A quiet autumn tent awaits dismantling in Ocean Grove. September 2016. Gone are the clatter and the kids. Paul Goldfinger photo ©

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor  @Blogfinger

It’s a Tuesday afternoon, September 20.  There’s an amazing contrast. You can hardly hear a sound.  No one is cruising around for a parking space. I met two women from Neptune  (the town , not the planet)  in Auditorium Square Park; one was black and one was white.  One was older and one was younger.  They were both holding bibles, sitting on a bench. We chatted for awhile, but even after warming up the audience, they would not allow a photograph.

So I wandered over to the Greatest Auditorium.  Someone said that a new air pump was being installed in the Hope Jones organ, but there were no organ workers that I could find. No one was even humming an organ concerto.

Nearby was a man relaxing in a pickup truck, where the roof workers were parked. One leg was up on the dashboard, passenger side.  He seemed very content, enjoying the warm breezes and the quiet. He smiled, so I asked him about the roof work.

He said that he and others were installing large panels of roofing, copper coated, about 10 feet long and 17 inches wide. He said that the job was hard and that they, from Dover, NJ, had been working on the project since February, with time off due to bad weather.  The copper coating was to prevent damage due to the salt air.  He happily reported that they would be done in a few days.

I told him that the Auditorium had been built in 92 days.  He said that he knew, but he figured it would be possible if you had enough men.   He had an accent, and I like to identify accents, so I guessed Russia.  He said, without losing his smile, “I am not Russian; I am Polish; a different country.”

I didn’t tell him that you could drive a train across the roof—theoretically.  I didn’t want to make this roofer nervous.  (This is what the tour guides like to tell the tourists while they sit inside the GA.)

Just then Jack Bredin wandered by, so we walked together, back to the park where we found a bench.    He had been thinking about what memorable 5 minute speech he would present at the next Township Committee meeting. He practiced on me.  But I always like to hear his script, however he will find a less amiable audience at the Mother Ship, home of the Neptuners.

He then headed towards A. Park while I headed home where no roof or raindrops could fall on my head and where I could Google the difference between Russia and Poland.  Actually  my ancestors lived in Poland for about a 1,000 years  (sort of like Brer Rabbit in the briar patch,)  but I didn’t want to burst the roofer’s  bubble by telling him that.

DISTURBED:   ( That is the name of a heavy metal band from Chicago, but you Grovers, don’t worry—you will recognize this song.)