By Beverly Stoddart, InDepthNH.org
Rye, NH: On the same day, the Lord Almighty spoke to Joe Biden and told him to take a knee and then turned his eyes to Troon on Scotland and anointed Xander Schauffele as the winner of The Open, because you need help from the Almighty to win the greatest game ever played on an island known for its wind, rough, and vertical bunkers, we sat down for lunch with dear friends at Petey’s in Rye.
We try to see our friends every month or so since they moved to the coast, and it always includes a meal and a conversation. On Sunday, we met at Petey’s in Rye for lunch and a catch-up session. We arrived at 11:20 am, because they open at 11:30, and the line was twenty-five deep already. Still, we got a parking spot in the lot and took our place waiting for our friends and the restaurant to open. On the drive over, we were reminded to never go near the Hampton Beach area on a sunny day in the summer, still, we made the hour-long drive and arrived on time.
My spouse of 45 years chose the shrimp and scallop dinner, and his long-time friend ordered the broiled haddock. The ladies mirrored one another and went with the lobster roll, and it was in a word magnificent. Petey’s serves their lobster roll on a soft round bun with what looked like a half pound of lobster. Along with the french fries, I ordered a beer that was cold and rounded out the summertime lunch where all the food is served on paper plates. If there was one complaint, I always get clam chowder when out for seafood, and while Petey’s was spot-on delicious, it lacked the main ingredient. When you have to hunt for the clams in clam chowder, that’s a problem. Still, the flavor was truly just the way I want a chowder to taste, creamy, chunky with potatoes and I always top it off with a good amount of pepper.
The conversation turned to our friends who told the story of needing a new roof on the house they bought a few years ago. When purchased, they knew that they would have to replace the roof on the home that had been owned by one family for many years but somewhat neglected.
Like all smart folks, they chose to get multiple offers.
If you haven’t noticed, there is a slew of roofing commercials on television. In between Kevin Skarupa’s weather forecast and Sean McDonald’s delivery of the day’s news and occasional puns, the roofing ads are plentiful yet far too many. They looked at local roofers as well as one of the ones on television.
The long of it from the TV brand was a two-hour, hard-sell nightmare where the salesman held them hostage in their own home. When he finally arrived at letting them know what the price would be, he quietly wrote a number down on a piece of paper and slid it over to the man of the house, ignoring the woman who had set up the appointment. That number was a staggering $93,000. From that point, it was a matter of negotiating down. Our friends finally got so perturbed they stopped the nightmarish meeting and sent the guy packing and went with the local guy whose price was one-third the cost of the TV guy.
All in all, the Lord blessed us on a beautiful summer Sunday with good food, good friends, and fun conversation.
Beverly Stoddart is an award-winning writer, author, and speaker. She is on the Board of Trustees of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and serves on the board of the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism. She is the author of Stories from the Rolodex, mini-memoirs of journalists from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.