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A Little Magazine
by and for the
Residents of Southport
Number 16
June 2011
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June is Bustin' Out All Over
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I was sitting here on this beautiful morning trying to think of something profound to say in this space when I looked out the window, and the lyrics from Rogers & Hammerstein's song popped into my head. Problem solved! You're welcome to sing along...
March went out like a lion
Awakin' up the water in the bay;
Then April cried and stepped aside,
And along come pretty little May!
May was full of promises
But she didn't keep 'em quickly enough for some
And the crowd of doubtin' thomases
Was predictin' that the summer'd never come
But it's comin' by dawn,
We can feel it come,
You can feel it in your heart
You can see it in the ground
Look around! Look around! Look around!
You can hear it in the trees
You can smell it in the breeze
June is bustin' out all over
All over the meadow and the hill!
And at Southport, we might add...
All over the golf course
And the bocce, tennis and shuffleboard courts
By the swimming pool
And in the village center.
Because it's June! June, June, June
Just because it's June, June, June!
Just because it's June!
Enjoy!
David Kapp, Editor
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ENTREPRENEUR
Lynn Vigeant: Map Maven
an interview with Ernest Ruber
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Lynn Vigeant is into her fifth year as a resident of Southport, where among other things, she volunteers as the Village Center librarian. Prior to moving to Southport, she spent 18 years as a successful dealer in antique maps, initially in New Jersey and later on Cape Cod.
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"I was never a librarian but the beginning of my self employment was with old books. I lived in Montclair, New Jersey and volunteered with a women's club that raised money for charity by selling old books. I was familiar with lots of books and had contacts with many dealers and thought that I could be successful as a dealer in old books. I was an accountant and my business background was very valuable as I proceeded. I found, however, that selling books was the wrong business for me; the books were very heavy! And I wasn't making any money. It occurred to me that perhaps I might be able to sell maps, so I sold all my books and bought maps.
"I thought that I might not be able to afford many antique maps, but I had decided to start small in any case-with just 12 maps. Since no one else in New Jersey was doing anything with antique maps, it turned out that I was in the right place at the right time. My husband, Rich, loved the idea and supported me from the beginning. He was a Rotarian and they always needed lunch speakers, so he arranged for me to speak to his group, and my presentation went over very well.
"I specialized in maps of New Jersey and issued catalogs. I targeted buyers by county (Morris, Sussex, etc.) because it became apparent that the market was tightly linked to the buyer's home location. I hired a public relations consultant and wrote articles for her; she got them published, along with photos, in appropriate newspapers and journals. Reporters came to interview me. I had a full page spread in the Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest local newspaper, and the phone started to ring.
"Rich gave me a list of all the Rotary Clubs in New Jersey, and I proceeded to pursue their program directors. I would get a meal and show and sell maps. This was very successful and I made many contacts and created a mailing list. People would come to my house and buy maps. I bought more maps-issued catalogs, made more contacts--and sold more maps. It was so much fun! There were lots of old maps available in New Jersey, and no map specialists. It was an incredible opportunity.
"Rich is a history buff and this was valuable to me at the start. Later, I learned history for myself since determining the ages of the maps required knowledge of when towns, counties and especially railroads were established. I took my maps to antique shows and, after five years, I had enough maps so that I could open a shop. There were not too many repeat purchases in Montclair, so a steady flow of new tourist buyers would be ideal. The best location, I thought, would be Cape Cod. I moved into a shop on Route 6A in West Barnstable and continued to advertise and to issue catalogs. Some of my old customers would come up from New Jersey and I became well known on the Cape. My catalog was listed in the directory of map prices, and my business was recognized nationally, even internationally.
"People often want to know if I ever had contact with E. Forbes Smiley, the man who was famously convicted for stealing maps from well-known university and research collections.I saw him often. He had a fine reputation as a map expert and dealer but handled maps that were much more expensive than those I sold. He was finally arrested leaving the Yale University Map Library with antique maps worth more than $900,000 in his briefcase. People were shocked to hear of his acts.
"I had no trouble with my customers; if they wanted to return something, I took it back and refunded their money. It was much harder to acquire the maps than to find customers to buy them. Sometimes the customers were funny. I remember one couple that came in. The man found a map and showed it to his wife, who said 'Too big.' The next one he found was, 'Too small,' and the next, 'Too pink.' Finally he found another and brought it straight to me, saying 'We'll take this one.' I had a cat that would roll over and ask the customers to rub his tummy. They would return and ask for the cat, and I would call the cat who would come in and visit with them.
"Cape Cod publications listed my shop as one of the most unusual on the Cape. I went to international map shows and had an article in the London Financial Times. Many maps had been printed in Europe, so European dealers were a good source and I bought many maps from them. Buying and selling maps was a very cooperative business; dealers from around the country needed each other. To develop specialties in our respective areas we exchanged maps to mutual benefit, as a Texas map would bring more sold in Texas than in New Jersey. I would go to national auctions and meet with dealers who would visit me at the Cape in return. It was a friendly business and so much fun. I had a wonderful time and I was making money!
"There were plenty of maps to buy when I first got into the business in the 1980s, but later the supply began to dry up and business slowed. So I diversified by publishing, printing and wholesaling affordable reproductions and offering framing services. Finally, the business became too much for me to maintain. I was making money but I was working until 10:00 o'clock at night. Much of the fun had gone out of it so, after five years in my home and 13 years in the shop, I decided to retire. I sold the business to a man from Chatham who moved it there and kept the name: Maps of Antiquity. I helped him to learn all aspects of the business and he has been successful in Chatham. I sold my shop on 6A and moved to Southport a little over four years ago. It was agreat experience; now I enjoy Southport."
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SOUTHPORT PROFILE
Frank Lord: Mashpee's "Schoolmaster"
an interview with Dick Fellenberg
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Frank Lord was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children. Named after his father, Frank became known as "Buddy" to avoid confusion. His father owned an auto repair shop until his partner ran off with the cash in the midst of the Great Depression. Fortunately, he was experienced enough to become the machine shop foreman for a suburban bus company.
 | | Frank and Lord had their first date in seventh grade and married in 1958. |
Frank walked a mile each way to grammar school, returning home at noon and going back for afternoon classes. Asked what stands out from his early years, he recalled watching from his bedroom window as the tall trees in his neighbor's yard crashed to the ground during the 1938 hurricane. He also recalled the corduroy knickers he wore in seventh grade. (I was wearing corduroy knickers about the same time. The "wupwup" as we walked is still a vivid memory from those days.) Betsy, who later became his wife, fell in love with his squeaky knickers, the smell of his Vaseline hair tonic, and they had their first date in grade seven.
Frank says that he felt like a "little fish in a big pond" in his high school class of 750. His mother was ailing during those years, (she had been seriously burned in a home accident shortly after her marriage and suffered the aftereffects for the rest of her life), so he spent a lot of his after-school time helping her. She died shortly after he entered college. Frank was president of the Methodist High School Fellowship, and involvement in organized religion became an important part of his life. In junior high, he read all the sea stories in the school library and, in high school, he became interested in history and Native American cultures.
Frank's high school grades qualified him for a full NROTC scholarship to Brown University, where he majored in English and American literature. He joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and became president in his senior year. He crewed in his freshman year, but that came to an end when he fractured an ankle "messing around" on a friend's motorcycle. After the required Navy Midshipman Cruise each summer, he worked in a New Hampshire paper mill before returning to Brown where he worked in the infirmary.
During his active duty in the Navy, from 1954 to 1957, he was assigned to the USS Bremerton, a heavy cruiser that was part of the Seventh Fleet. After attending Naval Justice School in Newport, RI, he became the Bremerton's legal officer in 1955, working with young sailors who had gotten into a jam with the Navy. These young men were often from troubled backgrounds and in need of help they never got from their parents or the schools they attended. These experiences convinced Frank that after his active duty hitch his career would be in education.
Leaving active duty in 1957 as a Lieutenant Junior Grade, Frank spent the next 18 years in the Navy Reserve, rising to the rank of Captain before his retirement in 1976. For three of those years he had command of a unit that performed maintenance and repair work on Navy Reserve destroyers. In addition to monthly weekend drills, his unit traveled to Mayport Naval Station in Florida every February to work aboard a reserve ship for two weeks.
In 1957 Frank began to take part time graduate courses at Boston University, and the following year, after marrying Betsy, he enrolled full time in an M Ed program majoring in history. He said that he couldn't have done it without the Korean War GI Bill and Betsy's job as a medical technologist at Leary Lab. They lived in Brighton before moving to Lexington, where Frank was hired to teach world geography to eighth graders. Since he had taken only one geography course in graduate school, Frank used the summer months before school started to enroll in the basic geography course at BU.
Frank started to take night courses and in 1962 won a full scholarship for a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Standing in guidance counseling. During the next several years their family expanded to include Jennifer in 1962 and Jeffrey in 1964. Betsy always worked part time with hours that allowed her to be home when the children came home from school.
After two years as a guidance counselor at Stoneham JHS, the family moved to Needham and Frank began a 20-year career as a guidance counselor at Wellesley JHS. When Jennifer and Jeffrey finished college and started their own families, Betsy and Frank moved to Duxbury. For the final ten years of his 38-year career in education Frank was a middle school counselor in Duxbury.
Frank retired in 1984, joined the Duxbury Historic Society and quickly became its Education Committee chairman. He led a program to teach all of the third grade students "How Duxbury Became a Village." His story started with the arrival of the first "summer visitors," the local Wampanoags coming from their inland winter quarters to plant corn and to fish along the shore. Sponsored by the Duxbury Library, Frank also conducted bus tours along Washington Street to tell stories of the old seafaring families who had lived in those stately Federal style houses.
His desire to learn more about the Wampanoag culture brought him to Mashpee to attend a Wampanoag Pow Wow. At that time he and Betsy first became aware of Southport. After looking at several condominium communities, they realized Southport was the best value by a wide margin and was "perfect for us."
For 12 years after Frank retired, he and Betsy spent four months each winter volunteering with Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing. Starting after hurricane Andrew and ending after hurricane Katrina, they traveled throughout the southern states living in their 28-foot trailer.
Frank was a natural for Habitat volunteer work, having honed his handyman skills in a home repair business he operated during summer vacations when the family lived in Needham. He said, "Practically every high school aged boy in our neighborhood worked with me at one time in my summer business." Asked what was most memorable about their work with Habitat, Frank told me that it was meeting and working with the families who would live in the houses they were building. Women were also builders: "I was usually working on the roof and Betsy taught me how to do vinyl siding," he said.
"The end of a build, when we held the 'House Dedication' ceremony to give the new homeowner family the keys to their home and a Bible, was a very emotional experience for all of us." Frank estimates that they probably worked on more than 250 Habitat homes with some wonderful volunteers in nine different states.
Fast forward to 2011. Ann Graham, the Mashpee Archives secretary, told me, "Mashpee's One Room Schoolhouse wouldn't be where it is if Frank hadn't become heavily involved." He was elected president of the non-profit Mashpee One Room Schoolhouse Preservation Council, Inc. in 2007. The next year he wrote a successful grant request for $35,500 to repair and move the building to its present location in Community Park behind the Archives.
In 2009 Frank received the Mashpee Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award for his work on the schoolhouse. Frank, as "The Schoolmaster," conducts tours of the schoolhouse for all of Mashpee's third grade classes and for the general public. Students learn about the school's unique history, educating Wampanoag children for 70 years starting in 1831. During the tour they also experience a "typical school day in 1850."
For the past two years Frank has made presentations about the school at the annual conference of the Country School Association of America. More important to this article, it is a labor of love for Frank, who loves history and has spent his working career in education. He told me that the children have always been enthusiastic and focused on learning the story of what they call "the little schoolhouse."
Finally, here's what I learned about this interesting guy. He exhibits a quiet determination and enthusiasm about what he has done before and after retirement. He radiates sincerity, talking about the school, his work with Habitat for Humanity and his experiences in education. Giving back has been a focal point of both Frank's and Betsy's retirement years, but they've also managed trips to Europe and elsewhere. A man, a couple, well worth knowing. |
Thoughts from Life's Adventures to Nowhere | |
Many times certain things or words spark a thought that sets me down in front of my computer to write. I was recently having a conversation with a couple of kids who were the product of multiple marriage parents. One young person was not too happy with the arrangement, and the other could have cared less. I listened intently to both their arguments, but they both seemed to be on common ground.
They went back and forth on the pros and cons of living and surviving family life in a mixed parental environment. They found that they had many similar experiences but handled them very differently. They took notes at the end of their debate and vowed to meet again in six months to compare what they learned. They also asked me to tell them about my teen years. I simply stated to them that I was adopted and could not help them with their findings.
Well, that was, as I began to find out, not quite true. The following story is true because I lived it. You will not find your typical life story here. We never knew of child abuse, and we never questioned anything that went on in our lives. Everyone was poor, so there was no caste system to invade our minds and make us feel inferior to kids around us.
Our teachers were made to believe that they were our parents for eight hours a day, and if need be, well, let's just say the punishment fit the crime--and God help you if your family found out about it. There would be more punishment meted out to you. This is not to say that problems were not encountered on many fronts, and that all problems faced would, in the future, be character builders.
The two teens listened intently as I laid my story before them, both the good and the bad, and how what one would perceive as unjust and unreasonable yesterday can lead to a wonderful story later in their lives.
Let's start this saga from then to now at the orphanage around the age of four. I never put it together until age seven, when the kids in the street started to taunt us. This may have been because we were bounced around a lot from birth. I was supposed to have rickets and my sister was put in a home for the mentally ill. She was nonverbal because no one taught her to speak. She would only scream. At one of the homes she had a guardian angel that played and talked to her enough so that she started to make words and then sentences. By the way, she never lost the scream. I was adopted first, and a year later, a knock on the door produced another plate at the dinner table.
I must digress here to explain how I came to have all these facts. My spouse had been after me to open my adoption records for years. My adoptive parents had both passed on and I thought that I would not care to know the 'what or why' reasoning that allowed us to end up as orphans. Naturally, years later, I would relent, and the adventure began. I had to go to the court where my records were stored, write an essay listing the reasons that brought me to this point, go before a judge, and finally be assigned a case worker that would guide me through the process.
The judge asked me what would I say if I found out that there were other siblings. I told him that I grew up with my sister, and that I was before him with her approval. He looked down at me from his elevated bench and once more stated, a little more emphatically, " What would you do if there were more siblings involved?" I thought for a moment, looked up at him and told him that this would change my whole essay. He asked in what way, and I told him that, "It was not a search for medical knowledge anymore, rather, at that moment, it became a moral issue. These siblings should know that I exist and that I made it through life to this point." I also stated, for the record, that I would not be looking to invade their lives, if in fact they wanted nothing to do with me.
I can still remember the sound of his gavel as he struck it for all to hear. His words still resonate in my brain. "Good answer, see that he gets all copies of his records and take the time to check and make sure there are no blackouts on them." He then came down in front of his bench, shook my hand and wished me luck in my search for my siblings. I left his court that day feeling numbed by the events but elated that I had in my possession a life record of who I was and where I came from.
My life took on another meaning that day, and with the help of my spouse, we began an adventure that would cover most of New England, finding two siblings from my mother's first marriage (they wanted nothing to do with becoming part of my life) and two siblings from my father's family that took me close to their hearts and are still a big part of my being.
I try never to give advice in people's family matters, but a part of me saw two young people walk away, each having listened to the other, and maybe giving the parents a little longer leash into their comfort zone. My life story crossed theirs in many areas, but it didn't trivialize what is happening in their lives. In the end they were comparing notes of peace rather than bits of I hate you. It's funny how adoption gives you four parents and, until you are an adult, you hate them all for so many reasons that later seem so unfounded.
For now, be well, and may your God bless you...Joe |
TRAVEL
Cruising Down the Danube
by Karlyn Curran | |
In April I traveled to Prague and then took a riverboat cruise down the Danube to Budapest. It was a magical trip, one that invited comparison to a similar land trip taken with my husband in1994.Prague and Budapest emerged from Communist control in 1989, but even in 1994 our tour guides were not comfortable about disclosing much information. Now, everyone was eager to discuss anything we wanted to talk about. It's amazing how much I didn't know and wasn't told 17 years ago.
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Decorated Easter Eggs are popular in shops and markets from Prague to Vienna. |
Easter is a big holiday in Europe. We visited Easter markets, similar to the famous Christmas markets, in Prague, Salzburg, Vienna and Bratislava. Crafts and other specialty items were for sale and, in Prague, I bought hand painted Easter eggs (the most popular item) that a little old lady inscribed with the names of my granddaughters.
Easter is celebrated on Monday in Prague and Budapest. Businesses are closed and extended families gather together to celebrate. I didn't hear any talk about Christ rising from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. Rather, the holiday is one of springtime renewal. Traditions in Prague included girls decorating Easter eggs while boys gathered twigs and tied them into switches. Then on Easter Monday they used them to whip the girls' legs. In turn, the girls doused the boys with water. In Budapest girls were given chocolate eggs and boys sprinkled the girls with water or cologne until they handed over an egg.
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Prague's Old Town Square is reserved for pedestrians. |
Prague's Old Town Square is one of Europe's most spectacular public plazas. It dates to the 10th century and is surrounded by a pedestrian zone of narrow streets and winding alleyways--all paved with cobblestones. The Charles Bridge, also pedestrian only, connects Old Town to Lesser Town across the Vltava River, and the castle complex towers above it all. Thirty medieval statues line the bridge and hawkers, buskers and tourists all compete for space. One evening we walked across the bridge after dark and witnessed the lights of the city and the castle. It was breathtaking!
The quantity and quality of merchandise in the stores in the pedestrian zone has increased markedly since 1994 and, yes, Starbucks has moved in! Culture has also returned to Prague. We were there during Prague Spring, a month long celebration of the arts. One day we attended a noontime chamber music concert in a palace at the castle complex and then enjoyed lunch at the palace café overlooking the city of Prague.
We were bused to Linz, Austria to board our riverboat, the M/S River Adagio, for our weeklong cruise down the Danube. Linz is famous for its Linzer Torte and infamous as the boyhood home of Adolph Hitler. As became the custom, our boat sailed at night while we slept and stopped at ports along the river during the day.
 | | McDonald's goes upscale in Salzburg. |
Our first day trip was to Salzburg, Austria, a city filled with the Sound of Music and the strains of Mozart. We walked through Mirabell Gardens, the backdrop for the song "Do, Re, Mi" from the movie. We lunched in a palace where a wedding reception was taking place and I met the brother and sister of the groom, who were dressed in their Austrian national costume. Later we shopped at an Easter market and at the fancy stores on Getreidegasse Alley (even the McDonald's sign consisted of an encircled wrought iron M). We visited Mozart's birthplace and bought Mozartkugels, the marzipan and pistachio-filled candies with his likeness on the wrapper.
 | | Picturesque villages line the shores of the Danube River. |
The next day was the only time that our ship sailed during the daytime. For an hour and a half we traveled through the beautiful Wachau Valley, said to be the prettiest section of the Danube in Austria. Vineyards cover the hillsides and castles are sited on top of the hills while tiny towns line the shore. We tied up in the medieval village of Durnstein and walked the main (and only) street. Towering above us were the ruins of the castle where King Richard the Lionhearted of England was imprisoned in the 12th century for insulting Leopold V. After lunch we toured Melk Abbey, an imposing monastery fortress situated high above the river. It was founded prior to 1089 by Benedictines, who still maintain it.
We spent the next two days tied up along the Danube in Vienna. Chic,
 | | Vienna--chic, sophisticated, stately, elegant. |
sophisticated, stately, and with a high standard of living, Vienna doesn't change--at least to the tourist's eye. Although the city sustained heavy bomb damage at the hands of the Allies during World War II, it has long since been repaired and is simply elegant. I revisited St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Opera House, and the palaces--Hofburg, Schonbrunn and Belvedere.
Of course, we enjoyed Sachertorte and other Viennese pastries at Café Demel and other cafes along the way. I even found my favorite luncheon buffet, Trzesniewski, where the famous open-faced sandwiches had only increased in price from a dollar to a dollar and a half each! Vienna wouldn't be Vienna without music. We attended an evening concert of classical music, song and dance for tourists but well done and delightful.
Our next stop was Bratislava, Slovakia and it was the surprise jewel of the trip. In 1992 Czechoslovakia amicably split into two countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Prague was the capital of the former and Bratislava the capital of the latter. In 1994, our Prague guide couldn't understand why the Slovaks wanted to split off because the Czechs had the better economy, but Bratislava, in 2011, turned out to be a charming city. Slovakia has had the highest GNP in Europe for the last several years.
We saw the highlights of the city on a walking tour, relaxed at an outdoor café in the main square and returned to our ship in time for a Q&A session with two college students. They talked about their education, lives, their parents' lives under Communism, and joked about the lack of foreign exchange students attending their universities. It seems that Slovakia is not well enough known to be popular with exchange students!
 | | A food market in Budapest |
I saw the biggest changes between 1994 and 2011 in Budapest. Earlier, the city's buildings were drab, gray and in need of repair. People were poorly dressed and seemed to be carrying the weight of the world upon their shoulders. What I didn't notice until this trip were the grand boulevards and the magnificent buildings that line them. Those buildings now sport newly renovated and painted facades. Stores carry an array of fashionable merchandise and people are well dressed. The despondent gray pall has been lifted from the city. In 1994 my favorite café, the famous Café Gerbeaud, served small pastries for less than a dollar; now they serve mouth-watering crème filled concoctions for about $10!
Our tour directors, Andrea and Miklos, were Hungarians and willingly shared their life experiences with us. They agreed that Communism, in theory, was not all bad. Everyone was considered equal, had a job and was taken care of from cradle to grave. In practice, however, everyone was equally poor (except for higher-up Communist officials). State owned factories over hired in order to provide everyone with a job, pay was low and there was no incentive for anyone to work hard. Andrea summed it up, "We pretended to work and they pretended to pay us."
 | | Karlyn (right) and her sister Susan enjoy a glass of "Coca Cola," but it failed to make them "docile." |
Education under Communism was very good, except for history and economics, which were "a bit skewed"! The propaganda machine was busy spreading lies about the West. For instance, Miklos was told, and believed, that Americans were forced to drink Coca Cola because it contained coke and kept us docile! When Communism fell and industry was privatized, unemployment became rampant because new owners hired only the workers they needed. Retirees had no pensions and employees actually had to work hard.
When asked what the major differences were during Communism and after, Miklos said, "Color and freedom." Under Communism there were three shades of color: gray, grayer and dark gray. Pollution was everywhere, contributing to the gray cityscape; everyone wore identical gray clothing and the lucky few owned a gray Soviet-built car. After Communism fell, new merchandise trickled into the stores or the black market--in colors! As buildings were restored they were painted--in colors! New cars dribbled into the country--in colors! Even more important, people were now free, even to travel outside the country and to the West if they could afford it.
 | | The highlight of the trip--Easter Sunday Mass in Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Budapest. |
The absolute highlight of my trip came on our final day--Easter Sunday. I attended Mass at St. Stephen's Cathedral in the heart of Budapest. The basilica holds 8,500 people and was packed. Worshippers stood in every aisle, including six deep all the way down the center aisle. The organ was majestic, the acoustics perfect and the choir sang--sometimes with the organ and sometimes a cappella. The service concluded with the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah!
Grand Circle Travel and our tour directors provided us with many other experiences--stops at smaller towns and places--and many opportunities to learn. I had a lot of fun, gained a tremendous amount of new knowledge and on Easter Sunday had the experience of a lifetime!
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SHORT STORY
The Letter
by Rick Farren
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"You won't believe what came in the mail today."
"I can well imagine," I remarked, stifling an acid reflux response.
She rolled her dark, expressive eyes, allowing the ancient screen door to slam shut behind her. It had always been her way of making a point-a caustic point-that generally didn't go unnoticed.
Roll your eyes, slam the door, march away!
She brushed an errant lock of hair from her forehead and tossed the wrinkled, stained envelope onto the small telephone table and marched into the kitchen. Angrily, she snatched her soiled apron off the door hook, tying it tightly around her waist. In moments she had the kitchen's wood burning stove fired up, and the sweet aroma of apple wood permeated the air.
"You won't believe what came in the mail today," I snorted, mimicking her while craning my neck in the direction of the envelope. Without being obvious I tried to make out the return address. I could not.
"Did you see the mail I brought in?" She hollered to be heard over her stoking the firebox and rattling the chunks of hardwood. She knew full well I hadn't, nor was I interested in slitting open one more rejection letter.
"I hate to say I told you so," she said sharply, "but I think your readers thoroughly enjoyed your characters, Lenny and George, in your earlier book. I think it was a more emotional novel than this one. What's the name of this one again?"
She knows damn well what the title is, I muttered under my breath. I was certain she did it just to aggravate me. She just loathed admitting it-especially to me. "Of Mice and Men," I grumbled, my fists curling into tight angry balls.
"This new book, from what I've read, gives me the willies," she said, screwing up her face and exhibiting a comic shiver. "I wouldn't be surprised if a publisher threw it in the trash. I think you could've made the story just as emotional if you'd left out the part about the daughter's baby being born dead. Over the past few years people have had enough heartache and sorrow with the Depression, without you adding to their pain."
A lengthy moment of silence went by followed by her calling out, "John, dinner's almost ready. Come and eat while it's hot."
I stood and snatched the envelope off the table. The return address was Viking Press.
My fingers trembled as I slid open the flap and withdrew the letter. My heart was beating just a little faster as I hurriedly scanned the first line. "Dear Mr. Steinbeck: My literary staff and I have read your new novel, The Grapes of Wrath, and are indeed pleased to offer you..."
I grinned as I stared at her standing in the kitchen watching me. I think she knew it all along.
Rick Farren
Spring 2011
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Southport (Feline) Profile: Sugar
by Sugar Bailey
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Left in a pet cage, alone, outside in the dark of night. Strange sights and sounds startle me. Morning. I'm taken inside. Safe. My new home: the MSPCA in Centerville, Massachusetts. The note tagged to my cage stated I was abandoned because I was batting around my owner's recently adopted Chihuahua. It was small, ran fast and squeaked, so I thought it was a toy. I know Maine Coons are very intelligent but to distinguish a wee dog from a tiny toy? Come on now!
My name is Sugar. I came to live in Southport with my new owner Joan nearly two years ago. I am now five years old and one handsome dude.
Let me tell you a little about my breed, the Maine Coon, and me. Maine Coons are one of the oldest natural breeds in North America, specifically native to the state of Maine. In 1985, Maine named my breed the state cat. We can reach a length of 40 inches from tip of nose to tip of tail. I myself measure 34 inches in length (not bad for a young one). In 2010, the Guinness World Records accepted a male purebred Maine Coon named Stewie as the longest cat measuring 48.5 inches. Males weigh 15 to 25 pounds, and females between 10 and 15 pounds. (I am a robust 19.9 pounds and counting.)
Maine Coons are solid and muscular, and the chest broad. We possess a rectangular body shape and are slow to physically mature; normally, our full size is not reached until we're three to five years old. We hold our tail high in the sky--like a flag. It's the first piece of anatomy that people see when we enter a room, and it is our pride and joy. The ruff is my breed's second most proud attribute. Our most common color is a brown tabby; but I think a buff and orange coat like mine is the most flattering. (What! You disagree?) My breed does have a few inherited health problems, so regular veterinarian check-ups are important. We live between nine to 15 years, and indoor cats, like me, can live longer.
Enough about my breed. Now me! Me! Me! First, let me confess, I am spoiled. I have a window perch in every room; I sleep on any bed, sofa and chair. I sit in a cozy box on top of the clothes dryer and get rocked to sleep by its vibration. When Joan goes into the kitchen, I am right at her feet gazing lovingly into her eyes. She can't resist me. I always luck out with a special treat. Listening to classical music (which lulls me to sleep), watching TV and my "Cat Video," and being entertained with the laser light are among my favorite pastimes. But most of all, I like to share the bathroom sink with Joan. That's a story for another time.
Joan hopes to train me to wear a harness and walk outside. So, I hope you get to see me around town this summer. I'll be the Coon with the Lion King haircut!
Sugar Bailey is the proud owner of Joan Bailey.
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June Brown Bag Lunch
The Highfield Hall Story
with
Barbara Milligan
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Highfield Hall was completed in 1878.
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Barbara Milligan, executive director of Highfield Hall, Inc., has led therebirth of Falmouth's Highfield Hall since 2005. Built in 1878, the Highfield mansion was one of the first summer compounds built on Cape Cod. Milligan will share the fascinating history of the estate and the tragic story of the owners, the Beebe family of Boston. She will also tell the dramatic tale of the building's varied uses in the 20th century and how it was saved from demolition-in the nick of time--and restored through a Herculean effort of the local community.
Milligan has worked at historic sites for 25 years, including early stints at Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello. For the past 20 years she has served at the helm of four nonprofit organizations, including the Plymouth Antiquarian Society and the Cape Cod Children's Museum. Milligan holds an MA in public history from Indiana University and speaks widely on a variety of topics.
June 17, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Lunch & Presentation: $7.00
Sign up in the Information Room. |
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New in the Neighborhood
Bob & Dee Pavone
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A warm welcome to Bob and Dee Pavone who hope to close on their condo at 7 Sea Spray Avenue by the end of June. They'd been looking for a place like Southport in New England for three years and finally found our community in a Boston Globe advertisement. They will be moving from Noank, Connecticut, a small village on Long Island Sound near Mystic.
 | | Bob and Dee Pavone will be among the first residents to occupy one of the new homes on Sea Spray Avenue. |
Bob, born and raised in New York City, graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic University with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for Combustion Engineering for eight years, and when the company moved to Connecticut he moved with it. He and his friends, all single men, joined a ski club with the goal of meeting girls, and that was the beginning of his life-long love of skiing and how he met Dulia, also known as Dee.
Dee was born in Italy and spent the World War II years there with her mother and two sisters. Her father and two brothers had gone to the US before the war. After the war, her mother put Dee and her sisters, naturalized citizens, on a ship to America but could not accompany them because she was not a US citizen. The entire family was finally reunited in 1947.
After a year in Connecticut, Bob went to work for Gerber Scientific, a company that specializes in automating manufacturing facilities to reduce cost and human error in the production process. He worked for the company for 32 years and was vice president of engineering for Gerber Optical at the time of his retirement. At Southport, Bob and Dee will be closer to their two daughters, their son and their seven grandchildren, who live in Massachusetts.
Note If you are new to Southport since January 1, 2011, or if you know someone else who is new, let me know. We'd like to welcome them in Southport Village Voices.
David Kapp, davidkapp@comcast.net or 508-539-1224.
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HISTORY
Where Was Nantucket Sound 10,000 Years Ago?
by Frank Lord
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 | | 1. Dotted lines mark the extent of the glacial cover. |
When the Wampanoags began to settle Southeastern New England about 10,000 years ago, where was the shoreline? As illustrated in the following series of maps, Nantucket Sound was dry land, and the Atlantic Ocean was about 100 miles to the east.
The advance of the glaciers, like a giant bulldozer, scoured the rocks and dirt off the mountains of what is now Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
 | | 2. Retreating glaciers left moraines behind, the land that eventually became the Cape and Islands. |
As the glaciers retreated they left behind piles of rubble (moraines) forming the high grounds that later became Cape Cod and the Islands.
When the Wampanoags objected to the construction of the Wind Farm on Horseshoe Shoals in Nantucket Sound, I initially thought they were mistaken to claim that early Native Americans might have settled in the area.
 | | 3. Ten thousand years ago, Nantucket Sound was dry land (the light areas). |
But 10,000 years ago the sea level was 400' lower than it is today. The colored map clearly shows that areas like Horseshoe Shoals all the way east to Georges Bank were still dry land. As the glaciers melted, the sea level slowly rose and flooded Nantucket Sound, but not until 3,500 years ago.
NOTE: Frank Lord has joined the SVV Team and will contribute a brief item dealing with local history in future issues. |
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Contributors to Southport Village Voices
June 2011
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 Karlyn Curran moved to Southport from New Jersey a little over seven years ago. She has a daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren in Falmouth and two sons, a daughter-in-law and another grandchild in near Hanover, NH. After her husband passed away and she retired from her teaching career, she moved to New England to be closer to her children. She loves Southport and Cape Cod. Even more than that, she loves her family and being a "hands-on" grandma. She caught the travel bug from her husband and this has resulted in a chronic condition.
 Rick Farren was born in Boston but spent most of his childhood on his family's farm in Westchester County, NY. His parents helped shape his love of writing and adventure. His father, a sportswriter and newspaper reporter, encouraged him to learn a new word every day and to write a story using the new words every week. His mother was a stunt pilot who taught her children never to be afraid to try something new and exciting. Rick's lifelong love of reading was influenced by A Child's Garden of Verses, westerns by Zane Gray, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Longfellow's poems, and stories of pirates on the high seas. Rick served in the US Air Force and retired from a career in the banking and financial services industry. He and his wife Ann, a former nurse, raised four children in Brockton. They moved to West Falmouth in 1996 and to Southport in 2009. Rick is an active member of the Monument Beach Sportsmen's Club, the Cape Cod Writer's Center, and the Falmouth Theater Guild. He enjoys writing stories for his and Ann's grandchildren, golfing, mystery writing and community theater.
 Dick Fellenberg moved to Southport in 2003. He organized and runs the Bionics program, coordinates the Helpers program, and is a volunteer broadcaster for the Audible Local Ledger, a radio station for blind/visually-impaired people. He has two daughters, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
 David Kapp and his wife Billie, moved from Connecticut to Southport in November 2009. David retired from a career as a university library administrator, after working in the libraries at Brandeis University, Harvard University, and the University of Connecticut. He was a building consultant for the planning of a number of major university libraries and was, for many years, the editor of Connecticut Libraries. Billie enjoyed a career as an educator and social sciences consultant. Their son and daughter live in Hawaii, and they have one grandson.
Frank Lord is a native of Newton, Massachusetts, where he met his future wife, Betsy, in seventh grade. They married in 1957 and raised two children-Jennifer and Jeffrey. Frank earned his BA degree at Brown University and his M Ed at Boston University. During his service in the US Navy, he was assigned to help troubled young sailors and that experience led him to a 38-year career as a school counselor, primarily in Wellesley and Duxbury. In the 12 years following his retirement, he and Betsy helped to build about 250 homes for Habitat for Humanity. After moving to Southport, Frank's interest in education and local history enabled him to spearhead the restoration of Mashpee's One Room Schoolhouse, for which he received the Mashpee Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award-as "The Schoolmaster" in 2009.
 Joe Marino Born in Boston, raised in Milton--the adopted son of Joseph and Rose (Grasso) Marino. Had my first business at 22--Hell of a mechanic--lousy business man. Ten-year span of working for others, but always felt that I should try again. Second time met with success. Married for 47 years to Carmela--alias Carmen, or to her family MA! Proud father of four sons--a foster son and foster daughter, two girls, eleven and ten, that stayed with us a lot after their dad died. There were other kids that had bumps in their lives that stayed with us on occasion, one even graduated high school while with us. Have always loved sports--horses--the ocean--fishing. You name it I've tried it. Retirement is not one of my stronger adjustments--wish I had taken my wife's advice about seeking out adoption records sooner. Have been fortunate to find family members and add them to my life. Love my involvement in Kiwanis--allows me to do things for and with youth and this can be the secret to staying young in spirit.
 Ernest Ruber and his wife of 55 years, Natalie, came to Southport in 2002 and enjoyed their life together here until her death in early 2011. Ernie retired from Northeastern University where he was Professor of Biology and Ecology. He designed and is currently revising the interpretive nature trail at Southport and has written many nature/science articles for the Southport newsletter. He has also reported on pool tournaments, in which he usually plays. Ernie has two children and one grandchild.
Thanks to our other contributors to this issue...
Joan Bailey
Billie Kapp
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