New Canaan High School just wasn't the same when classes began Wednesday morning. For
the first time in 41 years, Mark Rearick wasn't around. The former student, coach, and Godfather
of the cafeteria, who was not only part of the fabric of the tony town on Connecticut's gold coast,
but its foundation and infrastructure as well, retired last June.
Filling the void created by his departure would be like putting a garden hose in the Grand
Canyon and turning on the faucet. It would eventually happen, but not in your or my lifetime.
2-5-0 packed everything up with his lovely wife Diane and put New Canaan in the rearview
mirror, heading to the beaches of North Carolina where they've had a summer home for
many years.
It seemed like 2-5-0 headed into retirement like Joey Chestnut's b-line to Coney Island every
July: fast and furious. After seeing all of his pictures posted on Facebook, I must say that
retirement looks fabulous on 2-5-0 and few people are more deserving of it.
Rearick got a special thrill in the first weeks of retirement when Curt Casali, who
played for 2-5-0 at New Canaan High School, made his Major League debut in July.
2-5-0 boarded a plane to Minnesota and got to the game on time to see Casali, who catches
for Tampa Bay, get a hit in his first big league at-bat.
The man looks happy. Damn happy and it's a great thing. And it's a great thing that 2-5-0
is finally on Facebook. Before June, 2-5-0 was perhaps the only man on the planet who
wasn't on any social media network, let alone the grand daddy of them all.
He didn't know Instagram from Instant Replay, and he's not the kind of guy who would
waste his time telling people that he's "checking-in" at Dairy Queen or post pictures of
his feet by the sea.
2-5-0, albeit reluctantly, got on the social media super highway after a ton of people tried
to reach out to him after I posted the blog, "Mark Rearick and the end of an era" in June.
The response he got was both heartwarming and amazing. Rearick has more friends than
"Breaking Bad" has viewers and through the power of Facebook, we are all connected
to 2-5-0 like never before.
There are some people from high school that you hope you never see on Facebook. 2-5-0
is not one of them. And the pictures that have been showing up are ones of total happiness,
deserving of a man who gave so much to the New Canaan community.
The opening picture is classic. It's worth far more than 1,000 words. A total gem. 2-5-0,
with two relatives, looks both proud and like a bit of royalty. To me, the Dos Equis Guy
is out and 2-5-0 has taken his place as the most interesting man in the world.
Keep enjoying retirement, 2-5-0, you deserve it!.
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