125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, February 8
The Tiddlywink Club will meet at Clinton Hall this evening and at 10 o'clock will adjourn to the Osborne House where the members will be served a turkey supper.
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The Ramblers will meet at the home of Mrs. Mary L. Hedges on Tuesday evening, Feb. 12, at 8 p.m. The subject for the evening will be Scandinavia and Denmark, with the program as follows:
Music, piano duet, Misses Elsie Tillinghast and Nellie Lawrence; The Land of the Midnight Sun, Miss Mary Swain; Scandinavian and Danish Life, Miss Beaman; Artistic and Literary Scandinavia, Miss Ettie Hedges; History of Scandinavia and Denmark, Miss Lillian Worthington; reading selection, Miss May Conklin; Current Events, Miss Nellie Lawrence.
A force of men from Brooklyn are at work putting an acetylene gas plant in W.F. Muchmore's store.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, February 5
The week's most breathtaking move in the real estate line is the sale of the Munchogue Club on Montauk, owned by 10 of our most solid citizens. Thirty acres of land, with a little gunning camp thrown in, was worth $2,700 six years ago; this week it was sold to W.F.E. White for $120,000!
Mr. White, it is thought, represents a syndicate.
East Hampton's business and professional interests, literally speaking, are "up in arms!"
They're out to set things booming around this town. To give it a "charged" atmosphere. To make everything hum. And to get you citizens up on your toes in boosting East Hampton into its rightful position on the map, as a great community.
Monday evening a large number of the members of the Reading Club braved the stormy weather to hear an interesting program at the library. The music, glowing hearth and informative program were greatly enjoyed.
Mrs. Frank Stratton was chairman, Mrs. W.T. Bell read several modern poems, Miss E.C. Hedges read selections from A.E. Newton's essay "The Greatest Book in the World," mentioning the different versions of the Bible and the difficulties confronting the printers and engravers years ago.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, February 8
Nathan H. Conklin has received a check as a preliminary prize in a photo contest for young people currently run by the New York Daily Mirror.
Mr. and Mrs. Conklin entered a photo of their son Richard, age 12. The picture will be published in the New York Mirror on Sunday, February 11.
There has been a lot of Army activity on eastern Long Island early this week, following last week's announcement that an unspecified number of 12-millimeter anti-aircraft guns would be temporarily shifted from their Fort Totten installation base to Fort Hero, at Montauk Point, to give crews a month's training in firing live ammunition.
First Army Headquarters said that practice would begin Monday and that an area of 30,000 yards to sea would be kept clear. Difficulty in getting the guns to Montauk arose when it was discovered that the Shinnecock canal bridge would not stand the 62-ton load of each gun.
John Lester will play the role of Descius Heiss, the proprietor of an antiques shop in London, on Friday and Saturday evenings, February 16 and 17, when the Guild Hall Players present Edward Percy's "The Shop at Sly Corner."
This three-act mystery is being directed by Kenneth Anderson of Sag Harbor, who returns to "active duty" as a director of the Players after an absence of several years.
"The Shop at Sly Corner" was presented at St. Martin's Theatre in London in April 1946.
From The East Hampton Star, February 5
The South Fork weathered the fast one that old man weather pulled on it Monday with relatively good fortune, despite the fact that it was completely cut off from electrical power at 7:30 a.m. by breaks along the main transmission line from Riverhead.
By that hour, Sunday's high temperature of 50 degrees, reported in Bridgehampton by Richard G. Hendrickson, United States Cooperative Weather Observer, had fallen to 18 degrees, rain had turned to icy snow, the barometer had plummeted to an unusual low of 28.64, and furious winds had begun to blow out of the northwest with gusts to 75 miles an hour.
The East Hampton Town Board, meeting in public executive session Tuesday morning, pondered such matters as a gift from a conservationist group, three lawsuits, the metric system, a fired policeman who wants to be hired again, tennis courts, a seemingly contradictory request by the Town Highway Superintendent, and parking stickers that will "self-destruct" if removed.
Later, the board met privately to ponder the case of a highway foreman whose subordinate allegedly said "Ha! Ha! Ha!" to a school crossing guard.
Sufi meditation, chanting, and dancing will be conducted Thursdays, starting tonight, at 7 p.m., in the Odd Fellows Hall, 26 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, under the auspices of the East End Unitarian Fellowship.
Sufism, a Mohammedan sect which tends toward mysticism and asceticism, should enable the westerner to "work on one's self, raise one's consciousness, and . . . transform fun into ecstasy," according to Amir Latif, a Sufi initiate and instructor from Southold who will direct the evening's activity.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, February 8
In the wake of a study determining that recreational facilities are in short supply here, the town has been casting about for places to build them. Just about every large lot and open space in town has been under consideration.
With two of three moratoriums on development set to expire next Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board is divided over how much time it will need to develop any new regulations that may be required.
The two Democrats on the board, Pete Hammerle and Job Potter, are pushing for minimum extensions of six months, while supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Republican Councilwoman Diana Weir want three-month extensions. The board's other Republican, Pat Mansir, is apparently still on the fence.
The East Hampton Town Board is negotiating to buy 40 acres off Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs, the site of the Springs Nursery, for possible use as playing fields.
The procedure, which will be undertaken in phases, was outlined at a meeting Tuesday evening at the Montauk Downs State Park by Don Silkebakken, the project manager. He was introduced to the sparse audience by Roland Belew, an ordnance assessor and engineer with the Army Corps who evaluates former military defense sites and is based in Huntsville, Ala.
