The Brown's Family Journal

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

It Turns Out, We Can Have Nice Things

We moved to North Carolina fifteen years ago. We drove from New York to a temporary rental in Fuquay-Varina, sight unseen. Having been on the road for two days with a two-year-old and all of our personal effects, I pulled off onto Johnny Baker Road, a dirt road, and thought, "where in the Podunk, backwoods, bullshit are we?" At the time I could not fathom that we were only 12 miles from the state capitol and that Wake County was actually in the 21st century.

Over the past decade and a half, our town of Fuquay-Varina has grown significantly. In fact, it "the Quay" has almost tripled in size. We now have two sizeable High Schools, a new and larger Middle Schools, and several new Elementary Schools. We have new places to eat and drink. Downtown is getting a facelift. There are plenty of outdoor events for three seasons! Sometime next year we will get a new shopping and entertainment center with a Target and a movie theater. Our little town is on the map as a hot place to live in North Carolina and the U.S.!

With all of this expansion - and the people that come with it - the town floated a bond for a new Community Center on the site of an old golf course. The Hilltop Needmore Town Park Community Center is a brand-new welcome addition to the existing one on the other side of town. The old center was small and always packed. It appeared as if every available minute of the operating hours were filled with something, basketball, volleyball, rec ball.

Yesterday, the town officially cut the ribbon and opened the doors to the new center. It is a fantastic two-story structure with three separate basketball courts, racquetball courts, weight room, classrooms, and a 1/7-mile indoor track. The smell of the lacquer on the hardwood courts is fresh. It bright and wide open and a new gem for the town.

In a cool turn of events, Grant's make-up basketball game was in the gym. We found out about the game about four hours before tipoff and couldn't figure out if it was going to be at the Middle School or the old Community Center. We were happily surprised to find out we were in the new center. It was a come from behind win with Grant scoring game winning basket from the foul line!

Our town maintains a fine balance of new and old. We have the amenities of modern progress combined with an early-mid 20th century feel, modern day Mayberry.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Heirloom

This table has been the center of our family for twenty years. It is a piece of furniture that married into the family from Lisa’s apartment on Ellis Hollow Road in Ithaca, NY. One of the first meals Lisa ever made me was served at this table. Aside from a very brief error on our part in 2008, it is the only kitchen table we have ever owned.

This table has seen thousands of meals in twenty years. Breakfast, lunch, and almost every family dinner since 2025. When the boys were little and Sam lived with us, we stuffed five people around it. Yes, we have a dining room set, something from Betty’s house in Florida. The dining room is great for guests and holiday meals, but the kitchen table is where we eat, pray, and come together as a family. It is where things get done.

In its lifespan it has been a desk, an art studio, a meeting space, a game center, a homework location, and a cooking station. It has been the place where I, channeling my dad, enjoy my fist cup of coffee in the morning.

At this table we have discussed Disney trips, admonished bad behavior, praised exceptional performance, celebrated birthdays, looked forward to Camp and recalled our best family memories. It is the center of the family without any of us realizing it. The table is adorned underneath with TJ’s name in big wide green crayon; perhaps claiming some future ownership. Never, ever, except for that one day in 2008, did we ever think about replacing it.

Over the past few years, the table has shown its wear. The surface became dulled and in places the finish worn off. Some of the permanent marker marks refused to yield to Goof-Off. The old table was worthy of being refinished. Lisa and met Dan in the fall. Dan was a local woodworking artist who restored furniture as well as making his own pieces. Dan gave us a reasonable estimate to strip, refinish, and return the table in four days.

The table came back to us like a new piece of furniture. The surface was silky smooth and paler, have lost a layer or two to sanding. In contrast to its former condition, the table is stunning. Stunning for a plain old (almost generic looking), solid wood table. The money we spent is worth another twenty plus years of service. It has transformed into an heirloom beyond value.

Saturday, December 28, 2024

NYC Christmas

Lisa's ideas germinate into some of the best family moments.

Last year we surprised the boys with a Disney Cruise the day after Christmas. The memory of their shock still brings a smile to our faces. Last year's success led us to the decision to have another family trip over the holiday rather than spending the whole Winter Break at home. Experiences instead of presents. So, back in the summer we floated the idea of going to a professional sports event somewhere on the east coast. This time the boys were included in the planning process and this was the result...

Christmas in New York City!

We returned to New York City for two and a half days, including Christmas Eve and Christmas. On Christmas Eve morning we were surprised by big, fluffy snowflakes coming down on 8th Avenue and all of Manhattan. By midday the snow had passed, but not before depositing an inch or two on the sidewalks and any open space in the city. There was even sledding in Central Park.

We walked over to Macy's and admired the window displays, and the store decked out from the ground floor to the ninth floor. From there we strolled up to Bryant Park for the Christmas Market, some hot chocolate and a window ornament for the house. We then got into the Morgan Library (for free) to see an original manuscript of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol," a Gutenberg bible, and J.P. Morgan's amazing reading room.

For early dinner we went to a Thai restaurant because, hey, its NYC and why not Thai food the night before Christmas. We walked up to Saint Patrick's Cathedral for 5:30pm mass. We got in around 4:00pm and sat down thinking we would have to eventually move for people with reservations. After an hour it became apparent that there were no reservations and our seats were great. Having grown up Catholic, both Lisa and I were familiar with the service, however the pageantry of a Christmas Eve mass was particularly spectacular.

From mass, we walked across the street to Rockefeller Center to live out one of my lifelong bucket list items, ice skating underneath the Christmas tree. Samantha bought us the tickets to thank us for taking Buoy into our home for four months, and it was so worth it.

Getting into the skating rink required us to push through a crush of humanity. Every tourist in New York seemed to be in Rockefeller Center to live stream, selfie, or pose with the golden statue of "Prometheus" and the tree in their background. It was a little intimidating and Grant stayed right on my tail through the horde. Then, just like that, we got to the other side, showed our tickets and within ten minutes had our skates on, ready to meet the ice.

Incredibly, everyone skated well for not knowing how to skate. Yes, Grant biffed spectacularly a couple of times, but Lisa and I held hands around the ice, interrupted from time to time by TJ, who somehow managed to FaceTime his friends AND skate at the same time. It lived up to all of the expectations and was/is a wonderful holiday memory. I remember all four of us smiling. Our walk back to the hotel included a stop for slices of pizza. Lisa brought, and I read, "T'was the Night Before Christmas," to the boys before we all turned in, exhausted.

The next day was Christmas. We convinced the boys to sit in the stairwell of the twenty-third floor of the DoubleTree Hotel to complete the Brown Family tradition of "waiting on the stairs to make sure Santa left presents." After breakfast we walked over to Madison Square Garden, "The World's Most Famous Arena," to watch the New York Knicks play the San Antonio Spurs. Yes, that's what the boys decided on back in the late summer.

A NBA game.

On Christmas Day.

In New York City.

We watched the Spurs' star Victor Wembanyama drain a bunch of three pointers in a nail biter of a game. However, in the last two minutes the Knicks pulled ahead and stayed there. We had a great time.

We spent a very cold and windy afternoon walking down towards the Hudson River to see The Vessel and walk the High Line from the rail yards all the way down to 16th Street (and back!). We walked up 9th Avenue all the way to the Sky Light Diner that was closed - what a surprise, it's Christmas - to settle on a pub just down from Penn Station for dinner and a stop in the Tick Tock Diner for dessert.

It was another night where we just dropped from exhaustion.

And just like that, it was time to go home. I was the first customer in the door at Liberty Bagels, picking up sandwiches for the train ride and a dozen real NYC bagels for home. We packed up, learned a short cut to get to the trains at the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station thanks to a very friendly employee, and rolled back home by dinner time.

Merry Christmas to all!