The strange saga of the shark fin got me thinking about the Christmas tree in Town Pond and other decorations. Now illuminated year round as part of the East Hampton Village theme park, Hook Mill and Gardiner Mill overlooking the pond do not supply the thrill they did when their blades were lighted up for Christmas once each year. For a holiday surprise instead this year, speakers mounted on lampposts in the business district blared bah-rum-pum-pum-pum.
Old-timers like me may not share the same taste in streetside decoration as the folks making decisions for the village’s public spaces, but visitors do not seem put off. There were plenty of people roaming around Main and Newtown over the weekend carrying shopping bags from the boutiques and fashion conglomerate outposts. One does wonder for whom the fuss is on display — few actual village residents, I would think, were juiced by the folderol.
One tradition that I have always been a sucker for is the tree in Town Pond, of which the best part is seeing the village crew setting it out from their tippy aluminum rowboat. The tree seems particularly East Hampton in the particular pond. So, too, do the recollections of how a plywood shark fin turned up floating there in 1976.
At issue in the letters this week and last were the fin’s authorship and who was or was not there for its installation. I have no knowledge one way or the other to add, but what I do recall is that some friends and I, probably jealous of the then-anonymous genius pranksters, decided we were going to “borrow” the fin not long after it appeared. After tying several lengths of rope together, three of us walked down to the pond with a plan to snag the fin. I don’t think we succeeded. One of us slipped and fell into the water in the process, in fact.
Just recently, a suspiciously similar wooden fin appeared in a salt marsh at Lazy Point, proving that some jokes never get old. No one has come forward to claim responsibility. All the better I think; some things are better left unadmitted.