Letter: Missing a voice in our community – New Haven Register

The pandemic has affected all of us in many, many ways, large and small. It seems trite, I suppose, to speak of little things in light of the impact of more than a half-million deaths attributable to COVID, but we know that sometimes it’s the little things that help ease us through hard times. Diversions perhaps are helpful.

One of those little things that I always enjoyed and now miss is The New Haven Register’s Randy Beach and his personal interest columns. Randy’s columns were, he would concede, not ponderous nor heavy laden with deep philosophical meditations. They tended to tell us about people in our communities, people we sometimes didn’t know much about; or goings-on — donuts anyone? — that we might not even care much about. And occasionally Randy would revisit folks and places — Dr. Whitney, the Orange vet; Roger, a part of the courthouse topography; Margaret, the Shakespeare Lady; Reverdy Whitlock, a bookseller and typewriter repairman laboring into the era of desktops and laptops; Best Buy Video; his local apothecary in East Rock; and more. Where, you would wonder, did he find some of his subjects?