Oh Hamptons, my Hamptons!
The sea is an interesting thing, it can either tear people apart or, in my case, bring people together. Journeying from Long Island to Montreal, my parents and I took a ferry to get to Connecticut, the day was beautiful, sunny, and with just enough breeze to please your average sailor.
Now I’m usually no great fan of the big and blue, its size, its depth, and the creatures it hides are beautiful but petrifying. I’m the person that prefers to watch documentaries about the sea and its curiousness behind my television screen because it offers me the protection and security a snorkel and goggles don’t. That being said, the sea did wash away our boredom for an hour and twenty minutes by bringing us the entertainment and knowledge of a self-made tour guide. Think Robert de Niro but with a Long Island accent and you’ll get the idea. He’s the type of guy that has to nudge you in the shoulder every time something has to be said about anything. Or the type that lives in one of the wealthiest parts of the country whilst calling it “so ostentatious, it’s almost vulgar.” But he is from north of the island, which means he hasn’t grown up amongst the rich and glamorous billionaires — or not so glamorous given the over exposed and, frankly, appalling exhibition of slavery. He’s also the type to use expressions like “they’ve got their own caviars,” whatever that means, and to live on Long Island not in it (look it up). Being the curious folks that we are, we listened intently. He knew about it all of course, from Gardiner’s Island to Montauk Lighthouse, from Whitebread race to shark problems in Cape Cod, you name it. I learned more during that hour long boat ride than I did during a three-hours long history class.
The proof? Gardiner’s Island was bought by a wealthy family of the same name, has been owned by them for over 400 years, and was part of a grant from the English Crown. Montauk Lighthouse was the first one ever built in the state of New York, and Whitebread race is a sailing competition that occurs every September where you don’t just get to win a trophy in the end, you also get the party of the year to celebrate.
Now because of a couple of deaths the year before, the race had to be cancelled but being the good American citizens that they were, organizers didn’t need a race to have a party. That way you got the wine without having to compete for it, land of the free right?
As for the shark problem, I think I dosed off and caught on at the part where dolphins brought them here because the water is so clean and “you wouldn’t have seen that ten years ago.” If it weren’t for the sea I wouldn’t have learned about this particular part of my second country. As far as I was concerned, Long Island was merely “The Hamptons,” the place where a handful of celebrities and New York rich kids came to sojourn, or where Nancy Meyers likes to shoot her films.
My bad.
