CONGRESSMAN EVERDEAN In the old days, the great days of sailing ships and land merchant fleets, Bayport was a community of travelers.

Every ambitious man went to sea, and eventually, if he lived, became a captain.

Then he took his wife, and in most cases his children, with him on long voyages.

To the stay-at-homes came letters with odd, foreign stamps and postmarks.

Our what-nots and parlor mantels were filled with carved bits of ivory, gorgeous shells, alabaster candlesticks, and plaster miniatures of the Leaning Tower at Pisa or the Coliseum at Rome.