The Lost Art of Innocent Summer Fun

Even the most modern families can enjoy watching old- fashioned family classics like “That Darn Cat” from 1965. Image from IMDB
Every August for 19 summers, my family and I would pack up my grandparents’ car and embark on our annual family vacation to Rhode Island.
It’s been almost seven years since our last trip together, but I can still picture our favorite beaches, summer rentals, traditions and routines as if we’d never left the beach.
We lived for the days spent body-surfing, boogie-boarding and walking barefoot down the jetty. There was enough magic in those family vacations to make even the cloudiest days worth remembering.
On those days when the rain canceled our beach plans, you could find my brother and I trying to best our grandmother in Dogopoly (Monopoly with a dog theme) or defeat our mother in Kings in the Corner (a futile effort).
Before there were streaming services or even Netflix DVDs, our mom would take us to the video rental store down the road and pick out a few classics to keep us entertained. From the titles we watched and rewatched over countless summers, here are a few that today’s families might enjoy watching together.
“That Darn Cat!”
It’s been years since I last saw “That Darn Cat!” and I’ve been keeping the memory alive by singing the opening theme whenever I catch our cat, Eska, patrolling the house.
Anyone living in a small town might know an animal like DC (short for Darn Cat), the four-pawed protagonist of this 1965 classic — the kind of creature that goes sauntering around town, swiping food and finding adventure in unexpected places.
For DC, adventure strikes when he follows a bank robber home and finds that he and his partner-in-crime are holding a bank employee hostage. Inscribing a message on the back of her wristwatch, the hostage slips the watch around DC’s neck in place of his collar and sends him out into the world.
DC returns home to his curious owner, Patti (played to perfection by the iconic Hayley Mills), setting in motion a wily, watch-able investigation.
It’s the kind of feel-good family film that’s difficult to recreate these days, between the antics of an acclaimed cast (including Dean Jones and Roddy McDowell) and the way DC leads (and frequently derails) the investigation.
Still, as is sung in the film’s theme song, the cat’s “been paid every accolade / And he’s earned all his acclaim.”
“That Darn Cat!” is currently available for viewing on Disney+.
“No Deposit, No Return”
Another Rhode Island favorite that combined comedy and crime was the 1976 film “No Deposit, No Return,” starring Darren McGavin (best known as the “award” winning father in “A Christmas Story”), Don Knotts and David Niven.
Expecting to be picked up from school for Easter vacation by their mother, siblings Tracy and Jay are unenthusiastic when they hear they’ll be spending their vacation with their billionaire grandfather, who’s equally displeased to have to watch them.
At the same airport where the siblings are due to meet their grandfather’s butler, safecrackers Duke and Bert are trying to crack the airport safe. In their escape from the airport, they end up in the same taxi as Tracy and Jay, who’ve escaped with plans to reconnect with their mother.
Thinking they could benefit from one another, the children hatch a plan to write a ransom note to their grandfather with hopes of receiving enough money to allow them to fly to their mother in Hong Kong and to help the safecrackers pay off a gangster. Add a car chase, some judo and a pet skunk named Duster and you’ve got a crime comedy that’ll leave everyone laughing.
“No Deposit, No Return” is available to rent through Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.
STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.
At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.
July transfers
79 Ernest Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 6.87 acres in 2 parcels sold to Matthew C. Marinetti for $1,225,000.
29 Drake Road — 3 bedroom/3.5 bath home on 2 acres sold to Harper Montgomery for $850,000.
6042 Route 82 — 4 bedroom/2 bath home on 1.09 acres sold to Spencer Thompson for $795,000.
125 Tick Tock Way — 3 bedroom/2.5 bath ranch on 1.9 acres sold to Fleur Touchard for $475,000.
August transfers
102 Prospect Hill Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on 6.35 acres sold to Karl Creighton Pfister for $565,000.
252 Ernest Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath cottage on .85 acres sold to Meg Bumie for $465,000.
1196 Bangall Amenia Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 2.16 acres sold to Roderick Alleyne for $875,000.
Hunns Lake Road (#759929) — 59.1 acres of residential land sold to Argos Farm LLC for $3,325,000.
* Town of Stanford recorded real estate transfers from July 1 to August 31 provided by Dutchess County Real Property Office monthly transfer reports. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access - properties with an # indicate location on Dutchess Parcel Access. Market data from One Key MLS and Infosparks .Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office Harlem Valley area activity reportSept. 18 to Sept. 30.
Sept. 23 — Deputies responded to 1542 State Route 292 in the Town of Pawling for the report of a suspicious vehicle at that location. Investigation resulted in the arrest of Sebastian Quiroga, age 26, for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree. Quiroga to appear in the Town of Pawling court at a later date.
Sept. 30 — Deputies responded to Woodside Street in the Town of Pine Plains for a past-occurred verbal domestic dispute between a stepfather and stepson.Matter resolved without further police intervention.
PLEASE NOTE:All subjects arrested and charged are alleged to have committed the crime and are presumed innocent until proven guilty and are to appear in local courts later.
If you have any information relative to the aforementioned criminal cases, or any other suspected criminal activity please contact the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 845-605-CLUE (2583) or Emaildcsotips@gmail.com.All information will be kept confidential.
Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.
Joining in the fun at the dedication of the new pollinator pathway garden at The Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4, local expert gardener Maryanne Snow Pitts provides information about a planting to Lorraine Mirabella of Poughkeepsie.
MILLBROOK — Participating in a patchwork of libraries that have planted pollinator pathway gardens to attract insects and birds to their native plantings was one of the accomplishments being celebrated at the dedication of a new pollinator garden at the Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4.
“A lot of work went into it,” said Emma Sweeney, past President of the Millbrook Garden Club, who started the local library’s initiative two years ago.
The Pollinator Pathway program is a national effort to plant native plants that native insects depend upon for sustenance and preferred plants for their own seasonal reproduction.
Jana Hogan of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Executive Director of the Pollinator Pathway program, was on hand to present a plaque to the library for its successful participation.
“A garden is not just a garden,” said garden designer Andy Durbridge of Wassaic, designer of the library’s garden. “It may serve as a model for other gardens along the line.”
Speaking to the 50 visitors at the dedication, Durbridge said that the library’s garden has a mission, that it is a working garden, planned to serve insects and birds over their seasons. The earliest plants support pollinators, while the full range of plants continues to serve the needs of those they attract, offering habitat, shelter and food.
A pollinator garden is akin to a prairie, rather than a formalized European garden, Durbridge noted.
The garden project was supported by the library’s Friends group using funds raised during the Holiday Silent Auction and ongoing book sale. A grant from the Millbrook Garden Club also provided support.