EDITORIAL

A welcome visitor sails in

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 10/8/20

Who needs a cell phone when you have a paddleboard? That thought crossed my mind when I spotted the black sailboat off shore in front of the house Sunday afternoon. It had visited many times and usually on days like this. It was perfect fall weather,

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
EDITORIAL

A welcome visitor sails in

Posted

Who needs a cell phone when you have a paddleboard?

That thought crossed my mind when I spotted the black sailboat off shore in front of the house Sunday afternoon. It had visited many times and usually on days like this. It was perfect fall weather, warm, the air clean and fresh and a light southwest wind. Conditions could hardly be better for John Migliaccio to sail down from the Rhode Island Yacht Club, out to Conimicut Point and then make a stop at the mooring in front of our house. For him this section of the bay – technically still the Providence River for pernickety mariners – is more than a good place to sail. It’s where he grew up and where his dad moored their sailboat. In fact, our house was the Migliaccio summer home for more than 25 years.

It was one of those things I learned serendipitously after buying the property in the mid-70s. I forget the circumstances surrounding meeting John, but it most likely at the State House as John is an attorney and worked with the Attorney General. Sailing was surely the thread that led the discussion to Conimicut and then an exchange of names of people living – or once living – in the neighborhood. The names, with the exception of Ken Caster and Merrick Leach, were new to me. Caster owned the bicycle shop on Post Road outside Apponaug. Merrick lives two doors down from us.

“Well, he’s my neighbor,” I recall saying.

An incredulous look crossed John’s face. He started describing their house and there was no mistaking that it was our house. “Only in Rhode Island,” as they say, could you meet a stranger and after five minutes of chatting learn that they grew up in the house you live in.

Naturally, John wanted to hear about the house and how it had changed. That led to an invitation to visit and see the place for himself. Several weeks later John showed up with his siblings. This was a party, which John loves. As they walked through the house, I learned which rooms had been theirs and heard hurricane stories, how the waters had risen to the porch and how they saved boats that had broken free from their moorings.

I remember thinking I would see the extended family again, maybe in three or four years as they renewed that bond to the past and their childhoods. But that call never came.

John, the sailor, is the exception. He’s not intrusive or demanding. Like a magnet, Conimicut draws him back and he picks up a mooring that surely is not far from where the family boat was once kept. He’ll show up two or three times in the course of the summer, spend an hour or more off shore and then set sail to head back to the yacht club.

On Sunday I thought of calling to welcome him back, but then a visit seemed so much better. I headed out on the paddleboard. John and his party saw me coming and when I arrived alongside were quick to offer me a drink and cheese and crackers. Migliaccio hospitality is never lacking, nor was the conversation.

With the pandemic and the election there was no lack of material. John is keen, which is a good thing, on getting to the facts. He’s bent on exposing lies and half-truths. He thinks in big terms and reaches for the top. As I stood on the board leaning on the lifelines to his boat he quickly outlined a plan to disseminate the “real story” to news outlets across the country. He had put in a call to Bob Woodward to outline the plan. That’s John.

John, his friend and the other couple joined in the conversation and speculation as to what could happen if neither Trump nor Biden decisively win this election. That’s what it was – speculation, but regardless interesting conversation.

Legs a bit wobbly after having spent 20 minutes standing on the board without moving and saying adieu, I headed back to shore. Merrick, his wife Pat and family were sitting on their seawall. I returned Merrick’s wave with a wave of the paddle.

I thought then it had been a good thing that I couldn’t find my cell phone. You’ll never know what you might discover if you just put those devices away … or lose them.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here