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Ramona's Ramblings

Sam I am and Sam and I

Ramona Jan
Posted 4/11/23

I go to the Farmers Market in Callicoon, NY every Sunday where I visit the Bridge Street Bakehouse table. Bridge Street Bakehouse is a small-batch bakery named for their brick and mortar local at 175 …

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Ramona's Ramblings

Sam I am and Sam and I

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I go to the Farmers Market in Callicoon, NY every Sunday where I visit the Bridge Street Bakehouse table. Bridge Street Bakehouse is a small-batch bakery named for their brick and mortar local at 175 Bridge St, Narrowsburg, NY.

The very clever and whimsically rich, Brittney, is the master baker. We’ve had a few discussions about baking as my great-grandfather was also a master baker of the German variety. I ask Brittany does she have anything sugar-free and she responds with feigned indignation, “No, I’m a baker!”

When I tell her that I have a gluten intolerance (I do), she says she can’t speak with me anymore. This is how we joke back and forth before I buy a couple of freshly made buttermilk biscuits for my husband while contemplating what I might get for myself. In all this time, I’ve never told Brittany my name.

One afternoon, I see a young man behind the Bakehouse table and as I approach, he asks if my name is Ramona. 

“Yes,” I say hesitantly because I always think I’m in trouble. He then turns his head slightly and inquires, “Do you recognize me?” Now I’m really in trouble!

He looks familiar, but by-God, I can’t place him. And then, wait! I start to picture NYC; the streets of Manhattan. “Do I know you from NY?” I ask.

“Yes,” he replies chin up as if I might have once trimmed his beard there. Thinking perhaps he saw me play music on the streets of NY, I ask, “Was it something to do with music?”

“No,” he replies adding, “You play music?” Now this is a mystery as I’ve played music most of my life, and since most everyone knows that, I just give up.

“I was your cameraman on Design Star when you went dumpster diving,” he announces and then promptly reintroduces himself as Sam, and right then and there everything comes flooding back.

On Design Star, Sam was assigned to follow me around the streets of NY while I dumpster dived for treasure that would decorate an Upper East Side townhouse. It was Sam’s first job as a cameraman, which I didn’t know at the time. Maybe that’s why he was more than a mere camera-head to me. He actually spoke to me, I’d say encouraged me, supported my ideas even though I was kicked out on day one. All the other cameramen (all men, btw) kept silent. 

While Sam and I chat away, the lines at Bakehouse get longer and longer with Brittney frantically managing the table all by herself, and probably wondering why Sam and I are having such a laugh. He tells me that when I was done with my dive, he had to report to the main cameraman at the townhouse that I was coming in for a landing so that he could pick up the shot. 

“What does she look like?”, asked said cameraman nervous he’d miss me with all the people traveling along the city streets.

“Oh, you can’t miss her,” whispered Sam into his walkie-talkie. “She’s wearing a salad bowl on her head and dragging a vacuum cleaner.” That, says Sam, defined the trajectory of his entire career.

“I got the weirdos from then on,” says he apologizing for not being able to come up with a better term, but I know what he means, and I’m glad I was able to help. Besides, the reviewer from the NY Times said I made television “thrilling” while Hinckley from the Daily News referred to me as the “good villain, what every TV show needs.” 

Now I can’t decide between the Chocolate Babka and the Triple Chocolate Orange Tart. Oh, the tart’s gluten free and has edible flowers? I’ll take it! Sam, btw, is Brittney’s husband who not only helps behind the Bridge Street Bakehouse table at the Callicoon Farmers Market, but also films her making goodies on their Instagram page, worth following for the art of baking at its best.

RAMONA JAN is the Founder and Director of Yarnslingers, a storytelling group that tells tales both fantastic and true. She is also the roving historian for Callicoon, NY and is often seen giving tours around town. You can email her at callicoonwalkingtours@gmail.com.

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