Montauk

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by Arundhati Basu

Long Island lives up to its name. The peninsula that juts from New York City and takes off for the Atlantic Ocean is freakishly long and narrow, something that leaps at you when you decide to drive to ‘The End’ that is Montauk, at the easternmost tip of the island. The drive appears to spans several eras and that is not a piffling matter if you happen to take a few detours. Such as a Costco with a fuel station in the Long Island town of Amityville. And since your ears perked up at the sound of Amityville, like a dog at the patter of his human’s feet outside the door, you threw in a mile-long diversion to the iconic haunted house in the same town. At the end of it, you found a house that looked awfully different, an alter-ego you had not been prepared for. You left it behind, feeling foolish about this deviation from the original plan especially because it was chased by a flat tire on the highway.

Self-pity being a worthy cultivated art, you would tend to feel sorry for yourself, till you overheard two mustachioed bikers who had parked their superbikes upon the same highway as you. One of them had lost his phone somewhere on the highway.

What are the chances of someone being worse off than you? Misery loves company.

It took us around five hours, including this hairy turn of events, and another diversion to the Long Island airport to exchange the car at the rental agency there.

We had greyed before reaching Montauk.

The day that had started on a liquid sunny, and indeed hot note, suddenly turned upon us. The skies were sullen by the time we chanced upon a quiet beach tucked into a surprisingly unpretentious hamlet called Amangansett. A surprise because the rest of Long Island, for the most part, is sprinkled with these pish-posh towns. Amangansett means ‘the place of good water’, as it was deemed by the Montaukett Indian tribes who founded it. A pair of Dutch brothers and the descendants of English settlers bought the land from the Montauketts in the late 1600s and developed the genteel place that we saw that day.

The ocean breeze was frigid as Adi, his sister, and I, walked past pale teenage boys just returned to their cars with their surfboards. The white sands of Amangansett were pristine and powdery. Sinking my feet into the luxuriously soft sands felt therapeutic as the cold breeze teased the hair into a glorious abandon. Only a handful of people sat around lounging on beach chairs. And a Bernedoodle who sat on his haunches, with his bum to the sea. Rows of low lying houses looked down upon the beach.

The landscape beyond the beach threw up sand dunes, some out-of-place modern estates tucked into wooded quarters, and farmland. We soon left behind this old whaling town where in 1942 four German spies had been dropped off by a submarine to stage a Nazi attack on the US.

We were back on the Old Montauk Highway that is supposed to be a scenic route. Naturally, we expected to cruise along the coast, but that way lay disappointment. Sure we passed through photogenic towns such as Southampton, Bridgehampton and Water Mill but most properties were tucked in behind tall hedgerows and all you got was an eyeful of the buzzing little town centres with their line-up of all the chic bars and restaurants you could be noshing at.

Right at the end of it all was Montauk. Finally. The former home of the Montauketts, and later, the settlers who drove sheep and cattle along the bluffs that crawl into the Atlantic. Then the fishermen. And now, the folks from Manhattan who like to spend their evenings drinking local brews at the intensely alive Gig Shack in town. While the town centre is rife with places to eat, drink, and shop, with some fine boutiques selling quality souvenirs and clothing, the real feel of it was to be had at the tip of the land. An isolated place with its 18th century white and red lighthouse standing guard over the hump of a cliff that sweeps into the ocean – seemingly far from the trample of fashionable people who have adopted the rest of the island for their own.

You could almost find yourself whisked to another time, walking along the edge of that 200-year-old lighthouse, to a Walt Whitman-esque time when according to the native Long Islander, the eastern end of Long Island was a “relief from the trammels of fashion”. It was here at Montauk Point where Whitman had daydreamed and been consumed by the wildness of his surroundings that later spilled into a short poem.

“I stand as on some mighty eagle’s beak,
Eastward the sea absorbing, viewing, (nothing
but sea and sky)
The tossing waves, the foam, the ships in the
distance,
The wild unrest, the snowy, curling caps—that
inbound urge and urge of waves,
Seeking the shores forever.”

Here where the crowds were thin even on the eve of summer, for a brief while, my hair hopelessly tangled in the ocean breeze, I thought I was on Walt Whitman’s Long Island.
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The Amityville House on Ocean Avenue
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Amangansett
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Aforementioned Bernedoodle at Amangansett
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Montauk Point
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Eastern tip of Long Island
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The oldest lighthouse in NY State
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Siblings
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…and us (P.C.: Anuradha Varma).

 

 

 

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Arundhati Basu

The great affair in my life is to travel. I count myself immensely fortunate that my partner shares this passion. We are a team that likes to spend time planning and plotting out places to go. Destination check, flights check, accommodation check, cheesy grins check. Off we go.

39 thoughts on “Montauk”

    1. It was lovely around the lighthouse, yes, Lorelle. I have always found lighthouses fascinating, not least because of their solitary locales.

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  2. Dear DDG
    the writer Max Frisch wrote a novel “Montauk”. It’s one of his late works. It’s a beautifully touching love story of an elderly author and his editor – not kitschy at all.
    Enjoy the weekend
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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    1. Thank you for the tip, Klausbernd. I shall look it up. How have you all been?
      Hope you are having a nice weekend too. 🙂

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  3. I love how you wrote this, Arundhati. It’s so alive with language, so full of rich metaphor and personification, that the writing brings the place vividly alive for the reader. Thank you for sharing this. I do a prose invitation every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. If you’d like me to link this to my next post on July 9, I’d love to include it. ~ Cathy 🙂

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    1. Merci Cathy! That is lovely of you to offer a link to this. I can never say no to such generosity. 🙂 Cheers and have a good weekend. x

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  4. Such a beautiful place! Love the history of Montauk – definitely a place that holds itself in time. Sweet photo of Adi and his sister. You look so pretty in your lovely dress and chic hairdo! Hope you are having a great weekend – Neek

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    1. Thank you Neek. 🙂 I shall convey it to Adi. We are having a nice weekend alright. How about you guys? Xx

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      2. It is hotting up here too but yet not too perishing. You too keep it cool in hot Cali! 🙂 xx

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  5. Just love seeing places through your eyes, Dippy Dotty Girl! I have heard, heard, heard of Long Island but I have never been there yet. Your pieces give such a strong sense of place, such a good way to feel like one is there. Thank you! Sorry to hear about the flat, but luckily misery loves company. 🙂 Have a great week!

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    1. Hi Virginia, thanks! I have watched it indeed but maybe I should rewatch it. So I have been hopping over to your blog and commenting but do not think any of them are going through! :-/ Enjoyed your last few posts. ❤

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    1. Oh yes, undoubtedly. That is possibly why New Yorkers head right to it. Cheers girl! Trust you are well. xx

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  8. This is so different from what I had imagined Long Island would look like (I’m thinking about the pish-posh towns you mentioned). It looks so serene and natural. Great photos.

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    1. This at the very tip of it, hence you see the difference, Caroline. But LI is upscale on the whole. Good to hear from you and thank you as always! xx

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  9. I seem to have missed a few of your lovely posts no doubt due to those WordPress gremlins! We loved LI when we visited back in 2015. Going to spend a few days in Montauk in November when we’re in NY.

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    1. The gremlins have declared war on me. On some blogs I have been banished to the spam folders I notice. Heartache. But I will survive.
      Are you visiting NY this year then? Have a wonderful time in Montauk and if you have time for a cuppa coffee/tea in the city, do me give me a shout. xx

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    1. Hello Brianji, so out of the blogging loop. We have been on the move. Tuscany and the Balkans. Heading home tomorrow and not looking forward to it. How were your travels?

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      1. Looks like we both took a – good – break. Tuscany… Hmmm. I want to buy a house there… 😉 Balkans not sure I even wanna go. Dubrovnik maybe, but without the crowds.
        My travels were fine. 6 weeks of Paris, I can’t complain. Already did a couple of posts.
        A bientôt.

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      2. Oh but the Balkans are beauteous. So beauteous that the mind and the eyes boggle. I do not know which boggles more. Dubrovnik is too crowded, but the islands around are dreamy and perfect. My favourite is Korcula. I do hope you will give the Balkans a look in someday.

        Six weeks is a decent stretch. Good enough to feel dazed with the change when you return home. I shall drop by your blog soonest, Brianji. Apologies for the delay. We had some house guests right after our return and now lots of social calls. Trying to get back to writing without getting waylaid.

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      3. “Waylaid”. 🙂 love the finery of your writing ma’amji. More the reason to look forward to it. But guests are and should always be a priority. Hospitality is one of the oldest and most respectable human traditions.
        I will give the Balkans further consideration, following your advice.
        Sighar’i abara dekha habbé.
        😉 (Haven’t a clue, but it’s worth a try)

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      4. Thank you Brianji! Shiggiri. You got it absolutely right. 😀

        More guests for us yet! Soon more time to breathe.

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    1. Thank you Amor. There’s more to Long Island…this is just a peek at it. Lighthouses do have a certain something about them. Possibly the sight of them standing by their lonesome selves? 🙂 xx

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