October 10, 2022

Good Morning Folks,

On Wednesday I reach important milestone in my life. I will be three quarters of a century old. For my family line that is quite an accomplishment as the men don’t tend to live much passed 70. So despite all the recent difficulties I’ve had, I intend to celebrate to the fullest extent. A while back I had made a commitment that on my 75th birthday I was going to have my staff perform Bob Dylan’s "Freewheelin" album. After all the surgeries and falls and rehabilitation I had forgotten about it…but they had not, nor had my beautiful wife, Julie. On Wednesday my staff of Ryan Yarmel, Sen Neitz, Sammy Hirsh, "Overhand" Sam Snyder…led by the great guitarist Alex Patrick will perform tunes from that album at Laurentide Inn in Penn Yan. Julie has rented out the entire establishment for my party. We had a limited number of people that we could invite, so we will be streaming the performance live. Anyone who feels they can be in Penn Yan on Wednesday evening, send me a text and perhaps she can add you to the list.

Now I’ve been listening to the music of Bob Dylan for a long, long time. But this particular album always held great significance for me. Back in 1968 when I had returned from a Peace Corps training program in California and re-enrolled in college I decided to become a psychology major. The newly formed department was headed by Dr. Vincent Bitetto a recent doctoral graduate of the University of Massachusetts. I enrolled in his Social Psychology class which was a group of about 100 or so students. He was a new teacher and he wanted to approach education in a different way. The first class of the year he decided to give students a choice. Given the violent protests in Chicago in the summer of ‘68, he thought choice was what was most important in America. He wanted us to have some say in designing the course. He opened for discussion and people suggested we have the conventional three tests, a midterm and a final. Others suggested we have term papers and weekly quizzes. After a lively debate there were three final choices and he wrote them on the blackboard….and then he asked for a vote. Everyone voted for one of the conventional choices….except me. He asked me what I thought my choice was and I said I don’t want any of these things. I just want to learn as much as I possibly can and as much as you possibly can teach me. He looked me in the eye and said, "see me after class". From that day forward we became fast friends. He fed me books that had nothing to do with social psychology but everything to do with life. I must have read 30 books that semester all from his bookshelf. We continued our friendship and eventually after graduation I worked in the psychology department for a year. “Vince” and his lovely wife Jerry became godparents to my firstborn child, Kara. “Vince” left this earthly world nearly 20 years ago at the tender age of 62, but his effect on me was life lasting. We sat in his living room for endless hours drinking, smoking cigarettes and listening to that particular album. With iconic songs like, "Blowin’ in the Wind", "Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right", "A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall", and the ultimate war protest song “Masters of War", we would listen to words, shake our heads and then move the needle back and play it again. We couldn’t believe the truth and the poetry that we were hearing. In particular, one song stood out to us personally…. that was "Bob Dylan’s Dream". We played it over and over again. These words I dedicate to my friend and mentor Vincent Bitetto:

"How many a year has passed and gone?
Many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a first friend
And each one I've never seen again
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that"

Sincerely,

John Bernunzio 

I’m hoping to be back at work in the store on Saturday, October 15th. Stop by and we can have a cup of coffee and talk.

As part of my recovery I decided to make two vegetarian pizzas on Saturday. They came out pretty good. I also made some of my famous Caponata which I will be serving on Wednesday if they permit it at Laurentide.