Bonac Beautiful
Springs
May 5, 2008
Dear David,
Mark your calendars! Spring is here and we would like to make the community aware that the Accabonac Protection Committee’s annual Springs cleanup will be happening on Saturday, May 17 (rain date is the 18th).
The event begins at the Springs General Store at 10 a.m., where locations and supplies are divvied up. After two hours for trash collecting, all garbage will be brought back to a Dumpster at the General Store and a lunch for all participants will be provided there, courtesy of the General Store’s ever generous Kristi Hood.
Our families look forward to the cleanup every year — it’s a great way to show our kids the consequences of litter and they always enjoy this outdoor project. They also enjoy seeing just what kind of weird stuff they can find (yes, we will be providing gloves or feel free to bring your own).
And you don’t need to be a Springs resident to help out. Anyone who appreciates the natural beauty here — someone who keeps a kayak at Louse Point or likes to party at the Maidstone pavilion — is welcome to join in.
So bring your kids, bring a friend, or just bring yourself and come help “Keep Bonac Beautiful!”
Sincerely,
BARBARA DAYTON
ALICIA WILTSHIRE
Extremely Generous
Montauk
May 5, 2008
Dear David,
On behalf of the Montauk Fire Department’s Ladies Auxiliary, we would like to thank everyone who came to the pancake breakfast on April 20, everyone who helped make it possible, and to the extremely generous, anonymous person who bought a 50-50 raffle ticket and donated it back to the auxiliary. What a great gift.
Sincerely,
LYNDEN RESTREPO
Dynamic Duo
Amagansett
April 28, 2008
To the Editor,
Laura Donnelly’s favorable review of the new restaurant in Amagansett, Indian Wells Tavern, came as no surprise. The culinary dynamic duo of Patty and Tony Sales presiding over the Tavern were in charge of the kitchen of the South Fork Country Club. The club’s food and service were exemplary. Mind you, not every dish ranked as a “birdie,” but most did. The club’s loss is the community’s gain.
The review had two omissions. No mention of Patty and Tony or a rare item on an East End restaurant menu — fresh local fish. Irene and I were there for dinner on Sunday night; I ordered fillet of fluke. Its texture said it all — it was fresh local fish.
Congratulations to Patty and Tony Sales and a hearty welcome to the Indian Wells Tavern.
SIDNEY B. SILVERMAN
Finest Shops
East Rockaway
May 1, 2008
To the Editor:
I read and reread J. Weisman’s letter three times before I concluded that he is serious. When Mr. Weisman counts the high cost of gas as a good reason he and his cronies don’t have to drive to the Manhasset mall for their “necessities,” they obviously never see the Bridgehampton mall as they drive past. Then again, perhaps they don’t get that far because they drive only as far as the airport to “copter” to the mall.
Having been privileged to live in this beautiful village for 40 years, we got along very well without all the high-ticket names Mr. Weisman so casually drops. We shopped at Gucci when we went to Italy and went to Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue when it was a special gift occasion. I never even heard of Elie Tahari until it recently opened. However, I did become an appreciative wearer of Ralph Lauren men’s clothing.
When I was in the corporate world, my suits were usually Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth, or Barney’s Oxford brand, and my sports clothes were typically Lauren or Principe, a very fine Italian brand.
But let me be clear, I found them all at one of the finest shops in East Hampton, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, otherwise known as L.V.I.S. Back then, my suits rarely cost more than $15 to $20 for alterations. I was better dressed than my C.E.O. My manager used to tease me that I was wearing dead men’s suits. He was probably right, but who cared?
Just two weeks ago, I bought a beautiful pair of Ralph Lauren summer slacks (didn’t even need alteration) for the outrageous price of $12.
The stores I do miss are the shoemaker that used to be on Newtown Lane, the Poster Originals store on Main Street, and Tom Friedman’s card store.
Check it out, Mr. Weisman.
Sincerely,
STEVEN HARWIN
The Cow
East Hampton
May 5, 2008
To the Editor,
East Hampton is known for its many live animal attractions, from the swans at Town Pond to the deer in our wooded areas.
East Hampton has a new animal — who is not alive. It is the cow (or is it a bull?) on the front roof of the Matto restaurant on North Main Street near the I.G.A. It is approximately 6 to 8 feet high and 10 to 12 feet wide. A beige, three-dimensional bovine.
Is this animal in compliance with the town’s sign ordinance? I contacted the town ordinance office recently but they couldn’t say if this distraction was okay.
RUTH NASCA
Elegant Lady
New York City
May 1, 2008
To the Editor,
Simone was a lady. She was kind, dignified, funny. She once told me, “Never let yourself go. Wear a smile and lipstick if you feel low.”
She exemplified Old World elegance. Her table was set with charm, flowers, candles, good wine, homemade bread, brilliant conversation pertaining to controversial subjects. She was a very refined cook. She had a gracious sense of humor. She loved life, watched birds, sunsets, tended to her flowers — an elegant lady.
I will miss her.
NICOLE BIGAR
True Black Mark
East Hampton
May 4, 2008
To the Editor,
For some time now East Hampton residents and elected office holders have been aware of high arsenic and other heavy metal levels on Long Lane. Other than hand-wringing, no action has been taken. This nonreaction to a known public health hazard is a true black mark for our town officials.
Nobody wants to see our students and other personnel at Long Lane high school in hazmat suits and masks. Yet a relatively simple and effective remedy has been available. Bioremediation has moved from being a scientific experiment to a practical solution. This is defined as using natural processes to clean up harmful chemicals in the environment.
The Environmental Protection Agency has been using this method for decades at similarly contaminated sites. East Hampton residents should demand action from our elected officials. At the very least, a pilot program could be set up leading to a full-scale cleanup, if effective.
Perhaps as a quid pro quo the area south of Long Lane could be kept from development and retained as farmland.
PHILIP D. FREEDMAN
Vague Notice
Amagansett
May 4, 2008
Dear David,
Last week’s article about the arsenic in the soil on Long Lane reminds us of the danger to certain groups who work at the East End Community Organic Farm. For several years the East Hampton Environmental and Health Committee (of which Larry Penny was a member) had strongly recommended that EECO Farm warn and provide appropriate protection for children and pregnant woman.
Tests have shown that the arsenic level in the soil is above safe limits. Your news article said, “Its leaders reluctantly agreed to warn gardeners, who rent plots there, about the potential danger of working with the soil.” The farm has placed, inconspicuously, among a dozen other fliers, a vague notice. They do not mention that the endangered children and pregnant woman should use gloves and masks.
Once again, we remind EECO Farm of its responsibility to protect its farmers. Since East Hampton Town subsidizes EECO Farm, the town should make sure that it follows safe farming practices and alerts its farmers properly.
RONA and ALAN KLOPMAN
Wake Up
Springs
April 26, 2008
To the Editor,
To portray the discussion over the Springs School budget as “pocketbook versus kids” is misguided and unfair, as it does not seem to acknowledge the very real economic pressures facing Springs taxpayers.
People need to wake up and face financial realities.
As a Springs resident, I do not know of many people with unlimited funds to pay substantial tax increases every school budget year.
MARY BRAVERMAN
Traffic Problems
East Hampton
April 27, 2008
To the Editor:
On Tuesday, a public hearing was held for comments on a proposal for more than doubling the existing footprint for the Damark’s Deli on Three Mile Harbor Road at the intersection of Soak Hides Road and Muir Boulevard in East Hampton.
Over four years ago, residents along Muir Boulevard, Crystal Drive, and others requested a meeting with the East Hampton Police Department seeking relief from the ongoing traffic problems and accidents in the vicinity of Damark’s Deli. Sgt. R. Wood came to a local homeowner’s residence to hear the taxpayers’ complaints.
The traffic problems are very obvious from the early morning until the deli closes. Cars speeding along Three Mile Harbor have near-misses with patrons leaving the deli parking and those who park along Three Mile Harbor Road. Drivers coming from the south (Village of East Hampton area) pass on the right to avoid waiting for those trying to pull into the deli. Drivers coming from the north going toward the village of East Hampton veer into the oncoming lane to avoid deli patrons leaving the parking lot.
As a rule, it is almost impossible to cross all along Three Mile Harbor Road because of the high number of vehicles and the excessive rate of speed that most folks choose to travel at. In my opinion, there should be designated crosswalks all along this road for the protection of pedestrians.
There have been numerous accidents in front of the deli — sometimes a few a week during the summertime. To complicate the situation, there is also a bus stop just east of Muir Boulevard, and schoolchildren are also discharged at this junction. The sidewalk that should extend to the end of town along the west side of Three Mile Harbor Road ends at Soak Hides Road. It should theoretically cross in front of the Damark’s Deli, where the plan is to have a new driveway from the proposed rear parking lot which lies in the flood zone within 150 feet of the wetlands behind the building.
Furthermore, as of late two newly arrived landscaping businesses have started using Muir Boulevard for truck and trailer access, adding to the traffic in what was once a residential neighborhood. The proposed plan has deli customers turning at Soak Hides Road to park behind the deli and exiting along Three Mile Harbor Road.
Four years ago, Damark’s neighbors asked Officer Wood about having a traffic light installed or at least a caution light in front of the deli. He told us “It will never happen on a county road.”
We asked about lowering the speed limit and banning parking along the east side of Three Mile Harbor between Sam’s gas station and Abraham’s Path, but nothing has been done to date.
I have personally asked East Hampton police officers who often park on Muir Boulevard and a local code enforcement officer to have a “No Passing on the Right Side” sign installed. Still no sign. I asked the East Hampton supervisor’s office about the problem; they referred me to the county. The county sent me back to the town.
I admit not writing a formal complaint to this obvious, ongoing town congestion problem. My letter would more than likely have ended up in the trash.
Bruce Damark wants to more than double the size of his business from 1,996 square feet to 4,772 square feet and add an oversized apartment upstairs for his staff, I assume, as he is wheelchair-bound and using stairs seems highly unlikely in his situation. As a reference, one might want to consider that the size of an average 7-Eleven is 3,000 square feet. Consider the volume of business at one of those shops and imagine what will occur here at almost 5,000 square feet.
If the traffic doubles at this location, as it might with a much larger store, there are likely to be more automobile accidents and greater danger for all who traverse this highly trafficked main corridor. The area needs traffic calming right now, and if the proposal moves forward, we inhabitants should have assurances that remedies will be in place to protect life and property and maintain a decent quality of life for those in the immediate vicinity of Mr. Damark’s enterprise.
CLAYTON MUNSEY
Ruination
East Hampton
April 29, 2008
Dear David,
I am writing to let people in our neighborhood know about the proposed building of a privately developed 57-unit work-force housing project on Oakview and Middle Highways. The 8.95 acres belonging to Ronald Webb is proposed to squeeze in these 57 cottages, plus a waste treatment area, which hasn’t quite been figured out. Lovely. Just what we don’t need.
This area is our neighborhood. It is home to families — people who don’t throw their garbage out their car windows and full bags of household trash and McDonald’s wrappers and cups onto other people’s properties. We go out daily and pick up the trash of those who drive through our neighborhood. We do not need a project of workers’ cottages here. We do not want it, no thanks.
Let me spell out just a few reasons why this is such a bad idea. Number one: traffic — we already have a speeding problem on Middle Highway. We get all the cut-through traffic from Hand’s Creek as it is. And the apartments. Cars and trucks racing by, oblivious to children playing and people enjoying solace in their yards. Workers’ cottages will only add to this problem.
Number two: children — most important is their safety. We live in a family neighborhood. You don’t put 57 workers’ units in a family neighborhood. Children ride their bikes, they walk home off the school bus, mothers stroll their babies, people run and walk in the morning. Workers’ cottages in this environment are only buying trouble.
Number three: environment — leveling the forest or woods is not smart. We need to allow a bit of nature to remain unspoiled. We need the trees to soak up the gas fumes. There are oaks and blueberries all over the 8.5-acre woods — and quail. The waste treatment being proposed for these workers’ cottages area is not good for the environment. Leave the woods alone. Build your cottages elsewhere.
Number four: location — it is all wrong for this project. The 8.5-acre woods that Mr. Webb wants to destroy abuts the lovely Whitney house and property and Regina’s farm stand and flower gardens. Enough said.
The entrance to the workers’ units will be on Middle Highway and the service entrance on Oakview. So, big trucks will be going in and out, and the neighborhood cannot bear more traffic here with the existing feeder traffic mentioned above. This workers’ housing project has disaster written all over it.
This neighborhood is known as Freetown, so named by the Native Americans who lived here many moons ago. We aim to honor them by strongly opposing this Webb work-force housing project on Oakview Highway and Middle Highway. We will be listing a meeting soon in The Star and all over town. Look for it.
We are the Freetown Neighborhood Association. Join us in fighting this proposed scar on our neighborhood. Perhaps Mr. Webb can put the workers’ housing project in his neighborhood. He has woods behind his house. We do not want it here. Please write to: Planning Board, Town of East Hampton, 300 Pantigo Place Suite 103, East Hampton, 11937
Go see the Webb preliminary site plan at 300 Pantigo Place, across from the Healthcare Center. It is for public viewing. The blueprint of the proposed site will make you cringe. One person called it “ . . . a very intense cluttered development.” Now doesn’t that sound like something we need? Fight this ruination of our woods and neighborhood. Save the forest. Thanks for the space.
Sincerely,
NANCI E. LAGARENNE
Crash Course
Montauk
May 4, 2008
Dear David,
As the McGintee mess unravels — and there is surely more to come — it becomes increasingly obvious that what our town needs is a professional town manager, full-time and unaffiliated with any political party. Then, members of the town board, instead of taking a crash course in accounting and reading the fine print in contracts, can focus on the policy issues that so sorely need their attention.
Sincerely,
RICHARD KAHN
North Bar Eight
Amagansett
May 5, 2008
Dear Editor:
Free the North Bar eight! Montauk point is a place for all, whether surfers, walkers, or fishermen.
“This land is our land, this land is your land. . . .”
Free the North Bar eight! We all need to enjoy the sea
Together. Seaweed, waves, light, and fish agree, too.
Aloha,
JEREMY GROSVENOR
Ode to Mother
I think back to a time long ago
My mother to me was not friend but foe
My only wish was to reach perfection
But my hopeless plight was met with rejection
After 40 years of proving my worth
A brand-new confidence in me gave birth
Now I could share my stories of success
So to mother I went with great happiness
It was too late to make her understand
I looked into her eyes and held her hand
I knew that her love was always there
But my stubborn pride kept me unaware
DORIS CHARNEY
Treason
East Hampton
May 3, 2008
Dear Editor:
While the media goes bats over Reverend Wright, the Supreme Court quietly supports the constitutionality of the Indiana voting law that requires a photo ID in order to vote. By a 6-to-3 decision the court ruled that while voter fraud by individuals has not been identified as a problem, the ID requirement is not an undue burden on potential voters.
In a display of pompous, duplicitous, racist demagoguery, the conservative court shows that it is little more than a tool for the right wing of the Republican Party. The sanctimonious scum that inhabit the higher levels of our government and court system have no compunction about disenfranchising millions of people who would otherwise be allowed to vote.
Electoral fraud is serious doo-doo, but the photo ID law has nothing to do with electoral fraud. Electoral fraud has always been the provenance of our elected officials and their respective parties. Whether it is Ohio in 2006, Florida in 2000, or Illinois in 1960, the fraudulent parties were clearly exposed, identified, and ignored.
The message was always, if you can get away with it, it’s okay. The only real issue of electoral fraud in our country is that less than half the possible voters actually vote and no one is ever elected with a majority of the vote.
The constitutionality of the photo ID law is hard to fathom for strict constructionists. They are supposedly there to interpret the law, not to amend and expand it. Their mandate is to guarantee that every citizen has the right to vote without conditions. The founders never imagined that photo IDs would be necessary to exercise one’s right to vote.
The Indiana law is aimed specifically at blacks but also the poor and the elderly. Acceptable photo IDs are a driver’s license and a passport. Less than 40 percent of Americans have passports and millions don’t have driver’s licenses. In 1950, for example, few women had driver’s licenses and even fewer had passports. Only women who had original birth certificates would have been able to vote. By the Supreme Court standard that would have been acceptable. (But then the founders didn’t think about women voting in the first place.)
Indiana’s real issue is about disenfranchising black voters. Not one Democrat voted for the law because Indiana’s black voters traditionally vote Democratic. A clean split along party lines. Amazing concern from the Republican Party that gave us Florida, Ohio, and 9/11.
But the effect of this law on the elderly and the disabled will be catastrophic. A small sample from our East Hampton Seniors Project shows less than 20 percent with driver’s licenses and virtually no one with a passport. Tens of millions of seniors and millions of disabled people would be deprived of their right to vote if this law were enacted on a national level. The law could eventually disenfranchise as much as 33 percent of all eligible voters.
As long as people don’t vote, our politicians are able to screw us with impunity. They try to impose photo IDs and language requirements and then they tamper with the voting machines. They are conscious of what they’re doing and determined to maintain their control over our country.
The Supreme Court’s mandate was to protect us from the other pieces of our government. Instead it has abdicated its responsibility and is little more than a tool to maintain order and keep the powerful in power. The court, like the legislative and executive branches of our government, has violated its constitutional mandates and is guilty of criminal malfeasance and treason.
In a real democracy they would be tried and executed. Maybe we are still in our democratic infancy and haven’t quite matured to the point of knowing what a true democracy looks like.
NEIL HAUSIG
This Marionette
East Hampton
May 1, 2008
Dear David,
Justice Antonin Scalia’s interview on “60 Minutes” the other day was enough to scare the bejabbers out of me as I conjured the dangers of McCain being elected and appointing one or two Supreme Court judges. We watched this self-deluded, Napoleonic, brilliantly demonic little guy sounding logical and believable while he blatantly told us that we are all idiots and only he, in his self-righteous arrogance, is right about everything.
He says we should “forget about” Bush v. Gore! He unceremoniously stated that he and his right-wing ideologue brethren on the court were right in overturning or ignoring all precedent and their sacrosanct constitution, to choose a president for us. It matters not that every legal and historical scholar in the country has and will say that what they did was wrong. It matters not that at least two of those judges who voted with the majority now openly and profoundly regret their votes. That vote led directly to the Iraq war and its horrendous consequences. It was right, he says, and he is Scalia.
Of course states’ rights, guaranteed in the Constitution, were secondary and subordinated to the political expediency used by the inbred, cloistered, narrow-minded, mostly Republican court when they scuttled the very document they pride themselves in strictly construing. The “strict construction” and “conservative justice” that we hear so much about was trashed and was trampled on, and that unprecedented case of first impression gave George W. Bush, a monumental incompetent, the presidency.
After all, it was necessary for Bush to become president so that he could appoint one or two other conservative, monolithic justices (which he did) that they needed to help them overturn Roe v. Wade, limit corporate lawsuits, eliminate voting rights cases, narrow criminal rights, keep the death penalty, stop employment and product-liability lawsuits, permit torture, allow an unheard-of expansion of executive power, fail to enforce legislation, and on and on. And this man, Scalia, tried to portray himself as a “regular” kid growing up in Queens.
Yeah, he almost convinced me that he actually played with the other kids on the block. What nonsense. He was an only child, a spoiled, brilliant bookworm, who was force-fed, as my ex-Catholic son-in-law says, doctrinaire dogma by his Catholic school teachers and elevated to saintly status by his parents.
I know this much, he sure wouldn’t have been a kid I would have picked for my side in a punchball game — too short and bossy!
Anyway, this marionette of a reactionary has surely altered the lives of millions of people in this country with his warped and skewed view of life in general. And now he merrily joins in decisions that will eliminate the riffraff, the poor, the uneducated, those less-doctrinaire imbued peons who don’t attend church-run schools from the protection of the federal courts.
So go ahead, you folks who want to vote for John McCain do it and perpetuate George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s corporate slanted views of the world. Give them the appointment of another one or two of these “strict constructionists,” who will surely “construe” only when it benefits the Carlyle Group and the multinational corporations that hold them in sway.
As I said before, if, by some middle fickle finger of fate, John McCain is elected, I’m joining Alec Baldwin and checking out real estate values in Canada and other places.
(But, of course, I’ll keep East Hampton in my playbook.)
RICHARD HIGER
Thanks, Hillary
East Hampton
May 5, 2008
To the Editor,
I just read the following in an A.P. news story on the Web today:
“Despite trailing Clinton, Obama was seen as more popular, with 58 percent of respondents giving him a favorable rating compared with Clinton’s 53 percent. Forty-four percent said they would vote Democratic if their choice of candidate lost the nomination, while 38 percent said they would vote for Republican John McCain.”
Thirty-eight percent of Democrats would vote for McCain if “their” candidate loses the primary! I don’t put much faith in any poll, and a lot can happen between now and November, but if this is even half true, that 38 percent of a pretty much evenly-split Democratic Party would vote for McCain if their candidate loses the primary, then it simply doesn’t matter who wins the primary: John McCain will be our next president.
Thanks, Hillary.
Fred Kolo
Spiritual Death
Sag Harbor
May 1, 2008
To the Editor,
A letter written to our children. “What have we done for the least of our brothers and sisters, namely, the children?” Those among us who have no vote or hope. We rarely hear the voice of the poor and the children, who could teach us so much about ourselves.
Over 100 million of our children are not provided with health care. Each year 40,000 die before their first birthday, according to Marion Wright Edelman, the president of the Children’s Defense Fund. One in every four in our nation grows up in inhuman poverty. Often, these children cannot afford a decent education, the reason why our illiteracy rate is so high. We have accumulated a $5 trillion debt on our children’s credit cards. Worse yet, we have left our children the legacy of perpetual war, a hell of a way to start out a new life. God bless them, too young to die.
“Any nation that spends more on weapons than social uplift is headed toward spiritual death.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Sometimes we forget the moral and spiritual cost of war. Have our souls been damaged, have our consciences been tweaked?
When our children grow up, we send them to fight private corporate wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and now Iraq. Cheney’s Halliburton, K.B.R., and other private contractors are always on the scene in each of these wars for profit, with corruption close behind. The ugly facts of war, money the bottom line.
In summary, I leave you with another very appropriate quote from one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson: “The Constitution should be rewritten in every generation to avoid having society and its children remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
Forgive us,
LARRY DARCEY
Creatures of Comfort
East Hampton
May 5, 2008
To the Editor:
If I were to ask you to describe the most comfortable event you ever attended, what would it be? Certainly it would not be a home on a ranch (if you are a city person). The life out west on a ranch is one of freedom for the horses, much different from East Coast life. There are some famous horses out in Hollywood, like Tony the horse of Tom Mix, the great cowboy star.
I remember being out west at a rodeo, when, in the midst of the proceedings, the star horse could not restrain himself in the middle of the field, to the laughter of the audience but to the displeasure of its owner. There are some famous cowboys and, of course, their famous horses. In addition to Tom Mix, there is Buck Jones, the owner of Seabiscuit, and, of course, his horse.
Now why the title, “Creatures of Comfort?” If you watched the Kentucky Derby, you know that horses are creatures of comfort and great intelligence.
Unfortunately, man doesn’t have the same consideration for intelligence as these wonderful animals, as we have seen in recent years. Perhaps we might have the great racehorses give a lesson to the current holders of the reins in Washington.
Vivan los intelligent animals!
HOWARD RICHARD
Exercise Choices
Montauk
May 5, 2008
To the Editor:
In defense of hunting, Donald Lehman describes the harshness of the natural world, a world in which most forms of wildlife “meet a premature death” (Letters, April 10). “Mankind,” he says, “fits into the scheme of things as apex predators, whether you wish to acknowledge this or not.”
Modern humans, however, can exercise choices. We can live healthy lives without eating the flesh of other species, and we do not have to kill for sport. Moreover, our choices affect nature in significant ways. Although few animals live out their life spans in natural conditions, human hunting shortens their life expectancies considerably more.
The record of modern human conduct toward other species is shameful. We are rapidly depleting the oceans of fish, we are causing the extinction of countless land species, and we are raising animals for meat in incredibly cruel factory farms. Sport hunting adds to animals’ suffering, terror, and death.
The time has come for us to treat our fellow beings in a new way. We need to recognize that each animal, like us, is an individual who deserves our full respect.
Mr. Lehman emphasizes the good that pro-hunting groups do for the environment. He points out that organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, as well as sporting goods’ taxes and stamps, have contributed large amounts of money to environmental conservation. But we need to step up our efforts to protect the natural environment and to stop killing animals in the process.
BILL CRAIN
Builds Character
Southold
April 29, 2008
Dear Editor,
The tennis season is upon us again. When I am on the court, I feel on top of the world. But when that bright sun blares in my eye when I want to serve, I have a problem. I solve the problem by throwing up the ball to serve, closing my eye and timing the ball to come down. Sometimes it’s four seconds and I’m not blinded by the sun. Tennis is great. You can play way up into your 80s and it builds character.
Thanks,
ANITA FAGAN