Farewell to my first kiss...

I was very sad this morning when I read that actor, Paul Newman had died of cancer. 

There is a story that I heard a few times while I was growing up.  Now, I'm not sure if this is a true story or an exaggeration.  This is just what I was told by my parents.

Paul Newman kissed me on the cheek when I was four years old.  While I don't remember the actual kiss.  I do remember the day.

I grew up in Sag Harbor during the 1970's and we lived across the street from actor, Hurd Hatfield.  He is best known for his role in The Picture of Dorian Gray. My memories of him are scant. I always called him Mr. Hatfield and he liked to bake bundt cake and would often bring some over and talk to my mother over coffee.  I had no idea he had once been a famous actor.  He was just Mr. Hatfield to me. 

Mr. Hatfield lived in an old house and my father was an independent contractor who specialized in restoration.  My dad was working on the house one summer afternoon and my mother walked over with me, my sister and brother who were both under the age of three to bring him his lunch.  When she told this story, she described walking across the street with one baby strapped to her chest, the other in a stroller and a toddler (me) walking alongside.  She of course, had no make-up on and her hair  was in rollers.  "It was just my luck that Paul Newman was there and I looked a mess." She liked to say.

This day sticks in my memory because 1) we were actually going to Mr. Hatfield's house instead of the other way around. It was usually he who was visiting us.  And 2) While we were walking over there, I found some bird feathers on the ground and decided I was going to give them to him as a present. And 3) There were some strangers who I had never seen before at his house, not just Mr. Hatfield and my Dad.  I found out years later that this was Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward.  

According to both of my parents, (who each told this story at different times) both Paul Newman and Joane Woodward fussed over the three of us and kissed me and my little sister on the cheek.  I don't remember this at all.  What I do remember is giving Mr. Hatfield his feathers and him thanking me for the birds. Which was strange to me because they were feathers not birds. Perhaps Mr. Hatfields and the Newmans were having a few cocktails.  

Eventually Mr. Hatfield moved away.  I heard he moved to Ireland and he did not keep in touch with my parents.  Years later I saw him in the film Crimes of the Heart.  He died  in 1998.

Comments

[dana michelle]

What a great story!

I had a teacher in high school that met Paul Newman when she was in college and was shocked at how short he was. (Not that his height would matter to me at 5'1" ;)

He was a class act, and will be missed. They don't make movie stars like him anymore.

[Bruce]

Hurd Hatfield lived across from me also in the 1960's. It was on Garden Street, Sag Harbor. One day he dog was so thirsty, he had to stop at our house to get a bowl of water from my mother for the dog. Kinda lost touch with him. He had a house on Sage Street later on, and then moved to Europe. Sag Harbor was nice in those days.
Bruce