Eighty Years In Sag Harbor: Linda Matles Schiavoni

“Home is the nicest word there is.”

— Laura Ingalls Wilder

What force holds us here? The golden light? The salty air? Familiar faces? Shadowing the steps of our ancestors?

I don’t believe I have ever experienced a place that holds folks in with such dynamic gravitational force as Sag Harbor. But, then again, I am one of those folks.

Linda Matles was born in Sag Harbor 80 years ago and has called it home all of her life. Being raised in the Matles house on Madison Street with her two brothers and two sisters, Linda shares memories of a fledgling Sag Harbor.

Linda’s father and mother, Max and Mary Matles, both born in 1900, moved here from Brooklyn in 1925 when they were first married. “My father came here because his brother had a small market on Washington Street that sold fruit and vegetables to the people who worked in Bulova. He wanted my father to watch over the market while he was away,” she said. “As chance would have it, his brother never came back.

“Once the shop closed, my father went into the wholesale produce business. He would get up at four o’clock in the morning and drive his big red truck to East Quogue to pick up the produce that came in from New York City. Then he would deliver it from Southampton to Montauk.”

Having grown up with all of that fresh produce, to this day, with the exception of beets and corn, Linda will never buy canned or frozen vegetables, only fresh.

Growing up in Sag Harbor, Linda remembers the freedom of living in a safe place.

“We could come and go as we please. We didn’t have play dates, our parents didn’t have to pick us up or drop us off anywhere. We would just all walk to the park and to the beach.

“I remember block parties, and Nick Proferes and I winning a Zenith transistor radio when we sold the most poppies. Life was easy then. Now, kids can’t even stay at their bus stop alone.

“We walked to school every day and came home for lunch every day. When we went to the ocean, you were maybe one of five cars there. You didn’t need a sticker, and if there were people there, you probably knew them.”

At peace in her cheerful, cozy home, Linda is literally surrounded by photographs of the family and friends she loves: her daughter Robin with her son Christian, and her son Gregg, her daughter-in-law Kristen, and their sons Cooper and Tucker.

Interspersed with the family photo montage, you see photos of Linda’s parents, Max and Mary, a young Linda in kindergarten, as well as Linda’s late husband, Paul Schiavoni.

“Paul used to walk home from school every day with my sister Judy and I.” After Linda finished college, she dated Paul, and soon they were married.

“Paul was a Navy veteran and later worked as the youngest postmaster ever in Sag Harbor. One day, he came home and said he quit. He just didn’t want to put a jacket and tie on every day. He had had it. He said he was going to buy a station wagon and start his own painting business — and that’s what he did. His mother taught him how to wallpaper.”

Linda and Paul were married more than 50 years.

Linda was born and raised in a practicing Jewish family, and Paul was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family. Both of their families objected to this marriage, which would have been out of their faith tradition.

“There was a lot of local chatter,” remembered Linda. “Not bad chatter. But once they knew we were getting married, everything was fine.

“Neither of us asked the other to convert. I guess we knew we wouldn’t. With our kids, we celebrated every Christian and Jewish holiday. I never had a Christmas tree until I was married. Many people in Sag Harbor never knew what a bagel was when I was growing up here. We had to drive to Lynbrook to buy bagels, and my kids all love matzoh ball soup.”

Linda and Paul raised their children to honor and respect the holidays and traditions they both held dear. Linda remarked that marrying and raising their children in an interfaith family was “no problem whatsoever, as long as they believed in something.”

“I didn’t care where or how they prayed, as long as they were good and kind people. But I think you have to believe in something,” said Linda. “How did we get here? How about trees? Or watching over a crib, watching a baby grow, their eyes, their fingernails! How can you not believe in something?”

Linda spent many years working for local doctors. “Dr. Semlear Sr. worked out of his home on Main Street. He was one of the best and kindest bosses I’ve ever had. I loved meeting all of the patients — that’s how I got to know so many people in Sag Harbor.” She also worked for his son, Dr. Robert Semlear Jr., along with a number of other local doctors.

There are many things that Linda loves — they include reading, trips to the library, crossword puzzles, lunch with friends, dominoes, going to the beach, and making sure she gets 10,000 steps in a day. But her absolute favorite thing to do is to watch her grandsons play sports: “I try never to miss a home game.”

“I love it here, living near the water. I like walking downtown and knowing people. I like the way everybody looks out for one another. People who come from big communities may not understand that. If you needed something, someone would be there for you.”

Full of love for life, for family, for community, Linda confesses, “I have a great life — sometimes I feel as if I am still 16 years old.”

Proudly wearing a necklace she had made from one of her mother’s brooches, dressed and ready for lunch out with friends, surrounded by photos of her beautiful family, there is this bright flash of awareness that it is not the castle, nor the jewels, nor all the money in the world that makes a person happy. It is just a simple love of life and the warmth of HOME.