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.