Nell Newman, Soapsuds, and Me

During the long, hot summer of 1979, I won a Movie Star Look-Alike contest (entering as James Dean), at the AMC Theaters' Grand Opening in Hampshire Mall.  I also toiled away with my brother Dave, some HS soccer team buddies and assorted others on the Hampshire College Dining Hall food service crew.  Dave was The Condiments Man, and I washed pots.

Among the assorted others: a live wire with a pixie cut named Nell Newman.

I assumed that Nell was a Hampshire undergrad, but cannot confirm that she really attended the school (Hampshire then was like a Grateful Dead tent city or a KOA Kampground - you could blow in from any direction, land there and stay as long as you liked).

Wow!! - Nell had her Dad's brilliant, knock-you-back-on-your-heels blue eyes. We scrubbed pots side by side for several shifts as various groups (Doll Collectors of America, the Union for Radical Political Economics, MA-state meals program for children of migrant workers, Martial Arts camp, etc.) passed through town, using Hampshire College facilities for their programs and needing to be fed.

350cc V-8 & a plain plastic "bench" seat up front: Glorious!

At the time I had a '74 Chevy Nova SS-350 and Papa Newman was making a name for himself on the race car circuit, so - as our casual acquaintance grew - I invited Ms. Newman to take a spin with me around the campus, and showed off the hotrod, suggesting that she "Tell your father I'm ready to race him!"  Nell was polite enough but, as you've already presumed, we never got that far...

I think of pretty Nell whenever I sip a Newman's Own coffee, or bite into a Fig Newman.  Exquisite!