Letters

Southampton Village has been a part of me since I first came here as a baby in 1956. When I think of the village, certain images immediately come to mind: the physical beauty of the ocean and dunes; our beautiful beaches, like Coopers, Cryder and Halsey Neck; and our lovely Lake Agawam and Old Town Pond, which we are now working so hard to protect and restore.

In addition to these places, Southampton is its people, its institutions and, of course, its iconic village businesses.

Some — like Hildreth’s, Herrick Hardware, Corwin’s, and Herbert and Rist — have been here for more than a hundred years. As a kid, I would get an ice cream at Sip’n Soda and put air in my bike tires at Enstein’s. Others, like Golden Pear, Topiaire, Urban Renaissance and Gubbins, started about the same time Polly and I purchased Lillywhite’s more than 20 years ago, renamed it Stevenson’s Toys, and began trying to make memories for future generations of Southampton kids.

One of the problems of having lived here more than 65 years is that my memory is not as good as it once was, so to those businesses I’ve failed to mention that deserve to be on the list, please forgive me.

It’s a sad day when we lose one of these legacy businesses. I recently learned that Paul and Laurie DeRobertis have sold Paul’s Italian Restaurant. The restaurant will continue, but not with them.

With that, a significant chapter in the village is closing. Paul, Laurie and their family have been part of the fabric of this community, supporting Little League teams, the Timothy Hill Ranch, providing food to the needy and first responders — in short, doing those things behind the scenes that make our village such a special place.

Along with Paul’s, all of our local businesses add back so much to our community by donating to a multitude of local causes and by adding vibrancy to our lives with their services. Please support them.

I want to thank Paul, Laurie and their children for all they have done. They celebrated their 50th year in business just a few months ago. A very rough back-of-the-envelope calculation: If they made 100 pizzas a day, five days a week, for 50 years (which is probably a low estimate), that would be over 1.2 million pizzas. That’s a lot of dough!

Paul and Laurie, enjoy your retirement — we will miss seeing you behind the counter but hope to bump into you someplace in the village having fun.

Roy Stevenson

Southampton