A small world

Mine was a small world. I didn't know that at the time, those living in that world seldom do, but it has taken years to realize just how small it really was. The farthest reaches of that world was twenty five miles to the west of me. I knew the places in between my home and that far away place. There was Bridgehampton and Watermill to pass through.  South Hampton and Flanders, Then Riverhead itself. I seldom traveled that far. In fact I seldom left the town of East Hampton. Anytime I did that it was for a special reason, you didn't just go running around willy nilly. To go to other places you had to deal with strangers and you can't trust strangers. Those people " from away " could be deceitful and mean. I had heard about them my whole life and knew to be leery. Across the sound from me, that's what we always called it, " the sound " which is more formally known as Long Island Sound, was the far away land of Greenport and beyond that Connecticut. That's where television came from. I had heard tell of the old folks sailing to those places. That was in the time before automobiles were common. Back and forth across the sound the way we would drive up the road to Riverhead. I could see doing that as a matter of practicality, but it wasn't a voyage to be taken lightly either. Many a boat and ship has been lost in those waters. Just about eighteen miles to the east of me was Montauk. Montauk, the end of the Island. Not much there besides a light house and some good fishing. Had to be careful of those Montauk girls too, at least that is what I was told. I don't remember the big issue with them, but they were to be kept an eye on. Best not to get involved with them. Of course, that made them all the more attractive. Dating or marrying one of those Montauk girls was liking dating a foreigner ! Might just as well go to Riverhead and find a girl for that matter. Later in life I married a girl from Commack ( another distant land ) ! Might just as well have been a foreign country. In the end, it didn't work out, but that is another story altogether.

I was born into this little world. It was a world of us and those " from away. " Those from away brought the money and we did the work. That is the way it was. We that were born there had no desire to leave there. Everything we loved and needed was right there. It was during my generation that television became a big thing. Oh, it had been around a while by '53 but in our town three channels was the extent of it. We watched shows that was broadcast from Ct. It raised our awareness of the outside world that much is sure. I'm sure it did for all Americans. I remember seeing Kennedy shot on television. Then a man named Jack Ruby shooting the man that shot Kenendy. I watched hippies, with their long hair, electric music and free loving. I saw families driving in their cars and going on vacations. Some drove their cars hundreds of miles, a difficult concept to grasp. I watched a war. Vietnam and those images on television. I will always remember them.

This was at a time when most guys either got a job after high school or joined the military. Yes, some went off to College, but only the rich kids, not us common folk. And so in the Navy I went. I sailed away from that little world and have never been able to go back. The place is there, but the time has passed. And that is the hardest part to accept of all. The passage of time. Well, it happens and will continue to do so. Even after all my travels and adventures around the world, and right here in this country, I have discovered something. Walt Disney was correct is saying, " It's a small world after all. "