Point of View: Hearing Voices
“‘I gave up masonry in November,’ ” Ken Rafferty told me in May of 1978. “ ‘I could stay down here and paint 14 hours a day. I get my hot cocoa and dash around back through the snow. People must think I’m crazy. One abstract I did I called, ‘It’s Snowing on My Cocoa.’ ”
“While he’d rather keep his paintings — ‘They’re like my babies’ — at times the wolf at the door can’t be ignored. ‘One guy was down here looking at a graphic I did in cobalt blue. He said, ‘What’s the title?’ I said, ‘LILCO.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, I see . . . the nuclear power plant. . . . Is that why you named it that?’ I said, ‘I named it that because if you buy it I can pay my LILCO bill.’ I said to myself, ‘I got to make this sale to this guy — they were going to shut my lights off. I had to be honest. The guy said, ‘That’s even better! That’s real soul, to have that nerve. . . .’ ”
“ ‘So, after that I named others, Rent, and IGA. . . .’ ”
“Over the Colonial doorway to Nancy Boyd Willey’s historic house in Sag Harbor was the injunction: ‘Remove Not The Ancient Landmark Which Thy Fathers Have Set,’ and etched into the dining room mantelpiece, ‘I am the BREAD of LIFE . . . He that Cometh to ME Shall never HUNGER . . . and JESUS said And He that BELIEVETH on ME Shall Never THIRST.’ ”
“Putting a finger to her chin, Ms. Willey said, ‘And to think that I lobbied against billboards.’ ”
“The signs in the Chowder Bowl concession at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach reflect the feistiness and versatility of its proprietor, Roney Marasca.”
“ ‘We do not sell or give away cups and/or ice! Please do not ask for them — you won’t get ’em!’ ”
“ ‘Sorry! Sat & Sun only — Bagels & Hard Rolls are available but NOT TOASTED after 1 p.m. “‘I gave up masonry in November,’ ” Ken Rafferty told me in May of 1978. “ ‘I could stay down here and paint 14 hours a day. I get my hot cocoa and dash around back through the snow. People must think I’m crazy. One abstract I did I called, ‘It’s Snowing on My Cocoa.’ ”
“While he’d rather keep his paintings — ‘They’re like my babies’ — at times the wolf at the door can’t be ignored. ‘One guy was down here looking at a graphic I did in cobalt blue. He said, ‘What’s the title?’ I said, ‘LILCO.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, I see . . . the nuclear power plant. . . . Is that why you named it that?’ I said, ‘I named it that because if you buy it I can pay my LILCO bill.’ I said to myself, ‘I got to make this sale to this guy — they were going to shut my lights off. I had to be honest. The guy said, ‘That’s even better! That’s real soul, to have that nerve. . . .’ ”
“ ‘So, after that I named others, Rent, and IGA. . . .’ ”
“Over the Colonial doorway to Nancy Boyd Willey’s historic house in Sag Harbor was the injunction: ‘Remove Not The Ancient Landmark Which Thy Fathers Have Set,’ and etched into the dining room mantelpiece, ‘I am the BREAD of LIFE . . . He that Cometh to ME Shall never HUNGER . . . and JESUS said And He that BELIEVETH on ME Shall Never THIRST.’ ”
“Putting a finger to her chin, Ms. Willey said, ‘And to think that I lobbied against billboards.’ ”
“The signs in the Chowder Bowl concession at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach reflect the feistiness and versatility of its proprietor, Roney Marasca.”
“ ‘We do not sell or give away cups and/or ice! Please do not ask for them — you won’t get ’em!’ ”
“ ‘Sorry! Sat & Sun only — Bagels & Hard Rolls are available but NOT TOASTED after 1 p.m. “‘I gave up masonry in November,’ ” Ken Rafferty told me in May of 1978. “ ‘I could stay down here and paint 14 hours a day. I get my hot cocoa and dash around back through the snow. People must think I’m crazy. One abstract I did I called, ‘It’s Snowing on My Cocoa.’ ”
“While he’d rather keep his paintings — ‘They’re like my babies’ — at times the wolf at the door can’t be ignored. ‘One guy was down here looking at a graphic I did in cobalt blue. He said, ‘What’s the title?’ I said, ‘LILCO.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, I see . . . the nuclear power plant. . . . Is that why you named it that?’ I said, ‘I named it that because if you buy it I can pay my LILCO bill.’ I said to myself, ‘I got to make this sale to this guy — they were going to shut my lights off. I had to be honest. The guy said, ‘That’s even better! That’s real soul, to have that nerve. . . .’ ”
“ ‘So, after that I named others, Rent, and IGA. . . .’ ”
“Over the Colonial doorway to Nancy Boyd Willey’s historic house in Sag Harbor was the injunction: ‘Remove Not The Ancient Landmark Which Thy Fathers Have Set,’ and etched into the dining room mantelpiece, ‘I am the BREAD of LIFE . . . He that Cometh to ME Shall never HUNGER . . . and JESUS said And He that BELIEVETH on ME Shall Never THIRST.’ ”
“Putting a finger to her chin, Ms. Willey said, ‘And to think that I lobbied against billboards.’ ”
“The signs in the Chowder Bowl concession at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach reflect the feistiness and versatility of its proprietor, Roney Marasca.”
“ ‘We do not sell or give away cups and/or ice! Please do not ask for them — you won’t get ’em!’ ”
“ ‘Sorry! Sat & Sun only — Bagels & Hard Rolls are available but NOT TOASTED after 1 p.m. Too busy!’ ”
“ ‘Our Motto: Sibili Si Ergo Fortibuses
In Ero. Nobili Demmis Trux Seewatis
Enim Cowsendux.’ ”
“Four years ago, Robert Dash said, he had done ‘a gigantic landscape of Sagaponack. Somebody saw something in the lower right-hand corner and asked what it was. I said it was a For Sale sign.’ ”
“One of the reasons Mary Damark calls everyone ‘dearie’ and ‘honey’ is because she admits she’s bad on remembering names. She is very good at remembering faces, though, and to underline the point she told of instantly recognizing a former Wonderbread salesman whom 15 years prior she had threatened with hard raps on the head with a frying pan if he didn’t get out of her kitchen.”
“Asked what she thought of the new rich-peasant look, Mrs. Damark guffawed: ‘They look like the mad Russians. And next year,’ she said, hitching up her skirt, ‘they’ll be up to here. . . . And if they can’t sell them that way, they’ll put patches on the ass and sell them that way.’ ”
“ ‘Kids. They’re like a bunch of gypsies,’ Mrs. Damark said. ‘These kids — though they’re much older than we were at their age — don’t take anything serious. They run and run, and after they get there they find that what it was they were after isn’t there.’ ”
“Whereupon Lori Hasselberger, who works at the store, announced that Mrs. Damark’s granddaughter, Wendy, was taking off for Arizona in a few days.”
“Mrs. Damark absorbed the news, and said, ‘How far you think she’ll get?’ ”