Letter to the editor: Angry in Jersey

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
June 3, 2011 Friday

Dear Editor,

On the morning of Memorial Day 2011, I was awakened to another deluge of rain and rumble of thunder. "Nuts!" I angrily bellowed to myself. "Another May weather washout? So typical of the last several weeks."

I settled down to The Record and discovered that the Yankees had finally beaten the lowly Seattle Mariners.

Later in the morning, I discovered that I needed to visit a few stores. So I got in my car and left the house. Several blocks later, traffic was brought to an abrupt halt by two Bergenfield police cars so that a Bergenfield volunteer ambulance could go about its business.

I don't remember if I showed more concern for my delay or for the person in the ambulance whose holiday, it seemed, might be ruined. And as I waited for the ambulance crew to complete their business, I thought again about the rains earlier in the day, the inability of the Yankees to beat those Mariners and my continued delay in getting to the store.

As the ambulance slowly departed, I noticed one of the Bergenfield police officers salute the ambulance, and I suddenly realized that the ambulance must be transporting an American war veteran to a Memorial Day ceremony. I no longer thought about the morning's bad weather or about the baseball scores or about a traffic snarl keeping me from my destination. I remembered that it was Memorial Day.

Robert Ritzer

Bergenfield