Sam's Spaghetti DInner Big Success!

Much as I like the ambiance at places like the Hotel Bethlehem or Sun Inn, I feel a lot more comfortable at more down-to-earth places like the Safety First Fire Co. in West Easton. I was there yesterday for a spaghetti dinner in honor of Northampton County judicial candidate Sam Murray. I stayed a little more than an hour, and at least 100 people had come and gone in that time. There is no truth to the rumor that I was thrown out for sneaking a fourth helping.

I invited West Easton Borough Councilman Tom Nodoline. He and his lovely wife sat next to me, but I feel a but embarrassed because Tom can no longer eat pasta. He's lost 175 pounds and is on a very strict diet. Because I did not want the food to go to waste, I ate his pasta, too. I also decided to eat the spaghetti plate set up for Tom's wife. I felt I owed it to her, knowing she'd want to sit there unable to eat, in solidarity with her husband.

Let me tell you, it was good spaghetti. Pat Sportelli made it, and I proposed to her about three times before I left.

It was nice to meet Freedom High School's head football coach, Jason Roeder, who was there with his wife and kids.

"You're not going to stay coach of the year for long if you keep eating like that," I told him, and ate his spaghetti. I ate his wife's, too, although I left her salad. I also left one meatball for their three children.

Environmentalist Isidore Mineo was there, too.

"Izzy, I'm pretty sure that cow was loaded up with antibiotics and God knows what else before he was turned into a meatball," I told him. I also described, in grisly detail, exactly what goes on at a meat plant. Once he lost his appetite, I ate his spaghetti.

Then I walked into the kitchen and told them I needed plates for Judges Beltrami and Roscioli.

"But they told us they couldn't make it!" said Sportelli.

"They'll be here. They just can't stay long."

I ate their spaghetti, too.  

Easton City Council member Ken Brown, who is running a race of his own, came with his wife to support his long-time friend from Easton's west ward. "I am proud to be here," he remarked.

Sam spoke of their childhood together in the West Ward, and mentioned that some of children there now need food assistance before and after school from the Easton Community Center at 9th and Washington. Sam grew up just three blocks away, on 9th and Ferry.