- Hi, I'm East Greenwich's Town Manager, Andy Nota.

- And I'm Steve Lombardi, Executive Director of the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce.

We hope you enjoy this presentation of Our Town.

- [Narrator] Our town East Greenwich is made possible by the following premier sponsor.

(upbeat guitar music) - Dave's marketplace is a proud supporter of Rhode Island PBS.

- And the following benefactor sponsors.

The East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, helping free enterprise by connecting businesses, professional leaders, government, and community, is proud to sponsor Our Town, East Greenwich.

And Rasa, flavors of India in the heart of East Greenwich on Main Street proudly supports Rhode Island PBS and Our Town, East Greenwich.

RasaRestaurantRI.com.

- Rhode Island PBS presents Our Town.

The program where we learn about the people, places, history, and happenings of town around the Ocean State through the eyes of those who live there.

Watch now as they show us everything that makes their community a great hometown.

Located along the Western side of coastal Rhode Island, East Greenwich is a thriving community known for its historic homes and stunning waterfront of landscapes.

The town of East Greenwich was incorporated in 1677, predating the declaration of independence by almost a century.

Did you know East Greenwich is the site of the birthplace of the U.S. Navy?

Over the next hour, our volunteer filmmakers tell stories of East Greenwich's past and present.

These are their stories, this is Our Town, East Greenwich.

(upbeat music) - My husband and I live in the house that has been in my family for over a century.

We were rummaging, I guess he was, a couple years ago up in the attic.

And he said, "what is this?"

These materials, there was a newspaper with my grandfather's picture on the cover.

There were...

These whole sheet of publications, from the committee for public information straight out of the White House.

All this information clearly related to World War I.

There was a little slide that would be in the movie theater that would have his name.

"Presenting James W. Tingley, who will speak to you on behalf of the committee for public information and deliver a four-minute message."

We keep finding things out about him.

And how he really...

He came from Canada.

He was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

And he came from humble means.

And he had a grammar school education.

And he was a self-made man.

He self-educated.

He was an entrepreneur at the time of the 4 Minute Men.

Named for the approximate four minutes it took to change the reels of the silent films in the movie houses.

The 4 Minute Men volunteers all, delivered patriotic appeals on a variety of initiatives to their captive audiences.

Speeches were also given at town meetings, restaurants, fraternal gatherings, churches, and other locations.

Over the course of about 18 months, timely topics ranged from purchasing liberty bonds in four issues, registering for the draft, rationing food and fuel, supporting the Red Cross and more.

In addition to bolstering patriotism and solidarity.

Early in 1919, the pendulum put out a request for those who had served as Four Minute Men to publish one of their speeches or reflect on their experience.

My grandfather, however, penned a very heartfelt essay titled "The Meaning of America."

- [Narrator] America is the land of unlimited advantages.

America is the land of the equal chance.

America is another word for opportunity.

I cannot, in the short time allotted to me, tell you one half of all that America means.

But we'll sum it up by saying that America, figuratively and literally speaking, is the light that shines, and burns, and glows ever brightly, lighting up the paths upon which men's feet can tread onward and upward toward the goal of their highest and loftiness and Nobles ambitions.

A land wherein whose borders you will find happiness, contentment, and prosperity, liberty, freedom, and justice for all mankind.

James W. Taylor.

(upbeat guitar music) - The six generations of Frys in this Greenwich, oh, they were six.

Start with Winsor, Solomon, and then Sarah, she was one of my grandmother, Sarah, and then Warrenton.

And then I'm skipping one.

Yes, and then Sapphire which was my father's mother, and then my father.

And it was because my father talked about East Greenwich all the time.

I learned about Winsor Fry, in fact, my father never knew anything about Windsor or Solomon, which was really sad that he didn't know.

We went to the library and I looked it up and that's where we connected Winsor Fry to the family.

And then from then we started researching, and then of course we got in touch with Bruce McGonnigal.

And of course he got a little interested 'cause it was a very interesting story.

He was born in East Greenwich, he fought in 10 battles in the revolutionary war.

He only came out as a private, if he was a different color, he may have been higher than that, and had no tombstone.

So I think that if I would mostly thank him for being the man that he was, and he walked 200 miles home from New York.

It was like a lot of black men enlisted in the service because they thought it would make things better.

My husband was a disabled veteran and I had two sons at four and I had three brothers at four.

I had uncles and cousins and they all went in thinking that they came out, it would be better for black people.

And I think that's why all of them went into fight.

They loved the country, that's why they fought.

And he stayed in there hoping that things would be better.

But to find out that he came out and ended up as a popper.

He did get a pension, but that was all.

And so it's kind of bittersweet for me.

When I found out all of the battles that he had been in and what he had gone through and he died of popper.

And I used to sit in the beginning and just cry.

And that's when I decided to get this tombstone for him.

George Washington, pardoned him when he had stole some things, meat, rum, like I told Bruce, I said, they weren't valuable things.

The rum probably was because he was a hard and sold and he needed something.

And then of course he stole beef and candles.

And then he broke into the windmill to get corn meal.

But the tickle part of it was that his wife was pregnant with the first child.

And he was stationed near Newport, so he was close to home at that time.

So that's when he broke in, and so he was supposed to be executed.

But Christopher Green, his commanding officer went to George Washington 'cause they were great friends.

It talked about them being friends down in East Greenwich.

George Washington visiting there and they being friends.

So he went to him and he spoke for Winsor, and George Washington changed his mind.

But otherwise, there would've been no Winsor Fry.

Just for that, stealing those things.

He was married to Piqua India, she was Piqua.

Yes, Lucy Emedal, it shows you how much they talk about women.

Women have always been strong one in back of any man.

I'm sure Windsor belong to his master.

I was think that, that was his father because they always described him as being mustard colored Milato, he wasn't a straight African man.

So he had to be mixed with something.

And since Thomas Fry was so important for his son, he willed him to his son and we can see is that with something there.

So I have British in me and I have native American in me.

I have Italian, my father's half Italian.

So I'm a (indistinct) boy.

I just came back to East Greenwich lately when we became members of the DAR.

At first, I didn't want to, because the daughters of the American revolutionary as you know, would not let Mary Anderson sing in their hall.

And I still don't see a whole lot of African American or native American people in.

But my sister said she wanted to join.

And after I thought about it, I said just because of Winsor Fry and what he did, I'm entitled to join.

Like anybody else who's people fought in the revolution war.

So I changed my mind and I joined, 'cause I'd like to leave something for my great grand...

I'm the fifth generation, I have great, great grandchildren.

So I said, and I need to leave them some...

I've talked to them about different things and try to lift them up and tell 'em that they should have that resilience that Winsor Fry had.

(upbeat music) - I did live through the Tercentenary, I was a couple years out of college.

And again, it was just a gathering and a browsing the community and getting everybody excited about this.

And all the...

I like to think it was this hybrid of the circus comes to town and how "River City" was in The Music Man.

People were walking out on summer nights and there was always something to do and some fun to have and a purpose.

- Everybody was happy.

Everybody was smiling, and shaking hands, and growing beards, and weaving things on the courthouse lawn and all that kind of thing.

It was just a great time for two weeks.

And we had a cadre of Keystone Kops running around arresting beards people.

Without beards people were being locked into stocks on the courthouse line one so that they...

If they didn't have a beard or if they broke some stupid law, it was just a fun time.

And you almost finally get caught doing something bad so that you could be in the middle of the scene.

And it was just too much of a good time that we wanted it to last forever.

- Each night, there was something going on.

The July 18th went through the 31st.

So we had Heritage Nights.

They highlighted the Italian heritage, the Scandinavians, there was a big square dance.

There was Beaver Brown Band played, Still Young After 300 Years, I guess, was the title of their concert.

So there was always activity going on there.

In addition to the events themselves, they also published, there was a "Tercentenary Cook Book."

There was a commemorate coin.

There was a Tercentenary quilt.

- Tercentenary pageant.

"On A Hill" on Greenwich Cove, I think is what it was called.

And I had the privilege of being one of the six narrators.

We were anonymous voices that were perched at a long table, under a shed up against the bleachers.

And we could see the pageant going on in the field in front of us.

And it appeared that the people in the pageant were speaking, but actually it was just us.

The pageant ran from July 25th through the 30th, six nights.

And it portrayed the history of what is now the town of East Greenwich.

(band music) - I was dressed to look like William North (indistinct) who was the founding editor and the owner of "The Pendulum" at the time, 1854.

So I was playing that character in the parade.

We had a float to see all these people, because both sides of the road, all the way from Frenchtown, where we started all the way up to Main Street, East Greenwich.

The people were attentive all the way, sitting on lawn chairs, sitting in baby carriage, sitting on boxes, standing, any way they could get a look at what was passing by.

Of course we were all happy and we were waving everybody.

And our time came we were the stars at particular time.

So, we were waving in that part of time.

It was just, probably the high of my life.

- There had been fireworks multiple nights after the pageant, but this last night, they shot them off from the cemetery across First Avenue.

And there was thousands of people on Eldridge Field, I remember just laying on the grass and looking up the sky it seems spectacle.

- 2027 will be East Greenwich's 350th celebration of its in cooperation.

Which by the way, officially took place on Halloween 1677.

(upbeat music) - This wonderful piece of folk art was stitched in 1977 by the women of East Greenwich, to celebrate the town's 300th anniversary.

I'm a member of the Historic Preservation Society in East Greenwich.

And it hung on a rack there.

And when I looked at it, I said, this is too gorgeous to be hidden in this room.

And so made arrangements to have it hung in the library.

It's about 40 squares.

It measures six feet by eight feet, so it's quite large.

And it shows various aspects of these Greenwich.

Each patch shows places in town that people would recognize.

And I think it tells the story of the town.

The history and of the town charmingly.

It shows some of our historic buildings like the Varnam Armory, the Kent County Courthouse, which now serves as our Town Hall, and the railroad station which has private businesses.

To also show know some of our town's charms.

Some are sailing on the Cove, a school scene, and winter ice skating.

Then and now history, colonial dress and contemporary 1970s fashion, both look pretty dated, don't they?

Designed by a local artist named Arlene Ozalyn.

47 women each contributed to quilt square.

And each quilter was given a pattern for her square, and cotton fabric and deadlines to turn in their finished patch.

The whole project took only two months.

- I think it's a remarkable achievement.

- All of these squares were assembled and finished by Marion Fry, who sew the apple picking square.

I am a quilter, so I really have an affection for this thing.

It also has a very folk art style to it.

I think it's a great way of showing history in thread and fabric.

(upbeat music) - The story begins in March of 1869, as was the custom in many small new England villages at the time.

A group of men knowing the value of education and culture gathered to discuss organizing a free library for East Greenwich.

The first building to house the library was located on Main Street, at the head of Queen Street.

I think my favorite place is probably our team or Y room.

And the reason it's my favorite place is because there is a picture of Adeline Vaughn Pierce, who was Mr. Pierce's daughter, the person who built the library.

He really built it to honor his daughter who died at a very young age.

And there is a portrait of her above a fireplace in that room, and it's just beautiful.

And it reminds me of how this library was built with love.

- In spite of this sorrow, Daniel Albert Pierce, persevered to provide the town with a new library that all could enjoy.

It was erected in its current location, on the site of Mr. Pierce's boyhood home.

The building was constructed of Coventry granite, quarried from the banks of nearby Carr's Pond.

The dedication took place on June 29th, 1915, and as promised the new library was erected, furnished and maintained through Mr. Pierce's generosity.

In loving memory of Adeline Vaughan Pierce.

This reading room is dedicated and endowed by her parents for the perpetual pleasure and profit of the children of the village.

Thus, do we walk with her and keep unbroken the bond which nature gives, thinking that our remembrances though unspoken may reach her where she lives.

In 2003, East Greenwich free library added a new wing, nearly doubling the library space.

To this day, the library boasts 11,000 square feet of stacks, reading areas, and programming space.

- Libraries are important.

Not just because of the books, not just because of the DVDs, not just because of the newspapers and all the materials that we have, libraries are community enter.

They're a place that you can go to study.

They're a place that you can go to take a class.

They're a place that you can go for your kids to go to story time.

They're a place to keep warm, they're are a place to keep cool, they're are a place where nobody asks anything of you.

You don't have to spend any money.

If you don't have resources, we have resources there.

We're there to bridge that divide between the people that have and the people that don't have.

I like people.

People often ask or say sometimes, I'd love to be able to become a librarian, I love books.

And I say, but do you like people?

That's really the most important part.

I love answering questions.

I love diving down deep into a reference question.

I love providing programs that people enjoy and get a benefit from.

And when someone is in need, if someone needs the number of a homeless shelter, the number of a food bank, it hurts my heart that they need it, but I'm glad that I can provide that information for them.

So, that's why I became a librarian.

(slow music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to East Greenwich.

Things have changed a lot since we came here 50 years ago.

And I'd like to take you on a walk up and down Main Street and look at places that are still in existence and talk about places that don't exist anymore.

Well, for some time it had come to mind that when we moved to East Greenwich over 50 years ago, it was off the beaten track, more or less isolated.

And if you lived there, you could buy anything you needed on Main Street, from baby clothes to a funeral.

I'm sitting in front of the Town Hall.

It used to be the courthouse, but it was taken over a number of years ago and restored by the town.

Inside, it still looks like a courthouse.

This is the side of the former Town Hall, a tall building with an iconic tower that housed a couple of clocks.

One of which still exists in the new Town Hall up on Pierce Street.

This building also housed the police station.

This is a former Methodist church, which relocated to Route 2 a few years ago.

It still looks like a church, but now it houses Verde Productions.

There is an interesting plaque on the wall next to the door, which reads as follows; In this meeting house, on November 5th, 1842, the constitution of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations was adopted.

We played an important part in Rhode Island's history on that day.

I'm sitting on the site of the former Kent movie theater.

It was a place where a lot of kids came on a Saturday morning to see a movie.

And now it's the parking lot for the bank.

A favorite eatery was the Kent Char Broil.

That was the place where everybody knew your name, just like "Cheers" on TV.

On the rare occasion that there was a widespread power failure, the line would be out the door and down the block waiting to get in.

All their appliances ran on gas, even the coffee urns.

It was a family owned place, and a lot of young people got their first job there.

It's still a restaurant, but with a lot of changes.

This is the site of the former Catholic church.

Our lady of mercy had a beautiful wooden church here.

A number of years ago, they moved down the road away, a few blocks away to a beautiful new building.

We're looking at the Ross Aker building.

It was a furniture company downstairs.

It was a beautiful showroom and upstairs was their warehouse.

I'm standing in front of the building that housed the little talk shop.

This is where you could get the baby clothes and clothing for young children.

It's been a lot of things since then and right now it's a hair salon.

We also have a hotel, the Greenwich Hotel.

One of the interesting stories that I heard, was that the performers from the Wor musical theater, better known as The Tent, stayed there as it was the nearest place.

When they came back after a show, they would often entertain locals with a free show late at night.

Hey, this is Jigger's Diner, it's the place for breakfast and just about anything else.

It been here for a long time.

And the last time I came by here, they were actually shooting a movie here.

Come along with me, I'm gonna take a walk down Main Street, and drop off some shoes to be repaired at Colonial Shoe Repair.

- How you doing?

Welcome.

- Good morning.

- Welcome to Colonial Shoe Repair.

- I've got a job for you.

Well, I'm very glad that you're here Steve, because those shoes have been bothering me for a long time.

- No, I know, not many of us left either.

- No, that's true.

How long have you been working here?

- I've and in this town 38 years.

- 38 years.

- Yeah, I've been a shoe repairer for 50 years.

- You work on Main Street, but you also live on Main Street.

- I do.

Through that door there is my wife's hair salon and we live upstairs.

- Living in the community has been very good.

I taught school there for 28 years.

And one of the nice things is being able to see my students grow up and become contributing members in the community.

The interesting things that happened on Main Street, are the Main Street strolls, which started a few years ago.

And it's nice that the street is opened up and people can go up and down the street and meet, and greet, and stop, and go into places of business.

It's always been a very welcoming.

It's always been a very necessary route from between Wok and North Kingstown and with having drug stores and clothing stores and things, it's always been pretty busy.

If a business went out, their place was not empty for very long.

I have seen things come and go, and some things that have stayed a long time.

It's been interesting to say the least.

(flute music) - Hi, I'm here in front of the East Greenwich Town Hall today.

It's one of 12 properties here in the town, that's on the National Register of Historic Places and by far the most significant.

Constructed in 1803, it was built as one of the original five state houses.

The general assembly at the time had a rotating schedule, so every fifth meeting would be hosted right here in East Greenwich.

Prior to this being built in 1803, there was a much smaller original Kent County Court House.

And that's where some really significant things took place.

Commissioning of the first us Navy in 1775 and also in 1776, the townspeople gathered here and they read the declaration of independence.

The other feature of the Town Hall that's pretty significant is its front lawn.

It serves not only as a public meeting space, but it's also the town square here in East Greenwich.

Every parade ends right on Main Street in front of the Town Hall, and all the ceremonies take place right here in front of the stairs.

Current day, the East Greenwich Town Hall what happens there is mainly day to day operations.

The town clerk's office is in there, the town manager is in there, the finance department is housed in there as well.

I think it's like the IT department it's down in the basement by the old jail cells, which is kind of fun.

And then we have 16 boards and commissions that operate out of the general assembly room.

That's where they hold their meetings and where they have public hearings and whatnot.

So, there's actually a lot of activity going on at the Town Hall.

Let's go inside and check it out.

Here in the basement of the Town Hall, are two jail cells that still remain today.

Prisoners would be brought in through the doors that were right underneath the staircase outside, and they would be temporarily held here until their trials up in the courtroom.

Right now, the only thing that's locked up in here are a bunch of file cabinets.

If you weren't a prisoner, this is how you would access the Town Hall through the main entrance.

There's some really cool architectural details here that have been maintained.

The kick plates on the doors are still here, as well as the beautiful glass transom and sidelights.

And one of the coolest features here are these columns that are not made of bamboo, but they're made to look like bamboo.

And that's actually a nod to the fact that East Greenwich was a major Seaport and sea captains would travel the world and bring back exotic objects and design ideas, and some of those features were incorporated here into the architecture at Town Hall.

I'm standing in the spot where old meets new.

In 1993, the residents of East Greenwich voted on a bond referendum for $2.3 million to restore the old courthouse that had been sitting vacant and deteriorating in the early nineties.

The work began, and in 1995 construction was complete.

As you can see, the original building still stands the way it was.

And the addition was done in a way that's sympathetic to the original building.

It tells a story in other words over time, how the building has evolved into what it is today.

So my relationship with the Town Hall, first and foremost, I'm a resident of the Hill and Harbor District.

I've lived there since 1995.

And I also sat on the historic district commission for 12 years, so I actually spent the second Wednesday of every month for 12 years at the Town Hall.

The most impressive part of this building is right behind me in the two-storey assembly room.

This building's undergone a few facelifts over time.

There was a restoration in 1908, prior to that around the time in civil civil war, this room was completely reconfigured and then restored after that.

So what's ended up happening is there's a true mix of architectural details and elements that pull from all different periods.

Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, but that's what makes this space so unique and interesting.

My experience with Town Hall has been mainly the assembly room, when I sat on the HDC and going there to pay my taxes in the finance department.

But after having filmed with my nephew, by far the best place is the clock tower.

It was so cool like just to climb up those narrow stairs and you had to hold onto the rope to get up there.

And you're at the highest point in town and you can literally see everything, it was amazing.

You can see the water from this side and we can see the water from that side.

And just when you think you can't get any higher, you can go up other flight of stairs and have an even better vantage point.

I think it's important to record the history of places like Town Hall and other places throughout town, just to make sure that these places are preserved and the stories get told from generation to generation.

(piano music) - Hi, I'm Ron Joseph.

And I'd like to tell you a little bit about the East Greenwich Art Club.

Founded in the summer of 1959, when a number of residents struck the township increased its art exposure to capabilities.

The group started with 76 chartered members, it still exists today after 62 years.

I'm a photographer and I always have taken photos for fun of it, for amateur, for a number of years.

And when I retired, a friend of mine was a member of the art club and suggested that I joined.

I thought it'd be a good place to meet people and have something to do in retirement.

That's how I got into it, and that was 10 years ago.

Currently have about 50 members in the art club.

We put on a number of different events, including exhibits, at least four times a year where our members can show their work.

They also benefit by monthly speakers at their regular meeting, who talked about and demonstrated their technique whereby members could learn to improve their work.

The town benefit by having a place to view on, to purchase original works of art and to attend meeting simply to learn more about the arts.

The club also participates in a number of town events, such as the end of the summer event, the evening scrolls in the summertime.

And we provide a scholarship to an East Ranch High School senior, who wishes to expand their interest in the arts.

The club doesn't really care whether you're a great artist, level expertise is not all that important.

And we learn from each other.

So we welcome everybody of all ages, we even have a student membership arrangement at a very low cost.

And so I think people should not be afraid to come and join an art club, it scares people.

Gee, I'm not a great artist, but I like the arts.

And even if you're not a member, you can come to monthly meetings and learn more about things.

And maybe later on become an artist and you don't have to be a painter.

People think you have to be a painter or a photographer.

Sculptures crafts of any kind really.

We have people who paint rocks, enjoy that and tell us how they do that.

So, I think it's important to feel that anybody is an inclusive operation, anybody can come and enjoy the club.

(piano music) - I'm a genealogy amateur, I'm retired, so I spend my time on that.

And one house I've been wanting to go into was the Clement Weaver house, 'cause I'm distantly related to Clement Weaver.

Sergeant Clement Weaver only lived in the house for a few years.

He became actually the first deputy of East Greenwich.

So the first to serve deputy to the General Assembly of the colony of Rhode Island and he died in 1683.

His son Clement, so his oldest son continued in the house and he had a large family.

He had four boys and three girls.

He died in 1691.

We are fortunate that a gentleman by the name of Professor Norman Isham, historian or architectural historian took an interest in the Weaver House since it was in pretty bad shape, and when he started in 1937 to do a very detailed investigation of the construction and a meticulous restoration.

And it took three years to do this.

And as a result of that and all the work he did, the house is listed in the National Registry of Historic Properties.

And as part of that registration, it has all the architectural drawings of professor Isham.

And it gives a good understanding of the sequence of how the house was built.

So if you're looking at the house, if on the right side, that first door, that's the first house.

So that's the beginning of the house.

So they built basically a one room house with a Garrett, an upstairs loft and a huge fireplace.

And a chimney, I should say, with a fireplace.

And the idea being that over time, the house would be built onto, but that the build on sections would all connect into this large chimney system.

And therefore the rooms that are added all could have fireplaces, and stoves, or should say ovens, beehive ovens if necessary and so on.

We are in the front room or as it's also known as the museum room.

This is the oldest room of the initially what was a one room house.

Included here is an interesting string door latch, so it's you pull the string and the latch goes up.

So I guess even a pet dog could open the door.

Now we're in what it's called the backroom, or more commonly it's called of the dining room today.

Now we're in the great room, also known as the keeping room, the history on that is keeping people away from the cooks.

But I prefer great room, that's how Isham called the room.

And it's really the center of activity during the day.

And usually the parents, so that would be Clement and his wife.

So Clement Jr. Captain Clement Weaver and his wife would sleep while the children would be sleeping in the Garretts above.

They estimate that there are a hundred thousand people descended from Clement Weaver, if not more.

So through this process, I found out there's a Weaver clerk who knew.

And so I joined the club and they share stories of what they've unearthed and so forth.

(upbeat music) - East Greenwich of those days was only about 3000 people.

And there were three sections of the town.

There was the Main Street and the hill section.

There was the waterfront.

And up here won't realized it, but there were 52 farms in East Greenwich.

There are only two left today.

And it was very much for me, other people might say other things, but it was very much a Huckleberry fan, Tom Sawyer existence.

We were always doing something.

Some of it good, some of maybe not so good.

One of the good things of about it for me was you could go and earn money in the morning and cool hogging down on the shore, go over to a part you wanna go of golf club in Caddy for a while and earn some more money, go up to Frenchtown and ride horses.

And at night you gonna hang out on Main Street.

A lot of people like to do practical jokes.

A guy I told you about that they lived in the box.

His family was actually fairly well off and maybe not wealthy, but they had a farm probably over, across where Elredge School is somewhere in there.

And I will give you this real name.

I call him Swamper Jacksons.

One day, he took a cow from the farm, put it on rope on the neck and walked it down to brick Rexall pharmacy, the drug store which had ice cream counter and a sold counter.

And he walked a cow up to the counter, took her in the store and order to glass of milk for it.

(cow moos) - From Bruce, I learned that life doesn't really have to take one course.

- I even took ballet one time.

I took ballet, tap dancing, and ballroom.

and I only lasted ballet, the boys saw me doing it in the beat me up.

So I told my mother, I said, mom, I said, if you want me to live, I said, the ballet is out, I can't dance ballet.

So I did tap dancing.

And I performed in a few shows and I did the ballroom where I ended up on American bandstand because I could dance well.

And I dance with my sisters and have friends.

And I get into trouble with some guys, they'd be chasing me.

I go into the library and the librarian would protect me from getting beat up.

So I used to lay on the floor and read books until it was five o'clock and then she would look up and make sure nobody was there and run home.

- You were a Marine officer under the sixties, correct?

- Right, and I didn't go to Vietnam.

I volunteered to go to Vietnam.

I spent four years in the reserve and then I went two years as active duty.

And then I did two years in college in army, ROTC.

Football coach and English teacher, and many of the places I only taught a coach but I also wrote for the local newspaper.

So I'd been wanting to get involved in movies, so she told me how to do it and I actually got into a couple movies out there and got my face on camera and one of them.

And then did commercials.

I volunteered for tow, three organizations, mostly writing.

I do writing, I've been doing it for 50, 60 years.

- What time span would you say was the most transformational for the town, that it changed the most?

- Sixties.

The high school used to be here, I went to high school over here.

Was that building (voice fades away).

When that high school was build, the East Greenwich High School was moved up in the woods.

That's when the towns started to change.

It became an all together a different farm.

The farms were being sold for development above Route 2.

Many of those people never came into the town, they worked in Providence or Boston.

They sent their kids to private schools and they had nothing to do with the town.

And it was just a different feel.

I live life, I'm not gonna go.

If you read the stories, there's this friend of mine Picks, we used to call it magic.

And magic is taking a simple thing that you might do and making it special.

Like you walk down the street on new year's eve, but we didn't just walk down the street, we sang Christmas carols.

And certainly the drugs when they came back after the Greenwich hotel or wherever.

We made it something we get, oh, she talking about it.

The further I get away from it, the more I missed it.

(piano music) - We have two children or had two children.

A daughter who is now in her late thirties, and has two little girls.

And our son CJ, who tragically passed away from a brain tumor when he was 17.

(piano music) To tell you a little bit about CJ, he was a very bright, outgoing, athletic, young man.

He was beloved by his teachers, his family and his friends, and his friends' families.

And he had an incredible smile that drew you in to his personality.

He always advised his friends, think positive and do your best.

- And then he was a fun loving young young man- - And his motto.

- Oh yeah, and his motto, sailing was everything for him.

And his motto was, sailing is life, the rest is just details.

- Tragically, two days after winning in regatta, in two weeks before his 16th birthday, CJ was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

- He never gave up hope.

And he never complained about his - Battle - Battle with cancer.

- And this motivated and inspired his teammates and their families.

And they vowed to do everything they could to help.

- Tom was CJ's longtime crew.

During CJ's illness, waited patiently at the sailing center.

If CJ had a good day, - they left their... - they'd go out for a sail.

- They left their (voice drowns in cross talk) sail.

- But one of the fascinating things was that they participated in a final regatta that CJ- - Attended.

- Attended.

- And that was in late August.

- And it was in Gilford Connecticut.

- Four months before he passed.

- And that was in August of 2002.

- Yeah, what happened is that in spite of the brisk wind, and in spite of the fact that CJ's weight had dropped to less than 120 pounds, those two boys showed everybody how to quod win a regatta.

(upbeat music) After he died, his friends were adamant about wanting to acknowledge his loss and also celebrate his very brief and precious life.

And they organized the first regatta that first summer.

And it was a fleet race, there were only 20 boats.

There were only 40 kids.

And it was a very good outlet for these kids to demonstrate their feelings.

Little by little, the regatta has grown and become very successful and popular, so that it is now one of the largest and most successful junior team race events in the country.

The regatta has been a source of great pride and inspiration to GBSA and EGYC for the past two decades.

It's a national event were an entirely by volunteers.

And it's more than a race in that it celebrates the legacy of CJ, who lost his battle with cancer when he was only 17.

It serves as a reminder to all of us about the fragility of life.

And the fact that we must make every day extraordinary.

There's no guarantee about tomorrow.

Carter and I, and our family all have some comfort in seeing CJ's mates grow up and become successful.

And with this window of opportunity.

- You know, we imagine what his life may have been like.

- Grieving is very personal, there's no time limit.

That with time what happens is the open wound gets a little bit less painful.

So you're able to go on.

You give yourself permission to smile again.

You give yourself permission to laugh.

And then something might happen and you don't even know what it is that brings back a flood of memories.

And you allow yourself, I always tell parents.

Allow yourself to go down and it's comforting because you're under a blanket and you don't have to pretend.

You can show how angry you are in a way, because your child's been taken.

And then you get yourself off and you say, look, we have to make sure that he or she is not forgotten.

And that we learned that this is part of our life.

I think as parents, and we've talked to obviously many parents who have lost children.

I think one of your biggest fears as a parent, is that your child will be forgotten.

And with this regatta, he is not forgotten.

And as a matter of fact, his life is almost like a beacon to some of the other kids that he sailed with or the new ones that even come to participate and point out to them that you have to look at the broader part of life.

It's not just the race, it's not just this or that, but the life is so full and life is fragile.

And you have to take advantage of it.

(upbeat music)