SLIMY SENATOR WHITEHOUSE

 I was looking at confirmation hearings on RFK, Jr. and saw that he was maltreated by Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island. I used to live in Rhode Island and I saw a reference to a private white's only beach club that the Senator is a member of because of course he is and I saw this wonderful picture of it here.

 You see the nice big house in the background? It is bigger than it looks. I lived right behind that house and I used to deliver the Newport Daily News to the door there everyday and when I collected every month I would ring the bell on that nice mansion and an elderly lady wearing slippers, a bathrobe/housecoat that was safety pinned together in front would open the door and then wander back 5 to 10 minutes later with enough money to cover the cost of the paper. 

The mansion on the left had been turned into some really nice apartments occupied by the kind of people you'd expect....no you wouldn't, one was a Lieutenant Commander working at the Navy Base and two were photographers and a very nice graphic design lady. They were the last 4 deliveries on my paper route. Up at the other end or closer to it, was another very nice mansion, the door of which was unfailingly opened by the butler when they were in residence and he took care of paying me for the paper. I knew they were in because that's when I'd have to maneuver my bike around the Rolls in the driveway.

I always thought it was funny that this exclusive beach club was on our shore and of course we walked down there whenever we felt like it and nobody said boo because you need a car to get there unless you were finishing Cliff Walk. It was a nice place to live but this is the only part of the island that seems unchanged by the passage of 50 years. It is just about the only place I ever lived that I can say that about.