Connections: Light in August
For year-rounders, summer is not generally the time for relaxation. Beaches and outdoor pursuits beckon, but for us working stiffs, the nonstop revelry of July and August feels like an endurance test. This season’s almost uninterrupted sunshine provided vacationers with extra days of beach and pool and paddleboarding and tennis, but for the most part we year-rounders were looking forward to the pressure easing after Labor Day.
Over the weekend, however, I did somehow manage to belatedly get into that vacation-relaxation mood. I think it was an anticipatory sense of impending relief that gave my husband and me permission to take it easy and enjoy the home stretch.
At lunchtime on Saturday, Villa Italian Specialties in East Hampton was packed to the bursting point. Three different lines were set up, one for customers clamoring to place orders, another for those paying for their readymade pastas and salads, and a third for those waiting, patiently and not so patiently, to be called when their Villa Combos were ready.
Like most year-rounders, I usually avoid food-shopping at peak hours, but we dove right in, and I felt like a real tourist joining the long-weekend scrum. We took our eggplant Parmesan sandwiches home, set the table outside under a big copper beech tree, and watched the perfect blue sky through the branches.
I felt like a tourist again on Sunday, when, stopping at Breadzilla in Wainscott after yoga, I found myself among a crowd of first-timers who obviously weren’t familiar with the protocol — where to stand, how to order. Later that day, my husband and I took one of our 5-year-old grandsons for a leisurely browse at the Sag Harbor Variety Store (a.k.a. the 5 & 10), where little Teddy — who has been nicknamed Speedo this summer for his incredible energy and propensity for running — displayed remarkable restraint, carefully inspecting every toy and game before selecting a small pack of Pokemon cards as his special treat.
If the Sag Harbor Variety Store isn’t exactly a high-glamour destination, a shopping errand there is undoubtedly a delight for jaded city people, for those too young to remember when 5 & 10s were common, and for those nostalgic for small-town life. It sells every imaginable household gadget and craft supply, and there is a mechanical pony outside, which kids can ride for 25 cents. From its cheerful façade and vintage sign to its modest prices, it is thoroughly unHamptons.
(From time to time rumors have been spread of the store’s demise, but they haven’t been true. Frankly, I think it is a historic landmark that should be preserved. Would the citizens group Save Sag Harbor take that on if the dark day ever arrived?)
After our little Pokemon-buying excursion, we took our grandson to Buddhaberry on Sag Harbor’s Main Street, where, this time, I was the tourist too clueless to navigate the system or the crowd. Frozen-yogurt fans stood two deep in front of the fro-yo and candy-topping downspouts. Teddy had been there before and helped us oldsters figure it out.
The end of summer is supposed to be bittersweet, more melancholy, in theory, than anything else. But those of us who have been holding our breath until September, when calm returns and traffic eases, see the opposite side of this coin: The end of summer is a happy ending. I guess that is why we grinned and enjoyed its waning days.
Back in East Hampton on Monday, Labor Day itself, I walked down Main Street accompanying an older grandchild while she shopped for a swimsuit. We found one at Gubbins, then stopped at Starbucks for some sort of frozen strawberry shortcake Frapuccino concoction. That afternoon, I actually sat down and read a book! Finally, my husband and I wrapped up our mini-staycation by indulging in dinner at a waterfront restaurant, taking advantage of the view before the fine weather ends, as end it must.