Dan's Papers - May 23, 2008 - Fondly Remembered

The memoir I have written, In the Hamptons, is now out. Published by Harmony Books, it's being distributed nationally in all bookstores and websites wherever books are sold. So far there have been seven published reviews of the book. They are all posted on danrattiner.com. All of them have been favorable.

Beginning on May 6 when the book debuted, I have been holding readings. I read a chapter at a party in Manhattan on May 7, another at a party at the Wölffer Estate Vineyards on May 9, at BookHampton in East Hampton on May 10, and at the Atlantic Avenue Beach on May 11. I'm going to be reading chapters all over the place for the next two months, all of them in the Hamptons and all at the locations where the chapters take place. You can pick up the book and open it to any chapter. All chapters are free standing, all can be read in about 15 minutes, and all are about some local person or celebrity I have known.

The reading at Atlantic Avenue Beach was held there this past Saturday because that was where the Nazi saboteurs, subsequently captured and executed, landed by submarine on a June night in 1942. I have a chapter in the book about the making of a science fiction thriller that stars a mad Nazi scientist. It was made not far from this beach. And I participated in the making of the movie.

Another chapter in the book is called "Merton Tyndall." And it was at this reading on the beach in Amagansett, that I learned an astonishing thing I did not know about this man.

In attendance was Connie Anderson, who many years ago owned a part of Amagansett where Skimhampton Road and Montauk Highway come together, that she called Franklin Square. It turned out she knew Merton Tyndall quite well.

Merton Tyndall, when I met him I was 22, was the President of the Bridgehampton Bank. I had gone to ask him for a loan to finance the expanding enterprise, Dan's Papers, which I had suddenly discovered I could not run for the summer without borrowing money from the bank. I sat across from him. Here's the passage from that chapter, the second chapter in the book.

"I brought you a copy. Have a look. It was originally eight pages long. Then the next summer it was sixteen pages long. Then last year twenty-four pages long. I've paid my way through grad school with it. Now, last fall I went around to see the storeowners for this upcoming year and they bought even MORE advertising. I'm going to have to publish thirty-six pages a week."

"And now you need to borrow a thousand dollars," he said.

"Yes. But I'll pay it back. Here. Look at all the orders I have. But for the first time I can't afford to pay the printer without this thousand dollars."

"You are being ruined by your own success."

"Sort of. But then the money will come in, and I'll pay you back, which should be in July, and then I'll make even more than I did last year. I really don't understand it."

"That's how it goes," he said.

"You'd think that the more business I did, the LESS amount of money I'd have to borrow."

"That's why banks are in business."

"So you'll do this?"

"If you say you'll pay it back, I think you'll pay it back." He leaned forward. "I judge you to be a man of your word."

Having thus agreed to lend me the money, he now opened his desk, took out a checkbook and wrote the amount to me. I asked - wasn't there some loan agreement I had to sign? He said no. If you say you'll pay it back in August, I believe you. And so I left with the money, simply amazed at that.

This was the essence of the chapter. Two years later, also in the chapter, he called me up at the office down the street. Again, from the book.

"I'm sorry to call you about this," he said. "But I wondered if you could find the time to stop by the bank. Tomorrow, perhaps."

"Is anything wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing we can't fix," he said.

They ushered me into his office the next day around 10 a.m.

Merton Tyndall smiled. "You know, I have always lent you this money and you have always paid it back," he said.

"Well, it seems I have to get something in writing. There is a banking regulations board called the FDIC. And they came by. And they said I have to ask you to come in to sign a note."

"A promissory note. A paper that says you will pay this back. Damned if I know. I told them you ALWAYS pay it back. Your word is good. But they said no, ask him to come in and sign this note. So, I have to."

After I read the chapter of my book about the science fiction movie, I asked if there were any questions or comments and a few people asked for further details about the Nazi activities and how they got to be caught.

Then Connie Anderson, who I recognized from all those years ago and hadn't seen in at least 20 years, stood up.

"I just want to say," she said, "that I loved the chapter you wrote about Merton Tyndall. I read your book. And you may not know this, but Mr. Tyndall, this wonderful man who was President of the Bridgehampton bank for 50 years - no other bank president in history ever remained in that office for so long - also lent loans to others like the one he lent to you.

"And I know this, because he lent one to me. He called them 'character loans.' We all paid them back. And you know whom else he lent money this way to? The Gosmans. And the Hrens. There would be no Gosman's Restaurant, and there would be no Hren Nursery if he had not made these 'character loans.'"

After the reading broke up, I went over and hugged Connie Anderson. I told her I had no idea I was not the only one. Indeed, I told her, I had thought that perhaps my father might have been behind it, calling the bank ahead of time to guarantee the loan to me. He owned White's Drug Store in Montauk at the time. And he banked at Bridgehampton. But he denied he'd had anything to do with it. I had asked him.

"Merton Tyndall was one of the great men of the East End," Connie said. "A lot of people will remember what he did."

The next reading of In the Hamptons will take place on Saturday morning at 11 a.m., also in Montauk, right on the Plaza in the center of town at the gazebo. The chapter is called "Frank Tuma Jr.," and it is about my adventures in the big seven-story building across from the Plaza, which today is a condominium, but then was an abandoned wreck of an office building last occupied in 1938.

All the readings are free. A list of the upcoming readings can be found at www.danrattiner.com.