Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Fickle Memory

During the 1970’s on Long Island, my husband and I bought tickets to a Tony Bennett concert. When we went there, they announced that Tony Bennett had come down with the flu and Julius La Rosa was going to take his place. They said they’d return the money to those who didn’t want to stay. Nobody asked for a refund and everyone stayed. We all had a wonderful time with Julius La Rosa's magnificent voice, then dancing and dinner that was part of the deal.

At the time, Julius La Rosa was a show host on the radio and I used to listen to him. During the dancing we met many people we knew among the crowd. Among them were a finance advisor and his wife, a couple of good friends, my appliance repairman and his wife, several couples from my husband’s job, an old neighbor, and several other people we had met here and there.

The reason I am telling all this is because on the local PBS channel tonight they have a program of oldies going on, called “Moments to Remember,” and Julius La Rosa sang a few songs, his fantastic voice still intact. As soon as I saw him, curiosity killed the cat. I asked my husband the name of the hotel this event was held. I even told him that a part of the place was being renovated and they had separated by a curtain the stage and the hall where the tables and the dancing took place. He barely remembered it, and neither of us could remember the name of the hotel.

When something like this--no matter how insignificant--starts to bug me, I have to find it out. Not one word we tossed in between us sounded right. A simple Google search didn’t produce any results, not even on LongIslandHistory.com.

We dared to call a friend who still lives on Long Island. He and his wife didn’t remember it, either, but they said Marriott has a hotel in its place. Googling Marriott didn’t give any results. By this time, I was going nuts. If I had Julius la Rosa’s or Tony Bennett’s phone numbers, I’d have called them; no kidding!

Then, suddenly, the name Motor Lodge popped into my head. When I googled Hauppauge Motor Lodge, I found someone had a page on it, but called it motel from hell and he had a picture. This motel’s name was Olympic Motor Lodge and it didn’t look anything even close to the fancy place we went. Then hubby reminded me that we had dined with another couple at a Greek restaurant called Olympic Restaurant around that place, and that’s how I remembered it.

I still wouldn’t give up. The curiosity was killing me. I googled Hauppauge 1970 Lodge. Bad bait; nothing bit. While I was struggling, wallowing, lurching, and reeling with any name that popped into my head, I found a tiny entry that showed a lawsuit by or against a Colonie Hill Complex. That was it! I screamed. I checked with hubby if he remembered the name Colonie Hill. He said it had to be, because it was so, so familiar to him.

Then I googled 1970 Hauppauge Colonie Hill Hotel NY. Yessss, it was there. Actually there were several entries, some of them obits; nevertheless, that was it.

Phew!

The things I do to myself!

I wonder if Koontz can come up with a horror story related to forgetting names and titles.