{"id":1452,"date":"2010-11-08T20:59:47","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T03:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=1452"},"modified":"2010-11-30T06:11:54","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T13:11:54","slug":"in-memoriam-jay-press-friend-and-fisherman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/?p=1452","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Jay Press Friend and Fisherman"},"content":{"rendered":"

My buddy Jay-san lived as others merely imagined but never realized<\/h4>\n

Nov. 8, 2010<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jay-san surfcasting on Gin Beach in Montauk, October 2003<\/p><\/div>\n

Sad days.\u00a0Jay P., a\u00a0great friend and fishing companion, succumbed last week to a debilitating illness that drained the sport out of a terrific sportsman.\u00a0 My remembrance of Jay’s inauguration to surfcasting goes back to 1983 with Jay riding\u00a0the ocean beach\u00a0for the first time in my Scout, along with Big Brother Frank as we searched for blues and bass. “So how big a pole do you need and what kind of reel?” he asked. “And what type of lures do you cast and where do you get those waders?” By the next season, Jay was fully outfitted, including a brand new Jeep Wrangler boasting a custom made cooler rack with rod holders from Hamburger\u2019s in Tom\u2019s River, NJ. Jay’s trademark was “All In!”<\/p>\n

Jaypster was a man who never let reality be an obstacle in the way of his desire. He taught me it was indeed possible to create one\u2019s life exactly as one would want it to be. Where others saw limitations, Jay had the vision to see opportunity. He chose to live his life as most people simply imagined but never realized.<\/p>\n

I fished many seasons with Jay and his sporting wife Laura. Besides the catch, it was always the gestalt that he loved most: The camaraderie of the hunt and the celebration of our victories; \u00a0The accoutrements of cool, colorful October days: coffee with “fortification”, cigars for the indulgent and, of course, Jay’s signature morning manna for the beach: lovely rolls.<\/p>\n

Jay was a\u00a0big picture guy for whom the details counted mightily.\u00a0With Jay, we didn\u2019t just clean fish after a good catch.\u00a0 Jay would see to it that we had a fish cleaning party, complete with Bloody Marys on his deck, and a manly bacon-and-eggs breakfast at his table.\u00a0 Jay excelled in the kitchen with our bounty.\u00a0 Blackened bluefish was one of his many triumphs.\u00a0 And none but Jay could turn out a dish so unexpected and delicious as bluefish parmigiana.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll miss Jay throughout the year. He was a fixture at my table on Christmas Eve, an original instigator of our annual Lunar New Year road trip to Chinatown, and an enthusiastic participant in countless summer “gala gala” dinners and beach parties. But I will miss Jay most during fishing season.<\/p>\n

Farewell and tight lines, good friend.\u00a0The gestalt of surfcasting on the East End simply won\u2019t be the same without you. Heaven has itself a keeper in you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My buddy Jay-san lived as others merely imagined but never realized Nov. 8, 2010 Sad days.\u00a0Jay P., a\u00a0great friend and fishing companion, succumbed last week to a debilitating illness that drained the sport out of a terrific sportsman.\u00a0 My remembrance of Jay’s inauguration to surfcasting goes back to 1983 with Jay riding\u00a0the ocean beach\u00a0for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1468,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions\/1468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fishtales.abatemarco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}