Out East adventures

Here we ware are late 70’s life is great when your a young teenager and your best friends mom is driving you both in a beat up old RV heading to Montauk point, I remember passing through each town on the way with our heads out the window . It was quite then and the towns were very rustic and of course before popularity set in. We came from a small town middle of the island south of sunrise it would take us less then two hours to arrive but it was always an adventure , her mom was the kind of person who knew everything about everything, I myself knew nothing,  not to put myself down but all I had going for me as a teenager was I was artistic. Her mom would point out places  of interest to try to make this adventure to the point more interesting. she encouraged me to read, and  always wanted me to enter one of my paintings in the clothesline art sale at guild hall. As we entered into the town of Montauk I remember the big circle the one that took you to Gosman’s dock , I remember there was a club on the right on the way back we would hear music playing and a few years later when we were of age her mom dropped us off there and swung by a few hours later most likely we had a few drinks because drinking age was 18 back then. That RV sure did come in handy when you wanted to just pass out you could as soon as you jumped in, who cared if it smelled like musty old shoes. nothing fazed me back then. Montauk became my happy place, it was far enough and close enough from home. Fran would drive her RV all the way to the point park and place her fishing permit right in the window as if to say its ok I have a permit to fish so I can park here all night which we did, actually for two or three. I remember the fist time getting out of the RV and staring at the lighthouse in pitch dark and hearing the lighthouse make a humming noise and the light would blast past you every so often. When I say it was dark out, it was dark out there. Fran would make breakfast and we would head into town. my friend and I would play miniature golf and go on the paddle boats and grab an ice cream.  As time when by and you didn’t want to  hang out with your friends mom because you got your own car , we would drive all the way to Montauk on Friday night and believe it or not sleep in the car because we never had money to pay for a room, and who cared we were in Montauk ok it sounds really bad but when you want to escape your troubles this was the place to go as far as I was concerned and by the time I reached my twenties my friends and I had jobs so we could book rooms in our new found happy place the  “Hamptons” now this was a whole new ball game , we made sure we  looked good when we went out there ,  we  met people from all over the place, they were surely different from us, the ones who came from the city mostly had families that lived there , you could also meet people at the diner before you head back home if you didn’t have a room to stay in that  was the worst thing having to drive back home but it only took an hour if you put the pedal to the metal. I remember one time the only hotel available was in riverhead which was to us back then not the hamptons but close enough for us to meet the cute guys we met the night before at the beach the next day.

Ok so here I am 24 years later at the age of 53 still enjoying my happy place, only I have a few different found loves with a whole new different crew of friends, as time went by and in her honor I entered a few paintings in the 2015 clothesline art sale which I am sure would of made Fran proud as I named one Fran’s dream, I sold four out of five paintings which made me happy to contribute to a town I loved most of my life. Its a place where you can run into famous people but you don’t want to seem excited you just say hello and leave them alone because this too is there happy place, even though I would love to go to every fund raiser just so I can hob knob with the best of them , I enjoy going to  authors night, where else can you pay to meet famous writers and pay to eat a fancy dinner with the most interesting people and in the most lavish homes. I usually go with my sister law because she is more educated then I am and I usually just listen to fascinating stories as I look around and go how cool is this. I have great memories too many to even say, I have met so many celebrities that I would love to brag about but I am not sure if that would be good adequate. I have a new generation of East end adventurist and that is my friend and her two daughters , the past few years we jump in the car and they start yelling were going on an adventure , which is true, going out east is an adventure we make it fun for them by stopping to get coffee at our favorite place and they get a treat then we hit an art show or explore sag harbor get a treat at one of the bakery’s go to a museum run on the beach drive to the Montauk  eat ice cream get pizza pick pumpkins shop in the walk around the Hampton’s get candy whatever we do I hope that they one day will say mommy’s friend brought us to the Hampton’s when I was young and now its my happy place , always an adventure .