FROM THE ARCHIVES
July 13, 2017
“My bartender makes the best Mojitos in La Romana,” says the Lebanese owner of the Shish Kabob Restaurant.
Good start.
We’re there with two friends who have roots in La Romana, remember buying food from pushcarts when they walked into the streets in the evening when they were kids. and are frequent customers here. We’re getting personal attention from the outgoing owner,
The small world department gets a full head of steam when Juan Giha Elmufdi asks where I’m from.
“My daughter goes to school at Bentley University!” he says with a big smile.
“That’s a ten minute drive from my home in Watertown,” says I.
What are the chances that you’d eat a dinner in a city not found on most tourists radar on a small island in the middle of the Caribbean and get treated like royalty because the owner’s daughter goes to college ten minutes from where you live.
“My daughter got a masters degree in Culinary Arts in New York City and now works at a Michelin two star restaurant in New York City. She intends to return to home here to help her brother open a bar and restaurant around the corner from my restaurant!"
This is one proud papa talking.
I swap stories with him about the Armenian markets and restaurants in my home town. We talk about the various tastes of hummus and baba ganoush.
“Watertown has the largest populations of Armenians except for a city in California,” says I.
When we said we were not ready for a full meal, Juan Giha Elmufdi said, “I’ll send you some appetizers I think you’ll like.”
An understatement. We feast on small plates of fresh aromatic appetizers and have another round of mojitos.
Desserts appear!
When I ask for the bill he waves me off.
“It was my pleasure to feed you. Come again. And bring your friends!”
Lebanese and Dominican hospitality are a magnificent combination.
The Shish Kabob Restaurant, a popular destination for Middle Eastern food in La Romana, Dominican Republic.
Owner Juan Giha Elmufdi,.Katherine Burton Jones, Arlene Alvarez, PT and Alex Martinez Suárez.
Owner Juan Giha Elmufdi and PT... photos of patrons and restaurant history are on the wall.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
MLK 60th Anniversary of "I Have A Dream" speech
In my email box last week…
Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom August 28
“You are all invited to a commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington at First Parish Watertown, 35 Church Street, on Monday, August 28th at 6:00pm. Following the reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech, local folk singer Jean Gauthier will lead us in singing songs sung at the march.
“Please join the First Parish Watertown Social Action Committee for a reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 's speech, "I Have a Dream," as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington August 28. We will gather on the patio of the First Parish Watertown Memorial Garden at 6:00 PM Monday. After the reading we will take a few moments to discuss what the speech means for us today. We will end the program by singing songs of the Civil Rights Era, including "We Shall Overcome."
Monday August 28, 2023
About two dozen people spanning 8 decades gathered on the patio of the First Parish Watertown Memorial Garden at 6:00 PM. Using copies of the speech, we were invited to take turns reading passages from the iconic speech. As I suppose happened in 1968, the speech gained momentum and meaning paragraph by paragraph.
Living history. A woman in the audience was in that crowd at the mall in Washington. Mary talked about coming out of Union Station and being only100 feet away from MLK, Jr. on his way to the event at which he would deliver one of the most eloquently stirring speeches in American history.
After the reading, in the tradition of Friends Meetings, we were invited to say something about what the speech means for us today.
“His speech has no impact unless you and I do something to propel the cause of equality, inclusion, and a just society, When friend and world class sailor Rich Wilson rounded Cape Horn in 2009, he considered efforts to eliminate Apartheid and wrote 'Hope without action is of no use.' " True today more than ever.
Young black men and women put their lives on the line to sit at the "Whites Only" lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in on February 1, 1960. On March 7, 1965, men and women were beaten by police as they attempted to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Montgomery on March 7, 1965. In hindsight, a page in history was turned by those ordinary men and women who felt the call to act.
Led by Joan Gautier, we sang “We Shall Overcome” to close the meeting...and have no idea how much courage it took to sit at those lunch counters in Selma in February 1960 and the "Bloody Sunday" march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge led by 25 year old John Lewis on March 7, 1965. Broadcast on TV, the brutality shocked a national audience.
We have a long way to go. Martin's speech is a call to action...action that starts with one person at a time. It's my turn.
Organizer Eileen Ryan (second from left) heads the Social Action Committee at the First Parish Watertown.
Joan Gauthier leads us in "We Shall Overcome".
Living history...seated woman in blue attire recalls attending MLK 1968 "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington.
POST SCRIPT 1
A little known fact about how How a ten cent comic book read by John Lewis fueled a movement,
A link to Rich Wilson's initiative that resulted in connecting to thousands of school children in a round the world solo ocean race.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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