Letters to the Editor: 02.27.97
Sheepdog Named Jose
East Hampton
February 27, 1997
To The Editor:
Last week there was a letter titled "Loyal and Devoted." It was a love letter about an old English sheepdog named Jose. I have read it over and over, and it still brings tears to my eyes because that dog used to be my husband's and mine.
Jose traveled all the way from Fort Worth, Tex., with us in May of 1984. He was named Jose because we considered him a Mexican sheepdog. He didn't have "papers."
Due to hard times, we were no longer able to take care of Jose and took him to the Animal Rescue Fund. We have thought about him a lot over the years, and his name still pops up in family conversations from time to time.
You can not imagine the feeling we had when we read the letter to find out that Jose had a good life with a family that loved him. Thank you so much for sharing that with us and thank you, ARF, for taking the time to find him such a good home.
ANNETTE, TOM, CASEY, and COREY MacNIVEN
Muddle, Muddle
Sweet Briar, Va.
February 21, 1997
Dear Helen,
The Star reaches me somewhat belatedly, as well as erratically, down here in the Blue Ridge, so that I got the Feb. 13 issue shortly after the Feb. 6 issue, and a good thing too because I'd gotten so steamed over the possible $250 yearly railroad parking fee that I nearly dashed off another furious letter pointing out the village fathers' skullduggery in the apparently perennial parking-at-the-Long- Island-Rail-Road-station matter.
But it now appears that this possibility has grown dimmer - though one can never tell, when it comes to decisions reached by those who rule our little village.
I seem to recall being told (when I stood up and said my piece about the 30-minute parking limit on the then newly paved area south of the tracks) that train-takers should use the Lumber Lane lot, because that's what it was there for.
Now, all of a sudden, the village fathers are shooing us away again. Where to, this time? And for how much of a price? I already pay $120 for my beach sticker. And it brands me a "nonresident," which makes me feel I come from Mars or carry germs on my feet from the sands of Coney Island.
At least they've finally freed up a handful of 24-hour spaces along the tracks, but what happens if you spend a day or two or three? I can understand not wanting the lots to be free storage space for vehicles from November to May, but don't sock it to the regular "commuters" for the sake of a few miscreants. (I could see $50 or permitting all village beach stickers as identification.) A $250 fee is simply outrageous. But not unexpected, seeing where it comes from.
My best hope is that some of those cars parked there on the Lumber Lane lot belong to people who take the Jitney and not the train, in which case there might be heavier pressure than I could ever generate put on the board to keep it from enacting its draconian measures. I'm just a little old lady who lives in Springs and waves her umbrella at chicanery everywhere, at any time. But, oh, those classy Jitney riders with their cellular telephones!
One last question: We are supposed to get great new trains in a couple of years - with electric-cum-diesel engines and double-decker cars. It may bring a lot of folks back to the L.I.R.R. What happens then? Do the village fathers have a plan? I bet they don't. Muddle, muddle, toil, and trouble.
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