Letters

It has just now been my privilege to have one of those great community experiences that we sometimes have in a small town: My wife and I had our first COVID-19 vaccine shots at the Westhampton Beach Firehouse today, arranged and run by Barth’s Pharmacy.

Many thanks to Lou Cassara of Barth’s and Don Metcalf Sr. of the fire department for coordinating the operation and making everything mesh so well. We all know there’s a lot of subsurface churning to make these things go smoothly.

Many thanks to Joe Archer at the front desk for looking tirelessly for my screening form until he found it. Many thanks also to the young lady who vaccinated me so professionally — I’m sorry, I didn’t get her name. Many thanks, finally, to all the volunteers, especially Tom — I’m sorry, I only got his first name — who graciously attended to the post-vaccination waiting area, where we spent a very pleasant 15 minutes chatting with our neighbors.

And there were a lot of neighbors! I haven’t seen so many people I know in one place since the pandemic began. It was a joy to see them all, and to see and appreciate the great civic spirit of the fire department volunteers, and all the technical folks who helped with everything.

This is what it’s about in a town like this, and we are deeply grateful for it.

George Lynch

Quiogue