Green Mountain National Golf Course
in the fog.

Green Mountain National Golf Course
in the fog.

Although this post has a date of July 6th, to me it's still July 5th. I write this at 3AM after a busy night in our restaurant. It's been a long day....so it goes.

"Hey Billy......How are you hittem today?"

This morning when I got up there were 3 people in the world who call me Billy as an adult...my mother, an ex wife, and John OD...I speak with my mother every few weeks or so...it's been years since I spoke with my ex-wife. But I would see John every couple of days at the golf course or around town.

When we first moved to Killington, Green Mountain National hosted a ladies professional golf tournament each year. The "Futures Tour" is the farm club so to speak for the LPGA. John was on the organizing committee for the tournament. Being new to town, Mary and I volunteered to help out with prizes for the Pro-AM. From then on, John became a friend of ours. Not a share your deep dark secret's kind of friend, but more than just a casual acquaintance.

The first few years we were in Killington, our restaurant was a secret...perhaps a little too secret. John worked as the host to the restaurant at the Wobbly Barn. They would get a 1 or more hour wait for tables on Saturday. In would walk someone who was just a little too dressed up for the Wobbly and John would whisper in their ear about this nice little restaurant just across the street in this new inn. John was just like that for us. For the last 11 years we would hear many times a month from people who were told by this bartender that they needed to come and eat dinner at our inn. Sure enough. OD had sent them to us. That was just John's way.

We got the call this morning. Our assistant's boyfriend works at Green Mountain National Golf Course. The details Mary got when the phone call came in were sketchy, but the news was dreadful. Sure we baby boomers are all getting older. Sure Killington has lost people since we moved here 12 years ago. But the call just sent a shiver up our spines.

In the summer time, I almost always end my message with "keep it in the fairway...and don't forget your sunscreen!" I can't tell you about John and sunscreen, but OD had the fairway down, with his signature sweeping left to right fade. Keep it in the fairway good friend....