The Pattie Gentile Show as heard on WADK Radio Ep 40

On this special edition of the show, Pattie marks America's 250th with a focus on celebration in/around legendary Newport RI, especially the great mansions on the gold coast. 

Our guest is Kate Petterson, Education and Programs Manager for The Preservation Society of Newport County.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:04

Welcome everyone to the Patty Gentile Show. And in studio with me as always is my producer, John Ianuzi. And John, we definitely have the privilege of airing on the 4th of July. I am so thrilled to be airing on this date on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our nation's birthday every year. And this show is great today, too, if I do say so myself. Um, do you have any plans? Where are you seeing your fireworks, or what are you going to be doing?

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Well, I kind of invited uh myself and my family over to a friend's house. You know what they always say? Like, don't buy a boat, find a friend who has a boat. Oh, yeah. Don't buy a pool. Find a friend who has a pool. So the friends of ours who have a pool, I said, Hey, uh, mind if we come over on 4th of July. So yeah, and then just enjoying being home, you know, being in the backyard. I'm sorry. To me, this is a backyard holiday. I will tell you, I had a drive down to an affiliate radio station of ours in the southern part of the state of Connecticut, and it took me three hours. And yeah, the traffic is not a joke this weekend. And here in Newport, I mean, people know that better than anywhere. I guess stay local. That would be my advice.

SPEAKER_07 1:42

Matter of fact, I wanted to put out a poll question here, and I've had listeners texting me lately saying, uh, what's your poll question this week? What's your poll question? Uh we like uh answering your poll question. So here's the first one, and you want to text your answer to 603-204-0104, or can't people reach out to your Park City Productions Facebook?

SPEAKER_05 2:14

Absolutely. And on that note, can I tell you that a gentleman named Josh tells me that vacation starts for him when they check into the hotel and the kids fall asleep. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking that for me would be very late because my daughter is quite the night owl. So I'd be waiting for her to fall asleep. She she kind of like rides my energy. If I'm up and doing stuff, right, you know, blessed to go to sleep. But I the shout out to Josh who said when the kids go to sleep.

SPEAKER_07 2:53

Well, the poll question here is what are you doing for the 4th of July? And a lot of people start their vacation on uh the day before or the day of the 4th of July and go for the week of the 4th, as they may say. So definitely let us know what you've done, where you've done it. Let's celebrate together and we'll shout it out next weekend on next weekend's show. Uh another um acknowledgement here has to be to the USA World Cup soccer team winning against Bosnia, and as they say, going from this round of 32 to now the round of 16, and they're gonna be playing Belgium on Monday, July 6th in Seattle. That's where Third Stadium's gonna be. Yeah, yeah. How are you doing on the betting there, John?

SPEAKER_05 3:54

I'm breaking even.

SPEAKER_07 3:55

Yeah, that's good. Hey, better than losing.

SPEAKER_05 3:58

So Patty off air that uh a true gambler will never really tell you. I break even.

SPEAKER_07 4:04

Yeah, well, I'm glad to hear that because last show you you did tell us you were down, okay.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

Well, yeah, I think I have admitted that. Yeah, you did shout out some of our our new followers. Oh, please, absolutely. So the two that that caught my eye, and and Ashburn, we see you, and Newbury Port Mass, we see you, but uh a new Massachusetts zip, Tewkesbury.

SPEAKER_07 4:29

Oh, I am so thrilled about Tewksbury Mass. I used to live in the town right next door in Lowell, Massachusetts. My husband's autobody repair shop is located in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, since 1992. And and thank you so much, whoever is listening and downloading. I we really appreciate it. I feel like you're a neighbor there. Anyone else there, John?

SPEAKER_05 5:00

Yeah, let's head out west, Aurora, Colorado.

SPEAKER_07 5:04

Ooh, we've had uh uh downloaders from Colorado, but Aurora is new. That that that is new. We like to also do some notable dates here, so I'll run through these quick because we definitely have something that John's gotta share. So let me run through these quick. Um, Massachusetts celebrates Independence Day, and they're the first state to recognize July 4th. Uh Canada Day was July 1st. And the I will say that starting July 3rd, all the way through August 15th is AC Appreciation Days. So it on July 1st it kicked off uh the official AC appreciation days through August 15th because historically these are the hottest, most sweltering stretch of summer. Uh getting back to what I just mentioned, John just adopted a new puppy. So I'll go, I'll let you take it from here, John.

SPEAKER_05 6:19

I just, you know, I don't want to get on my soapbox, but there are so many wonderful pets that have been vetted. You know, when you go to the pound, when you go to your local shelter, they're not putting aggressive dogs. I don't know what people imagine in their mind. The dogs and the cats that are there are wonderful and they are ready to be brought home and join your family. And the new girl that we brought in is a MUD. She's many different breeds in one, and she's about six months old, and she's been in our house now for about a week, and she is just already an amazing member of our family. So go adopt from a shelter. The story with this particular dog was she was found in a box of office supplies. Her and her litter were in a box in like a WB Mason office supply or a staples box. So all the pups in the box got a name that related to that theme. So the shelter named this dog index. She was a box of index cards. Then there was paper clips, and another dog was, you know, pencils. And so we're in the process of trying to figure out a name that'll stick.

SPEAKER_07 7:36

Okay. So that's the next poll question. We would like to know what you would want to name. John's little puppy. John, you have a picture of her so people can go?

SPEAKER_05 7:50

I will put it up next to if you visit Park City Productions on any of the social media pages, you'll you'll see a picture of the index.

SPEAKER_07 8:00

Right? She's white with no dog.

SPEAKER_05 8:03

You know who she looks like, Patty? Is um alfalfa's dog from our gang. She's got the black circle around one eye.

SPEAKER_07 8:11

Oh, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

Well, she likes the black circle around her eye.

SPEAKER_07 8:16

The pictures that you sent me, she looks like she's been with you forever. She's she's smiling. She literally smiles, in my opinion. And she looks so like she's been with you forever.

SPEAKER_05 8:30

I got it bad this time. I got right through the heart with Cupid's arrow on this one. She she is she got me right where she wants me.

SPEAKER_07 8:38

So text 603-204-0104 or go to John social media. Yeah. Park City Productions. I know you're on Instagram. I know you're on Facebook. Where else?

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Threads is a new one that we're on.

SPEAKER_07 8:57

Oh, I'd have to check that out.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

YouTube, you could always leave a comment.

SPEAKER_07 9:01

Oh, yeah, YouTube. That's right. I knew I was forgetting one. But please let us know what you would like to name. John's a puppy. Give her a look. Why are we talking about changing her name from Index to something else? Because let us know if you think Index is a good name. I don't know. We just we neither John nor I could go with that a little bit. And yet, here's the thing: she responds to that name.

SPEAKER_05 9:30

That is true.

SPEAKER_07 9:31

That's the thing. She responds to that name. So, pet owners and trainers, pet trainers, how do you retrain, you know, like a six-month-old uh puppy to respond to a new name? How do you do that? How would you work that? Uh, please let us know on the text or on John's uh social media at Park City Productions. So in our next segment, uh, we're gonna go on with the theme here of the Revolutionary War, and I've got a story to tell you. Hi, I'm Patricia Gental, founder of New England Tax Relief. I started this practice for hardworking families and small business owners getting crushed by IRS debt they didn't know how to fight. I work directly with the IRS on your behalf, negotiating settlements, stopping collections, reducing penalties, and handling appeals personally. No call centers, no runaround, just me working for you. Call or schedule online your free confidential consultation at one eight hundred eight eight zero eight three eight eight or at New England Taxrelief dot com. New England Tax Relief, I'm in your corner. And then you know, when you drive through almost any old American town, and you'll spot a stone marker at the edge of a cemetery. It's a small bronze plaque reading, Here lies a patriot of 1776. Someone from a lineage society put it there. And today, the sons and daughters of the American Revolution, two organizations, one origin story, and it starts with an argument. So in 1889, and the country is swept up in centennial nostalgia for the founding generation. And in New York, a group of men led by businessman William Osborne McDowell forms the Sons of the American Revolution, open to any man who can prove descent from someone who aided the fight for independence. So the following spring, the Suns voted on one question. Should women be allowed to join? The decision made headlines because they voted no. And it caught the attention of Washington writer Mary Smith Lockwood. She's furious that women's role in the revolution kept getting overlooked. She wrote a fiery Washington Post piece that July arguing that women had been just as vital to the cause. Women, she wrote, had shaped the revolution too. As messengers, as fundraisers, as spies, and in more than a few cases, as soldiers fighting in disguise. So within months, women began organizing their own society. And on October 11th, 1890, 19 women met in Washington, DC, and the daughters of the American Revolution was born, with the founders Mary Smith Lockwood, Ellen Harden Walworth, Mary Dacia, and Eugenia Washington leading the way. And Eugenia Washington was actually her blood and lineage was connected to George Washington. So both organizations, they share the same basic requirement. You have to have proof of direct descent from a patriot who served or otherwise aided the revolutionary cause. And on the daughters site, there's a phrase you'll hear, you'll still hear in all the DAR circles, quote unquote, real daughters. In the organization's earliest decades, some members weren't just descendants of revolutionary soldiers. They were literal daughters of men who fought, women who had personally known the veterans of Washington's army. And so the DAR created a special grave marker design just for these women in 1912, and has since placed thousands of similar markers at the graves of revolutionary soldiers and patriots nationwide. The Suns run a nearly identical program. Fife and drum music, a rifle salute, a biography read aloud, often with the two organizations standing side by side. So the numbers today are really striking. The Sons counts over 37,000 members across 550 plus chapters, with roughly 200,000 descendants admitted since 1890. And the Daughters have more than 190,000 current members, and over one million women have belonged since its founding, which makes us the largest women's patriotic hereditary society in the country. Neither history is uncomplicated. For much of the twentieth century, the daughters membership practices excluded many blacks, Jewish, and Native American women, patriot ancestry or not. And the most famous flash point here is that in 1939, the daughters barred singer Marian Anderson from performing at Constitution Hall, prompting Eleanor Roosevelt's public resignation from the society. Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial instead, in a moment now that's etched into civil rights history. That reckoning continues today because in 2008 the Daughters published quote unquote Forgotten Patriots, documenting black and Native American Revolutionary War veterans long left out of the record. And in 2018, Risha Rainey became the first black woman elected a daughter's state officer in Maryland. And the two ongoing projects that the daughters have is the E, Capital E, Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative and the Ten Million Names Project. These are they're working on recovering the names of enslaved Americans who supported the revolution and connect them with living descendants. So if you want to trace the word daughters back even further than 1890, there's a story from Colonial Newport, Rhode Island. 92 women calling themselves the Daughters of Liberty brought their own spinning wheels to a public meeting house and spun yarn together, producing 170 hanks in a single sitting. So they turned a private domestic chore into a public act of protest against British textile taxes. It's the same instinct the daughters' founders carried into 1890, and that women's contributions to liberty deserve to be seen, not filed away. Today both organizations remain active well past the cemetery gate, funding scholarships, marking historic sites, and expanding the record of who actually made the revolution possible. As America counts down to its 250th anniversary, that work hasn't slowed down. If anything, it's just getting started. That's the story of the sons and daughters of the American Revolution born from a disagreement, still writing the record more than a century later. And our guest coming up after the commercial break is Kate Peterson. She's the Education and Programs Manager for the Preservation Society of Newport County, and that's Newport, Rhode Island. She's going to talk about not only the America 250 events and programs that they have, but the fact that this organization protects and preserves the region's architectural heritage. They operate 11 historic house museums and landscapes, seven of which are national historic landmarks spanning the colonial era through the Gilded Age. So come on back and we'll be talking about the society here in Newport, Rhode Island. I started this practice for hardworking families and small business owners getting crushed by IRS debt they didn't know how to fight. I work directly with the IRS on your behalf, negotiating settlements, stopping collections, reducing penalties, and handling appeals. Personally, no call centers, no runaround, just me working for you. Call or schedule online for your free confidential consultation at 1-800-880-8388 or at New EnglandTaxrelief.com. Welcome back, everyone, to the Patty Gentile Show. And as I mentioned before our break, our guest today is Kate Peterson. She's the Education and Programs Manager for the Preservation Society of Newport County, and that's in Rhode Island. And she is going to share with us that the Preservation Society here is protects and they preserve the region's architectural heritage. But as everybody might not know, the eleven historic house museums and landscapes, seven of those are national historic landmarks spanning the colonial era through the Gilded Age. And there are tours of these mansions, famous tours of these mansions. But there's many other things going on that Kate's going to share with us for the America 250. And there's events and there's programs. And so I just would like to welcome Kate because I know this is a very busy time for you. Thank you for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Thank you so much, Patty, for having me. So happy to be here. And I know most of us probably know us because of our Gilded Age mansions, but we do, in fact, have a link to the colonial history as well. The Preservation Side was actually founded to save our one colonial house, which is called Hunter House, and it's located in the Point neighborhood. And so that is our origin story. We grew from saving one colonial house to having Gilded Age mansions. And so this year is a great year to bring that history to light and really celebrate it in a number of ways. So if you go to our website, you'll see Many different programs. I'll just list list the big one right now that's coming up. We launched it last week. It's a new exhibition called Revolution Reimagined: Evolving Stories from Newport's Past. And that's running from now through November 1st at Rosecliffe Mansion. And it's really about not just the colonial period, but how the colonial period is viewed from 1776 to the centennial in 1876, then in 1976 for the bicentennial, and of course today. Because as you imagined, how we view the revolution has changed depending on who we are and what our experiences are. And so it was really a collaborative exhibition that our curators have worked on with other institutions, local community members. The MLK Center has wonderful stories in there about the MLK militia. Indigenous, the Tomaquad Museum, Indigenous People and Artists contributed modern pieces and their interpretations of the revolution into the exhibition. So there are a number of varied perspectives and collaborations that are really exciting for us to share.

SPEAKER_07 23:08

Oh, that would be awesome to see that. If anybody is not aware of what the Gilded Age is, I saw on your website that you mentioned that you have these uh engaging audio tours of life in these Newport mansions and kind of make the Gilded Age come alive. And you know, for our listeners, can you elaborate on specifically what was it about the Gilded Age that puts it right on the map and these Newport mansions will bring alive?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Well, as um you've probably heard, the Newport mansions are also called summer cottages. So these were the very wealthy uh folks in the late 1800s, early 1900s who came and used Newport as their summer resort. Um, and so uh that the the mansions show off a very different lifestyle than the one that most of us are normal or accustomed to. And um taking an audio tour just steps you through what that life was like. Um oftentimes the families like the Vanderbilts, the Astors, um, those folks came to Newport only for a few weeks out of the summer. It was a social season for them. And so um, this was about uh the parties and and the visitors, and um, it took quite a lot of staff in order to make these houses run. And hearing these stories through the audio tours just really gives you an appreciation for a completely different lifestyle and one that the Preservation Society likes to bring out and preserve and share.

SPEAKER_06 24:42

You said they only would visit a few times in the summer? A few weeks out of the year, most of them, these were summer houses. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 24:50

These are mansions, these are elegant, elaborate, uh amazing mansions that oh my god, because I I read uh on your website that you know the Gilded Age was a period where, yeah, of course, in history there was the expansion of industry and transportation, um, really marking the beginning of America's development into a prosperous, growing, you know, innovative modern nation. However, I you know, I did not realize this, and I'm a tax attorney and CPA, but I did realize that there was a lack of income tax during this period, which gave rise to this new wealthy class of people, and that is a lot of wealth. People have to see these mansions, and if they only were there a few times a year, um they were just filthy, filthy rich, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

They were called robber barons for a reason. Oh, really? Yes. Um, so they they they accumulated quite a lot of wealth, and it was through like the Vanderbilts, the trains and the um the shipping and uh coal mining and um all of these industries that relied on on uh very very low-paying labor.

SPEAKER_07 26:15

Wow. Also Ford, right? Um JP Morgan, I believe, at that time. Uh my God, I I'm these now I also learned on your website that um these were considered new millionaires. Yes. And they were l literally looked down upon by old money members of New York society. Uh they considered them invaders, and you called them what was you called robbers?

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Robber barons. Often uh the phrase often gets used, yes. They they were the new wealth, the nouveau reach. Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_07 26:57

Uh my understanding is that HBO films, it's series, it show the Gilded Age in any one of the in particular of the Newport mansions, or they have used a number of the mansions um since season one.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

So season uh they they use seven actually mansions to be precise. Um, and they have visited us since season one. Uh, they wrapped season four uh just in this past spring. And so it's very exciting to watch these um houses come alive and and be shared on screen with a lot more people than just those in Newport. Wow.

SPEAKER_07 27:34

Well, what else is going on in in your uh area there of the 250th birthday events and programs for America's birthday happening?

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Quite a bit. Um, and so one thing that I'm very excited about because we've been working on it with um uh a company called Plays in Place since fall of 2023. It's an actually a theatrical performance at Hunter House called Loyalty or Liberty, Tales from Revolutionary Newport. And so these plays, happening all summer long through September 1st, um, they immerse audiences in this period between 1778 and 1781 at Hunter House, and they bring to life characters like um those who actually lived in the house. Sarah Wanton, who was the stranded loyalist wife of the owner of the house. She remained at Hunter House during the occupation, the French occupation. And so we look at her life and we look at the life of uh one of her enslaved people. Uh, her name was Dinah, and we see how um there are different reasons for people to want to be a revolutionary or to want to remain loyal, and others who just want to remain neutral and kind of live their lives. And so um we look at these different points of view through the play, and also um what some people don't know is that uh the house also was the home for uh uh Admiral De Turne. Um, so when he was here. So the French actually were stationed at Hunter House, and so we have a look at that as well. And we look at love and loyalty and liberty and all these different emotions and complex um feelings that come out of the revolution, right?

SPEAKER_07 29:14

You could just imagine. I I would love to see that because it humanizes the experience. Um wow, I I know I would be engrossed in something like that. Um, anything else you'd like to have our listeners know about it, what's going on in your area and how they can come out and see you and see the society?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Yeah, so we also have a great lecture series coming up this summer. Um, we have uh a curator from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Alexandra Kirtley. She'll be talking on the Athens of America, the arts of Philadelphia from colonial to colonial revival. So we're very excited to have her on July 9th next week. Um, and then we also have a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, which many probably know. His name's Rick Atkinson, and he's coming to speak in collaboration with F. Anderson Morse, who's the executive director of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati. And he'll be here on July 30th. Um, we also have another one in August with John Hayes, who's the former deputy chairman of Christie's America, called The Thrill of the Chase: Collecting Art in Our Time. And he'll be taking a look at collecting from colonial through to now. And we also have family programs coming up. So time traveling Tuesdays will take place uh at Hunter House and um a chance for children and families to engage in uh what the revolution and the colonial period was like, uh toys and things like that. So um something for everyone, really, Patty.

SPEAKER_07 30:49

That's called time traveling Tuesdays. Tuesdays. Oh, that'd be good. I'd have to stay down there for at least a week from the weekend to the weekend to take in something every single day there.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Come join us, Patty.

SPEAKER_07 31:06

Yes, I'm not that far. I'm only in southern New Hampshire. I am not that far. But it was my pleasure to have you on. I wish you all the best in your season, and I definitely will come down because I'd love to meet you in person and take some of this in, no doubt about it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Happy Fourth of July.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Happy Fourth.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

I've got to be a date here. So we got a fact to the store of self distance.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

All the hot Philadelphia night. The world changed forever. Next time that paper acts. Thirteen columns stood tall and said enough to a king across the sea. They lit a fire in the hearts.

SPEAKER_07 32:19

Welcome back, everyone, to the Patty Gentile show. And in our last segment here, I like to call my coaching corner, where I provide guidance and tips and strategies to taxpayers and tax professionals alike. You know, the July 4th is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And so I thought it was a good time to remember what that document said. You know, it mentions liberty, it mentions fairness, accountability, the government exists to serve people and not the reverse. But nobody in 1776 imagined e-filing or refund trackers, but they did care deeply about how institutions treat citizens. And I do too. Millions of people deal with the IRS every year, and those interactions, in my opinion, should be fast, respectful, clear, and grounded in real rights. On June 24th, just recently, the national taxpayer advocate Aaron Collins published her fiscal year 2027 objectives report to Congress, and it reviewed the last filing season and set priorities going forward. One message that ran through it was that government service has to be fair, accessible, and grounded in rights, not just efficient. I I couldn't agree with her more. Um, she mentioned that, you know, most filers, for most filers this past season, the system worked, you know, e-filing, automated processing, you know, direct deposit. But to me, here's the problem that was most for most filers. It isn't everyone. Over 14 million returns got stuck in processing. About 1.1 million taxpayers waited longer than normal for refund identity theft victims had it worse. More than 500,000 waited and averaged 20 months for resolution. And the move away from the paper refund checks left taxpayers without bank accounts confused and delayed, often the people who needed their money fast. These aren't glitches to me, these are rights, violations, and slow motion. Rights can't be an afterthought, they have to be the foundation everything else is built on. The 10 taxpayer bill of rights that I've covered over the past seven weeks are not suggestions. They are law. They're written into the tax code. And what do these 10 taxpayer real rights look like in real life? Here's an example a notice that actually explains itself. A refund delay you can get a straight answer about. An identity theft victim who gets real updates, not silence. Someone who wants a representative and gets one fast. You know, technology does help a lot here. The IRS had online accounts and they have e-filing and refund trackers, but digital first cannot quietly turn into digital only. Plenty of taxpayers can't just log in and sort it out, such as older Americans, people with disabilities, people without bank accounts, or reliable internet, people whose case is too tangled for a bot to touch. Some people need a live person, an office to walk into, or just a letter that makes sense. A letter from the IRS can be terrifying when you're waiting on a refund to cover rent or a medical bill. And in those moments, quality service stops being a slogan and starts being urgent. Modernization should make the system easier. It should lift the burden, not shift it onto the people who need help most. Phone support, in-person service, and plain language notices all have to survive the upgrade, not get quietly phased out. So this 4th of July, between the parade and the barbecue, add one more American tradition to the list. No, you're right. Before we end for the day, I just want to say that through my mother's bloodline ten generations ago, my relative arrived at Plymouth, New England, now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts, in December of 1620. And my four times great-grandfather, Francis Courtney of the state of New York, fought alongside George Washington in the Revolutionary War. On my father's side, my grandparents, my father's parents and relatives immigrated from Italy to the United States in the early 1900s through Ellis Island in New York City. With that kind of a heritage, I can tell you that I'm a proud and patriotic American. And if you're out there and you've never really felt that spark, if patriotism always felt like something other people do or something you watch from the sidelines, I want you to know that you are never too late to this party. Not by a year, not by a decade, not by a lifetime. This country was built by people who showed up late to their own convictions, who changed their minds, and who found their way in. There's room for you, and there's always been room for you. So light a sparkler, fly a flag, look up your family tree, or just stand a little taller the next time you hear the anthem. However, you get there, just get there. The party's still going. 250 years in, and we're just getting started. I'm Patty Gentile. Happy birthday, America. And until our next show, have a great week.