Mac and I had decided to close the Pizzeria in 1980 for the month of August. Mac wanted to extend the kitchen and I badly needed a rest. I was pregnant with our first child and had been struggling with morning sickness……dragging myself down to work at 3:45 A.M. was hard when I was feeling queasy, and I was looking forward to some relaxation.
At the end of July the morning sickness suddenly passed, and was replaced by a serious craving for a turkey sandwich. A turkey sandwich on fresh white bread with mayonnaise, white meat only please! The craving grew more intense until Mac finally told me to order a turkey from the mainland, we would invite friends for a turkey dinner and I could make my turkey sandwich with the leftovers.
The turkey arrived and it was HUGE. Far too big for the oven at our house, I would have to roast it in one of the pizza ovens. Even then I would have to bash down the breastbone so it would fit, I was going to be eating a lot of turkey sandwiches! I would cook the feast on August 3rd, and we invited our friends from the Baltic schooner Lena Marie to join us.
The morning of the 3rd I happily cooked up a storm, quite literally as it turned out. The Pizzeria was by then closed and I was alone with my kitchen music and turkey. I stuffed the bird with dressing, peeled potatoes, made 2 different kinds of dinner rolls, two different kinds of pie, I sliced pumpkin to bake and prepared green pigeon peas. I slid the turkey into the oven and went off to the Frangi in search of a game of scrabble while it cooked.
Something was seriously wrong. People were running about helter-skelter and there were no games of scrabble in progress. The white flag had gone up in the harbor! The white flag was a warning to Islanders that a hurricane was approaching, there was no internet to track a storm back then, just that white flag. Hurricane Allen was making his way through the Caribbean and we were in for quite a blow!
Our friends from the Lena Marie regretfully announced they would have to stay with their boat. By then the wind had picked up and the sea was getting wild. As predicted, the power went out and I had to finish my meal preparations in the dark. When the turkey was done I carried all the food I had made home with the help of my friend Vanessa, at least we would have ONE guest for the turkey dinner!
I need not have worried, by the time I got the gravy made and potatoes mashed our house was overflowing with people seeking shelter from the Hurricane. The majority were those afraid to ride out the storm on their boats anchored in the bay. They ate a grand meal by kerosene lantern as the hurricane howled, and the next day they had hot turkey sandwiches as the hurricane waned. As I served up turkey soup on the third day I pointed out that the storm had long passed and it was time for them to go back to their boats!
I never did get that white-meat-only turkey sandwich on fresh white bread with mayonnaise, and that particular craving stayed with me for the duration of my pregnancy.
The one year we sailed north to St. Barts, and we were in Antigua for Allen!
Great memories, Jude!