The Kindness of the Van Derecks
To the editor:
Back in the early 1970s during the off-season a number of us hippie types tried living in tents or teepees hidden in the densely wooded sections of the Provincetown dunes.
While we saved money that we may not have even had, it was a cold, damp existence in the winter and spring, relieved only by the warmth of the volunteer-run To Be Coffehouse and an occasional evening out dancing at Piggie’s.
Napi and Helen Van Dereck, for whom opening a restaurant was not yet even a dream, saw our plight and once a week they cooked a dinner in their home off Commercial Street for the three to five us living out there. At the first or second of these dinners, they informed us that if we brought our own towels and clean clothes, we would be welcome to use their shower.
We were cold, poor, and smelly, but they took us in. I will never forget Napi’s and Helen’s generosity and kindnesses back then.
Mark Primack
Berlin, N.H.
Cast of Characters
To the editor:
I thought to provide a key to my cartoon in last week’s edition (“A Toast,” page B3), knowing that my portrait skills are a bit shabby and sometimes completely unrecognizable. Oy.
Here’s a list of the “real” people in my picture: Frances “Flyer” Santos, Bella Abzug, Sasha Richter, Sal Del Deo, Ngina Lythcott, Byllye Avery, Ida B. Wells, Lydia Marie, Ephen Glen, Fire Chief Mike Trovato, Josephine Del Deo (drawings of Josephine and Sal in their younger days), Freddie Rocha, Ilona Royce Smithkin, Anne Lord, Marian Roth in 1968, Lee Musselman, Johnny Lisbon, Rita Speicher and Joe Kelly in 1964, Antonius-Tín Bui, Conrad Malicoat, Norma Holt, Barbara Rushmore, Ari (the UPS man), George (DeVita’s), Quinn and Raea Ivey, and Rachel White.
I would very much like to thank Karen Cappotto for her help putting everything together and counseling me on the beauty of Xeroxing when I could not figure out how to draw white-haired, blue-eyed people on a white background. And many thanks to the Commons for their generosity and great Xerox machine.
Mary DeAngelis
Provincetown
Freddie and Jean-Paul
To the editor:
A beggar in Jerusalem and a true son of Provincetown, Frederico Pedro Rocha.
On a freezing cold night I once passed him on the street, alone, quite alone, having a smoke, mulching some lines only a Sartre would know to steal from.
Shirley Spatz
Provincetown
