100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, October 12
Those who attended the reception given to the teachers by the Mothers’ Club at St. Luke’s Rectory, last Friday night, report that it was one of the most enjoyable affairs of its kind held here in years. There were over one hundred and twenty-five guests present, including parents of school children, Principal and Mrs. Gilbert Lyon, and the school faculty.
The guests were received by Rev. and Mrs. William Grainger and then introduced to the faculty.
Mrs. William H. Hand, president of the club, assisted by an able corps, was in charge of the evening’s program, which proved to be a most enjoyable and interesting one.
—
On September 29 the Springs post-office was closed, there being no one in that vicinity who cared to bother to act as postmaster, the salary being so small. The residents now have to get their mail in either East Hampton or Amagansett, several miles away, making it a great inconvenience.
—
If the ocean, especially off Montauk point, could only tell us some of the happenings there on these days and nights, what a theme for a melodrama it would make.
The latest story that comes to us concerning the life of the bootlegger on the deep is a horrible one. The story is this.
A man, said to be from New York, was squeezed between a rum schooner lying at anchor and a smaller boat to which liquor was being transferred. It is reported that after his death his body was weighted and thrown overboard.
Wednesday morning it was reported that a man’s body had been found on Gin Beach, Montauk, and whether it was the above-mentioned victim or the Greenport man who started to swim ashore when his boat began to leak, is not known.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, October 14
An opportunity to see what goes on inside the telephone central office will be given to all Amagansett residents and their friends when the New York Telephone Company holds an open house in their building at Main Street, Amagansett, it was announced by B.P. Hughes, acting local manager for the company.
The open house will be on October 19, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The entire building will be open to inspection. Everything will be explained and any questions answered. The tour will begin where the telephone wires terminate in the central office equipment and will then parallel the course a telephone call follows through the building.
—
The closing date for entries in the Guild Hall Poetry Contest has been extended to November 1. The contest is sponsored by the Guild Hall News of which Mrs. Dorothy Quick Mayer is editor.
The contest is divided into two sections — one for adults and one for juniors. Anyone who is a member of Guild Hall is eligible. Young people who joined Guild Hall as junior members last year are eligible under the membership paid at that time.
—
A famous war hero and noted air pilot and his wife spent the past weekend as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bruno at their residence, Green Chimneys, on Montauk.
They were Colonel and Mrs. Bernt Balchen, who flew to the States from Oslo, Norway, the day before arriving at Montauk. Colonel Balchen is returning for active duty with the United States Air Forces.
This Norwegian-born pilot, now a naturalized American, was with Roald Amundsen’s dirigible expedition at King’s Bay in 1926. A year later he flew the Atlantic with Admiral Byrd, making a sensationally difficult landing off the French coast.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, October 11
The Republican battle cry for the 1973 East Hampton Town election campaign was sounded Tuesday night at a rally of the Town Men’s and Women’s Republican Clubs. It was essentially this: outsiders are trying to take over the Town from the local residents — Republicans and Democrats.
Making their money elsewhere, financed from the big city, these quasi-conspirators have infiltrated local civic groups and the Democratic Party, achieved positions of influence, and are now making a pitch for the control of local government, or so it was alleged.
—
A 1973-74 budget of $2,910,120 that would raise taxes for residents of the unincorporated areas 20 cents per $100 assessed value and seven cents per $100 for the residents of East Hampton Village and that portion of Sag Harbor which is in East Hampton Town has been proposed by East Hampton Supervisor Eugene E. Lester Jr.
The “tentative” budget, prepared by the Supervisor after consultation with the heads of departments in Town government, was given last Friday by Town Clerk Charles T. Anderson to the other Town Board members for review and possible amendment prior to a public hearing that the Supervisor said would be held before Election Day, Nov. 6.
—
Whether a 37-acre tract behind Guild Hall will become an East Hampton Village park instead of the site of 26 new houses will be decided on Nov. 6 “if,” the Village Mayor said Friday, “nothing holds us up.”
The Village Board had resolved on Sept. 4 to let the taxpayers choose, in a referendum, whether the Village should buy the controversial property, “Pondview,” which is now farmland, slated for subdivision. The Village Board has since then been “working toward” Election Day as a date for the referendum, Mayor Ronald P. Rioux reported, to make things simpler for those summer residents who will come here anyway, that day, for the Town elections.
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, October 15
Spirits were high before East Hampton’s 350th anniversary celebration parade Saturday morning, despite glowering skies and an intermittent drizzle. Near the starting point on Main Street and Egypt Lane, the mood of the assembled marchers was convivial and the banter was light.
Fife and drum bands, suffragettes, militias in period regalia, war veterans, fire departments, and members of dozens of other organizations and societies chatted, joked, and quickly downed cups of coffee before the big event.
—
The conference held last month by the East Hampton-based organization Standing for Truth About Radiation highlighted the strong differences over the health effects of radiation, new research showing it is far more damaging than once thought, and the lack of vigilance by those charged with protecting people from radiation.
The conference was titled the “Karl Z. Morgan Symposium: Recent Studies of Low-Level Radiation and Implications for Medicine and the Nuclear Industry.” Dr. Morgan, 91, an honored guest at the symposium, is considered the “father” of the field that became known as health physics.
—
The Eastern Surfing Association held its New York State Championship at the eastern Ditch Plain Beach in Montauk on Saturday. Huge overhead waves made for a challenging competition, which was sponsored by Quiksilver and Main Beach Surf Shop in Wainscott.
East Enders did well. Charlie Weimar placed first in the men’s shortboard division. Jason Hewitt placed first in the menehune division with Austin Eckardt following in second place. Donny D’Albora placed third and Leif Engstrom placed fourth. All are from Montauk.
