Funny the Things You Forget ... Until You're Reminded of Them

A case in point would be Reinwald's Bakery, Huntington, NY (reinwaldsbakery.com)  Yesterday Richie was foraging around in his masses of paper and when he came upstairs to watch the Super Bowl, he left the bakery's business card on the dining room table.

And I remembered ...(cue soft music) when we were first married.  We flew to Long Island for me to meet the rest of the family which was scattered.  One in Virginia ... another in Manhattan.. so I decided to throw a Murphy Family Reunion out of our hotel room.  The motel was laid out in a shallow V shape and at the point of the V there was a big patio table with an umbrella and plenty of chairs.  Our room opened on to it.

Acceptances fluttered in; the relatives seemed to be excited about it.  We got in appetizers and bozze and I made a pot of room coffee.  To reinforce "family reunion" we went to Reinwalds because I wanted to serve cupcakes with green frosting (Irish) with a decorative white "M" on top.  I was quite specific in my description of these cupcakes and was assured that all would be as I had asked.  

The day of the party, Richie and his brother Charlie, went to get them.  We weren't quite ready for them - people were still nibbling crackers and Brie or prosciutto wrapped melon ball lollypops (mounted on a stick of grissini.)  Finally it was time to address my designer cupcakes.  I cut the string and lifted the box lid.  There, staring up at me insouciantly, were a couple of dozen cupcakes with BRIGHT ORANGE FROSTING!  Orange denotes Northern Ireland; the Murphys came from Wexford, south of Dublin.  There is no greater insult to a Dubliner than to be called an Orangeman.  

To say that I was "angry" is untrue.  I was incandescent with rage.  I was shaking.  I wanted to go Reinwalds then and there to raise 60 kinds of hell as well as to call them everything but Christians.  I was dissuaded.  But I swore that I would never go back there again, "Family bakery, my ..." I bellowed in rage.  And I didn't.

But during our last trip back (2014) we hungered for a pastry, so we went in.  Nothing had changed -- the displays were in the same places showing off the same things 23 years later.  I don't kid around when I say I will (or won't) do something.