Town #44 Middletown

Saturday, April 18, 2009
O'Rourke's Diner * Joshua Brown, organist, at First United Methodist Church

We started this trip with dinner at O’Rourke’s Diner. We had been to the old one (the one that burned down), but because this was a brand new building—it opened in February 2009—we felt justified in counting this as our first visit there. Their supper offerings are limited, but we were happy with the sandwiches and fries (Bob had sweet potato fries). The diner appears to be close to a carbon copy of the old one, except the seating isn’t quite as tight as it used to be.

The main reason for the trip was an organ concert at First United Methodist Church. It was easy to find and was fairly well attended. They have two organ concerts per year to raise money for their fund to restore and refurbish their Kilgen organ. The organist who performed tonight, Joshua Brown, is the grandson of two of the church’s members. The organ is fairly small, but Mr. Brown got some nice sounds out of it. We weren’t enamored of much of his program but particularly enjoyed one of Bach’s “Easter Chorales” and the Nimrod from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” There was a reception following the concert and we had our dessert there.