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 an interview or a restaurant review, writing about a travel adventure, telling a story or writing an essay, poem or memoir. Let your imagination be your guide. If you want to contribute but prefer not to write, let me know and I'll arrange for someone to talk with you and do the writing.

David Kapp

 

 

In the short time that he's lived here, Roy Reiss has become a vital part of the social life in his neighborhood and an active volunteer with many Southport activities.

 Roy Reiss was born in Cambridge MA and grew up in Winthrop. His parents owned a hotel in the White Mountains of New Hampshire that catered to an older clientele and Roy, being young, competitive and energetic was, as he describes it, "not a happy camper." So his parents sent him off to Camp Brunonia in Casco, Maine where he could play basketball and baseball, and where he eventually became a head counselor. 

        The Reiss family moved to Newton when Roy was in seventh grade. "I was the smallest boy in school," he says, "so the kids started calling me 'Pee Wee Reiss' after the legendary shortstop of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I wasn't big enough to play high school ball but I was involved with the team; I'd go to practices and sometimes ran the scoreboard. I graduated from Newton High School a week before my 17th birthday, young and immature."  

 

Roy enrolled in the University of New Hampshire, where he got his first taste of what would become a lifelong passion for radio broadcasting. A fraternity brother, general manager of the UNH radio station, asked him if he would like to do a sports show. "I had never done anything like this before but I found it easy and they loved it." While at UNH Roy was manager of the baseball and basketball teams. "I was having a lot of fun and involved in everything except studying. By the third year I knew I wasn't cutting it academically so I left. Remembering how much I had enjoyed my radio time at UNH, I went to broadcast school for a year and then finished my undergrad degree at Curry College, which had a program in broadcasting."    

Roy enjoyed a distinguished career in Boston area radio and continues to work as the voice of the Cotuit Kettleers.

         At Curry Roy met Roger Allen, a professor who would become his mentor. "Roger told me to interview for a job opening at WBET in Brockton; I did and got the job as color commentator for Brockton High School football and basketball, had a record show and closed the station down for the night at 11:00." Professor Allen would call Roy again, about an opening at WNAC in Boston. "They had a talk radio show and were looking for someone to screen calls. I got that job too. I was working two jobs and still going to school. By the time I got out of school, Roger Allen had become news director at WNAC. He offered me a job on the 11:00 pm to 7:00 am shift where I couldn't screw things up too badly. I did the news and whatever else they wanted me to do. I was about 22 or 23 years old. 

        "Curt Gowdy, who at that time was broadcasting Red Sox games, had a sports show. I told him how much I loved sports and how badly I wanted to do sports broadcasting. Gowdy owned a radio station in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He asked me if I wanted a job running the sports desk at his station. It was 1969, I was 27 years old, single and free, so I grabbed it. I did a talk show, football on the weekends, and city and local government events. I covered everything that was going on in Lawrence and the Merrimack Valley. I loved it. During that time I got married and we had two sons." 

 

Roy talks about other aspects of his career: a weekend program at Channel 27 in Worcester and working for Gowdy, who was doing sports for NBC. He wrote some of Gowdy's columns, produced his shows and arranged his interviews. He also took a part time job at Boston's CBS affiliate WEEI, where he did a late night sports show and worked with Eddie Andelman doing sports talk before moving to Channel 7 in Boston. There Roy did sports and other programming. Along the way he was elected president of Boston's prestigious B'nai B'rith sports chapter, where he served with distinction from 1977-1982.     

Michael, Jennifer & Doug Reiss

        In 1982 Channel 7 was sold. "I lost my job and got divorced. I took a job with Dr. Fred Ward, the 'weather guy.' Ward's company formed a partnership with Sports Ticker of New York, streaming sports scores to TV stations. From there I became sales manager for Trader Publishing, running their Boston operation. During this period, around 1984, Sarah and I met on a blind date. she was working as a programmer at the time. We went to a little pub in Lynnfield where we listened to some great music. We married in 1985." 

        After several years Roy left to take a job with the Boston Globe, managing their on-line help wanted desk at Boston.com. He remained there for eight years. "I love working with people," he says. "I was in my 50s working with 20-year-olds; teaching them, motivating them, it was fantastic." We chat about the curveballs life throws at you and the multitude of speed bumps along life's highway. "You do what you have to do," Roy says. "You're always building trying to make things better."

 

Our conversation shifts to family. "I was always close to my kids," Roy says. "The boys played Little League baseball and I loved coaching them. My younger son Michael played Babe Ruth baseball and I was involved. When he outgrew that I stayed on and became president of the Framingham Babe Ruth League. Doug does recruiting and training for Bullfinch Insurance. Michael is following in my footsteps; he works for ESPN Sports in Boston. Jennifer is the daughter Sarah and I had together, she is an expense analyst. We are very proud of all of them, and they've given us four fabulous grandchildren."       

Sarah & Roy Reiss

 

        Roy and Sara moved to their new Southport home on Twin Oaks Drive in May 2013. A few months later, as Southport was preparing to elect its first Board of Governors, Roy threw his hat into the ring along with 16 other candidates. "I was new, nobody really knew who I was but it was an opportunity to meet people and for them to get to know me.We really love it here and have made lots of new friends. Sarah, who was always a bit shy, has really blossomed. She has learned to play Mah Jong and works out four to five times a week at the gym. She's into yoga and spinning and is really happy."

       Sarah walks in from her workout at the gym. I learn that playing the piano is her passion. She practices three to four hours a day, volunteers to play for seniors at nursing homes and is even playing a little golf. Roy, as usual, is very busy. He is the public address announcer for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League, sells advertising for the team, teaches prospective sports broadcasters and is in charge of writers for the team's website. He is also on Southport's Finance Committee and the Elections Committee and has been active in establishing a social network among residents in his neighborhood.

 

"There are two words that I live by," Roy tells me, "attitude and passion. You have to go through life with a positive attitude and you must have a passion for everything you do." The interview is over. Roy has to get ready for a 1:00 tee time and Sarah has a Mah Jong game. I thank them for allowing me the opportunity to interview them and walk out into another beautiful day at Southport. 

.

 

I always saw myself living in Maine

in one of those coastal towns that

start with B like Bath or Brunswick,

Belfast or Bar Harbor. The little

galleries and gift shops in stately

historic buildings filled with crafts,

and emporiums manned by old hippies.

Conscious dining, the farm-to-table

eateries, the abundance of lobster,

the rocky coast. Wait, I missed a

few, Boothbay Harbor and Blue Hill!

 

Maine is the anti-Florida. It's where

people stay on to weather storms,

it's where the term 'iron works' can

refer to a full-service shipyard as

well as a delicate hand-wrought

sculpture, it's where things stay

the same all the while changing

but with winsome grace. Modernity

in art thrives in the lap of industry.

Craft beer brews in its foothills.

The people are bold, unafraid

to broadcast their nonconformity.

It's old and it's fresh, it's where

dreams move out from hearts to

canvas. Maine is my go-to sanction,

my up-the-road apiece getaway.

Ayuh, Maine.

 

 

 

 

I was sitting on Mashpee Town Beach the other day, gazing out at the horizon, when I remembered that more than 50 years ago I was caught at sea in Hurricane Donna.

 

In the autumn of 1960, I was a third mate on "Evelyn," a collier built on a Liberty Ship hull during WW II by the A. H. Bull Steam Ship Company and owned by the coal miners union. Liberty ships were built by the hundreds during the war and were intended to last perhaps five to seven years. She was an old dog, long past her intended life. 

 

We were sailing back to the States with an empty ship, having delivered a full cargo of grain to the Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa. Empty ships are a bit difficult to handle, especially in poor weather. They ride high out of the water, present a big sail to the wind and are easily pushed about by a heavy sea. 

 

Evelyn had five cargo-carrying holds, each one a big empty steel box. The forward hold had a timber wall, built in a fore to aft direction and braced with metal straps similar to those surrounding a bale of cotton. The wall was designed to prevent the undue flow of the grain, which tends to flow like water at a certain extreme angle of incline, which can easily occur aboard ship during a storm. Having shifted, grain cargo does not return to its original position after the ship returns to an even keel. Each subsequent roll of the ship allows more grain to flow and pile up on one side of the vessel. Left uncorrected, a ship can roll over and capsize.

 

We had received radio facsimiles of the surrounding weather conditions. These transmitter devices were required by the government in its early attempts to gather data and predict the weather. The ship had reached the outer areas of a hurricane and the facsimile maps were predicting that we were entering the northeast quadrant of the hurricane, where its winds are strongest.

 

Our clever third assistant engineer had rigged a line from each of the four corners of his bunk, tied them together and shackled them to the ceiling, resulting in an ersatz bunk on gimbals that remained horizontal notwithstanding the vessel's roll and yaw. He was the only one getting any sleep. 

 

I kept rolling out of bed so I went up on deck and found the captain, the chief mate and the mate of the watch all holding on and climbing the bulkhead with every roll. I was surprised to see the captain as he had not been on the ship's bridge since we departed Perth Amboy, New Jersey a month earlier. The seas were taking up heavily, the radar was not functioning -- and there was no hot coffee to be had on the bridge. Of course, I was immortal at that age, unafraid, filled with the adventure of it all and wondering what would happen next.

 

And something frightening did! As the ship descended from the peak of a wave, there was a pounding of the hull as it descended into the trough, followed by a loud crash from the forepeak of the ship. It sounded as if the hull was sprung, not unlikely on this overaged craft. The skipper ordered me to go and inspect the forward hold for water. I left the bridge into icicle-like rain, held onto the lifeline stretched from bow to stern and pulled and walked into the wind as I went forward.

 

Evelyn had a huge five-ton steel hatch cover over each hold. They were raised and lowered via winch, by a one-inch cable that ran from the top of two tall masts, one on each side of the ship, to the front of the cover. Each hold had a 4' X 4' wooden block between the front edge of the hatch cover and the hatch in order to air out the hold and prevent the build-up of grain dust, which can spontaneously explode. 

 

It was too dark to see into the forward hold, so (now get this brilliant move) I put my head(!) between the hatch cover and the hatch opening and flashed my light into the hold. The steel straps holding the timber wall had sprung and the wall had collapsed into the hold, causing that enormous noise. But there was no water in the hold. Sinking was not in my immediate future. And pulling my head out from below the five-ton hatch cover, I suddenly realized that decapitation also was going to be avoided. Being a slow student is not a useful trait for a seamen. I guess God had other uses for me.

 

I went to bed following this adventure and when I awoke next morning for my usual watch on the bridge, we were pulling into the harbor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had kept my head in a hurricane, so to speak. The ship was safe, but other ships had not been so fortunate. There must have been six ships partially sunk in the harbor. The next time I was in San Juan was two years later, when I went there for my honeymoon and an entirely different novel experience.

 

 

 

Editor's Note The rapid growth of Southport has made it impossible to include as many introductory interviews in Southport Village Voices as we would like. Andy Jablon, a new resident himself and a new contributor to SVV, suggested that "snapshot" interviews would allow us to introduce more new people to the community. Here are his first three "snapshots."  Photos: Andy Jablon

 

Bill & Beth Burney

 Bill & Beth Burney

100 Grey Hawk Drive

Moved in August 1, 2014

 

Originally From: Long Island, NY

Previous Residences:  Dover, DE; Richmond, VA; Prescott, AZ; and most recently Brockton, MA

Why Southport: Wanted to stay in southeastern Massachusetts; originally did not want Cape Cod but liked the design of homes and communities.

Like Best About Southport: Friendliness

of residents, welcoming, amenities, everything they need is close at hand.

Like Least: Want more trees and vegetation

Interested In: Beth - book club, garden club, water aerobics; Bill - tennis, golf, cycling, kayaking, basketball, softball

 

Dick & Debby Farrar

 

Dick & Debby Farrar

104 Grey Hawk Drive

Moved in June 27, 2014

 

Originally From: Dighton, MA

Previous Residences: Western NY; RI; NJ; Scottsdale and Yuma, AZ; and most recently Falmouth, MA

Why Southport: Wanted to downsize, live in a community with activities, be able to go away in winter and not worry about our home

Like Best About Southport: Everyone is friendly and outgoing, daughter-in-law calls it camp for adults. 

Like Least: Many things in condo were not ready as promised.  

Interested In: Debby - cards, maj jong; 

Dick - TGIF, barbecues, ping pong

 

Beverly Marram

 Beverly Marram

45 Twin Oaks Drive

Moved in May 18, 2014

 

Previous Residences: Westwood, MA and most recently Newton, MA

Why Southport: Led a busy life but changes in recent years left her with not enough to do. Researched active communities and kept coming back to Southport.

Like Best About Southport: People are extremely warm and friendly, everyone greets you. Many activities here.

Like Least: No recycling, no garbage disposal. Would like exercise class areas to have a wooden floor, not carpet. 

Interested In: exercising, book club, theater,       anything with dance, dance aerobics

 

If you would like to do a snapshot interview with Andy Jablon 

or know someone who might like to be introduced, please send him a note at

 

• VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! If you don't cast your vote for the Board of Governors by October 9, it'll be too late. We need a majority of Southport homeowners (over 50%) to cast votes by that date or the current election will be invalid.
   
• Ya gotta love dumb people; they make life so entertaining. The newspaper recently told us about a woman who worked in a restaurant and used the district attorney's credit card number to buy herself some junk jewelry...the district attorney's credit card! Not only that, but she stole restaurant gift cards using the same credit card number and distributed them to her friends.
   
• Mashpee Town Meeting, October 20, at the High School. It's a good way to learn what's going on in the town where you live. Specifics will be published in local newspapers.
   
• When Bette and I were volunteering at the recent primary election held at Quashnet School, she noticed a section of the gym wall, which read: "The only place where 'success' comes before 'work' is in the dictionary." A good thing to remember and pass on to our grandchildren.
   
• Unsung heroes: Those guys who get up early every Tuesday morning to set up and clean up after Men's Coffee - Woody Young, Jr. and Sr., Harry Golding, Jim Roddy, Frank Lord, Dom Romano and Ron DaSilva. Thanks guys!
   
• Some of us are at the age where we're not quite as tall as we once were. Are we condensing?
   
• Woe be unto us for the next five weeks. We will all be subject to one political ad after another. The FCC used to allowed only six minutes of commercial time per half hour. That ruling was dropped years ago. Now the stations are free to run as many spots as they please. And what can we do about it? You tell me.
   
• Can we be serious...just for a moment? Look at the entrance to Southport. See it in your mind? See the first lane? The second lane? Visitor lane? Resident lane? Magic lane? It's a mess and anyone with a car can drive right through -  unchallenged. We have a new Board of Governors coming in soon. Could this situation pleeeeze be one of their priorities?
   
• By the time you read this you will likely have forgotten the incident. I refer to the nine-year-old girl who was permitted to fire an Uzi at a shooting range in Arizona.  The weapon kicked back and the instructor was shot in the head and killed. My question: What kind of parents think it's OK for their nine-year-old daughter to learn how to fire an automatic weapon? As a friend of mine would say, "You can't fix stupid."
   
• Good news for diabetics. The Mashpee Department of Public Works has a program for diabetics and others who use needles regularly. DPW will provide a plastic container for used needles; when it's filled and returned to the office, they will provide a new container. It's a free service.
   
• Where did the TV stations ever get the idea that weather reports have to include an element of drama? First there was "Storm Team 5" then NECN recently introduced "Early Warning Weather." Ooooh! What's next, the Cataclysmic Climate Report? Where will it end?
   
• Did you know that Southport has a scholarship fund to benefit graduating Mashpee High School seniors? You can contribute to this fund for any number of reasons - make a tribute to a friend, send a get well wish, offer congratulations, etc. Call Treasurer Billie Kapp for information of just bring your check (made out to Southport Residents Scholarship Fund) to the Village Center Activities Desk.

 

 

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.

Arthur Wagman and his wife Bobby moved to Southport in 2002. After graduating from Boston University, Arthur was commissioned into the US Air Force. He and Bobby were stationed in France, where their first child was born. Leaving the Air Force as a Captain, he returned to BU, earned his doctorate and began a lifelong career in education. Arthur was assistant superintendent for finance for Wayland, MA Public School, leaving to become the bursar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After leaving MIT he returned to public education and served as superintendent of Dedham, MA Public Schools. Arthur started and is president of Educational Resources Management, a consulting company working with school boards and architects to develop educational specifications for new schools. He and Bobby have three children and five grandchildren.

 

Carl Zuanelli graduated from SUNY/Maritime College at Throgs Neck, NY, received his Third Mate's License from the US Coast Guard and was commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy before embarking on a career in the Merchant Marine. Later, after earning his MBA at Iona College, he enjoyed a second career in corporate insurance - ocean, marine, commercial, casualty and domestic/international reinsurance. When his son wanted to begin a business of his own, Carl helped him out and joined the board of the fledgling Board of the Nuovo Pasta Company; pasta was a good investment. He served as a trustee of the Westchester Artificial Kidney Foundation for 30 years and on the Wilton (CT) Board of Finance for five. A widower, he retired in 1996 and in 2003 moved to Southport to be with his new wife Leslie. He is the father of two sons and two daughters.