When we first met Kim Newlin back in 2005, she was a wife, a mother of two young children, and a new business owner of Newlin’s Mainely Gourmet. Today, she and Frank are happy and “Newlin’s,” as the islanders fondly call her business, is going strong, and her children are in college.
“When we opened, my daughter was at The Island School. I remember looking at Tallulah walking across the street to school, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m a little bored.’ I was only going to do this business for two years.”
Carol Ann Richardson, 86, of Middle Bass Island, Ohio and 25 year winter resident of Boca Grande, passed away on Tuesday Jan.18, 2022 from lymphoma at the Renaissance Retirement Community in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. Carol was born Carol Adams on August 24, 1935 to Wesley Adams and Helen (nee Sutherin) Adams in Canonsburg, Penn. Carol […]
James R. Stanley, 90, of Lake Bluff, Ill. passed away peacefully on January 30, 2022, at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital in Lake Forest, Ill. Born in Williamsport, Penn. in 1931 to Col. Leslie W. and Hazel E. Stanley, Jim graduated from Pennsylvania State University and later served as First Lieutenant in the United States Army […]
To the Editor:
Two weeks ago, our family had a wonderful vacation in Boca Grande. It was our third visit to the island and we had rented a hundred plus-year-old cottage on Tarpon Ave. We love what a step back in time this charming town portrays. No chain stores, no high rises, no litter, no graffiti, a fabulous bike path and walking path, very little vehicular traffic, beautiful beaches, and a warm, friendly, welcoming attitude that is hard to find. Everyone is so outdoorsy and active. It is obvious the residents take great pride in their property and are grateful to live in such a special place.
Almost every year Ecowatch has written love quotes from poets who have exclaimed the power and joy of love between man and women, animals sharing love and other venues of love. However, there is another pathway to love that is too often overlooked and that is the love of trees and what they wish to share with all of us.
I had every intention of listing some good and bad events in the ecosystem that needed to be shared. However, I shall digress for just a short time. Long-time readers of this column are familiar with the many quotes I have used through the years. I usually pick a writer who has something to say and will nudge people to think.
One such person I have used often was Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. He was responsible for setting aside land for our national parks that people still enjoy and use today. He was the ultimate conservationist, and he said, “The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem, it will avail us little to solve others.” His most famous quote gave us a little peek into his character: “Speak softly and carry a big stick — and you will go far.” He went on to say, “I’m a part of everything I have read. I am an American, free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”
Janet Gillespie who lived in Boca Grande between 1978 and 2004 told stories of the jobs she held, the friends she made, the programs she helped start and the pranks she pulled to the interest and delight of the audience at the Historical Society’s first History Byte since 2020. A number of themes ran through Janet’s presentation, her love of horses and of the water and fishing, her creative friends with whom she started several Island organizations and events and her history of pulling pranks.
Friends from decades past, I came to regard Patti Middleton as the true artistic nature muse of our coast. Her passing in May of last year seemed emblematic of the titanic scale of change throughout our island world and beyond.
I really felt this first when legendary seaplane pilot Mark Futch went on ahead in 2018. So memorable from earlier flying days was a sunset flight with Mark from the Boca Grande bayou out over Boca Grande Pass, which I preserved in a poem “Charlotte Harbor Sea Peace” in my collection called “Verdana Poems.”
Here’s the scoop! The Royal Palm Players are presenting a rescheduled table reading of “Proof” in a theater-in-the-round setting created on the Friend’s Pavilion next Tuesday through Thursday, Feb. 15 – Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. All tickets are for general seating and can be purchased by phone from the Royal Palm Players Box Office by calling 964-2670 or on the website at royalpalmplayers.com. The ticket cost is $15.
The February 9 History Bytes program features the Davis family – Frank Davis, Robin Davis Melvin, Doug and Gail Coleman Davis – who spent their summers and holidays in Boca Grande during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Their memories include arriving on the train from Arcadia, cutting the family’s Christmas tree at the north end of the Island and days of freedom, fishing, swimming and fun.
