Sunday, September 24, 2023
Joe’s passing is indeed a sad event.
Joe and I grew up at the shore, Margate for me and Longport for him. His father managed the Shelbourne Hotel, and overnight stay there meant a grand meal and all the Coca Cola a twelve-year-old could drink. (If we had any coke at home, it was rationed.) When we were older we worked at the hotel bussing tables and one summer, on the beach putting out chairs and mattresses for the guests.
A favorite high school age adventure was a duck hunting expedition. I lived on the bay and owned a boat (of sorts). Joe and I went over to the meadows, found a likely duck feeding pond and build a blind. In the pre-dawn hours of the day of the hunt, a mishap loading our gear into the boat gave rise to the need to find dry clothing. This delay meant that by the time we were approaching our duck pond, it was starting to get light, and to our surprise, we saw the boat was moving through an array of duck decoys. Oops. We heard words from a nearby blind that we had never heard before. Anyway, sure cured me of duck hunting.
Of all my school chums, Joe was the one my mother truly cared for. Mother was an excellent judge of character.
Peter V. Walker (Mary Lee)
