Save Me a Spot in Your Foursome, Stevie

Time to say goodbye to another dear, dear friend.

Stephen O’Neil, the unelected Mayor of Hyannisport, the de facto general manager of property maintenance in Hyannisport, the encyclopedia of home sales, keeper (and teller) of secrets (depending on whose they were), raconteur, joke-teller, and Big Liver of Life, died peacefully at home with his family this morning. I was on my way down to visit him when I got the word.

Stevie and I played an awful lot of golf together. He was also my handshake “business partner” (some flyer than never materialized), client (when “something came up”), and host for the Hyannisport Member-Guest, and therein lies a story worth telling. *Lest anyone feel I am divulging private, sensitive information here, this story has been told many times, several times by Stevie himself. He was never bashful about these things.

Back in 1995, when we moved from the Cape to Scituate, I was faced with the vexing decision of whether or not I should give up my membership at Hyannisport- because who’s going to drive from Scituate to the Cape on Saturday morning in July to play golf? Ultimately, I made the “right decision” and faxed a resignation letter to the club secretary in February of 1996. When I proudly announced this to my wife, she exclaimed, aghast, “I paid the dues bill while you were gone last week!”

As I reflected on my great fortune to have a wife such as she, my cell phone rang (this was way back in the pre-historic days of the bag phone). It was Stevie; he had a little temporary cash flow problem – he was about to be posted for not paying his dues bill on time, and he wasn’t due to get his annual lottery payment (he had one of the million dollar scratch tickets) for a few weeks. Could I front him the dues money? Knowing that the club already had my money and I would have to call them and ask for it back, I knew the answer already, but I had to get something back in the bargain, right?

So I told Stevie I would pay his bill, but in exchange, he would have to invite me as his guest (at the club I was a member at for 14 years). He happily agreed (to the detriment of his older brother), and for 5 years or so, I was a guest of the O’Neils in Hyannisport and Stevie’s playing partner.

To my knowledge, this photo is the only evidence.