Conversations in the Cafe

In the cafe today, a well-dressed man in a jacket and a pretty blond wife came in, followed by a youngster wearing a blue blazer. The man strode up the counter with a confident air, and asked if we could make him a poached egg. We told him that we’d do a breakfast sandwich, and that we use eggs from a local farm. “Then I’ll take two eggs,”he said.

I could tell that their visit here must have something to do with our famous preparatory schools, Eaglebrook and Bement. Bingo! They were bringing their young’un to check out Eaglebrook. When he spoke, I asked him if he was from London, and he said yes. She was from California. “I was in a movie called Bobby Deerfield, with Al Pacino,” he said. “They called it that because the writer was from around here. He couldn’t drive so I had to fill in for him”

I looked up the movie, and it was made in 1977. It’s about a race car driver who falls in love with a beautiful, terminally ill woman but loves racing more than her.

Later I walked over to their table and told them about the movie being filmed in Deerfield, with Mel Gibson. He knew all about it. He asked me if there were any private airfields nearby. “I’m a push pilot,” he said. “Isn’t there a small airfield somewhere near here? I answered that the former Pilgrim airfield on River Road was taken over several years ago by Chang Farms. They converted the airstrip into fields for their crops.

His wife said they liked this area, and maybe they’d buy a place here. “Or maybe we can buy that farmland and turn it back into an airfield.”