It seemed like only yesterday when I provided you all a challenge. I posted a whatever-the-heck-this-is about running into someone that I knew from Santa Monica Seafood [See (or Sea?) A Challenge For You].

And like lightning, it struck again. 

My wife, trying to get me out of the house so she can have some peace and quiet (and no one would blame her), signed me up for a beginner’s bocce ball class. I toddled off like a 2^nd grader with sunscreen and a water bottle (Note: as a good documentary reference, please see SNL’s SNL Old Enough ).  I make it to the courts to find 2 things:

1. I was the only student in the class
2. The instructor was John.

OK, you’re thinking, there are a LOT of Johns out there. Therefore, what I have just provided was completely useless for your purposes. You would be right. But given that this is a well-documented pattern of behavior on my part we will push on anyway.

That local markets that I like are closing all around me here in Orange County, there was an Italian deli called Lucci’s.  For my daughter’s entire school time (really K-12, pretty much every day) I made her lunch, and all of the deli meats, breads and cookies came from Lucci’s.  John was across the counter; he provided countless lunches for me and my daughter.

In fact, one of my first posts, a recipe for Cast-Iron Pizza (See Cast Iron Pizza ), was posted about Lucci’s Deli. At the time of COVID lockdown, I gave this out to my neighbors to support the local grocery. When Lucci’s was forced to close after 50 years, I brought one of these pizzas into the store on their last day for Mrs. Refice, the owner. When I bumped into her on the pier sometime after the store closed, she actually remembered that pizza and how much she enjoyed it.

Over the sink in my kitchen there is a picture of my then 4-year-old daughter and I rolling out a Lucci’s pizza dough together. I look at it every day.

So, imagine the surprise for both John and I when we looked at each other from across the parking lot and recognized each other and the history we had.

We spent the next hour and a half together. I learned a lot about bocce. My very first shot was unbelievably lucky (see the picture).  I knocked John’s red ball out of the way and rolled my green ball right up to the pallino. John was shocked. I was shocked. The balls were shocked.

Being the only student, John showed me a lot about how the game is played – playing off the bumpers, knocking balls out of the way and so forth. We talked about the old times, about how the city needs to take care of the bocce ball courts, about what we were doing.  It made for a really pleasant day that I will remember for a long time.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether I’m talking pizza at the pier or cold cuts at a bocce court. The people that I’ve met along the way may have lost their stores or jobs, but they didn’t lose their hearts. We need more of that in this world.

So……… challenge accepted.