A New Recruit Joins Annie's Army

Twenty-two years in, and Jackie is still captaining a team of walkers who gather every October - albeit virtually during the height of COVID - to log a half-marathon of mileage as part of the annual Jimmy Fund Walk to raise money to support Dana Farber's never-ending battle against cancer.

Jack and her sister Annie started these walks in 2003, and with her sister's passing in 2016 from the insidious disease, Jack firmly took on the sole mantle of team captain and has been leading Annie's Army from Wellesley to Boston every year along the vaunted Boston Marathon course.

The ranks have swelled with every passing year, and THIS year had a spectacular new participant - Graham, who, at five months old, is our youngest recruit ever, even though he can't technically walk the miles on his own.

Luckily the rest of the army was ready to step up and soldier him through.

The logistics involved with getting a team of 16 across the finish line is intricate.  But needless to say, more than two decades of participating has provided us with plenty of blueprints to execute an effective game play for everyone, regardless of the distances or fitness levels.

At the start, in Wellesley, on this picture-perfect cloudless day where temps hit the 80s, everyone is still looking fresh.  That will change ere long.

Bravo to this pack of stalwarts who plowed though Wellesley and Newton while the rest of us were getting the other puzzle pieces in place.

And here he is, Graham Fandl, logging his first - but undoubtedly not his last - half-marathon.

As I said above, it takes an army.

And Grammy is all too happy to do her part in helping Graham through the wilds of Wellesley.

Next up is Uncle Andrew, who, bedecked with a very fashionable papoose, helps get his godson to the Newton Fire Station to prepare for the hills ahead.

Meanwhile, the next batch of walkers is already hitting the hills of Newton - welcome aboard Don, Cindy, Cheryl and Joshua!

On the second of hills - no, Katie this wasn't Heartbreak Hill yet, Auntie Kaykay taps in for Graham's next bottle.  Because as any walker knows, proper hydration during a half marathon is critical.

I've lost track of how many miles this mother-daughter tandem have logged, but Jackie and Heather have managed them all with smiles on their faces all along.

Katie is all smiles, too, because she knows the top of Heartbreak Hill lies just ahead.  Or is it, Katie?

Yeah, it was getting warm out there, but this group is still energized

Scott, fresh off running seven miles out from the finish after parking in Boston, joined his wife Sue and Jack to crest the last of the hills - the granddaddy of them all, Heartbreak.

As a veteran of many Boston Marathons, this was absolutely the first time Andrew took Heartbreak Hill pushing a baby carriage.  Probably his favorite time up the hill, too, pushing his nephew.

Then, fresh off his breakfast in Boston, Ryan - another of our wheels-home heroes - joined the Army at Cleveland Circle for the stretch through he and Heather's old stomping grounds.

Welcome also to Annie's husband John, her son, Johnny, and Johnny's partner-in-crime Meghan.

Props to Andrew for the mad Brookline group selfie of this Sweet 16.

Cause, cousins

They've been hitting the same high-five pose just about every year since they started doing this walk, heading into Kenmore Square and its iconic CITGO sign.

Graham is still all smiles heading into the final mile - and why not?  Dad's carrying him to the finish line!

Boston Strong indeed.

Our captain is ready to lead us across the much-anticipated finish line.

A well-deserved high-five

Frame it for this warrior survivor and her hubbie

All smiles for Graham, mom, and dad.  Well, two out of three on the smiles front.

For his part, Graham is already strategizing what he'll do differently for his next half-marathon.

Thankfully, there were benches and shade to be found on the Boston Common to allow everyone time to rehydrate from the scorching trek.

And fret not - as regular readers of this blog and our annual excursions to the Jimmy Fund walk know - Andrew somehow managed to find a snackerel or two on the Boston Common.

And you were worried he was going to starve after such an intensive workout.

It's truly an honor to walk with these family members and friends every year, and God bless Jackie for still leading the charge. 

Not gonna lie, walking this year with our grandson for the first time ever presented an indescribable honor and blessing that's hard to reduce to writing. He's a treasure, and conquering this course with Graham is a core memory I'll never forget.

So a shoutout to all of this year's participants, as well as those who supported Annie's Army with financial donations in recent days.

As long as we're able, we'll continue to pound the pavement every October for this incredibly important fund-raising cause.

Most of you probably know someone who's been impacted in some form or another by this disease, and the warrior numbers continue to mount.

This year, there's a new warrior in the trenches - you know who you are.  We were out there walking for you, too, as you begin your journey beating the disease which recently turned things sorta upside-down for you.

We're out there for you, for survivors like Katie and Jackie, and for the warriors who blazed the path for Annie's Army to muster every October.

God willing, we'll continue doing this every year that we're able.

Take care of one another.

Spirit (in the Night) of '76

On Friday, September 23, 1949, at 10:50 p.m., at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, bus driver Douglas Frederick Springsteen and his wife Adele Ann gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, and named him Bruce.

A New Jersey Devil had literally been Born in the U.S.A., and would change the face of rock and roll forever when he grew to be old enough to wield a guitar and put songwriting pen to paper.

Ere long, that Irish-Italian family would firmly plant their roots in nearby Freehold, New Jersey, where the masses at Saint Rose of Lima Church not to mention the Backstreets throughout the city would help weave the hometown tapestry of the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

His path through the nightclubs of the nearby Jersey Shore, particularly those along Asbury Park, the titular locale of his first album, would become the story of a rock and roll legend's journey, gathering his fellow soldiers in the music revolution throughout the ensuing decades.

In September, 2024, fellow E Streeter Barry Scanlon and I were fortunate enough to be among the teeming masses standing on the sands of that selfsame beach at Asbury Park, across the street from the Stone Pony and many of Bruce's other local haunts.

The occasion was the Sea, Hear Now concert, at which Bruce and the Street Band were headliners and provided truly, perhaps the most unforgettable live rock and roll experiences of this concert-goer's five-decades of live shows.  For more on that sojourn, you can read last year's blog entry, filed on Bruce's 75th birthday here: Sea, Hear, Now

However, the morning after the historic show, Barry and I took a few minutes to roam the streets of Freehold, visiting some of the sites that have populated both the lyrics of Bruce's song catalog, as well as the stories he often spins during song intros at live experiences.  Andrew and I had taken a similar father-son roadtrip back in 2014 to take in a series of Bruce shows and visit the Jersey Shore and the Stone Pony.

First up was on this eventful morning was breakfast in Roberto's Freehold Grill on East Main Street- omelettes and coffee all around.  And natch, I had to proudly wear the official E Streeters running tee, provided by fellow E Streeter John Piekos.

Damn good cup of coffee as FBI Agent Dale Cooper would say.

Behind the grill was a decoupage guitar featuring the covers of Bruce's album catalog, along with a pic of the Boss himself with the diner's own boss.

Bruce's homes in Freehold are all, amazingly, within easy walking distance from aforementioned diner.  Literally, only a couple of blocks away from the main drag through the city.

The first Freehold home Bruce lived in at 87 Randolph St. has since fallen to the Wrecking Ball - can you believe it?  But it literally stood in the shadow of Saint Rose of Lima Church, seen here in the background - not to mention the school of the same name, that he attended through the eighth grade.  The home belonged to Springsteen's paternal grandparents, Fred and Alice Springsteen.  The boss lived here until he was about 6 years old.

From there he moved, literally just a couple of blocks away, to a two-family home at 39 1/2 Institute Street.

This particular September morning, as we explored the streets of Springsteen's youth, we encountered several other fans of Bruce, including one traveler from Barcelona - who took pics for us, and for whom we returned the favor.

This house still stands.  God only knows who occupies it these days.

Bruce lived in this house from the age of 6 until his high school years.  Bruce lived here with his parents and sisters, Virginia and Pam, on the left side of the house.  They moved out due to an imminent rent increase.

Bruce played his first-ever concert in the backyard of this house to about a half dozen neighborhood kids.  If they only knew then.....

After Institute Street, the Springsteens moved to nearby South Street, where Bruce lived through his high school years.  Amazingly, that house also was literally a stone's throw from his first and second homes.

When his parents left Jersey for California, Bruce stayed in the South Street home for a bit longer, joined by some of his fellow musicians.  Eventually, though, the noise level from the neophyte rockers prompted the landlord to evict the noisemakers.

But back to Institute Street for a moment.

Alongside the two-family stands a massive Ash Street, gnarled in its trunk but towering several stories high.

Inside the inner sleeve of Bruce's third album, Born to Run, was featured this iconic shot of the Boss from Springsteen's childhood home:

So, obviously:

And yeah, in case you're thinking we're super psycho stalkers for staking a claim to reenacting this pic, take note: we were far from alone this fall morning.  Multiple other pilgrims made the visit and yes, they too, recreated the shot.

HOW COULD YOU NOT, I ask you!

Before we pulled up stakes and got to Working on the Highway trip back home to My Hometown, we made one more pitstop in Freehold, to the Freeway Raceway Mall Water Tower, seen below,  Ironically, just days after we visited the site, news broke that the race track itself would be closing.

So there you have it - these two E Streeter's visit to absorb some of the sights of the main streets and backroads that helped shape the life of Mr. Springsteen, who turned 76 this September 23.

Whether or not one more tour remains on the horizon for Bruce and the E Street Band remains to be seen.  All of us in E Street nation continue to wait for an announcement at any time that the group will be hitting the tour roadways once again. And of course, we will be there, for as many of the shows as we can experience before this magical journey comes to an end.

In the meantime though, like many of my fellow E Streeters, who all join to wish Bruce another happy circle around the sun - (just don't stare into the sights of it) as well as a healthy year ahead, we remain:

Slán go fóill Ireland!

The final, full day in Ireland, and we spent it exploring Wicklow, just east of Dublin.  We had heard great things about Wicklow from our friend Jon Noone, and thought it would be a relaxing place to decompress before heading back to the U.S. of A.

We were fortunate to book luxury suites in the Tinakilly Country House in Wicklow.  Was a wonderful wrap-up, treating my bride like royalty in a historic home, built for Captain Robert Halpin, commander of Great Eastern when it laid most of the world's transoceanic telegraph cables. Halpin is reputed to have been given an open check from the British Government to build his new mansion in gratitude for his contribution to improving world communications and thereby world trade.  He recruited the then very fashionable Irish architect, James Franklin Fuller, to design and build the house in 1876. (More about the house below)

Off we went to spend our last full day on the Emerald Isle exploring the grounds of Powerscourt Gardens.

Powerscourt Gardens features 47 acres of manicured gardens and was ranked the third best garden IN THE WORLD by National Geographic!  So there!

(And in case you're curious, Château de Versailles in Versailles, France is number 1, with Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England clocking in at number 2)

The estate is the legacy of Lord Powerscourt, who was keen to make his mark and assert his position as one of importance in society so he set about transforming the medieval castle at Powerscourt into a grand mansion. In 1730 the 1st Viscount Powerscourt commissioned the German-born architect Richard Castle to build Powerscourt House, a 68 room mansion which was completed in 1741. The mansion was designed around the medieval castle in the style of Palladian architecture and featured baroque dome-roofed towers on either side, giving it in the words of one architectural historian, “the massive dignity of a great Italian Renaissance villa.”

The Italian Garden offers the best in garden landscaping and design. The garden was designed to create a view that was part of the wider landscape and the result is a magnificent vista in every season. The exquisite series of terraces linking the house to the lake were constructed between 1843 and 1867.  The design of the upper stone terrace nearest the house was influenced by Villa Butera in Sicily and the steep streets of Genoa and other Italian towns.

Triton Lake

Popping out to say cuckoo - a Sound of Music reference?  Not the last one you'll read in this blog entry!

The Pepperpot Tower was built in 1911 using the stone from an earlier church that was on the grounds of Powerscourt after the 8th Lord Powerscourt, Mervyn Wingfield set about building a new church in Enniskerry town.

Its unusual name comes from its design of which it is said was based around the Lord’s favorite pepper mill!

The tower is surrounded by a ring of 12 cannon, some taken after The Battle of the Boyne and others apparently from the time of the Spanish Armada. The tower was built to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales to Powerscourt.

The Walled Garden is a peaceful, self-contained interlude while wandering the grounds.

Ditto for its surroundings

The next two pics are just two in a series of goofball shots that Jack and just had to stage.  Can't you just hear the Von Trapp Children singing along with us?

Nearby Powerscourt Waterfall and its surrounding valley are also owned by the Powerscourt Estate, although the two pieces of land are no longer directly connected. At 397 feet in height, it is the second highest waterfall in Ireland.

Back at Tinakilly, we had a wonderful final pint with the son of the current owners of the inn, a delightful host who regaled us with questions about the states and his educational adventures away at college.

Out back in the gardens, it was time for one final hug to cap off the trip of a lifetime.

To those of you who have muddled through the series of these blog posts to experience Ireland through our pictures, thanks for reading along.

To our traveling partners, the Spences, we sure did log us some miles, meals, and memories!

And most of all, to my partner in crime, Jackie, here's to an unforgettable pocket of memories, start to finish.  There's no one I'd rather see the world with side-by-side.  You're a treasure and you helped fill the Ireland days with laughs, love, and experiences that have changed our views of the world.

Slainte!