August 7th, 2023

Hello friends,

    "Don’t bother me I’m operating on OPT"…. it’s my new mantra.   
When you reach a certain age you have all the time in the world, and at the same time as you are rapidly running out of time. So what do old people do when they are operating on OPT? We watch watch the sun rise, we watch birds, we listen to music, we look at the night sky and we take trips to places that make our heart pitter-patter. (Is there a trip to Sicily in the Fall?). We are always doing something that requires passive waiting.  Waiting…….. OP’s (old people) do a lot of waiting…..as if we had all the Time in the world!…

    Waiting is something we’ve been trained to do since we were children. "Wait your turn, wait until dinner, wait until you turn five! WAIT until your father gets home, wait till you start high school!  wait, till you start working, wait til you have kids of your own!"

I recall the theater of the absurd play by Samuel Becket, "Waiting for Godot"…..we are all waiting, but nothing really happens. Are we waiting for the end or are we waiting for something to just begin?

The Kinks…1960s rock and roll…/So tired….tired of waiting…..

Fishing is waiting….a game of waiting….sometimes a deadly game…

We wait for medical attention…aptly in “the waiting room”

We watch and wait as the the sun sets…on our peers…

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was waiting for the great rebirth of wonder and for the American eagle to straighten its wings and fly right….and so I wait…

BUT, there is a positive side to waiting. That is anticipation and imagination for something that has not happened yet.

So the point of this song is that the trip that I was waiting and planning on is postponed. I’m really not able to do as much as I thought I could do without the help of my loving wife, Julie…so we are taking off together on Sunday, August 13th, instead of today.  We plan to leave Penn Yan on Sunday heading towards Western Mass, then to Boston, then Connecticut and back home. So once again, if you have any instruments for sale or considering selling, let us know, it will take a look at what you have. We have an empty van and we’re planning on filling it up! I’m patiently waiting to hear from you….

With love,

John Bernunzio

I am waiting for you all to visit my beautiful store on East Ave…. We have the most knowledgeable staff, two great repairmen and the best banjos, guitars and mandolins in the Northeast. As I was telling folks on Saturday, we really have FOUR stores that are simultaneously running. We have our store on East Avenue that is open Thursdays through Saturdays 11 till five and by appointment Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We also have our Reverb store, our Elleneast EBay  store and of course our long running "Bernunzio Vintage Instruments" website….now in its 27th year!

Every year we wait for the Polish Festival at St. Stanislaus Chuch….we caught up with two "Anna” friends and we indulged in golumki, kapusta,  sausage and perogis 

I am waiting finally to launch my boat on calm waters