Anniversary Plans

Trevor Kelsall, the East Hampton Village historian, has refused to wrestle a pig on the village green when East Hampton Town celebrates its 350th anniversary next year, although he did so as a teenager during the grand pageant that commemorated the 300th. The committee created to plan the 1998 program has pretty much decided it will not put on another such spectacle anyway, assembling a cast of costumed hundreds being a bit trickier in this age of new arrivals and traffic jams.

The absence of the pageant should be no great loss to the celebration, nor, certainly, to Mr. Kelsall and the pig. The ideas the committee is considering sound as if they will provide plenty of excitement and, at the same time, give all who participate a chance to bone up on East Hampton and its history. As Bruce Collins, who heads the anniversary committee, remarked recently, there are a lot of us here who "know they're in a nice place, but may not know why it's a nice place."

Teaching the history of the town is an awfully good reason to commemorate an anniversary, as Mr. Collins told representatives of about 85 community groups. And the more residents know about our heritage, the more apt they are to honor it.

In a bid to drum up help and enthusiasm for the yearlong celebration, Mr. Collins and Town Supervisor Cathy Lester have urged every group in town to find a way to participate.

The committee is planning to strike a commemorative coin and publish a book of stories and photographs, which could raise money for the cause, to fit Hook Mill out with sails and set it to grinding corn, to put on an exhibit of historical documents, and to stage a parade which, by all expectations, will surpass in length and joviality any other seen in these parts.

And, provided a copy can be located, there are plans to show the film that was made of the 1948 pageant. We'd bet a few residents would pay a dollar to watch a younger Mr. Kelsall wrestle that pig.