I would like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to a 32-year friend, neighbor and iconic member in Dewey Beach. Mr. Joseph “Pop Pop Joe” Vavala passed away recently at the ripe young age of 97.
I met Joe when I started frequenting Dewey Beach in 1986 as a member of a group beach house on Bellevue Street. Mr. Vavala worked in the Vavala’s Beach Things store on Route 1 for his son, Bruce, the first mayor of our town. For whatever reason, Joe and I struck up a friendship that lasted up until this past week when he passed away.
We had a friendship and a bond that overcame the 41-year age difference between us. I appreciated his stories, life experiences and tales from his past. I never got to know his wife, Ann - she passed before I knew Joe, but felt as if I had known her the entire time through Joe and his memories of her.
Mr. Vavala shared his experiences from his time as an enlisted man in World War II in Europe with me. I am a retired Air Force officer and he felt as if he could tell me stories that only another military man could relate to. Some of the stories he told me, he had never told his two sons about. According to Joe, “They wouldn’t understand because they weren’t in the military; you can.”
The stories and experiences from someone from the Greatest Generation are something that I cannot fathom in today’s age, but can only appreciate the toil, harsh conditions and extremes that he and others had to endure in order for us to appreciate what we have today.
I will no longer be able to sit on his porch and discuss the topics of the day, visit the store where he still held court every summer morning with his regular customers, sit in the back pew of St. Edmond Catholic Church for Saturday afternoon Mass with him, have breakfast at the Crystal Diner and watch him and Bob - his server - banter back and forth.
No more field trips to Dover or Salisbury with him in the passenger seat - just to get him out of the house and spend a few hours with him. It will be hard to visit Sam’s Club and not pick up the boxes and boxes of Eggo waffles that he asked for me to get for him.
In a world of 8 billion people, the passing of one will go unnoticed by almost every single one of them. For those of us here in Sussex County who knew Joe Vavala, he will be missed. Joe didn’t cure cancer or figure out how to end suffering and sickness in the world, but his wit, smile, Italian sense of humor and experiences are now a memory to those of us who knew him.
I will have very great memories of Joe; I know that his family will also. He led a long and fulfilling life. His family lost a dad, grandfather and great-grandfather. I lost a friend, mentor, coffee-drinking pal and confidant. Rest in peace, Joe Vavala - a community will miss you; I will miss you and your friendship.
James “Zeke” Przygocki
Dewey Beach
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