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Life And Art
Southampton
December 3, 1998

To The Editor,

Life imitates art. I went to see "American History X" in East Hampton, which is a fine film about racism, sexism, racial discrimination, the brutality of a world of young adults growing up, skinheads, etc. In other words, America.

Two teens sat in front of me, possibly expecting a kids' movie. One of them turned, and in a loud voice said, "I didn't know they let old people in here."

All my life I have been subjected to "words." When I was very young I was "Mama's boy." As I got older it changed to "Sissy" and by the time I was in high school it became "Queer" and worse. In college I was "The Egghead" and "Nerd," and in the Army I was "Jew" and "Christ Killer." For my support of the underprivileged and to better society, I am called a "Card Carrying Liberal."

And now, just when I thought it was safe to go out into the streets again I became an ageist target. What I was watching on the screen was sitting in front of me.

HOWARD HERMANN

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Knocking At Our Door
East Hampton
December 2, 1998

Dear Helen,

As we know, towns to our west seem to like to clutter their roads with endless shops and stores, to the point where no semblance remains of what used to be, whatever that was. The dangers of congestion on the highways seem to be just a way of life.

I fear that UpIsland is knocking at our border door! Wainscott, through a small hamlet, seems to have been, over the last several years, getting a disproportionate amount of applications for site-plan review.

Most of the residents came here or stayed here because they loved Wainscott for what it was and is, not for a heavy commercial presence up on the highway.

The Hess proposal sounds very much like UpIsland daring to put its big foot over our border. Hess is big-business controlled and this site will provide the corporation with a "destination store."

Wainscott is our border-guard to the west. I think they should know that they are not alone.

Sincerely,

PAT MANSIR
Councilwoman
East Hampton Town

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Get The Hook?
East Northport
December 6, 1998

To The Editor,

A couple of weeks ago I had the great pleasure of attending historical talks by three unique local historians: Dr. David Mulford, an old East Hampton schoolmate, Stuart Vorpahl, our (perhaps the) expert on the Dongan Patent and the Trustee rights and responsibilities deriving therefrom, and Sherrill Foster, who told the stories of several unique, highly self-sufficient, 19th-century East Hampton women. But for the time period, we could well add Sherrill herself to that list.

My sincere thanks to each of them for a good job well done. And while I am tossing bouquets, a big one goes to Tony Prohaska and Martha Kalser for their ongoing oral history project, the first fruits of which were presented to the library's Pennypacker Collection last evening. The foregoing acknowledges a somewhat overdue debt of gratitude, but the following will explain why I sit here typing before sunrise on a Sunday morning.

Eureka! (again?) In Sherrill Foster's presentation, as in many of the previous 350th anniversary lectures, "The Hook" again raised its mettlesome head. We all know where it is, provided one doesn't get too fussy about exact meets and bounds, but where does the name come from?

At the conclusion of Sherrill's talk, Hugh King offered the idea that it's the place where the road "hooks" sharply to the right and heads for Amagansett. I like that because it makes a lot of good common sense, yet it is somehow not totally satisfying. For one thing, in her remarks, Sherrill identified the triangle of land between Springs Road and Three Mile Harbor Road, a part of the old Sherrill farm, as the "Sandy Hook," according to an old land deed. No sharp corner there.

Then there is the Hook Mill. No, I once assured my children, as I now assure my four young grandsons, it has nothing to do with Captain Hook, not that Captain Hook, anyway. And I have explained to decades of out-of-town guests that there never was any Mr. Hook who had any known involvement, although some connection to a certain pirate captain has been suggested.

This is not a new game for me. I have been worrying the problem since my own childhood.

Then, in the middle of last night it struck me! I have often had middle-of-the-night revelations, and most of them have been pure nonsense by daylight. This one, though, is probably worth sharing. I have recently examined several 17th and 18th century maps of the New York Harbor area - originally Nieu Amsterdam - and was struck by the number of large and small peninsulas that were designated as "hoecks," later, "hooks."

Most have disappeared in modern usage, but, at least Red Hook of Brooklyn, and Sandy Hook of New Jersey remain. I also recall that Montauk Point was called something like "Fisher's Heck" by the early Dutch (as in Fisher's Island? or as in fish hook?).

Hypothesis: the old Dutch usage of "hook" to denote a peninsula or point of land was, locally at least, carried over to denote a peninsula or point of land bounded by two roads.

A stretch, perhaps, but it fits the very sparse data. Can any reader cite other local examples of the usage? Or comment pro or con?

Has all this been said before? Having committed the idea to paper, I have a vague feeling of deja vu about it. Then again, maybe it's just last night's pastrami.

Best regards,

CHARLES E. SQUIRES