FROM THE DIRT-ROAD HUGGER

To the editor:

I must apologize to Frank Spriggs for a misstatement I made in my column of two weeks ago with regard to a quote that I attributed to him. I had mixed up the chairman of the Planning Board with the Chairman of the Planning Commission. It was Barry Rector who reportedly said he wanted to pave the entire island, not Frank. Again, my mistake.

I was, in fact, aware that Frank came to live on this island many years ago as a child and I also did know that he served in the armed forces and that he loves Nantucket. I'm not certain what that has to do with a poorly conceived decision to pave a perfectly good dirt road. But just as the First Amendment gives me the right to be an admittedly insufferable blowhard from time to time, so, too, does Frank have the right to be publicly proud of his service to the nation and this island.

I was fortunate (or unlucky) enough to be born to a generation that has had no war to fight, so I cannot claim any military service as he does. But I would like him to know that if there had been a world war when I was between the ages of 17 and 30, I would likely have enlisted as my father and uncles did in World War II.

In closing, I'd like to correct a few misconceptions that Frank wrote in his letter last week.

First, he should know that it is highly unlikely that I will retire "with millions." I'm a freelance writer and as such my meager income qualifies me as a thousandaire not a millionaire. Living on Nantucket, raising two children, paying a mortgage and a food bill and my family's own health insurance does not leave a lot at the end of every month to save for retirement. I may make a million or two in my lifetime, but I'll also have to spend a million or two. It's a small price to pay to live in a community like this one.

Second, my family's little cottage in the woods is in Leicester, Massachusetts, not Connecticut.

And third, when I retire, if I ever do, which is highly unlikely, it will be to this island. I just hope it's worth retiring to when I get to that age and that the whole thing is not overdeveloped, largely paved and unnecessarily mainland-ized.

- Grant Sanders American Citizen, Nantucket Taxpayer

and Dirt-Road Hugger.