by Anura Guruge

Click pictures to ENLARGE.

Attribution WILL be enforced.

The usual benu (being sold as a souvenir for $5) and the photocopied menu used today.

Yes, we were there and it was SPECIAL. Glad I made an effort to get down to ‘Quincy Market‘ for the DAY. Yes, it was poignant too. There are folks losing JOBS! The kind of elderly (i.e., MY AGE) waitress who served us, with aplomb, ‘Allison’, had been there for 20-years. She wasn’t too happy. I took care of her with my TIP. {Smile} And she smiled too when she saw it. There were hugs all over the place.

We got there early. It was likely to get MOBBED later in the day. We heard from folks that THEY (i.e., Durgin Park) ran out of food at 5pm last Sunday!

I knew they opened at 11:30am. So, I planned to be there for that. I expected a LINE and there was one, BUT it wasn’t as long as I had expected.

We left home at 8am! It was bitterly cold. We parked at the Boston ‘Museum of Science‘ (where we get discounted parking because we are members) by 9:40am. We took the MBTA to ‘Quincy Market’. We were there by around 10:15am. There was NO LINE. So, we ‘did’ the ‘Market’. ‘Faneuil Hall‘ was closed because of Trump’s Shutdown.

By 11am there was a line forming. We joined it at 11:15am. There were about 30 people ahead of us. Around 11:25 they opened the doors. They felt sorry for us. IT WAS COLD. They let 50 folks in. We were in that batch. The kitchen was not as yet open but you could start with drinks.

It was GOOD. Great atmosphere. Everybody was reminiscing.

It was WAY TOO early for I. I don’t normally have my first meal of the day till 1:40pm. So, I just ordered a few appetizers and even then we brought much of it home. But, no matter. What counted was that we were THERE.

I was never a regular patron. So, I can’t claim to have a special relationship with ‘Durgin Park’. But, I did go there, for dinner, for the first time 32-years ago. September 1986. I remember that. I have eaten there AT LEAST 10-times. Most likely more. So, I am not a total stranger either.

Well … another bit of history gone. But, I can say, with PRIDE, that I was THERE.

Flag flying upside down in the wind! Symbolic.

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by Anura Guruge