This was one of my mother’s favorite Willie Morris stories. Willie Morris, the onetime editor of Harper’s and best-selling author of the memoir North Toward Home had moved out to Bridgehampton after he’d left the literary life in New York. One of the main reasons my parents chose Bridgehampton as a place to settle was that Willie had made it his home. On our first day in our new rental, the Vreeland house farther south toward the beach on Sagg Main Street, Willie, who was a renowned practical joker, decided to play a trick on Gloria. The phone rang, and Gloria picked up. Disguising his voice and putting on an excellent local Bonacker accent which he’d perfected over the last few years, Willie said, “Hello, this here’s Bob Wznyzfski of the Southampton Highway Department. We’ll be arriving tomorra at, oh, three o’clock with the bulldoza and the wrecking crew.” “What bulldozer? What wrecking crew?” my mother shouted, suddenly furious. “Well, everything’s in orda on this end—the papers all been signed for the new highway extension.
What do You think about Lies My Mother Never Told Me?
