It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. So many things are happening in the restaurant. All good though! We have been busy dressing up the place. I will let you know when we are all done, complete with pictures. But first, let me tell you what happened this past Sunday. It was a busy day. We had a huge party in the front dining room and our back dining room was quite full too. I received a call from one of our patrons that they were coming in at 6pm and wanted a quiet table. I was like yes of course!! Meanwhile as I was looking around me at the front dining room full of a large family with all their toddler children running around the tables screaming and laughing…I asked, “would you like to sit in the back dining room so it will be more private?” She blurted “Yes, please! We are bringing in G. Gordon Liddy!” I exclaimed with enthusiasm, “We’ll be ready!” as I looked around at the chaos. Well a couple of hours later the restaurant settled down and the ‘G’ man and his entourage enjoyed a quiet dinner.
I didn’t realize there is so much more about G. G. Liddy than just the Watergate Scandal. I was telling one of older customers Mr. Ciferri, a ninety year old, that G. Gordon Liddy came in. Mr. Ciferri started reminiscing about Liddy. I love to get the older people going. You learn so much from them!
Ciferri is from Millbrook, NY and remembers quite well when Liddy was assistant district attorney in Poughkeepsie aggressively going after Timothy Leary, in Millbrook. Liddy was married to Francis Purdy, a Poughkeepsie resident, for 53 years till her death this year. Mr. Ciferri described Liddy as bold and unafraid. One time Liddy took a blank gun and shot it in a courtroom for dramatics. Ciferri also described him as a man that took his sentence for the Watergate trial like a true man. In the Washington Post, the reporter said that G. Gordon Liddy “had maintained a calm, generally smiling exterior throughout the trial. He stood impassive, with is arms folded as deputy court clerk LeCount Patterson read the jury’s verdict, repeating six times ‘guilty’ for all eight counts against him.”
I recognized Liddy when he came in right away. Wearing his leather bomber jacket sporting his bald head wih dark eyebrows and mustache but I was surprised with his quiet demeanor. He actually came in with his long time friend Peter Maroulis. Mr. Maroulis was once his law partner and actually defended Liddy in the Watergate trial. An excerpt form the Washington Post revealed, “Before being jailed by deputy U.S. marshals, Liddy embraced his lawyer, Peter L. Maroulis, patted him on the back, and in a gesture that became his trademark in the trial, gave one final wave to the spectators and press before he was led away.” Thirty-nine years later Liddy and Maroulis have remained good friends!
After getting out of jail in 1977 Liddy became a writer and a radio talk show host. The G. Gordon Liddy Show was broadcast on 232 stations nationwide. His autobiography, Will, was published in 1982. Liddy has also appeared on several television shows including Miami Vice (1985), Password (1992) and Politically Incorrect (1997). In 2002 Liddy published When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country. This was followed by Fight Back: Tackling Terrorism Liddy Style (2007).
G. Gordon Liddy is always being referenced. Just the other day on the O’Reilly Factor they mentioned G. Gordon Liddy shooting a gun in the court room. This seemingly quiet 80 year old man that my husband and I have met is not to be forgotten to easily. Hahaha… maybe not so quiet! And he is the face for buying Gold in Rosland Capital ads. Isn’t it amazing that in a small “mom and pop” restaurant like ours interesting people come eat here. Since writing this blog I have come to realize that Poughkeepsie is no ordinary town and Coppola’s is no ordinary restaurant!
PS……One of our waitresses, Terry, informed me that her mom was Peter Maroulis’ secretary during the ’70s when Mr. Maroulis was busy defending G. Gordon Liddy… isn’t it so peculiar how people are so intertwined!!