Harbor Deli's

Man, I was just remembering a time up until about 1980, that if you wanted a six pack of beer after 10pm you had to drive all the way to 7-11 in Southampton. You could pay bar prices and get it at the Black Buoy, but the local deli's were all closed by 10pm.
I got to thinking about the old deli's in Sag Harbor in the 1960's. Distefano's on Main Street opposite Glover Street. The place had been there as long as I can remember. It later became the Cove Deli and was open every night till 10pm. There were several near Pierson High School. Cleveland's was on the corner of Division and Henry Streets. It was operated by Arthur and Theresa Cleveland and they lived in the attached house. I remember Arthur got his own gas pump in his yard in 1965, and that was a big deal as everyone else had to go to the gas station. There was also Tony's on the corner of Rt 114 and Elizabeth Street. He also wrote the Secret Sam stories for the Sag Harbor Express. Another was Field's Store on the corner of Rt 114 and Jermain Ave. Topping it off in that area was the Neighbor Store on Jermain Street and Madison St, but that was gone by 1964. Another popular deli was Korsak's on the corner of Division Street and Union Street. They use to get up by 4am daily and make salads, among others potato and famous baked beans. Up until about 1965, the local A&P was a small store on Main Street where the Shopping Cove is today. Also down the street was Schiavoni's, and across the street from that was Ralstons. Eventually most have disappeared and become art galleries among other things. But in their day, these little grocery stores actually served the different neighborhoods in Sag Harbor. The Harbor Deli came to Main Street around 1970

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Man, I just realized it will be Christmas in a few days and got to thinking about Christmas programming back in the late 50's and early 60's on our TV. Usually regular weekly programs had a Christmas episode, but there was not too much in the way of Christmas specials that I remember except one. It was produced by Bell Telephone and came on every year before Christmas. It was puppets acting out the Night Before Christmas and the Nativity. It featured the Mabel Blanton Marionettes. For some reason this half hour program stuck in my mind all these years, even though it left TV by the mid 60's. If your under 50, you won't know what I am talking about, but to those of you who do, click here This is my Christmas present to you.
Twas Night Before Christmas Puppets, 50 years later

On The Waterfront

Man, as I mentioned previously in another post, my cousin Steve use to spend the summers of the 60's in Sag Harbor. After a day at left Sagg or Long Beach, we would head downstreet for the evening. There was not to much to do in those days, so we would hang around A dock on West Water Street. Next to A dock was a small marina owned by a man named Jacobs I believe. The lot next door was the Whaler's Motel. The building housing where 7-11 is today was not there yet. It was an empty lot. About 1966 it would be the A&P, that moved there from Main Street. The Seaside was where the Harbor Professional building is now. The restaurant was operated by the Remkus family. They also has a small fishing station where they rented boats next to the bridge. For fun we use to walk on the rocks under the bridge. This brings us to Long Wharf, where you could catch 25 blow fish on a Saturday morning, fishing off the end. The windmill was not built till 68 for the Whaler's Festival. Agawam Aircraft factory was where Malloy's building and marina is now. There use to be a guard who sat on the porch of the three story building. Next was the Yacht Club, about the same today. The oil tanks were next to the Yacht Club, where a oil tanker would come in once a week or so to fill them. This was for home heating oil, etc. The boatyard is still on Bay Street where it once was. Sometimes we would walk on the breakwater rocks in front of Cora Maria. And finally Tides beach, known today as Haven's Beach. After spending every evening around the waterfront and downstreet, we would get a dime can of soda at the soda machine at Remkus' Fishing Station and a 15 cent ice cream cone at Race's Drug store, now the bike shop. Man for 25 cents you could get all that in those days. Oh, by the way, the waterfront was almost completely abandoned in those days, not the zoo it is nowadays. Remkus Fishing Station

Light up Time

Man, I just dropped the kids off for Sag Harbor's annual light up time this afternoon. Reminds me of years past. In the 60's, light up time was held on a Friday night in early December at 7PM. The cops put up a snow fence from Bohack's, now the pizza place, up to Christy's Liquor store. The crowd would line the sidewalk in this location. Santa would arrive, have a countdown and put on the lights and give out candy. This all took place in front of the Gingerbread House. Sag Harbor Electronics would provide the public address sound. The lights were all multi colored as they are now, not snob white as they were for several years here. Yea, the Christmas tree was lit on the little barge in Otter Pond as it is now. People in control of the village now, remember this as kids and it's good to see it's returned. I also remember the Lyon's Club, for years, had a large lighted box in the park as you came into the village depicting a boy pulling a Christmas tree on a sled. Nice to see if that scene could be reproduced. For several years, the village had lit Christmas trees in the center of Main Street in the business district with lights strung across the road. As they do now, the Lyon's Club sold Christmas trees. I remember the cost of being about $2.50 a tree.Santa I.F.O. the Gingerbread House with boxes of candy

Old Time Bus Service

Man, if you wanted to get around in the 60's you either had a car, walked or took a bus in Sag Harbor. Most families in Sag Harbor had only one car. Many women did not drive. So if I wanted to get to Riverhead for example, you boarded a Sunrise bus in front of the movie theater. It cost $1.35 to Riverhead and took an hour. The bus rolled through Sag Harbor 4 times a day. Today it's a $1.50 anywhere because the county took over the S-92 route. It's a real bargain and and only 15 cents more than 40 years ago. You could get on and off the bus anywhere, and the first westbound bus arrived in Sag Harbor at 7:50 am. Several Bulova workers from East Hampton took this early bus to Sag Harbor. I have not been on this bus in over 30 years, but plan on doing it again for the experience and will write about it in this blog. I suspect the clientele has changed as shown in the photo below.
People waiting to Board the Sunrise Bus

November 22, 1963

Man, I just saw on the news this morning, that it's the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. It occurred at 1:30 Eastern standard time, in Dallas, Texas. I remember it was a Friday. I was home watching the Gale Storm Show on Channel 8 from New Haven. Remember - No Cable. The reason I was not in school was because 5th and 6th grades at Pierson were on split sessions due to the high student population and I only had to go to school from 8:30 to 12:30pm whereas another 5th grade took over the room from 12:30 to 4:30pm. I remember that channel 8 was broadcasting the ABC newscast from New York. I also remember that WABC was getting a continuous feed from it's ABC station WFAA in Dallas. I saw two people who were eyewitnesses of the shooting in Dealy Plaza. They were Bill and Gayle Newman giving their story on WFAA. They were young, 23 at time with 2 little children. I happened to see them again this week. I was surprised what 45 years does to you. Back on that weekend in November of 1963, we had off Monday for Kennedy's funeral. Does not seem like 45 years ago, and many of the eyewitness, 1/2 to 3/4 are now dead.
Gayle and Bill Newman, then & now

In Search of a B-52 Bomber

If some of you out there are like me, you hate what the summer brings to Sag Harbor and the rest of the Hamptons. Crowds, rudeness, ripoffs etc. Ten years ago I had enough of this shit and decided to rent a waterfront cottage for the summer on Moosehead Lake, near the Village of Greenville, Maine. I discovered Greenville accidentally a year earlier, after white water rafting one August on the Dead River. Not wanting to spend another night in a tent, I saw on a map, the Village of Greenville was about 40 miles from my campsite. I drove over and rented a room in the one and only motel. The town is like Sag Harbor was 40 years ago. Population about 2500. They still burn garbage at the dump, and the local drug store has a soda fountain. And all summer long the place is mostly devoid of tourists, unlike Bar Harbor, Freeport and other coastal towns in Maine. Now that I have let out the best kept secret, and the town will be invaded like Sag Harbor was about 30 years ago, I will continue with this story.
I always make a point to drive up to Greenville each summer, a day or so before the 4th of July weekend and all hell arrives in the Hamptons. I do the 12 hour drive up I-95 as I got a lot of shit to carry, and although there are a couple of seaplane bases near my cabin, flying would not be practical due to my need for transporting kayaks, mountain bikes, satellite dishes, Labrador retrievers, etc.
Anyway, there is not a whole lot to do in Greenville, so sometimes I watch the guys in the lumberyard move stuff around on their forklifts. During a chat with one of them, during my first summer at Greenville, he wanted to know if I had visited the B-52 crash site nearby on Elephant Mountain. I said I didn't, and he related the following story. In January of 1963 a B-52 with a crew of half a dozen or more were flying in the area on a weather mission, when their vertical stabilizer tore off due to turbulence. Three were able to bail out before the jet crashed into Elephant Mountain . Two survived the night in minus 30 degree weather and were rescued the next day. The lumberyard worker gave me directions to the crash site a few miles outside of town on land owned by the Scott Paper Company. When I checked it out, I found it unusual that while the Air Force removed their secret equipment, I assume a pair of H-Bombs for example, they left the remains of most of the jet. Walking in the woods, I suddenly found myself in a large debris field from a plane crash 45 years ago. Tires, fuselage, even a leather flight jacket still tangled in the wreckage. It was a little weird to say the least. The site is visited each year by about 2500 people. The local mountain club looks after the site. Don't even think of taking anything from the site. They frown upon such actions as it is considered a shrine!
Some of the B-52 Wreckage from 1963 Crash

Bad Economy? For Some At Least

Man, as I write this, the Dow Jones is again down 337 points. Retail sales for October are down 2.8 percent. I guess you've heard the old saying, shop till you drop. Well I guess everyone has just dropped! I've just returned from a local steak house tonight with the old lady. I got there about quarter to six, and by seven the place was filled. Apparently there are still people out there, like me, who don't mind dropping a couple of C notes for a decent steak dinner. A chat with the owner of a local liquor store this afternoon revealed his sales are up 20 percent. He attributes this, to people not going out to restaurants as much, and buying their wine at his store. Although this was not indicated by what I saw tonight, I have noticed weeknights seem slower however. Speaking of restaurants, in the 60's there were not many around Sag Harbor. The Remkus family had the Seaside right next to the North Haven bridge. The late Dr. Harry Diner here in Noyac, bought the place over 20 years ago and called it the Harbor Professional Building. The family sold it last year and soon it will become condo's. There was Alippo's Spaghetti House on lower Main Street, where you would see Mrs. Alippo sitting out in front of her place on a chair at all hours. as well as Race's Drug store a couple of doors up, where the bike shop is now, where you could get fountain service. The original Paradise Restaurant, not the same one as is there now, was on Main St. and was THE local hangout. You had at least a half dozen bars downstreet, but they survived on serving drinks, not food. On the cove, you had Baron's Cove Inn, opened about 1962 by Frank Barry. That place is also in the process of becoming condo's at this time. Right outside town you had Tony's Coffee Shop on the Turnpike, and Lenny's Casino on the corner of Long Beach Road and Noyac Road. And that's about it. Local families did not eat out that much, if at all, so that was the reason for few restaurants. The same was not true for booze. A lot of the population drank, and this supported the many bars around town, along with at least two liquor stores that stayed open till ten on weekends, Christy's and Sag Harbor Liquors.The Paradise Restaurant in 1969

Railroad to Sag Harbor 1870 - 1939

Man, most people don't know there use to be a railroad to Sag Harbor. It was a 4 mile spur from the Bridgehampton train station to where the post office stands today in Sag Harbor on Long Island Ave. Yup, that's why it's called Long Island Ave. Built in 1870, it operated steam trains until the early 1930's, when it converted to a gas powered Toonerville Trolley. The railroad ceased operations in 1939 and the tracks ripped up for steel during WWII.
The last I remembered, the station operated as a scallop house in the early 1960s, and then was abandoned altogether. As kids, we use to play around the station. Unfortunately it was always securely locked, so we could not get inside. Once a nice looking building in it's time, a donation by Mrs. Russel Sage, it was torned down in the spring of 1966 to make room for an ugly drive up bank that still stands today. Something that could never happen in today's time with landmark preservation.
For the full story about the Sag Harbor Railroad branch click here to visit: Arrt's Arrchive who has the complete history of the LIRR.
The old Sag Harbor Train Station as it looked in 1960

Sag Harbor Dairies

Man, I was just in King Kullen buying a quart of milk and it was a buck and a half, or six bucks a gallon, depending how you look at it. Back in the 1960's in Sag Harbor, there were two dairies, Head of the Pond and Cilli's. Head of the Pond was run by Bill Nolan and the Cilli brothers operated the other. Most people bought from the milkman, instead of buying at the A&P or Bohacks in the village. We had Head of the Pond, my next door neighbor on Garden Street had Cilli. Both would operate a pickup truck and deliver quart sized milk bottles to your porch, sometime between 3 am and 6 am. We had one quart delivered daily except Sundays, as there was no delivery that day, and they would bring two bottles on Saturdays.
I don't know what transpired prior to the 60's, but the milk from Cilli's cows were transported to Schwenk's Dairy on Rt 114 in East Hampton, where Riverhead Building Supply is now, where it was processed and bottled and the Cilli's would deliver it to Sag Harbor homes. The glass bottles sometime froze in cold weather and broke on your porch. I remember the cream was always on the top of the bottle. As late as 1965, I can remember seeing the Cilli's at their Glover Street farm, washing the milk bottles on a mechanical machine rack. Many times the cows would get at loose at night and the police would call the Cilli's to, click link: corral them. By 1980, I guess competition from grocery stores drove both milkmen out of business. I always wondered in these times, if I had not already made my millions, I would bring back the milkman service, complete with a step van, selling high quality dairy products such as cheese, butter etc. along with the milk, door to door. It might work!
A Pre 1960 Head of the Pond Bottle

The Night the Lights Went Out, Nov 9, 1965

Man, I was just thinking about the time back in August 2003 when I was almost finished building my new house on Noyac Road. It was hot, so I decided to knock off about three in the afternoon. I was listening to the radio when I heard them announce that there was a massive blackout on the east coast. As the afternoon drew on, I noticed my Nextel walkie-talkie starting to work intermittently and then die out. However, I did have a generator and satellite TV along with a wired telephone, so this blackout had no effect on me.
Not so with the one on November 9, 1965 when I was attending Pierson High School. That night, a Tuesday, I had put off until the last moment doing a social studies report that was due the next day. Around 5:30 just as it was getting dark the light dimmed and went out. We had candles that we lit, and when it became apparent the lights were not coming on for a while, I turned on a handheld transister radio and was able to tuned in WCBS News Radio 88 and learned how extensive the blackout was. Thousands of people trapped in subways and elevators in New York City alone. Oh yes, I did my report that night by candlelight. The next day, the teacher said that because of the blackout he would give us an extra day. So much for being consciencous.
To listen to the actual aircheck of ABC's flagship New York station that night, click here77 WABC and listen to Dan Ingram as the blackout was about to happen! WABC's 50KW transmitter in Lodi, N.J. still operated, but their studios in Mahattan were fading fast man!

The Big Northeast Blackout

Mid-Air Collision Over Sag Harbor, Part 1

Man, this is an unusual story that my mother use to relate to me years ago when I was growing up in Sag Harbor. The story goes like this. One morning while she was doing her household chores, she heard a tremendous boom, and ran out of the house. In the sky overhead she could see pieces of planes coming down and dudes in parachutes. She said it happened sometime in the 1940's but couldn't remember exactly when. She said some Air force guys were killed. Oddly I never heard mention of this accident from anyone else in Sag Harbor.
So in the late 1980s I decided to do some research to see when and what exactly happened. My first stop was the local library on a Thursday evening. Ms. Dorothy Ingersoll Zaykowski, an expert on local history let me go into the library basement where they had every Sag Harbor Express dating from about 1850 to present. Sad to say, I visited the John Jermain library this past summer and was told they got rid of all the old newspapers. The library worker did not know where they ended up, but I hope it wasn't the dumpster. Talk about stupid, a week to week history of Sag Harbor down the drain for research purposes. I could ask Bryan Boyhan, who runs the Express, and he would probably be kind enough to look up something from his archives, but he's a busy man and I don't want to really bother him. I do know the East Hampton library has a lot of Sag Harbor Expresses on microfilm, so I will have to look into if I need to so more research, Anyway, back to the story.
Sitting in the library's basement with a single bare lit bulb, I skimmed through some boxes of papers for a while, looking at the front pages only of each one. Finally on the Thursday, August 18, 1949 issue I found the story. Two Army Air Force F-82 Mustangs had indeed collided over Sag Harbor that very same day. The fighters were twin engined with a crew of two each, and were on a weather mission, departing out of Mitchell Field at 9am. At about 10:40 am the aircraft were seen flying southwest over Sag Harbor at about 8000 feet. One person who witnessed the crash stated one of the planes appeared to be in trouble, as it was flying unevenly and the engines seem to be backfiring. The noise from the impact drew the attention of hundreds of Sag Harbor and North Haven residents instantly. Firemen rushed to the scene, even as debris was still falling from the sky. Many Sag Harbor residents rushed to the foot of the North Haven bridge on foot and in cars, and stood aghast at what they were seeing. William Miller, working in the yard of Mrs Marie Hodenpyle on North Haven, was one of the closest eyewitnesses. Mr. Miller stated, "I heard the backfiring of an engine and looked up to see an airplane disintegrating right over my head. There were pieces of aircraft scattered everywhere in the sky, and it started falling all around our place and Maycroft. An engine or something fell into the bay with a terrific splash, Then I saw parachutes coming down. I thought there was only one plane and that it had exploded, but they told me later there were two." Part 2 tomorrow
An F-82 twin Mustang in the foreground

Mid-Air Collision over Sag Harbor, Part 2

Continued.......Much of the debris from the planes fell on Maycroft, a 43 acre estate owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island for a school and summer camp for children. At the time of the accident, there were about 90 children vacationing there, who were on the grounds of this bay camp, but other than being splashed with hot engine oil, no injuries were reported. Witnesses agreed that 3 men were clearly visible floating to earth with parachutes even before the planes had a chance to break up. The body of the fourth flier, whose chute didn't open, was believed to have been instantly killed in the crash and thrown free by the force of the impact. His body was found a short time later on Short Beach, having plummeted to earth. Of the three remaining fliers, one was found dead in the marsh behind what is now the Peerless Marine Center on Ferry Road. Those on the scene said he had suffered severe head injuries, as if he had been struck by debris while floating to the ground. The two fliers who escaped death, dropped into a field on the south side of Ferry Road. They were dazed and shock-ridden, and driven by passers-by in a station wagon to the Municipal Building on Main Street. Once inside Police Headquarters, they established communications with Mitchell Field, but refused to give any information locally on the cause of the accident. Mr. Mel Lamb, who at the time operated the East Hampton Airport, was just landing after a flight from Gardiner's Island, when he saw the tragedy taking place from the air. Capt. Lamb immediately took off from East Hampton Airport and reported seeing an engine buried in the main driveway leading to Maycroft, and the grounds strewn with debris. Across the road lay the body of a dead flier. A police guard was set up to keep people away until the arrival of Air Force authorities. Wreckage of the second plane was seen by numerous residents to fall into the lower cove of Sag Harbor. At about 12:30pm, three local residents, Mrs. Madeline McPartlin, Bill Brewer and Henry Brewer who were in a rowboat, located the engine of one of the Mustangs in about six feet of water, and notified the Coast Guard. In the days that followed, debris was loaded onto Air Force trucks and transported away. Oddly, even though local newspapers noted the incident at the time, no followup was ever published as to the cause. That was, until about 1998 when I got a copy of the 50 page official Air Force report on the accident. There were a lot more details with names, mission purposes, times, etc. but in the end it was attributed to pilot error. One of the two pilots who died on one of the planes may have been practicing instrument flying wearing a hood to black out the surroundings and collided with the other plane.
So man, that's where it stands except for what could be termed a strange coincidence on that same Thursday as the mid-air collision over Sag Harbor.This time at about 7 pm that evening, Mrs. William Benbenik, who, with her husband and brother were fishing at Georgica Beach in East Hampton Village, noticed a puff of smoke about two miles westward. Grabbing a pair of binoculars, Mrs. Benbenik observed what she believed to be a small plane coming toward her, dipping up and down. Suddenly it veered offshore, dipped into the ocean and disappeared. She reported the incident , which she described mostly as a white ball, to East Hampton Village police officer Dick Steele, who was patrolling nearby. Mel Lamb, of the East Hampton Airport was contacted and flew out with another pilot. He observed an oil slick and what appeared to be some wreckage, about 5 miles offshore. Mr. Lamb notified the New York Air Sea Rescue, just before dark. An extensive search was conducted, but no aircraft wreckage was ever found, nor was a plane ever reported missing in the vicinity of the New York or New England area! (Copyright 2008 BVB)
MP looks at plane engine in Maycroft's driveway

Harvesting Long Island Potatoes

Man, I was buying a 50 pound sack of potatoes today at the Country Stand on Scuttle Hole Road. You can keep potatoes in a dark place at 40-45 degrees, say a cellar, and they will last a long time. So for sixteen bucks it's a bargain. It got me thinking that as late as the 1980's I use to see black migrant workers from the south picking potatoes in the fields. What they actually did was place these potatoes in a sack. The farmer's tractor would pull the potatoes out of the earth and deposit them on the ground. Backbreaking work. The migrant workers were housed in labor camps such as Sack's where the Bridgehampton National Bank is today. Usually on Saturday nights after these men were paid, they would drink at Pickney's or another bar on the Turnpike. Man, if one was driving from Sag Harbor to Bridgehampton on a Saturday night in the 60's you would have to be careful. Men stumbling along the side of the road, etc. More than one passed out on the railroad tracks and were run over by a train. Fights and knifings were common. Most housing were slums and at least one pig farm was on the turnpike where the GFSF museum is today. The local fire department burned down many of these shacks. Oddly a lot of people living in these shacks drove Cadillacs. Blacks rarely drank in a couple of white bars on the turnpike, such as Gordons, as well as you would never see a white man in Pickney's, although I knew a couple of cops who would once in a while, just to piss off the blacks. Today all but a few of the potato farms are gone, and what are left employ mostly Latinos in their grading houses. A down and out friend of mine took a job for a week in a local grading house around 1975, and said the conditions were the worse he'd ever seen. Old black men drinking bottles of booze for lunch, etc. just to cope with that shit.

50 cents an hour for this shit?

Big Fire at the Harborside

Man, just what you need, another fire story. This time, I was headed downstreet for a night of drinking at the Black Buoy in mid May 1977. I parked my Ford Maverick in front of the 5&10, about 10 o'clock, and by chance ran into a friend of mine. He was headed to the Buoy also, so we walked down the sidewalk and past the Harborside Restaurant, owned by Eddie Ryder. Thats when I noticed a weird grease odor which seem to coming from the restaurant. The place was lit up, looked kinda open with two or three guys hanging out inside. I remember remarking to my friend about the smell as we walked pass the restaurant, and then thought no more about it. After downing some shots and beers for about an hour, the fire whistle went off on the roof of the Municipal Building. We noticed some activity around Main Street and some dude came in and mentioned a fire inside the Harborside. After about a half hour the smoke from the fire got kinda heavy inside the Buoy, so we and about a half dozen others stumbled across the street to watch the fire. The restaurant, a bakery and Montgomery Wards were all on fire. We watched from the sidewalk across the street for about an hour. Then my friend remembered he had left his hat in the Black Buoy, I don't know why the fuck he was wearing a hat for in May, but we walked back, but by this time the bar was full of smoke and closed up for the night. So we had to finish drinking at the Sandbar that night. The big Easter Sunday fire would follow in almost the exact same place in 1994 and take out the hardware store among others, but man, that's another story.
Harborside was on the right by the two men

Non-Violent Revolution

Man, it's 11:01 PM and the results are in. Barack Obama is the President elect. Extraordinary victory for blacks. First African-American to hold this post. I remember back in the 60's when I was on trips down south. I saw first hand how blacks were not allowed in restaurants. They would have to eat at hot dog stands while whites ate inside the restaurant. Totally fucked up situation. In the 1960's, blacks accounted for about 2 percent of the Pierson High School student population. They were sons and daughters of mostly doctors and lawyers who comprised Azurest and other black neighborhoods in Sag Harbor. Most were at the top of their class and have made valuable contributions to society. Now man, you've got to try to cut back on those Marlboro's. Those outside porches at the White House get cold during winter for cigarette breaks!

It's about change.

Farm Stands

Man, nowadays you see farm stands on nearly any road you travel on. Back in the 1960's in Sag Harbor there were only three. Bee's on Noyac Rd near Brick Kiln. Soah's on the sharp corner of Noyac Road, and the third, Bildzis, at the intersection of Noyac Road and Stony Hill Road. A fourth stand, called the Other Stand did not appear until the late 70's. Noyac Road was still partly undeveloped and there were several hundred acres of corn fields. Slowly houses appeared and by the 1980's all fields were gone. By the later 1990's all the farm stands on Noyac Road had disappeared with the exception of the Noyac Rd. and Stony Hill Road stand. The stand has not been actually used in decades, and is about to fall down, but the owner sells products out of it a few times a year to keep it's status up. A late 1950's shot of the Bildzis stand you can still see standing on Noyac Road and Stony Hill Road intersection is seen below.

Note the now long gone corn field behind the stand

Sag Harbor and Man on the Moon

Man, in the mid to late 60's there were several factories operating in Sag Harbor. One was Grumman, which operated out of the plant vacated by Agawam Aircraft Products earlier in the decade, and where the Bay Street Theatre is today, next to Long Wharf. I remember a guard always sitting on the porch of the 3 story brick building which was once a old grain mill. Anyway, what they built there were the throttle handles for the lunar module used on the Apollo moon landings. The factory closed down about 1970 and was sold to Malloy Enterprises. Unfortunately Sag Harbor village could not afford, or did not have the foresight to buy this valuable piece of property and it evolved into what it is today, a marina, restaurant and several shops.

Old Grumman plant a few years after it closed

Halloween Pasts

Man, I was walking down Main Street, Sag Harbor, this afternoon and there were at least 2000 kids with their parents trick or treating store to store. 40 years ago things were different. First, No Parents. You would go out in groups of 2 to 6. You would go to any house you wanted to. There was no candy available at the stores. You would only go out when it got dark. There was no worries about eating candy received from strange houses. Unless the kids were lazy, and had their parents drive them around, they would walk around town. Once in a while a cheap asshole would give you an apple, which we proceeded to throw through his front window upon exiting their yard. Then to, you could steal pumpkins off porches and smash them in the road. Up until about 1966 Pierson held a Halloween party each year with scavenger hunts and the like. Good to see people still into holiday, although the mischief nowadays is lame.

A typical house I went to trick or treat at

Fixing Up A Dump, Part 2

Man, progress is continuing on the dump on Noyac Road on the outskirts of Sag Harbor. I've removed 50 yards of junk the tenants left behind in the garage and basement. I have another 150 yards of brush I've cut down with a chain saw and piled up with a skid loader. Also got a decent pile of concrete. Haven't even touched the inside of the house yet. So far it looks like about 10 grand going to have this shit taken away. Will keep you posted.

One percent of the junk inside this joint

Pierson High School Renovation

Man, I was driving past Pierson High School and I got to thinking about the renovation they did back in 1981. What happened was the school was built about 1907 and up to 1980 really not much was done on the building. In 1964, a new gym and a elementary wing were built along with metal fire escapes on both sides of the building. Other than that, the building started to fall into disrepair. They did not bother to even paint it. Basically, it looked liked shit. In 81 they finally renovated the inside and outside of the building with a 3 million dollar bond. They did not add any additions other that making the old gym into a theatre. The hill was cut down 3 feet in front so a new front entrance could be installed, much to the dismay of sleigh riders. The school was designed in 1907 to handle 800 students and when I got out of the joint there were 750. This was before the Sacred Heart of Mary school was bought in 1971 and made into the Sag Harbor Elementary School. For some reason after the 81 renovation, the Pierson bell sat in the front of the Whaling Museum for over 2 decades until it was returned to lobby of Pierson where it belongs, and should never have left there. The custodian, Vinny Onisko use to ring the bell, which was located in the clock tower on top of the school, every day at 8 am and 1 pm to signal the start of school. The bell could be heard all over the village. I will post more about Pierson in later posts.

Talk about the building falling into disrepair!

Hamptons Drive-In

Man, I was thumbing through this art book today at Nina Bourne's pad on the ocean in Sagaponack, while getting her house winterized, when I came upon this 1974 painting of the drive-in below. Nina, approaching her mid-90's still works as a editor at Random House. Anyway the Hamptons Drive-In opened about 1955 on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton. The place would be open from May to September and show two movies beginning at sundown. There was a refreshment stand and a playground for the kids. The place was popular with young couples in the 50's and families in the 60's. In the 70's it was a place to go to drink beer and smoke pot. Hurricane Gloria blew down the screen in August 1976. One evening about 1am after a night of drinking, I drove off with the speaker still attached to my van. Should have kept it. I hear they draw good prices these days. Anyway with the price of real estate being what it was, the place closed around 1982 and is now King Kullen shopping center. The screen was located where the Southampton Police sub-station is today. Wish it were still around.


The Hampton's Drive-In as depicted in this 1974 painting

Old Summer Carnivals in Sag Harbor

Man, when I was a kid in the 1960’s, the carnival used to come twice in the summer to Sag Harbor. Once every July was the firemen’s carnival and once every August was the American Legion carnival. The carnival was usually held in the empty lot on lower Main Street where the Laundromat/Bookhampton building is located now. At that time up till 1965 there was a little brick building occupying that spot in which Louie the Shoemaker was located. After he vacated the building, it was last used in the summer of 1964 as a Goldwater campaign headquarters. I visited the headquarters and paid the rip-off fee of 25 cents for a can of Goldwater, which was actually ginger ale. Soda was a dime in those days in cans. The can itself, had I kept it and not opened it, would have been worth a lot more than 25 cents today. When the Laundromat was built, the carnivals moved to the lot now occupied by the Post Office, where they stayed until 1969 when the American Legion carnival was raided by state police for illegal gambling and that ended the carnivals in Sag Harbor for the next several decades, until being resurrected in the 1990’s by the fire department and held annually at Haven’s Beach until 2005. One exception to the lower main street location, they held one carnival in the summer of 1965 in Mashashimuet Park where the cement building housing the restrooms are today, for some reason. In those days the carnivals would open at 7pm on Monday nights and run to 11pm. They would be open 6 nights and closed Sundays when they moved to another town. There was a ticket booth at each ride where you paid 25 cents for a ride. Very inefficient as today one ticket booth can sell tickets to all rides and need only a couple of people to staff it. The rides consisted of the Ferris wheel; the merry go round, the octopus, among others. There were wheels with 36 numbers where you bet a dime and if it came up, you won a prize. These were the ones considered illegal in the 1969 raid. As kids, we use to watch the carnival being assembled on Sundays by a bunch of dirt bags as you would call them today. They had no port-a-potties at the carnival in those days, and if you wanted to use the bathroom, you had to walk over to the Danny McClain’s Shell station. Danny ran a tackle shop out of his gas station until he moved to Bay St and opened the Bayview Tackle Shop at the end of the decade. The Shell station itself stayed around until the early eighties and then became a restaurant. One nice thing, living on Garden Street, I could walk downtown in 5 minutes. The only other place to hold a carnival each summer was St. Andrew’s church, in their parking lot. It was not really a carnival, but more like a fair, as there were no rides, but they did have cotton candy, which every kid liked. The popularity of carnivals has seemed to dwindle somewhat today, but parents still bring their kids to them mainly for the rides. I attend the North Sea carnival once a year on July 4th weekends, but it’s only to let my kids experience the fun. I’m no longer suckered in, by carnies anymore.


The carnival hasn't changed much over the years

Big Fire at St. Andrews

Man, as I stated in my previous post, Steve and I always got back from Left Sagg at 6pm. In August 1965, arriving home on Division Street shortly after 6pm, the fire whistle went off. We were headed down street anyway as usual, and walking pass Cleveland's Superette, could see fire trucks down the road on Hampton and Union Streets. Arriving at the scene, heavy smoke was pouring out of the steeple of St Andrews church. We hung around while the firemen ran around and put out the fire which did extensive damage to the inside of the church. A few years ago I was sitting inside Ken Cullum's office, the village fire Marshall in East Hampton, and he showed me a old 8 x 10 black and white photo taken at the fire scene that night many years ago. There was old fashioned police car parked on Division Street and a large crowd standing in front of Stella Maris school. Unfortunately we were not in the crowd, when the photo was taken. We were probably in the back parking lot. It would have been cool to see ourselves in the old photo though. Oh Well.
St. Andrew's Church in the 1960's

Donkey Baseball at Mashashimuet Park 1965

Man, I was watching the World Series last night, when I was thinking about my cousin Steve who was down here for the summer of 1965 from Far Rockaway, staying at the family homestead on Division Street. Every day was set to the exactly same routine. Sleep until 11am, get up, eat breakfast. At exactly 2pm our aunt drove us to either Left Sagg, AKA Gibson Beach, or to Long Beach. We would stay there until 6pm and then come back home. If it rained, we always went to the Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen. At night were were free to do what we wanted and usually hung out down street. One summer night in 1965 they had a donkey baseball game in Mashashimuet Park. Guys would have to get on a donkey, hit a baseball and get to first base. We watched it from the old grandstand. Kinda stupid. After the game was over we hung around until the man in charge of the donkeys tied them up for the night to a tree in the park and went home. We thought about untying them for a joke but the donkeys were kinda of nasty and we thought the better of it. Stupid game but that was what summer of 1965 had to offer in Sag Harbor

Old grandstand we watched the donkey baseball game from

Post Office

Man, I was mailing a letter today and got to thinking that Sag Harbor has had several post offices over the years. Some on Main, one on Washington St. etc. In the 1960's the post office was was located in the brick building on the lower west side of Main Street that Jill's and another store occupy now. The boxes all had combinations locks in those days. The window where you got parcels was actually a window that raised and lowered. In those days, the post office lobby was open evenings until at least nine pm and Sundays all day. There was a bulletin board with FBI wanted posters and a desk. What happened was kids started hanging out in the lobby at night and weekends, rising hell and that is why you cannot pick up your mail in the evening anymore. Still a nice idea though. By the way, when the new post office opened on Long Island Ave in 1976, a jeweler named Dave Lee bought the old mailboxes and made them into clocks and banks. You could buy your old mailbox which I did. Finally, If you shoot down Nassau Street and look at the rear of Jill's, you can see the old platform and metal bar door still in place that was once the back of the old post office.

Old Main St. Post Office Early 1960's

Feeding the Ducks

Man, I was looking for Otter Pond the other day. It's gotten so grown up around the pond, you can't see it much anymore. Sag Harbor Village should do something about this. It looks like shit. Anyway years ago a favorite past time of locals were feeding the ducks on the south side of Otter pond. You threw one duck a piece of bread and almost instantly 50 would show up looking for food. The big white ducks would beat up on the little ducks, a few would peck each other to death, all in the quest for food. Fun to watch their social skills. I notice nowadays fewer ducks hanging out since don't feed the duck signs have been posted around the pond. Apparently duck poop pollutes the pond. I noticed a cop one day sitting on Jermain Ave by the pond. I don't know if he was trying to catch people feeding the ducks, or clocking speeders. Anyway if you decide to feed the ducks and go to jail, don't say I didn't warn you. Another of our old past times taken away!


Ducks looking for food at Otter Pond 1970

North Haven/Shelter Island Ferry

Man, the old lady has been after me forever to take her on one of those cruises to nowhere out of New York. I keep putting her off and she ends up calling me a cheap fuck. Shit, I ain't got money. So for our anniversary last week , I thought I'd surprise her. I got the old picnic basket out of the attic, found some food in the refrigerator I put in it and bought a $3.00 bottle of apple wine. I took her down to the Shelter Island ferry, the same one I take on my sole jaunts to Foxwoods every week. Hell those casino dudes pick me up in a limo at the ferry and comp me a room most of the time. Anyway, I parked and we got on as foot passengers for two bucks. You see, the thing about this ferry is once you get on, you can stay on as long as you want as long as you don't get off the boat. I learned this trick on the Staten Island ferry when the price was a nickel years ago. The crew doesn't give a shit. Hell, we wined and dined until 1 am when the ferry shut down for the night. Man, the whole night cost me under ten bucks. Next year, I think I'll take her to the East Hampton Airport. They got a patio there where you can sit outside and watch the planes land and I can save two bucks on the ferry ride!
Shelter Island Ferry

Sleigh Riding Down Pierson Hill Early 1960's

Man I was driving past Pierson High School last winter after a brief snow and was surprised to see all the kids sleigh riding down Pierson Hill. I was also surprised to see all the parents cars there. Man, In my day, if I was sledding at Pierson and one of your parents were there you'd be labeled a sissy. It just did not happen. We use to go after school, pulling the sled along the road to remove rust off the Flexible Flyer runners and make the ride faster, Before the 1980-82 renovation of the school, the hill was three feet higher. The hill is one of the few in Sag Harbor that are decent, and after a while the snow packs and makes the ride faster. One day a kid told me he made it from Pierson Hill all the way to the Madison Meat Market on Union Street, via sled, but I still don't believe it. Some kids use to hit trees and destroy their sled, but nothing serious ever happened that I can remember. One of the fun, free things kids can still do in Sag Harbor, depending on the snow of course.

Winter sledding down pierson High School hill

Cub Scout Tour, WLNG Fall 1963

Man, I was in the Cub Scouts, when I was ten, and in the fall of 1963 our den toured WLNG radio station on Redwood Rd. The station had just opened in August 1963 having constructed a small building on the waterfront on Redwood Road in Sag Harbor, and erecting a tower they had moved here from Connecticut. The station was on 1600 AM and broadcast from 6AM to local sunset with 500 watts of power. When were walked into the station it was a reception area with a secretary in the center. On the left was the studio with a glassed enclosed transmitter. On the right was a production room where they taped commercials. Very small, about the size of a large chicken coop. The DJ that November afternoon we were there, was Chris Johnson, and we got to watch as he cued up records and read commercials. The station also broadcast the Mutual News network in those days via leased landline, no satellites were yet available for these purposes. Other DJ's were Joe Ricker, Paul Sidney and Don Cannon who went on to work a 50 KW station in Philly. Probably their biggest show was Shop and Swap. I remember Joe Ricker the newsman telling me he got up and left his house on Jermain Ave. at 3:30 AM each morning and walked down to the station. He called all the local PD's to get news for his newscast on the half hour. About 1970 the station got a license for FM at 92.1 MHZ. and the building was expanded, I remember one night in the winter of 1977-78 a terrific snowstorm hit during the evening. The tide rose to such a level that the fire department had to evacuate the radio station around 11PM. This was all broadcast live until they had to shut off the transmitter for safety purposes do to the water entering the building to a height of about 6 inches. Later the station bought land on Millstone Road and put up a higher tower for better FM transmissions while keeping their original station on Redwood Rd. and linking it to their new transmitter site via microwave. A few years ago the station sold their AM 1600 license for a reported 750K and went silent forever so a New York Station could get better coverage on the 1600 KHZ frequency. WLNG is still around today. Hasn't changed much, and it's oldies format and DJ talk has seem to make the station a continued success.


WLNG station photo from Al Case website, circa 1982

Newsday Carrier

Man, in the fall of 1965 I made the mistake, needing extra money, of signing up as a Newsday Carrier as a lot of kids in that era did. I soon got the job of delivering papers on upper Main Street, Palmer Terrace, Jermain Ave, Oakland Ave and Fordam Rd. The manager assigned me 55 homes that got home delivery. Newsday then was a afternoon paper, costing 5 cents and was published six days a week. The manager would drop off my bundle of papers daily about noon at my house and I would deliver these on my bike after school. It took me one hour to deliver the papers each day, or 6 hours a week. Now the bad news!
Newsday paid me 8 cents a week for each of the 55 papers I delivered. Do the math. I made $4.40 for six hours work or about 75 cents an hour. Not if that was not bad enough, Newsday wanted their $4.40 upfront each week, so if some customers did not pay that week I had to come up with it out of my own pocket. Some people tip a dime or so, others would pay you the 30 cents and not a penny more. Then there were the assholes who, when i came to collect after not paying me for two weeks would lie and say,"Oh, I paid you last week, don't you remember?" Try that trick with me today and I would roll up the paper and shove it up their fucking ass. All the news that fit to shit! Tells you something about their character, ripping off a 12 year old kid. Scum Bags, Then there was the woman on Oakland Ave. who was going to sue me because she said I did not shut her storm door tight, after putting the paper on her porch and the wind blew it open and broke the glass. Probably was one of her dim wit daughters who left the storm door open, and she was trying to shake me down. Didn't get a dime from me. Fortunately she quit getting the paper after that. The paper had a colored comic section on Thursdays that you had to insert, and if I forgot to insert one, sure enough on Thursday evening some idiot would be calling me at home to complain he or she didn't get their stupid comics. One house I delivered to was the Napier house on Main St. opposite Palmer Terrace. It was a big old whaling mansion that had fallen into disrepair and the grounds were overgrown. Looked really haunted. Kind of place that neighborhood kids would not linger when they walked pass. Didn't bother me. It was painted the ugliest shade of faded red there was and was occupied by two elderly sisters and a nasty dog that tried to bite me every time I had to ring the doorbell to collect my 30 cents pay. I don't know why but I kept this lousy job for over a year, delivering on my bike in all kinds of weather, and pulling a sled in the snow. Finally I had enough and quit. The manager begged me to stay, but I told him to go fuck himself. Talk about child labor laws or lack thereof. And fuck you too Newsday for using young children for your greedy means! Think about it. When was the last time you saw a kid delivering a paper on his bike? At least the kids in later generations have wised up! Below is the old Napier house I had to deliver the paper to on Main St.

Man, great shade of red

Harry Youngs Bicycle Shop

Man, every kid in Sag Harbor, who before he closed up shop in 1966 knew Harry Youngs. Harry owned a bike shop on Main Street in, what is now the southern part of Fisher's Antique Shop. Harry, and his partner Harry Wallace, fixed bikes and sold gas from a pump out front for 22 cents a gallon. These dudes, for some reason always dressed in black clothes and caps and reminded me, in appearance of the Wright Brothers as you seen on TV on their first flight. Harry was quite deaf and you had to shout to make him hear. He was also very old, as was Harry Wallace. Anyway, I got my first bike when I was five. I lived down by the Whaling Museum and had to walk back and forth to the Pierson every day. I started kindergarten and the first day, my mother had a neighborhood high school girl walk with me to school. I was only four. On the second day, the girl stopped at Cleveland's market on Henry Street to talk to some boys, so I proceeded on to school myself, and didn't need her anymore as I knew the way myself. Anyway, I figured I could cut my time in half to and from school if I had a bike. That's how I became acquainted with the Young's Bike shop. I was always racing around, crashing into trees at the bottom of Pierson hill, etc. so my bike was in the shop alot getting repaired. I broke the pedal off one day and Harry charged my mother 25 cents to weld it on. I remember there were always a hundred or more bikes laying around the shop. I guess the baby boom generation keep Harry busy with work. Next to Harry's shop was Ben Fisher's candy and coin shop. and just south of that was a barbershop owned by a man named Conklin, I believe. I did not really like getting a haircut from him so I usually hit Marty's or Sam's.



Harry outside his bicycle shop. Circa early 1960's
From the highly recommended book, Voices of Sag Harbor, Edited by Nina Tobier, Publisher: Harbor Electronic Publishing 2007

Big Fire at Hilltop Acres

Man, the fire siren sounded 3 different times yesterday in Sag Harbor and my dogs were pissing and moaning about the sound. Must of been a busy day. It got me thinking about some big fires in Sag Harbor's past. One was Hilltop Acre's. One Saturday evening in the fall of 1970 around 6pm, the fire whistle went off in Sag Harbor. I had a scanner at the time and turned it to the fire frequency, where the dispatcher was reporting a fire at Hilltop Acres on Brick Kiln Road on the outskirts of Sag Harbor. It was a old hotel, that while remaining open throughout the 1960's, had started to fall into disrepair. It had recently been purchased by a local family who were renovating the place. They had been painting rooms there all day. I immediately drove up there. No fire trucks had arrived yet, but some firemen in private cars were already there. What hit me was the heat. I was standing on Brick Kiln and the heat was so intense it burned my face, 100 feet away. Every room on each floor was ablaze and the fire alarm had only sounded 5 minutes earlier. I member one fireman had parked a convertible near my car and the cinders had already burned a hole in his cloth top. At this point I decided to spit the scene, not wanting to get stuck there when the trucks arrived. The hotel was located high on a hill, and as I drove down to Long Beach, sitting in my car, I could get a spectacular view to the building, fully engulfed. The next morning Sunday I returned to the site and nothing was left but a smouldering foundation. I don't remember if officials ever found a cause of the fire. A couple of private residences sit on the site today. A photo of Hilltop Acre's also known as the Seaview House is listed below. I will post other fire stories in the future!

Hilltop Acres, AKA Seaview House

Early Telephone

Man, now that you know about TV service I'll tell you about phones in Sag Harbor. They sucked big time. From the late 40's till spring 1965 most people had a black phone without a dial. You picked up the receiver and the operator said "Number please?" If you were calling someone in Sag Harbor all you had to say were the last four digits of the telephone number, not the SA5 or later 725 prefix. Most people had a party line with one to three other houses, so if someone else was yapping you couldn't make or receive a call. If it was a emergency such as a fire, you simply told the asshole who was using the telephone party line at the time, to get the fuck off the phone so you could call for help. In those days the operators, located in the telephone office at the intersection of Union and Church St would blow the fire whistle. A responding fireman would call the operator and get the location where he wrote it on a chalk board for other firemen arriving at the firehouse downstreet to see. Long distance in those days was expensive, about a buck a minute. In the Spring of 1965 the telephone Co. built a new switching center on the turnpike across from Sag Harbor industries and everyone had direct dial. The operators in the Union Street office were reassigned to other towns and the bldg. closed and later was sold to a private buyer. Later when the laws changed, you could buy your own wiring and phones and the telephone co. was only responsible up to where their wire entered your house. Nowadays you have a option of telephone service from Cablevision, cell services among others and the old phone company is no longer a monopoly!

An early 1955 Sag Harbor telephone book

Television in Sag Harbor 1950's - 1970's

Man, I just picked up my second Panasonic 50 inch plasma, HD TV and it's great. Got me to thinking what we use to have. We got our first TV set about 1956. It was one of those wooden console sets with a small black and white screen. I think my father bought it from Sag Harbor Electronics, a store on upper Main Street nowadays occupied by a book shop. The store was run by two men, Jack Kraft and Walter Sterns. These guys also installed the rooftop antenna. There was no cable in those days, and the only channels you could get was channel 8, WHNC in New Haven, CT and WTIC channel 3 in Hartford which was a little snowy. The TV's of this era had tubes, and the TV repairmen would come to your house in a red van and fix the TV if it was only a tube replacement. Otherwise they took the guts of the TV to their shop on upper Main Street to repair. TV shows in this era such as Ed Sullivan, Sea Hunt, 77 Sunset Strip, etc, played on one of three national TV networks, ABC, CBS, NBC. By 1 am the TV stations in Connecticut would sign off the air and you would see the test pattern below. The transmitters themselves, located on some remote hilltop; ran 24 hours a day, but this was before remote control shutoff by the studio to the transmitter and this is the reason you would see the test pattern all night, cause there weren't no dudes at the transmitter site to shut it off at night!
In 1965 cablevision built a 350 foot tower off Brick Kiln Rd. and cable TV arrived in Sag Harbor. You would get 12 channels, from NY city and Ct. for $5.00 a month, a real bargain. Color TV arrived in the mid to late 60's and HBO launched it's first satellite in 1976 so you could receive it's movie channel for an extra 9.95 a month. From then on cable kept adding channels and increasing it's monthly rate to you have the services you do today. A footnote, in Feb 2009 all analog TV signals, the stuff we received from our rooftop antennas will cease to transmit and all broadcasting will be digital, freeing up the TV spectrum for other services! My kids say I'm full of shit, which I am, most of the time, and don't believe the story about 2 channels and black and white, of my youth, but anyone over 50 knows what I am talking about.

Man, this was how you adjusted the old rooftop antenna

Beatles Come to Sag Harbor

Man, I was just thinking about the Beatles, and remember when their movie, A Hard Day's Night, premiered in Sag Harbor. It was August 11, 1964 and my cousin Steve, who was out for the summer, and myself arrived downstreet at quarter to seven. The line was all the way back to the Sag Harbor Savings Bank, nowadays Apple Bank. We managed to get in and it was great, with girls screaming in the audience. All for a price of 50 cents. Afterwards we stopped at the Paradise restaurant for a 15 cent ice cream from Jim Alioto. Upon exiting the theatre, the line for the second show was as long as the first one. Only time I saw a line that long. Bad news is I hear the Sag Harbor movie theatre is for sale. A charming building. I hope the new owner/s keep it as it is.

Peek-A-Boo

Man. I was taking a shortcut this past summer, walking from Rt 114 to Main Street in Sag Harbor, when I passed the old jail. A kindly old lady was sitting out in front of the jail. She gives tours here in the summer, so I decided to take it and see the inside of the jail, not that I haven't seen the inside of a jail before. The place was condemned and shut down in the 70's and prisoners Sag Harbor Police had were then taken after that to Southampton for lodging. One guy named Gil Collins hung himself inside the jail one night about 1966 after being arrested for public intoxication. The place has three cells and interesting photos and other items. Worth a look if your in town on a summer weekend. One photo I noticed was a guy under arrest who was a drunk named Peek-a-Boo. It reminded me of an incident that happened over 40 years ago. Peek-a-Boo lived in a upstairs apartment over what was then Rocco's Antique Shop, next to the nowadays Fisher Antique store. Anyway, my friend and I were on bikes going to Harry Young's bike shop. This was about 1965 and my friend got into a shouting match with peek-a-Boo who was hanging out his upstairs window. Peek-a-Boo then proceeded to dump a pail of piss on my friend's head who was on the sidewalk below. My friend said,
"I think I better go home and take a shower".
Shit, it could have been worse; number 2 instead of number 1. Enough said. True story.

Black Buoy - Part 2

Man, as I said I would give you some Black Buoy stories, here's one: I'm sitting in the bar drinking with a bunch of locals one night in the winter of 1975, and this middle aged couple stroll in, and sit at one of the liberty ship hatch cover tables. One dude, who looked like a nowaday Larry the cable guy got off his stool and walked over to them and said to the man:
"Git up!"
"Why do you want me to get up?"
"Caus I'm goin to wup ya!"
"Why are you going to whip me?"
"Caus I picked ya!"
Needless to say the couple quickly left the bar. The locals were a little uptight with strangers. Actually the fights that occurred were few, and out-of-towners were usually the culprits. I had a glass thrown over my head a few times, busting on the wall, and some dude who was all fucked up threw somebody's bike through the front window. Otherwise things were mostly quiet. The sole purpose of going to the Buoy was to get drunk. I never arrived before 10 o'clock at night and usually stayed till around 2am. Went out a couple times to smoke a joint or see what was going on in the Sand Bar across the street. Bars were not known for food back then, but the Buoy did serve a decent pizza pie for $1.75 being made by whoever happened to be working the bar that night. Pizza was almost as good as Sam's in East Hampton. Man, if I drank to much and got sick, I'd go to one of the telephone booth size bathrooms in the back of the bar, and puke, then be ready to drink more, to the sound "I can't get no satisfaction" by the Stones playing on the jukebox. There was a cigarette machine with Marlboro's for 55 cents a pack, and a small pool table in the back. Cap Amundsen, a local seascape artist, usually hung out there playing pool. Most customers, from age 18 up to their 30's and usually mostly male, drank either shots or beer. Although it may have once been, this was not a old man's bar. A woman named Sonja Connors worked the day shift in the bar, but I was never in the place as I did my drinking at night. Night bartenders were mostly women. Sometimes the Budweiser was stale and you'd have to put some salt in it, but what did you want for 25 cents a glass. The joint finally closed in the mid-eighties and became a steakhouse known as Ryerson's, then a Chinese restaurant, a seafood joint, and the last time I passed by appeared to now be closed. You can't really run a bar nowadays without a good restaurant along with it. The Black Buoy stands sorely missed by not a few of the locals in Sag harbor. Respectable it was not, but the greatest drinking bar in Sag Harbor ever!

The original Black Buoy prior to closing in the 80's. Note the old fashion rectangular neon sign hanging out over the sidewalk in front of the bar.

Fixing up a dump

Man, I got this good deal with the government where I sit on my ass and do nothing and they send me a check once a month. No it's not welfare, but a pension. Actually when I worked for the government I sat on my ass and did nothing. Anyway, I sometimes get tired of sitting on my ass, so when my father-in-law decided to sell his mansion south of the highway in Wainscott and prepare to move into his other house, on the outskirts of Sag Harbor, he assigned me the job to fix it up. As you can see in the photos below, the tenants split from this joint and left most of their shit there, old cars, furniture, etc. The place is a real tear down. Soooo, I'll be spending the winter renovating this place and will post some progress reports. I already filled a 30 yard dumpster, and will be ordering several more.

Black Buoy

Man, the Black Buoy was the greatest Sag Harbor bar of all time. I started drinking there in the early 70's. It was owned by a Jim and Rose Black. Nobody had any money in those days, so beer was the drink of choice. $2.25 for a large pitcher. Two pitchers would usually get you fucked up, so for five bucks a night I could get a good head. Grass was cheap too. About 25 bucks an ounce. You could also score hash, magic mushrooms, or acid if you liked. Thankfully coke, meth, heroin and that other garbage wasn't popular and not available, in Sag Harbor at least! Man, there was no Sag Harbor police force so to speak of in those days, so you could drive home drunk and nobody gave a shit. The cops weren't pressured by the county into starting stop DWI patrols until the early 80's. Man, I hit this joint at least a 1000 times so I'll post some of my experiences there! Posts to follow........


Man, Do those two guys on the end looked fucked up or what?

Dived Bombed

Man, I was sleeping in yesterday after a night of drinking and about 10am, I got up to take a piss and these planes keep buzzing my house in Sag Harbor. Well I took a photo of these planes. Can anyone ID them? They look about WW ll. I suspect they are Grumman F4F Wildcats. Aviation expert I'M not!

New Blog

Man, I grew up in Sag Harbor, Long Island, in the 50's, 60's and 70's , then a small fishing town of 2000, before it turned to shit, starting around 1980. This blog is dedicated to the memories of those good times, before everybody in New York, including a high percentage of assholes, washed ashore here. The locals are now selling out, me included, to new owners who are making trophy homes. While it's great to see these old homes being renovated, the prices these houses generate, have the locals laughing all the way to the bank. Unfortunately you have a community, not just Sag Harbor, but all the Hampton's, now lost from what we once knew it as. I will post regularly. Later.......Bruce