One of my fondest memories of Pat is when we stole his car. “We” was Michael, Charlie Bandes, and another friend Antonis, whose last name I forget, but his culinary habits I will never forget. He ate very natural foods and brought along a small greenhouse and some jars filled with his beverage of choice.
Pat knew we were going to take his car for a couple days. I think we said we were going camping. The next day he was flying off to see his parents in Texas. Once we had the wheels we rolled west and south from Massachusetts, racking up over two thousand miles on his buick. Sure enough we beat him to San Antonio, surprised the heck out of Pat’s parents, who immediately joined the conspiracy to play a joke on Pat. When they set out to pick him up from the airport we stashed the car and made plans to leave the apartment just prior to his return. The plan was that Pat’s parents would make themselves busy when they returned from the airport, and direct him to get the door when we rang the bell. It worked with out a hitch, and when he opened the door his usual glibness escaped him and he said something along the lines of “gah”.
When he gathered his senses he was cheerful in the surprise, despite racking up a ton of miles on his car (which needed a small repair while we were there). We had a couple of great days all visiting. A highlight of this visit was Pat’s willingness to sample some of the culinary items that Antonis had brought with him. Antonis poured him a glass of some brown concoction. It looked and smelled awful. I didn’t taste, but when Pat did, without saying a word, he had the whole room laughing as the look on his face (despite his best efforts to mask it) confirmed that the taste matched the look and smell.