Another tale of turning 50

My brother Billy turns 2 in 1962.



Forty-eight years later, five of six Carey siblings gathered at the Gideon Putnam Hotel, in Saratoga Springs to celebrate Billy turning 50. Here he is with the youngest two partygoers, our niece Evangeline and nephew Matt. It was a good choice of a place, since we all love water and water really is the focus of many of the hotels there. Most of us signed up for the therapeutic baths, in which you sit in your own deep tub of effervescent green mineral water in a 1930's-era clinical-style room for 40 minutes. It goes by fast! Then you can take a eucalyptus sauna and nap in the relaxation room.


You can also drink some of the effervescent mineral water. It tastes like medicine, but I can imagine you could get to like it with some lemon.


The Gideon Putnam, a Historic Hotel of America, is an elegant place and the grounds, which are part of a state park, are impressive, the only problem we encountered was that the hotel was hosting a crowded convention of the New York Press Association. the trade organization for weekly community newspapers in the state. There were reporters everywhere and hardly anywhere to sit and eat breakfast. As Billy used to work at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield and I was at the Daily Hampshire Gazette for 15 years, we felt a sense of kinship with our fellow scribes. I wondered whether the humble looking reporters recognized that I until recently was one of them.


We had dinner at a Saratoga neighborhood Indian restaurant, which was excellent.


Billy and Lena.


Forty-eight years later.