The Herald Statesman from Yonkers, New York • 13

Time runs out when tHiere-s still so much to-do By M.S. Owens Staff Wrilw On i muggy, sticky-green day, I leaned that a childhood friend had died. He whs 37. I For year he lived without kidneys and finally, pis body gave up, exhuasted. We new up on the same lonely country Stood in Rockland County.

He lived in a big house under a cool bower of old maples, When he called for me he was wearing a bathing suit and had his towel around his neck. His black hair was dripping sweat and he was pale, very pate. The blacktop shimmered and stuck to our bare feet We were absolutely disobeying our mothers by walking barefoot. We talked, probably like this: Are you, still. mad at your sister?" He and his younger sister were always going at it He probably didnt answer me, but after a white we sat by the edge of the road in the shade, because ft was a very long, walk, and he asked if my.

school still had bomb if he were the president, about the things he thought were about what people should do to solve their problems. I had never-met a kid who was that-serious. So I talked about what I would do, We had a debate, two kids walking down a country road in New City, N.Y., on a hot, hot summer's day, debating the problems of the world, The Russians never dropped the bomb on us. The problems of the world changed. He went to law school, anf ran for public office and won.

He ted what looked like a normal life. Except sometimes he wouldn't talk, keeping his lips pressed together to keep in the sound of the pain. He involved himself in hot, taxing, political issues. He had a law practice. He ted a useful life until his body couldn't fight anymore.

Talk about unfair. He started out penalized in life, then was given the chance to start to do the things he believed needed to be done, then he dies. I wonder, if7 JotuT Allison ever, knew that all the girls who lived oil our road Pam, Kathy, Gerry, Carol and I thought he was the best-looking boy we knew. A slice Nobody over Mid Hfo wasfair No, I told him, and asked if he really thought the Russians would drop a bomb on us. He was a serious boy, answering by weighing the pros and cons of their position in the We walked some more in the heat and base talking about the problems of the world.

He talked about what he would do lived on the peak of the road, big one tree and very hot I can remember a day, when we were both about 11 very much like this day, when we walked to a pool where you could pay to swim. Ann Landers i B3 Comics B4- YK Local scene B2 IB Section Movie clock MaaMSMtassssosassssaaVaVV B3 Television aaasaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasasa B5 Gannett Westchester NewspapersHuesday, June 28, 1983 tj Somers Confederates' no tale By Carmai Camion MarcNonnl flj-as UUa sun wnwr The Impact of the Civil War on a Somers family buffeted by the. conflicting demands of family national allegiance are told in a booklet being published by the Somers Historical Society. Somers James Wright and His Nephews, was written by George L. Mahoney, assistant professor of history at Manhattan College.

It was designed and illustrated' by Charles. -H. Wagner a longtime Somers resident. Mahoney said: Some members of the Wright family may have marched to a Confederate drummer, but they belong to the history of Somers as they belong to the history of. America." Letters and documents found In a granary shed in Somers in Au Tv 3 gust, 1977 provide the basis for the booklet It tells the story uf James Wright of Somers, who had i The Wright-Reis Homestead in Somers as it appeared about 1900 'Alice features stars galore Its open season on personalities on the set of Alice in Wonderland.

Colleen Dewhurst appears as the Red Queen in Channel 13s upcoming production of Lewis Carrolls satire, which was filming recently in New York. The TV version of the Broadway flop stars Kate Burton, and co-stars Richard Burton, Eve Arden, Kay Ballard, Colleen Dewhurst, Maureen Stapleton, DoaalfVCbnaor, Andre Gregory, Austin Pendleton, Zelko Ivanek, James Coco, Andre deShields, Alan Weeks and Frits Weaver. Eva Le Gallieane, who produced the Broadway show that folded after a short run, was invited to re-create her role as the. White Queen, but declined. According to an Apple in- cider, Ms.

Dewhurst is somewhat cynical about -the production. I think it will probably go in as a little baby, classic. Every teacher across the country will tape it, the actors will get no more pay, and it will be shown all over the place." One of the most "7 pleasing aspects of playing the title role in Alice" for Kate Burton is the fact that she gets to speak in her native decent. Ms. Burton, the talented offspring of Richard Burton who possesses one of the worlds great British accents, was actually reared in New York and speaks pure American.

Another "Alice" star, James Coco spent the past week limping around the set on a cane, the result of a leg injury sustained during a performance of You Cant Take It With You." For his role as "King of Hearts, trouper Coco doffs the cane and bites the bullet. It hurts like the devil, he says, but the show must go on. CABLE MOVIE NOTESi In its continuing effort to supply its audience with even more movies, HBO starts shooting To Catch A King July 4 in Lisbon. The film stars Teri Garr, who was nominated for an Oscar this year as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Tootsie blit lost to Jessica Lange for the same film. Ms.

Garr will share the lead with Robert Wagner. The film, a WWII espionage drama, concerns a plot to kidnap the Duke of Windsor. HBO also has Kirk Douglas and James Coburn on board for Draw, a comedy Western that culminates in a shoot-out with surprising results. OLD HOME WEEK! Mickey Rooney had just finished a matinee performance of Sugar Babies when he shouted "Diggie, are you there? to a small group high in the darkened balcony pf the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Im here, came the reply as Rooney was reunited Thursday with his closest relative, Elisabeth Anderson, a cousin he had not seen -for 37 years.

Ours is a loving family that isnt very close," said Mickey Rooney the 62-year-old Rooney, who added that his acting career leaves little time for family reunions. Mrs. Anderson, 77, of Twin Falls, Idaho, wad in Athens, Georgia to attend her granddaughters high school graduation, and decided to catch Rooney's musical. Rooney has called her Diggie since they were children. This was a delightful surprise, he said before taking the group out to dinner.

NO MORE TEARS: American mexzo- soprano Shirley Verrett made a triumphant return to the prestigious La Scala opera house, which she left in tears to the South in the 1820s but maintained dose contact with his -relatives in the North. Their correspondence revealed how the Somers family became involved with and survived the strains of the Civil War. Jn the preface, Mahoney quoted Charles E. Culver, Somers historian in 1884: At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1881, the people of the town were aroused to a degree of enthusiasm rarely witnessed even during the exciting times of those days ana. Somers was early at the front both with commissions and in the The young men who enlisted from the town' were the flower of its manhood.

They were the representatives of its leading families and in their toilsome marches and battle-marked campaigns they were nobly sustained by their townsmen at home -Mahoney then wrote: Culver was not incorrect. Many, did rally 'round the flag. Support, was given to the Paten- forces and Somers suffered casualties, but not all to the same flag and for the same forces. The fierce war of secession, as Culver termed It, divided not only the nation but families and individuals as well. It created problems of choice and mixed loyalties.

This we know. That the division was not always neat is less well known. In' South Carolina and Alabama, Janies Wright had begun a wav of life that was to make him one of the in the Southern economic system. By 1880,. he had become a planter-banker-mercantile leader.

'Five nephews, sons of his brother Charles, went South to help their unde before, during and after the Civil War. Two served on the Confederate side. In the summer of 1881, James Wright wrote to Charles in Somers: We shall make no attack on Washington, or in any place out of the. Confederate States unless the Northern Government attacks us. There is Please see MOMERS on back page of this section From left, historian Mrs.

Charles Wagner, Florence Oliver and Elizabeth Macaulay first examined the James Wright letters in 1977 About Town By Carmel CamiM Marchionni mural at bank NBW division of Lincoln First Bank has uncovered an asset it can't figure out In the midst of redecorating the -branch known as the People's Office, workers removed a wall, above a. safe and found a wall painting, 30 by 80 feet. But the artist never signed it and the bank officials have no idea who painted it It depicts a fanciful vision of the settlement of White Plains, with the seal of Westchester County at the top, and a map of the White Plains area, including Kensico Dam, in the back- ground. Two Greek goddesses are shown, one seated to the side with a helmet at her feet and the other standing next to an American flag. Another flag has the words Liberty or Death, inscribed on it The building, at 31 Mamaroneck Ave White Plains, was probably built in 1923 or 1924 to house People's National Bank, which merged in the 1950s with the National Bank of Westchester.

That became part of Lincoln First Bank In 1979. Henry I. Ratet of White Plains, an interior designer, is in charge of the renovations. Edwin Michaelian, formercounty executive and longtime resident of the area, suggested that the painter might have been Edmund Ward of White Jazz music from Latin to traditional Orleans' styles will be. heard at the Hadsoa River Museum, 511 Warburton Ave Yonkers, as partof itsJ'Hot Sounds Cool Nights jazz series.

The series opens with the Salsa jazz of Maaay Oquendo's Libre on Thursday, July 7, at 8 p.m. The band's name, which translated means free, is also -their musical philosophy: they never use a strict formula as other Salsa bands The series continues Thursday. July 21, with tenor saxophonist David Mar-ray and his quartet followed by a rpre opportunity to see Brazilian percussion jazz Thursday, Aug. 4, when Nana Visa-coaectef takes to the courtyard step for lively South American music. Joining Vasconceloa that' evening will be street dancers from the-New York scene Magnificent Force, Breaking and Electric Boogie with DJ.

Daryl C. of the Crash Crew jumping about in their street dancing performances. Bowling Green Joha" Cephas and Phil Wiggins, a guitar and harmoncia duo, will appear Aug. 18. and closing the summer series will be the.

do-wop group Fourteen Karat Soal on Thursday, Sept. 1. Hot Sounds Cool made possible in part by. a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, will be held in the museum courtyard. Admission is 12: free for museum members.

All concerts begin at 8 p.m. and in case of rain, the Pleaao see TOWN I on page B2 four years ago. Her performance last weekreceived rousing applause from the audience and enthusiastic headlines in the Italian mass. Ms. Verrett's last La Scala engagement was maned by boos from the audience and SMtey Verrett she completed the opera in tears, saying she never wanted to perform again in the Milan theater.

FREEDOM OF THE FREES! The boys and girls on the bus staged some California hHinks of their own during a recent Hollywood press tour. Although there were no wster pistol fights and balloon tosses as in years past, reporters cut loose with wild dancing and sing-( pinngx- For instance, on one side of a hotel hospitality suite, reporters grilled top CBS executive Gene Jankowski, white across the room others clinked glasses with actor BUI Devane. In the middle, guardians of the Fourth Estate broke out with a rousing chorus of The Lion Sleeps Tonight. All In a days work. Jane Trail Ism and Um Fay Kaplan Plains.

Ward, who also has been around awhile, describes himself: I was born 400 years after. Columbus sailed the 1 mMtimml oetlTrr Bmrl on back page oHMs section Painting uncovered bn wall of an NBW branch in White Plaine.