Southport Village Voices
An E-Magazine by & for the Residents of Southport
Number 48 February 2014
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Photo © Christopher Seufert Photography, www.CapeCodPhoto.net.
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There's No Place Like Home
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Billie and I returned to Southport on January 29 after spending several months with our family in Hilo, Hawaii. (A number of people questioned our timing.) Many years ago, when it became obvious that our son and daughter planned to live indefinitely on the island of Hawaii, we bought a small condo in Hilo. Now, after visiting the city so often, Hilo feels like home. But Cape Cod feels like home, too, and I love coming back here--even in the dead of winter. What is it that makes a place a home?
I grew up in a small town in Central Pennsylvania. Memories of those early years and the continuing presence of family members there still make that town feel like home, even though I've not lived there since I was 18. I attended college in New York State and Illinois, but those were places from which to move on; they never felt like home. In the early years of our marriage, we lived in the Boston area. It was there that we settled into our professions, began a family, made life-long friends and chose New England as our home.
We wandered off into eastern Connecticut and lived and worked there for most of our adult lives. Some of our dearest friends still live there and we go back every now and then to visit them. We check out the houses we lived in to see if we want to approve the changes current occupants have made. Nearly 40 years of memories conspire to make those houses still our homes.
Someone said that, "Home is where the heart is." Tony Bennett left his in San Francisco; I've left bits and pieces of mine in Pennsylvania, New England and Hawaii.
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WANTED:
Storytellers, Essayists, Interviewers, Poets, Etc.
Southport Village Voices welcomes new writers. A monthly commitment is not necessary; an occasional contribution is appreciated. We're looking for residents who would enjoy doing  interviews with Southport residents or writing about travel--near or far--or telling stories or writing essays--personal or otherwise-- or writing poetry. Let your imagination be your guide. If you want to contribute but don't want to do the writing, let me know and I'll arrange for someone to talk with you and do the writing.
David Kapp
davidkapp@comcast.net
508-539-1224
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SOUTHPORT PROFILE
Derek & Joan Little
an interview with Ernest Ruber
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Derek & Joan Little
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Derek Little's parents came from England with three daughters; he was their first child to be born in America. In the 1920s, his father, a template maker, was sent by his employer toIndia where he contracted a sickness that caused him to "sleep" most of the time. He was brought home to England, but the climate was bad for him, so the family was relocated to America-to Mansfield, MA where a cousin lived. His employer, the steel manufacturer Dorman-Long had a job for him in Chicago when he recovered. He finally "awoke" after about nine months, but it was 1929 and due to the Depression the company no longer had the job for him, so the Little family stayed in Mansfield. Fortunately his Dad's skill was in demand and he landed a job doing templates for the framework of the Cape Cod Canal bridges.
The family moved to Norton where Derek was born in 1933. "I graduated from the small Norton High School with only 20 others. The size of the school allowed me to play baseball from grades 7 through 12; otherwise they wouldn't have had enough players to field a team. At first I wasn't a great player, but playing twice a week for the school team and four times a week with local company teams I began to develop skill. I became a catcher because that was what was needed. Before long, I came to like the position. You are constantly involved and also have significant control of things."
By his second year in high school Derek began to be noticed by scouts for professional teams. When he was 16, Derek's father signed a working agreement allowing him to play with the Boston Braves, a major league team. He was assigned to catch batting practice for rehabilitating players in Boston when the team was on the road. Then other teams began to take notice. His goal was to get to spring training, although his father asked him, "Why don't you get some real work?" In 1949, he got try-outs with the Red Sox, Cleveland and the New York Giants. Hearing nothing from the Braves, he signed up with the Giants. "Ten days later the Braves called but now it was too late," he says.
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Derek Little, in his years as a school administrator and, later, as a banker.
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"I was assigned to the minors in the Giants's system. Played in places like Big Stone Gap, VA, Kingsport, TN and Minneapolis, MN. After the minor league season was over I was called up to the Giants to catch batting practice. I was there when Willie Mays came up and I was in the dugout when Bobby Thompson hit "the shot heard round the world." That famous home run beat the Brooklyn Dodgers out of the National League Pennant in 1951 after they had what was considered to be an insurmountable lead of 13 ½ games in August."
Derek was drafted into the Army in 1952 at the end of the Korean Conflict and returned home. But he got lucky. He was sent to a base in Puerto Rico where the company commander was a "sports nut" and was immediately recruited into the baseball team. "We were good," he says. "We won the championship of the Eastern US Military, then beat the European US team and almost won the Service World Series in Kentucky, losing 3-2 to a team with a pitcher from the major leagues." He also played professionally in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
After doing two years in the service, GI benefits made it possible for Derek to attend Springfield College, becoming the first of his family to go to college. He married his first wife and they had a son, who is now a minister, and a daughter who lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two children.
Derek majored in physical education and English at Springfield but was ineligible for sports, having played professionally. Graduating in 1960 he got a job teaching and coaching at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School, then moved to Glastonbury, CT as director of physical education and athletics and onto Granby CT as assistant principal. He returned to Massachusetts in 1967 to head a Federal Title III educational program, Project Lighthouse, involving 12 communities on Boston's South Shore.
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Joan Little, in the early years of her more than thirty-year career as a teacher and school principal.
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Joan McFarland was born in West Roxbury, MA, the second oldest of seven children. Her father was active in state government, serving in the Legislature during the Great Depression and later as a tax assessor for the City of Boston. She received her BS in education from UMass/Boston in 1963 and earned an MS in education administration from Boston University in 1971. After college she taught in elementary schools in Arlington and Wayland then took a position as the elementary science coordinator for a regional Title III Project in Natick, developing an astronomy program for grades K-6.
Joan met Derek Little at a Title III conference in 1967 and a year later became assistant director for Project Lighthouse. They married in 1972 and settled in Acton, MA. Over the next five years, Joan held positions developing educational programs and training teachers. She became supervising principal of the Groton-Dunstable Elementary Schools (four schools, 1000 students and some 90 teachers and staff) in 1975 while also serving as principal of the Groton Elementary School. The next two years were exciting---and hectic! In 1977 she became principal of the Conant Elementary School in Acton, where she spent the next 25 happy years, retiring in 2002.
As a principal, Joan felt that her top priority was staff evaluation, so I asked her what criteria she used. "I used many criteria," she replied, "the most important of which were their willingness to learn and grow; sensitivity to students' emotional and cognitive needs; caring, nurturing and respect for children; knowledge of content and effectiveness in communicating it and their capacity to generate students' enthusiasm for learning."
Following the Project Lighthouse years, Derek became assistant superintendent of schools in Wilmington and then superintendent. But, eventually, he left the field of education and went into banking for ten years "to make some money." After retirement, he found his dream job as a ranger at the Shaker Hills Golf Club and then took a job in security with Pinkerton while he waited for Joan to retire.
Joan and Derek are passionate about golf. They were members of the International Golf Club in Bolton ("the longest course in the world") for over 20 years, and vacations were always to golf destinations--Doral, Pinehurst, Greenbrier, Castle Harbor, etc. They always play together and have a match for $1.00 and bragging rights. For the last 15 years they have been very well matched; the difference in their scores is usually one to three strokes. They've played all the local courses since moving to Southport and now play at Quashnet; it's close, long and challenging, and the chef makes a good lunch.
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Joan and Derek love Southport and are constantly congratulating themselves for choosing it as the place to spend their retirement years. It's been 12 years so far and it just keeps getting better.
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The Littles chose Southport because they're familiar with the area. Joan's family has had a summer home in Falmouth since 1945 and Derek summered in Pocasset in his teens, so they were partial to the Cape. They were also looking for a location with many golf courses and a fairly long golf season--and for a condo that could accommodate Joan's grand piano. Southport had all of that and so very much more, as they came to learn. They purchased their home in 1999 and moved in when Joan retired in 2002.
Due to his experience with Pinkerton, Derek was hired as a part time guard for the gate and is now the head guard at Southport. Joan served on the Activities Committee and coordinated the Ladies Tea for ten years. She walks 6-8 miles a day in the Ballroom, except for good weather months when the temperature is between 65-75. Derek also walked 3-4 miles a day for years, regardless of the weather, but spinal stenosis, quite possibly a result of his athletic life, has affected his leg this year and he is doing more bicycling in the Exercise Room now.
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POETRY
Snowfall
by Lydia Biersteker
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So pure and white,
it spills from the sky,
crystalline masses
sometimes puffy and light,
other times lacy with sleet,
but always spotless,
chaste like a virgin's soul.
How soon it muddies up,
sloshed and trodden
with the imprint of boots
and tire treads.
The pristine snowfall of today
becomes tomorrow's slippery scourge
threatening vertebrae and hips.
The snowman built with glee
will later leer
a crooked smirk.
Snow is best
viewed through the window,
still falling like pixie dust
cause once we feel it
'neath our feet
it becomes a burden
to the body and the soul.
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TRAVEL
China: Beijing to Hong Kong,
with a Cruise on the Yangtze and a Visit to Tibet
Karlyn Curran interviews Ray & Marthe Ayers
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In 2010 Marthe and Ray Ayers journeyed halfway around the globe with a small group of people for a 22-day tour of China and Tibet. In area, China is just slightly smaller than the continental United States so they were required to travel by plane, bus, overnight sleeper train and ship to see some of the major highlights of the country. Overseas Adventure Travel conducted the tour.  | |
Ray, center foreground, and Marthe, peeking out from behind the boy in the striped sweater, visited a Chinese school that is partially supported by the Grand Circle Foundation, a philanthropy of Overseas Adventure Travel.
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Their first stop was the ancient (about 3000 years old) city of Beijing, a complex juxtaposition of modern trappings and ideas with historical treasures and traditions. With a population of over 20 million, Beijing is the political, cultural and educational center of China. The city is laid out on a grid where imposing buildings line the wide boulevards. Behind these buildings are the hutongs or alleyways of residential neighborhoods. In warm weather life is centered on the courtyards of their low-rise, flat-roofed buildings. Shops dot the narrow lanes and cooking smells pervade the atmosphere. In China's quest for modernization, officials have destroyed many of these traditional neighborhoods and built high-rise apartment buildings in their place. The new buildings provide more comfortable living spaces but they diminish the sense of community that is so important to life in the hutongs.  | |
Beijing's Tiananmen Square, originally built in 1651 and expanded to 109 acres in the 1950s, can hold up to a million people. It has been the venue for many historic occasions, including the October 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong. It is perhaps best known to the world today as the site of the 1989 confrontations between the People's Army and pro-democracy student demonstrators in which hundreds, if not thousands, of civilian protestors were killed.
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Traffic and air pollution in Beijing are seemingly unsolvable problems. The automobile is the new status symbol and about half of the drivers in Beijing have obtained their licenses within the last five years. After the gas pedal, the horn is the most used part of the car. Add buses, trucks, taxis and bicycles to the mix and, even with an elaborate subway system, getting around Beijing is a nightmare. Air pollution levels are so unhealthy that on bad days it's hard to see across the street; some people wear masks to filter the air they breathe. Tiananmen Square, the largest public square in the world, can hold more than a million people. The scene of student demonstrations in 1989, it is flanked by official buildings, including the Great Hall of the People and Mao Zedong's mausoleum. A 15' x 20' official portrait of Mao looks down from his perch above the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the entrance to the Forbidden City. Thirty-foot walls and a 160-foot-wide moat protect this 200-acre maze of courtyards, gold-roofed palaces and ceremonial buildings. For 500 years, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City was strictly off limits to commoners.  | |
The Great Wall of China, initiated by China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 220 BCE, is actually an amalgamation of many defensive walls erected over the centuries. With all its branches, the wall is currently thought to have extended more than 13,000 miles.
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Their group was driven 40 miles out of Beijing to walk on part of the Great Wall of China, the most famous section of which was built between 220 and 206 BCE. The wall was restored and extended to 5500 miles during the Ming Dynasty, and a recent archeological study concludes that, with all its branches, it may have been as long as 13,171 miles. Because of the mountainous terrain, the wall includes many sets of steps and is strenuous to walk on.  | |
Emperor Qin Shi Huang did things in a big way. When he was buried in 210 BCE, he took his terracotta army along to protect him in the afterlife.
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An overnight train took them to Xian, known for its more than 6000 life-size terracotta warriors displayed in battle formation in a subterranean vault. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots pulled by 520 horses as well as 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried. Terracotta figures found in other pits include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. Although they were made from molds, no two warriors have the exact same facial expression. They were meant to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in his afterlife; he was the ruler who unified China and built the Great Wall. A local farmer discovered this terracotta army in 1974 while digging a well. The highlight of the Ayers's trip was a three-day stay in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Situated on a plateau at 12,000 feet and surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains, this "City of the Sun" is one of the highest cities on earth. Tibet is an autonomous region within the People's Republic of China. Buddhism is the official religion. The Cultural Revolution of the 1950s was especially repressive in Tibet. Thousands of monks and nuns were sent to forced labor camps and hundreds of ancient monasteries were destroyed. Traditional cultural life was undermined and further watered down when the Chinese government sent Han Chinese to settle there. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India where he remains today. From there he has been able to force the Chinese government to restore some religious freedoms, cultural practices and free enterprise. Relations between Tibet and China remain tense.  | |
The Potala Palace, towering over Lhasa, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the grandest structures in Asia. Originally built in the 7th century and rebuilt in the 17th century, it contains more than 1000 rooms, 10,000 chapels and a labyrinth of mysterious dungeons. The Red Palace within it was the home of the Dalai Lama before he went into exile in India in 1959.
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The nearby Jokhang Temple, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is considered by Tibetans to be the most sacred and important temple in Lhasa. It is a key destination for Buddhist pilgrims who spin the prayer wheels that line the street and make clockwise circuits of the temple interior on their hands and knees. The surrounding area, once a bustling marketplace, has been cleared for the development of a shopping mall and underground parking garage as the Chinese government pursues its goal of making Lhasa a modern tourist destination.
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The Ayers visited the Sera Monastery, built in 1419 during the Ming Dynasty. The magnificent monastery covers 28 acres; scriptures written in gold powder, fine statues and priceless murals adorn its halls. Monks from all over Tibet come here to study and debate Buddhist doctrine. At its peak, over 6000 red-robed monks resided here; now its population is fewer than 600.
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Leaving Tibet, the group was flown to Chongqing where they boarded a Yangtze River cruise ship. The Yangtze, third longest river in the world as well as third largest in water volume, snakes its way through three deep gorges of unparalleled beauty. One day aboard a sampan they were paddled through a tributary of the Yangtze to explore the Lesser Three Gorges, each one narrower, shallower and more dramatic than the previous one.
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Cruising the Yangtze River
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Finally, they toured the Three Gorges Dam, the largest and the most controversial dam in the world. First conceived by Sun Yat-sen in 1919, construction got underway in the 1990s. The dam controls the river's severe flooding, produces much needed hydroelectric power, facilitates irrigation projects and allows large ships to travel the upper Yangtze as far as Chongqing. Eventually, the water level of the river behind the dam will rise 600 feet above its previous level, dramatically changing the spectacular scenery and inundating 13 cities, 140 towns, 1352 villages, 657 factories, 66,000 acres of cultivated land and 35 historic sites. More than a million people have already been relocated to new towns above the water line.  | |
Hong Kong's residential and commercial towers rise above a waterfront that accommodates houseboats, fishing boats and yachts.
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Next stop: Hong Kong, the most westernized of Chinese cities, a vibrant, pulsating fun place to end a trip. It was a British colony for over 100 years before a treaty required its return to China in 1997. Now it is a special administrative region; its slogan is "one country, two systems." Hong Kong is a densely populated world city and a leading financial center with a capitalist economy. It is also a Chinese city where, in older sections, one can buy anything from caged birds, paper money to burn at funerals and bird nests and shark fins for Chinese soups. On a guided tour of the city, Marthe and Ray went to the top of Victoria Peak to view Hong Kong's spectacular skyline, rode the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor and wandered the streets of the traditional Chinatown district. They took a sightseeing boat ride through the Aberdeen fishing village where a huge population lives on houseboats called junks. They marveled at the lights on both the Hong Kong and Kowloon sides of the harbor. In short, they did what every tourist does--enjoyed the city!  | Ray got up close and personal with a
not-so-cuddly giant panda at a sanctuary
for the endangered bears in Chengdu. |
Then it was time to fly back to Cape Cod, exhausted and weary but full of wonder and enlightenment about this ancient but recently accessible country called China.
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NEW IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
an interview with Maureen Rounds
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Jack & Charlene McCabe
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Charlene and Jack McCabe knew that they wanted to live on the Cape in retirement. They had owned a time-share in Hyannis and had vacationed on Cape Cod for 30 years. Charlene Googled "55 Plus Communities on Cape Cod" and found Southport, but on their first visit here the Phase 3 models were not yet completed. Undaunted, they returned for an open house and their reaction was, "Where do we sign?"
The McCabes purchased their home on Chadwick Court in the summer of 2012 and moved there shortly after Charlene's retirement in November, selling their home in Weymouth to their daughter. Jack continued to work in Boston for another year, during which he had the best of both worlds: on days that he worked in Boston each week, he stayed overnight in Weymouth with his daughter; on other days he worked from Southport and on weekends he enjoyed his new home and Southport amenities. As the date of his retirement approached, friends and acquaintances joined him in counting down to his last day at work.
Charlene Tice was born in Pennsylvania but moved to New Jersey as a young girl. She earned her BS in medical technology at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and later was awarded her master's degree in management from Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts. Jack McCabe, a native of New Jersey, received a degree in natural science from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, New Jersey and then began an internship in medical technology at the Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, where his life took an interesting turn. Charlene supervised the hematology laboratory at the medical center--and was Jack's instructor for his year of internship and his supervisor for a year thereafter. They began to date--secretly; then Jack thought it best to transfer to a different department. A year later they were married.
The McCabes moved to Weymouth, Massachusetts and took up work in the Boston medical community. Initially, Charlene was employed in the clinical lab at Children's Hospital but over the course of her 35-year career she worked for many Boston healthcare organizations, concluding with Steward Health Care. Jack worked in the clinical and pathology laboratories at Brigham and Women's Hospital for 36 years. Both ended their careers as administrators.
Jack and Charlene have been married for 35 years and their three children all live in Massachusetts. Their older son Jonathan and his wife Andrea are the parents of 11- month-old Owen, the McCabe's only grandchild. Jonathan is an applications analyst with Partners Healthcare and Andrea is an emergency room case manager for Brigham and Women's Hospital. (Sometimes life repeats itself; Jonathan and Andrea met when Andrea was Jonathan's instructor, just as Charlene had been Jack's.) The McCabe's younger son Sean works as an internal M key account manager for John Hancock Insurance. Their daughter Rachel lives with her new husband George in the family home in Weymouth. She works for a pharmaceutical company and he works for Nstar. Charlene and Jack consider themselves fortunate to be able to return to their former home for family celebrations.
Travel is a favorite pastime for Charlene and Jack. They have taken several trips to Hawaii and have visited the "Mexican Riviera" and the Caribbean as well. Last June they joined other Southporters for an escorted trip to Charleston, Savannah and Jekyll Island. The McCabes attend many of Southport's social events and participate in several of the village's exercise classes. During the past summer they spent many happy hours at the outdoor pool. Charlene credits Didi Dilley with suggesting that she participate in the Mentor Golf League; she was so enthusiastic after her first session that she immediately purchased golf clubs. Jack also purchased new clubs and they enjoy playing together. Charlene's hobbies include crochet, embroidery and baking and decorating cakes; Jack enjoys cooking and watching other people cook on the Food Network.
The McCabes are a fun-loving couple, often dressing in matching colors. Several fellow travelers noted this habit on the first day of the trip to Charleston. Jack and Charlene liked the response this evoked and continued to coordinate their attire for the remainder of the trip. They love living at Southport and doing things with the many new friends they have made here.
The McCabes took the prize for "Best Original Costume" when they came to the 2013 Halloween Party dressed as the Pope and a nun.
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NON COMPOS MENDES
by Bob Mendes
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- You can't make these things up: An article in the January 5 Cape Cod Times...
Asset Protection and More A presentation by attorney Michael Lavender at the Chatham Senior Center offering information on nursing home asset protection and avoiding probate and estate taxes concludes with Lavender performing a Native American flute recital.
- Here's a tip from my friend Dick Clarke If you have Comcast phone service and want to eliminate those annoying phone solicitations, hang up on the caller,
dial *60 (star six zero), then follow the prompts you'll get. According to Dick, you can use this maneuver to block up to a dozen offending companies.
- And here are some goodies from Dick's wife, Maureen:
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
One nice thing about egotists; they don't talk about other people.
Is there another word for synonym?
Why do they lock gas station toilets? Are they afraid someone will
break in and clean them?
- John Kossowski has translated the phrase, "Will you marry me?" to mean,
"My roommate has moved out, the dishwasher's full and I can't find the peanut butter."
- We have subscribed to the Cape Cod Times for almost ten years,
which means I have been not reading the Mary Worth "comic" strip for that same period of time.Just out of curiosity I began looking at it about two weeks ago. It's as interesting as staring at a blank TV screen and just about as artistic. Everyone looks alike and no one changes expression--and there's no story line!
- Congratulations to our newly elected Board of Governors. May your thinking be clear, your cumulative wisdom objective and your decisions based on what's best
for this community.
- A January 15 newspaper article tells us that some medical schools are cutting their MD programs from four years to three.That would mean future doctors will have 75% of the knowledge current doctors possess. Wouldn't that be like a three-legged table?
- Drug dealers should drive more carefully. I'm always reading about drug dealers being arrested after a traffic stop where a cop finds a stash of something illegal somewhere in the car. Maybe some enterprising young business person should
offer a safe driving course for drug dealers?
- San Antonio is the site of America's first (and so far, only) bookless library, offering strictly digital reading matter. Commenting on the concept, the VP of the Charleston (SC) Chamber of Commerce says, "This is the future."God, I hope not. (NOTE: San Antonio is the nation's seventh largest city, but ranks 60th in literacy.)
- Sitting here on January 22 watching TV coverage of our blizzard.
Some direct quotes:
Reporter Within Logan Airport: "Most of the people have either caught their flights or have gone home. But there's still a line over there at the United Airlines counter. (camera pans to United counter) as you can see, there's no line at all at the United Airlines counter."
Reporter In Car Driving Through Sandwich: "I'm driving on Route 6A in Sandwich
and as you can see there's absolutely no traffic out at this time." Just then three
cars and a plow whiz by.
- This isn't exactly storm coverage but it's worth including. Bette just got an email from Billie Kapp in Hawaii, who is out on the beach watching some whales frolicking in the warm water of the Pacific Ocean.
- Department of "Everything needs a name" So far this year We've had two sessions with the "Polar Vortex." I remember way back when we used to just call it a cold spell.
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LOCAL HISTORY
Mashpee's One Room Schoolhouse Is Reborn
by Frank Lord
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Mashpee's One Room Schoolhouse was closed in June 1901 and sold to the Young People's Baptist Society for $22. In 1916, the Baptist Church took ownership, made structural changes and renamed it the Ockway Bay Chapel and Schoolhouse. The Fields Point Manufacturing Company bought it in 1953 and, at the request of the town's Bicentennial Celebration Committee, donated it to the town and had it moved from Red Brook Road to a site by the Old Mashpee Meeting House in 1975.  | |
Students in Mr. O'Connor's sixth grade class created an exact scale model of Mashpee's One Room Schoolhouse. It is displayed in the libraries at the high school and the Quashnet School during the school year and at the Mashpee Senior Center during the summer.
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For the next 24 years, workers in the adjacent Indian Cemetery used the building to store equipment and fertilizer. Several generations of raccoons made comfortable family apartments nestled in the rafters above the ceiling, adding their offensive odor and waste to the evidence of neglect. Newspaper articles indicate that several attempts were made to restore the schoolhouse and move it to Community Park, but funds were unavailable for the project. In 1999, Ann Whitlow, chair of the Mashpee Historic Commission, led a tour of the Old Meeting House for the newly formed Mashpee Women's Club. After the tour, Sunny Merritt, founder and president of the club, inquired about "that cute little building over there." Upon learning about the historic significance of the building, she organized a town wide effort to raise $50,000 to restore it, spearheaded by the club's members. Robert Pritchard was hired to remove the offensive raccoon families. He recognized the building's importance and agreed to supervise its restoration, which was competed in 2003. Unfortunately, the building was left sitting on cement blocks with no vapor barrier to protect it from continuing rot and attack by termites and carpenter ants. In 2005 a group of interested citizens under the auspices of the Mashpee Historic Commission formed a non-profit 501(C) organization, the Mashpee One Room Schoolhouse Preservation Council, Inc. (MOSPC), to preserve the building and make it available to school children and the general public for educational tours. Sunny Merritt was elected president and in 2006 obtained a $16,500 grant from the Mashpee Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to furnish the building as it may have looked in 1850. Although the Mashpee Archives had four early photographs taken between 1901 and 1916 of the outside of the building, there were no pictures of the school's interior nor any records describing what was taught during its 70 years of use as a school for Wampanoag children. I joined the Mashpee Historic Commission and MOSPC in 2007 in the role of "Schoolmaster." To determine what the original student desks might have looked like, I visited mid-19th century one room schools in Mystic Seaport, CT and Nashua, NH, taking pictures and measurements of the furnishings. Sunny Merritt planned to have a company that reproduced antique furniture make six student desks for $950 each. Fortunately, before a contract was signed, council member Brian Hyde suggested that we ask the Mashpee High School wood technology teacher to have students make our furnishings as their required senior research project. He agreed if we would pay for the cost of materials. The result: we got six student desks and the teacher's desk for less than $1000. One of the Preservation Council's goals is to involve the schools and community as much as possible. Since becoming president of MOSPC in 2007, I've compiled an annual list of projects for MHS seniors that require research in genealogy and the application of artistic and woodworking skills. Quashnet School students raised money to purchase our artifacts (books, slates, goose quill pens, child's cloak, etc.). Earle Mills, Sr., Chief Flying Eagle, donated an authentic school bell from a one room school. Gordon Peters, another Wampanoag member of MOSPC, presented us with a hurricane lantern that had been used by an early Mashpee family. Maxine Wolfset produced a DVD documenting the 2008 move of the renovated school to its current location in Community Park. Mr. O'Connor's grade six students made an attractive scale model of the school, which is on display in the MHS and Quashnet School libraries during the school year and at the Mashpee Senior Center in the summer. In the March issue of Southport Village Voices I will introduce you to the students in the class of 1901. |
Seen at Southport
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Congratulations to Our New Board of Governors
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Dan Riley
President
danriley@comcast.net 508-420-7918 (home) 781-777-1573 (mobile)
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David Greenfield Treasurer dgreen2898@comcast.net 508-539-4733(home) 617-571-5654 (mobile)
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Adrienne Guptill
Clerk
agsouthport@yahoo.com
508-477-1313(home)
781-254-8878(mobile)
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Ed Larkin ed.lark34@gmail.com 508-539-4760 (home) 860- 329-7544 (mobile)
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Arthur Wagman awagman@hotmail.com 561-469-6955 (Florida home) 617-283-2985 (mobile) 508-539-9893 (home)
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Contributors to the February 2014 Edition
of Southport Village Voices
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 Lydia Biersteker grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts. She met her husband Dale on the beach at Falmouth Heights in 1969, while he was stationed at Fort Devens. After Dale retired in 2005 from his executive position with the USPS, they moved to Vero Beach, Florida but decided that they preferred New England. They moved to Southport in 2011. Dale plays golf, and Lydia likes gardening, walking, writing poetry and short prose, exploring genealogy, and lunching with friends. Together, they enjoy dining, exploring wineries and brew pubs, walking the trails of Cape Cod, traveling and playing with their grandkids, who live with their son in Newburyport.
 Karlyn Curran moved to Southport from New Jersey in 2003. She has a daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren in Falmouth and two sons, their wives and two granddaughters 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 being a "hands-on" grandma. She caught the travel bug from her husband and this has resulted in a chronic condition. She recently started a Travel Committee for Southport residents.
David Kapp, with his wife Billie, moved from Connecticut to Southport in 2009. David retired from a career as a university library administrator, after working in the libraries at Brandeis, Harvard 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. The Kapps are frequent visitors to Hawaii where their son, daughter, grandson and other family members live.
 Frank Lord, a native of Newton, Massachusetts, earned his BA degree at Brown University and his MEd at Boston University. His experience in the US Navy counseling troubled young sailors led to a 38-year career as a school guidance counselor, primarily in Wellesley and Duxbury. Following retirement, he and his wife Betsy helped to build over 250 homes with Habitat for Humanity. After moving to Southport, Frank's interest in education and local history motivated him to spearhead the relocation of Mashpee's One Room Schoolhouse, for which he received the 2009 Mashpee Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award-as "The Schoolmaster." He serves on the Mashpee Historical Commission; the Community Preservation Act Committee; the Board of Trustees, Tales of Cape Cod; and is President, Mashpee One Room Schoolhouse Preservation Council, Inc.
Bob Mendes began his career as an advertising copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach in New York before becoming senior vice president of marketing for a west coast department store chain. He left that position to start Pacific Sports, a sports and general marketing agency. There he developed "The Reading Team," a children's literacy program sponsored by the National Football League and the American Library Association, which used NFL players as literacy role models. Bob is the author of "A Twentieth Century Odyssey, the Bob Mathias Story." After retiring, he served as executive director of the Glendora (CA) Chamber of Commerce. When grandson Adam was born, Bob and Bette moved to Cape Cod, where they recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. Neither retires well. He's had a number of part-time jobs, has written two more books, and volunteers; Bette serves on committees at Southport and at the Falmouth Jewish Congregation. Their son Steve is a pediatrician and lives in Marion with his wife Sarah and their children, and a second son, Jeff, practices law in Indianapolis.  Maureen Rounds, following in the footsteps of other family members, undertook a career in dentistry, becoming a dental hygienist in her mid-thirties. In 1976, she was offered a position on the faculty of the Tufts University Dental School, just one of three members without a DMD or DDS. At Tufts, she taught preventive dentistry, public health, community dentistry and geriatric dentistry; coordinated community outreach programs and was involved in research, primarily in the area of geriatric dental health. She retired in 1998 and moved to Mashpee with her husband, Austin, who died in 2008. She moved to Southport in January 2011.  Ernest Ruber and his wife of 55 years, Natalie, came to Southport in 2002 and enjoyed their life together here until her death in 2011. Ernie retired from Northeastern University where he was Professor of Biology and Ecology. He designed and recently revised the interpretive nature trail at Southport and has written many nature/science articles for Southport Village Voices. He reports for Southport News on pool tournaments, in which he usually plays and frequently wins. Ernie has two adult children and a grandchild.
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Derek & Joan Little for their interview and pictures,
to Marthe & Ray Ayers for their interview and pictures,
and Charlene & Jack McCabe for their interview and pictures,
to Margy DeBonville for photos of BOG members Greenfield, Guptill & Larkin,
and to my proofreader Billie Kapp.
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