours. He would graduate in June 1997. I also went back to July 1996 and wrote a paragraph about when Eileen’s Under 8 camogie team got a write up in Newsday and an Irish American paper, the Irish Voice. The article spoke about the Liffey Girl's two most valuable players - Eileen DiSimone and Mary Kate Clerkin. The sportswriter featured how Eileen and Mary Kate got to be so proficient in the sport, and mentioned Trish’s working with Eileen since she was a toddler, and Mary Kate went to the Garden City high school field hockey pitch to practice with her mother. Bobby celebrated his 47th birthday in September 1996 with a dinner at the Schooner and received a nice Mets varsity jacket from the ladies. Trish went back to the softball diamond and her all girls team, the Jellyfish, went 15-1 in the regular Fall 1996 season and won it all in the playoffs. Bobby is making progress in his nurse practitioner program at Molloy College. For Thanksgiving, he, Trish and Eileen went to the Thanksgiving Day Parade and enjoyed seeing floats of characters like Arthur and Bart Simpson, and hear singers like Shania Twain. When the parade is over they hopped the Long Island Railroad to Flushing to have Thanksgiving dinner with Bob & Angela. Bobby and his dad watched the NFL game while Trish and Eileen told Angela what they saw in the parade. During the rest of 1996 Bobby finished his last fall semester at Molloy College and Eileen finished the 2nd grade fall term at the Abbey Lane School. Trish, Bobby, and Eileen went to Lincoln Center to see the Nutcracker a few days before Christmas. Before the performance they walked nearby, past the site of Power Memorial and Bobby talked about its most famous alumnus. When they got back to Levittown they all went out to dinner at a Manchurian Chinese restaurant. I added what Bobby, Trish and Eileen did for Christmas 1996 (Bob and Angela came out to visit them). Since Trish is a Yankees fan, two months earlier she was ecstatic that they won the World Series that year. They had not always been doing so well for a good part of her time in the US. Further on in Part IV I elaborated on what Bobby and Trish did on Christmas with Bobby’s parents: exchanging gifts, Bob and Bobby watching the Aloha Bowl, and Angela, Trish & Eileen going out for a walk to the Abbey Lane School and back. A few days later Bobby made a pea soup from the leftover Christmas ham and it was a big hit with his ladies and one of his shift mates. On New Year’s Eve Bobby, Trish and Eileen went to the Hibernians Division for New Year’s Eve, and they started 1997 with a visit to St. Bernard’s for the Solemnity of Mary, and when they got home, they watched a bowl game. Eileen turned 8 on January 14th, 1997 so Bobby & Trish hosted a birthday party at the house. Among the presents were a bicycle from her parents and children’s books from two of her classmates. There were some other nice items from Bob & Angela (a Madame Alexander doll), as well as some of the other classmates. In late January Bobby and Eileen went back to their studies at their respective schools, and Trish went back to her teaching job. Later in 1997 Eileen’s camogie team, the Liffey Girls, finished their season at 7-1. Bobby graduated from Molloy College in June 1997 with a Master of Science in Nursing after completing the nurse practitioner program. There were photo ops and then he, Trish, Eileen along with Bob and Angela went to El Mariachi in Rockville Centre for dinner and then walked over to St. Agnes Cathedral to visit it and take more photos. In mid to late July I wrote more. Bobby was sent to Fort Belvoir VA for his annual two weeks of active duty. Trish and Eileen came down for a visit and stayed at a hotel nearby on Route 1. On the evening that they arrived Bobby, Trish and Eileen went to dinner at the Post’s Officers Club. I learned that Andrews Joint Base is Air Force & Navy with not many Army units there. So I had Bobby do his two weeks of active duty in 1993 and 1995 at Eustis-Langley Joint Base instead. In Part II, I wrote a bit about Trish and her C-section scar. Neither she nor Bobby care about it – she does not wear bikinis and only Bobby and Eileen have seen her nude. In Part IV Bobby went to Fort Belvoir for his 1997 two weeks of active duty and the ladies come down for a visit. On the first night they all went to a Thai restaurant and then went for a ride to Mount Vernon to take pictures and admire the property. Then on Friday evening Bobby picked up Trish and Eileen at their hotel and they rode into Alexandria. After parking the car they decided to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant on King Street and even visited an Ethiopian craft shop further along on King Street before walking to the Masonic Monument for some photo shoots. The 3 of them watched a Baltimore Orioles game when they got back to the hotel after visiting Alexandria, and the next day they took the Metro to the Smithsonian Institute and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. They admired the African Voices exhibit, as well as Hall of Mammals and the Bone Hall. Around 1 PM the 3 of them walked up to McDonald’s on 13th Street for lunch and then they walked to the Washington Monument to observe the region from 500 feet up, and they naturally took lots of photos. After about 45 minutes they walked to the Tidal Basin to admire the cherry trees before going to the Jefferson Memorial. They were impressed with the building, the statue of Jefferson, and the quotations on the wall. Around 6 PM they took the Metro to Foggy Bottom and went to dinner at a Sichuan Chinese restaurant. They later hopped the Metro back to Alexandria and returned to the hotel to watch the Orioles baseball game on TV. Since the next day was a Sunday, Trish and Eileen went down to Fort Belvoir to meet Bobby at the Catholic chapel to attend Sunday Mass before she and Eileen headed back to Long Island. I added a paragraph to Part III where Trish and Eileen visit Bobby’s cousin Bob in Huntington on New Year’s Day 1991.
I added more to Part IV. It’s fall 1997 and Bobby celebrated his 48th birthday with dinner with his parents, as well as with the redheads. Trish’s school year started and so did her 1997 softball season. The Jellyfish won it all again and celebrated at a sports bar on Hempstead Turnpike. One of her teammates made an advance at Bobby and Trish told her to back off. Wisely she did.
I edited the four parts to fix punctuation, especially sentences within quotation marks. I closed out 1997, since it was pretty similar to other Novembers and Decembers from prior years. We are now in 1998 and it looks like Bobby and family will go to Disney World for the first time when the spring term ends, and in August he will be deployed to Nairobi with the Army to help with the relief. On August 14th, I looked up what I could find about camogie in New York so I can start writing more in Part IV. The websites did not say much so I will have to improvise. On the 16th I added a bit more to Part IV. Eileen turned 9 in January 1998 and is now playing in the Under 11 girls’ camogie league. Her team, the Liffey Girls, finished 9 & 3 for 1998.
During the Easter holidays the 3 of them headed to Disney World for the first time. Once they arrived at Disney World, Bobby, Trish and Eileen checked into their room at the Disney Contemporary Hotel and then headed to the Magic Kingdom by monorail. The first part they visited was Tomorrowland, for lunch and to enjoy the Carousel of Progress, the people mover, and Space Mountain. After the rides and the photo ops it was Frontierland, and the riverboat ride and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They decided on dinner at the Crystal Palace on Main Street before walking over to the Emporium nearby to buy a few items for family, friends, coworkers and themselves. Finally, around 10 pm they took the monorail back to the hotel and went upstairs to their room to stretch out and watch TV. The next day the 3 of them had breakfast at the Wave Restaurant in their hotel before hopping the monorail to EPCOT and enjoying Spaceship Earth, the Aquarium, and the foreign pavilions. Once they got to the lake, they spotted the Canada Pavilion and went inside the grounds to admire the totem poles, gardens, and waterfalls which made backdrops for photos. Down the way was the United Kingdom Pavilion, set up like an English village. They managed to visit the Toy Soldier, and Bobby bought himself a Beatles coffee cup. Next was the Disney Skyliner and after waiting in the queue they boarded a gondola to ride over EPCOT and take a slew of photos of the pavilions and the lakes. When they got back to the EPCOT terminal they disembarked and walked over to the France Pavilion. Here Eileen got to pose with Princess Belle. At the American Adventure Pavilion, they admired the numerous ibises in the gardens, and inside the pavilion they got to listen to some live bluegrass music, enjoy exhibits of American music and Native American wares, and an animatronic show of American history. They then visited the German Pavilion, and then it was time for a rest at one of the benches. Once Trish and Eileen put their flip flops back on, they headed to the China Pavilion. The first stop was the Reflections of China, and its exhibit of Chinese art, including the terracotta army of Chinese soldiers, and the history of China. The gardens had an Asian flair to them as did the buildings around them. It was an infinite photo opportunity for Bobby and Trish. They all got to pose next to the Buddha statues, as well the buildings, making them feel like they actually were in China. The next stop was the House of Good Fortune with its array of Chinese gifts. Soon they headed out with a waving cat, a tea set and a teddy bear with a “luck” tee shirt on it. They then walked to the EPCOT monorail station, boarded a train and a few minutes later arrived at the junction where they boarded a different train to go back to the Contemporary. After a quick scenic ride, they were in their room and stretching out on the bed or the couch and watching television. After a day at EPCOT, Trish suggested that they go to the Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom, since it was a prix fixe menu and they know that they would not walk out hungry. They hopped the monorail to the Kingdom and walked to the Tavern. Besides the meal and desserts, Bobby and Trish tried wines from Fess Parker’s winery. It is Day 3 at Disney World and at first, they would be visiting the Animal Kingdom - the Oasis and the Tree of Life for starters. But I learned that the Animal Kingdom park did not open at Disney World until April 22, 1998 but Bobby and family are there during the week of April 12th. So instead on Day 3 they go back for another visit to the Magic Kingdom. On this visit they were able to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, the Swiss Family Tree House, the Hall of Presidents, Small World and Snow White. Dinner was at the Crystal Palace, followed by a ride on the Magic Kingdom Railroad that circles the park. Before boarding the Monorail to return to their hotel, they visited the Emporium to see if any clothes and stuffed animals would interest them and each ended up with a Disney tee shirt. The next day, April 16th, they checked out of the hotel and flew home to JFK, where Bobby’s parents met them and drove them home. After they brought their luggage inside, Bobby suggested that they go out for dinner at a new Indian restaurant in Hicksville.
Over the next couple of months, until Bobby was deployed to East Africa, it was pretty much the same old stuff. Highlights were that Trish had her modern dance club do two recitals, Eileen played camogie with the Liffey Girls, and Bobby played softball with the Levittown FD. I worked on Part IV and was able to write about Bobby’s deployment to East Africa after the two August 1998 embassy bombings, his belated 49th birthday celebration, and the 3 of them attending the Columbus Day Parade. Later in Part IV Bobby, Trish, and Eileen watched the 1998 baseball post season and Trish is trying to make a Yankees fan out of Eileen. Later on, in November, Bobby’s uncle (my dad) was hospitalized with a heart attack and then I elaborated his uncle would be getting better after triple bypass surgery and would then spend some time at a nursing home in Jamaica. Bobby, Trish and Eileen would visit both his uncle and his parents on Thanksgiving Day. 1998 and Part IV would end with a stop at the Hibernians Hall to have a round and watch the ball drop in Times Square on television.
Now it’s Part V. Bobby, Trish and Eileen started 1999 by going to Mass at St. Bernard’s Church for the Solemnity of Mary holy day of obligation. When they got home it was a nice Irish breakfast and then they watched a couple of bowl games. In the middle of the month, they had a party at the Hibernian Hall for Eileen’s 10th birthday. Some classmates and Hibernian juniors came over to make it a great day for Eileen. I finished writing about Eileen’s 10th birthday and am now elaborating on Bobby’s work at the ICU’s. He is now assigned to the NICU and we learned what his responsibilities are. Right now Bobby is responsible for a premature baby boy that he is monitoring in the NICU and arranged for the parents to meet with him in the evening on his next shift. The baby’s parents came to see him on his shift and was able to speak with the premature baby boy’s parents about care and feeding. I replaced the present tense with the past tense where necessary since the story takes place so far from 1975 to 1999. We will reach the 21st century soon enough, and the series will end at the 2020 COVID pandemic.
We are still in 1999 and Trish noticed that one of her students was bruised and acting differently. She suspected child abuse and contacted the Child Protective Services. Trish then spoke with Katie’s mother and found out that the abusive father knows Bobby from the Levittown Fire Department and they don’t care for each other. In the meantime she invited the Katie to her house for a sleepover with Eileen and the daughter of friend from the AOH. The daughter is also a Junior in the AOH. When Katie and her mom arrived, Bobby spoke on the side to Trish telling her that she may have put herself in harm's way because Katie's dad may retaliate against her, and even Eileen and him, for being a "snitch". Trish said that everything was anonymous. Later the third girl, Caitlyn, arrived and they started their sleepover. The 3 girls brought their sleeping bags and games upstairs and then went back downstairs to have pizza and popcorn before watching a movie. They talked about which movie to watch first, A Bug’s Life or Mulan, and Eileen then told her sleep mates that Trish bought some different colors of nail polish for them to paint their nails different colors. The girls watched A Bug’s Life and then went into the kitchen for pizza. After they watched Mulan later in the evening they spun the dial to see which nail polish color they will get in their turn. Trish told Katie and Caitlyn that they could come with Eileen and her when they go to the nail salon for their manicures and pedicures. The girls did watch Mulan and were impressed by the title character’s courage and tenacity. Eileen got her dad to tell them about his deployment to Africa the prior summer after the embassy bombings. Then it was time for the spin the bottle to see which color each girl got for one of her nails. Then the 5 of them watched TV before retiring to the bedroom and the dormer. And the next morning (Verse 5) Trish made a nice Irish breakfast for everyone, and later the other moms came to pick up their girls. Liz and Katie stayed for a while so Trish could talk with them about the social worker’s visit and what the husband would do. After Liz and Katie left, Bobby, Trish and Eileen cleaned up the house and headed to the 12 noon Mass. Trish then took them to the Abbey Lane School so she and Eileen can have a camogie practice. Bobby was impressed with Eileen’s (and also Trish’s) play and knew that Eileen would be a camogie or field hockey star in a few years. “Hon, this is what we have been doing here all those weekends. I think it's paying off.” After practice and washing up the 3 of them went to Hibernian Hall to meet up with the Reilly’s, have a round, and watch TV. Eilish’s husband Mike and Bobby watched the Islanders play the Carolina Hurricanes and lose 4-1. Bobby was annoyed that the Islanders lost but told Mike that being a Mets fan made him used to losing. Bobby then told Mike Reilly when they were watching the hockey game as to why Trish and Eileen are Yankees fans. Trish got hooked on the Bronx Bombers after she started to watch their games on TV and also went to see them at Shea Stadium in 1975 with Bobby and Bob. She then worked on Eileen. Liz O’Keefe convinced her husband Paddy to go to alcohol rehabilitation and seek counseling and wrote a bit about what Paddy was going to go through in rehabilitation. I added in Part IV that Eileen joined the Juniors at the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 7 (Nassau County) not long after she turned 6 in 1995. Also in Part IV, Bobby's cousin Billy (me) grew up in Astoria instead of Jackson Heights. Later in Part V Trish takes Eileen and her two sleepover guests to the nail salon about 4 weeks after the event. The verse describes what goes on with a manicure and pedicure, and it says what color polishes each of the gals asked for (periwinkle, green grass, and creamy coral). After the manicurists were done, Trish dropped Katie off at her home. Then Caitlyn invited Eileen and her over for lunch. The four gals enjoyed some soup and a sandwich before Trish and Eileen thanked Eilish and headed home. I did a few edits to Part V and in verse 8 Bobby had joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians since his maternal grandmother was now an Irish immigrant. Maybe 25% of him can join? Later in Part V while Bobby was working in the NICU he had to care for two infants. One had perinatal depression, while the other suffered from meconium aspiration syndrome.