Here are our third round of journal entries for the week. If you'd like to play a part in history as it unfolds before us, please send your submissions to lmizzi@southamptonhistory.org
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Joan Magiet (Eastport)
Poem #1:
Now that I’m sequestered at home I have to fight the urge to Roam
To escape the virus I find it desirous To sit here and compose a poem
Poem #2
To Seinfeld and Frasier and Sex
In the City that’s not complex I will not complain
You’re keeping me sane It’s my muscles I need to flex
Poem #3
There was a free thinker named Joe
Who loved to go with the flow
Whatever the cause
He took time to pause
And his blood pressure always stayed low
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Liana Mizzi (age 27, Hampton Bays)
After Easter passing last weekend I’ve been missing my family a lot. My mom always hosts Easter at her house and she would cook all these amazingly delicious foods. We’re Italian so there’s usually tons of goodies on the table. This year was quite different though. I didn’t eat any jelly beans, didn’t decorate a single egg, I ended up eating a boring dinner of whatever I could find in the fridge. I didn’t get to see my mom, brother or grandparents. It just felt really isolating and I can’t wait for this all to be over. I miss having a home-cooked meal, nothing will compare to my mom’s cooking.
In the midst of all this craziness, my boyfriend, best friend and I are all moving at the end of the month into our new apartment. I’m excited to be somewhere a little more permanent but the idea of packing all my stuff again for the third time in a year is not. At least I’ll have a good distraction for the time being. I also haven’t seen my roommate in a few weeks since she decided to quarantine with her boyfriend at his house. I can’t wait to see them again when we move in!
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Laurie Collins (age 62, North Sea)
Our niece Claire got baby chicks for Easter. Apparently many families have decided to raise chickens during this pandemic. This prompted an extensive conversation between my husband Jim and myself about survival skills. In just a couple of generations many of us have lost our survival skills. The majority of the population have become dependent. That would include me. My grandfather grew up on a farm. He and my uncles had a vegetable garden together in Eastport for as long as I can remember. Every summer my family had an endless supply of fresh vegetables and fruit. Jim’s grandparents in East Hampton not only had a garden but 100 chickens. His grandfather in Montauk was a fisherman and also cut ice from frozen ponds and lakes in the winter before there was refrigeration. All of our grandparents canned food. Gardens and chickens are a lot of work ! They are a 24 hour a day commitment. You have to be on guard day and night for predators. If you have a garden, weather is always a concern, and weeds !!! How long would it take before this way of life would become tiresome to this generation?
I could not survive without a grocery store. Jim insists he could. He is a hunter and a fisherman. He worked on a farm for many years. He will eat just about anything. I am a picky eater. I would starve. I have heard that freezers are selling like hot cakes. Now I understand why so much food is being hoarded resulting in shelves in the grocery stores being depleted. I was worried that it was going to waste. But what if the electricity goes out ?
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Orson Cummings, Southampton
My brother and I were walking Piper, the family pooch, through town today to take a break from writing. Main Street was pretty much deserted like it has been the last few weeks on weekdays (weekends are much more populated and I do believe city folks are 'weekending', against all of our safety interests). The quiet stroll was interrupted when we saw police lights at the corner of South Main Street and Jobs Lane. When we got closer we saw two policemen wearing masks directing a long line of cars that extended as far as we could see down South Main. They were steering the cars one at a time down Meeting House Lane toward the hospital. I thought there might be a testing center open for Corona and asked the officers for confirmation. They informed me the hospital was giving away masks and everyone was in line to get them. "Offer something for free and watch how many people show up!" joked one of the officers. It was a timely site and it was an indicator how terrific our police are that they could maintain a lively sense of humor in these stressful and demanding times.
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Zachary Taylor (age 29, Farmingdale)
I finally started cleaning up my garden for the season, just to get ready to begin planting once the weather decides to stay consistent. It's a yearly activity that my father and I work on, and for myself it's an opportunity to get outside in the sunlight. It's also an ideal activity to partake in as a way of getting away from screens, be they for work or recreation. My eyes could use the rest at times.
For the sake of making sure my car still runs, I've also been driving around quite a lot too. Most of my riding around stays pretty local, be it driving through town or going past parks and what used to be fairly-busy shop centers. The mall just south of my house almost looks abandoned nowadays, and just the other day I saw people with masks riding their bikes in the lot, and one person apparently teaching their child how to drive. It's pretty ideal to just sit and park so I can either read a book or listen to a podcast, while looking off into the distance as the sun goes down and the moon's presence becomes more visible.
The most bewildering thing that's happened lately is that somebody (or maybe it's multiple people) has been setting off fireworks. As someone with auditory issues, it's kind of the last thing my senses needed at this point. I outgrew fireworks when I got older and started realizing "why are my ears beeping?"
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Sally Van Allen (age 67, Southampton Village)
At 6:48 PM Halsey (dog) and I pulled into the First Presbyterian Church’s parking lot on Meeting House Lane. We were about the 15th car in line forming a giant circle in the entire lot. Christina Redding was at the head of the line. Linda and Bob Beck pulled in right behind me. They were in their restored 1913 Ford, which had a horn that made a sound less of a honk and more of an ahooga. Many more cars joined behind them. As the church bell struck 7:00 PM we all turned on our flashing lights and began filing out of the parking lot and turned east onto Meeting House Lane.
A spattering of homeowners lined the street, outside their homes banging their wooden spoons on frying pans. A little boy, maybe four, standing next to his grandmother, had his own giant spoon and was banging away on an old aluminum saucepan. The procession was slow to begin with, then picked up as we approached the Southampton Hospital.
On the corner of Lewis Street there were quite a few pedestrians in the yard of the house across the street from the hospital, and then there they were, the hospital staff on the grounds near the emergency entrance waving back at our parade in gratitude for the acknowledgment of their contribution to the well-being of our village.
With a honk and an ahooga we turned onto Lewis Street waving, Halsey hanging out the window. We all drove past the many hospital workers in their scrubs and masks waving back as us. Then left onto Herrick Road, another left onto Olde Towne Road, then left again heading west onto Meeting House Lane. More hospital staff on the lawn near the front entrance, honk honk, ahooga.
A fifteen-minute salute to the 2020 heroes.