I always meet the most interesting people!

Dear Diary,

I spent two hours in the Dutchess County Historical Society (found one possible family link to explore later) and then stopped at the farm one last time.  I decided to have lunch in Clinton Corners before heading to Connecticut.  I have an old postcard of this place and thought it might have been old enough that my grandfather would have visited it in its previous life as a hardware store.  I'm so glad I did.

The lovely lady who owns this little deli/eatery was so charming and I learned that her husband was an actor.  One of his first roles was way back in the mid-1950's.  He played one of the little lost boys in the Mary Martin production of Peter Pan!  Of course, I had to tell her how the story had inspired me (age six you must keep in mind!) to try to fly by sprinkling glitter in the air and jumping off the little chicken house roof!  (Didn't work  needless to say!)  His God-father was Cyril Ritchard the wonderful actor who played Capt. Hook!

Then she told me that he was also in the musical West Side Story, still one of my favorite films of all time.  He was one of the "Jets" and mimicked Officer Krupke when the jets sang.  She graciously posed in front of his portrait done right after West Side Story.  He wasn't there being up at Lake George and I said, "Why, I was born on Lake George!"  This all led to a further discussion and convinced me I need to make a trip up there at some point.  This and the best chicken cutlet sandwich I've ever had!  Yes, I always meet the most interesting people when I travel!