Last night, Eamon Sheehan whipped into the hotel parking lot and I jumped into his car and off to the other side of L.A. we went. Eamon grew up on Tybee Island with my kids and I was dear friends with his father Daniel. Eamon lives in L.A. now with his fiancée Leila and is looking for his big break in acting.
I’ve been close to the Sheehan’s since Dan called me one day over twenty years ago. He told me that he wanted me to serve on the St. Michael’s Catholic Church School Board where our children attended.
“Um, Dan I’m not Catholic and am pretty busy right now. I don’t think that I can,” I told him.
“Great!” he replied. “I’ll pick you up at 7:00”
And he did. And I served three years on the Board with him and we became very close friends.
Daniel passed away a few years ago but the bond with the family remains and Eamon and I laughed and caught one another up on things until we parked in front of his apartment to pick Leila up. Though both are from coastal Georgia they are now the typical Hollywood beautiful couple. I had already met Leila on the beach over the summer so we reconnected and she gave me the tour of their four room apartment.
The girl is an organizing master! I still marvel at how they got that much stuff inside of their closet yet it looks neat and tidy. I’m not sure they can actually get anything out of the closet as all of their clothes are pressed so tightly against each other some serious prying would be involved.
We hopped back in the car and they drove me to their favorite Prussian restaurant. Eamon and I had stopped to pick up bottles of wine on the way in so we carried them inside of the place. Leila did the ordering and in no time various rices, beef kabobs, chicken kabobs and grilled vegetables lay in front of us.
“So tell me about your wedding,” I told them.
“It’s in May,” they both excitedly answered, “and we’ve got the most important thing already done. We’ve booked the Tams!”
“What?” I busted out laughing.
“Yeah,” Eamon explained, “we were at a wedding that they played and it was fantastic! We knew then that when we got married it had to be the Tams.”
The Tams were famous in the early sixties with such hits as “Hey Girl, don’t bother me”, “I’ve been hurt”, and “What kind of fool do you think I am?” They were a fantastic beach band and though all of the original members are dead, their DNA was passed on and when I heard them last summer on the pier the music still sounds good.
“Seriously? You’ve build your wedding around the Tams?”
“Yep!” they proudly beamed.
Growing up on Tybee does make its impressions. So we laughed our way through dinner and toasted one another and it felt like I was with family though I am far away from mine.
Afterwards they drove me back to my hotel and we make promises to see one another soon where I will return the favor and take them to A.J.’s for dinner and we will toast one another again. And as we clink our wine glasses against each others, I will tell them. “Be Young. Be Foolish. But be Happy!”
Because they already are.
