There are 2 people Westporters always wonder about.
Who was “Staples,” they ask.*
And, equally importantly, who is “Fiona”?
For several years a sign — “Fiona’s Disappearing Island” — stood at the corner of Soundview Drive and Hillspoint Road. An “island” indeed appears and disappears near the Schlaet’s Point jetty, changing with the tide, but no one knew where the sign came from, or who named the spot.
Then the sign disappeared.
Now it’s back — as sea-like and jangly as ever.
No one still knows who Fiona is — though, I’m told, an inscription on the back of the new sign refers to “a gypsy who loved the sea.” (It’s pretty high up — presumably to thwart thieves. Yao Ming would find it hard to read the back.)
Meanwhile, here’s a closeup of the front:
How’d I get it?
Let’s just say “Fiona works in mysterious ways.”
(* Horace Staples — a very wealthy banker/businessman/merchant/farmer — founded Westport’s high school in 1884, age 80. He’s a fascinating man. But if you’d read my book on the history of Staples High School, you’d know all that.)