It was the holiday season in December, 1990. A lady friend took me to a party at a home in Pelham, NY. The house was warmly decorated for the season and full of happy people, for the most part. I was having a ball in the living room singing carols in a group accompanied by flute and piano. I reluctantly broke away to refill my glass, and entered the kitchen. My friend introduced me to two men talking by the sink, "Hi, John Smith and Bill Dakin, I'd like you to meet my friend, Lynn Hall." "Lynn Hall!, Dakin exclaimed. "Why you stole my girl!". With that, he stepped forward and swung his fist at my midriff.
Explanatory note: Bill Dakin was a classmate at Pleasantville High. I wasn't a close friend, but we sat near each other in the orchestra, he playing the clarinet and I the flute. Out of the blue one day in June, he invited me to spend a week at his family's cabin in the Thousand Islands, on the St. Lawrence River. It sounded wonderful; I accepted.
I had a wonderful time up there, swimming, fishing from outboards, making new friends. One was Happy Anthony, from Syracuse. We met the first day and quickly developed a mutual crush. We were together at every opportunity, sharing all the daytime activities, dancing and more, at night. It was heaven!
Although I was staying with him and his family at their rustic cabin, I don't recall seeing Bill Dakin again after the first day.
Addendum: About a year after the Xmas party, I picked up a copy of Sail Magazine. On the cover was a picture of a sailboat and underneath the caption: Bill Dakin and his Nonesuch on Long Island Sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment