Sixty-Something: New Year, New Decade, New Opportunities In The Hamptons

Once in a Q&A at Bay Street about a screening of Murder on the Orient Express, a feisty Lauren Bacall looked out at the audience and said in her unique voice, “Time, that enemy of us all!”

However, with time comes new opportunities. With a new year, and a new decade, comes a window for change, for boldness, for redirection. On the other hand, if things are going just fine and dandy then it’s time to continue to ride the wave of success.

Within my duties with Hamptons.com, in the last year I was given the opportunity to interview and meet many amazing folks. People like Brian Cox, John Sebastian, Peter Asher, Pat Benatar, Phil Orlando, Robert Klein along with Duane Betts, Devon Allman and so many more. Each had a story to tell a nugget of life experience to share and, of course, something to promote in the Hamptons. The last year was one of my best ever in so many ways.

However, it’s best to look forward than it is to just talk about the past. It’s just that us sixty-something folks have such a long past and perhaps a bit of a shorter future. Sometime soon in this new year and new decade a daughter of mine is having her first child, also my first grandchild. This child if all goes well God willing, will be a “2020” child with the possibility of living beyond the year 2100!

In the Hamptons these days, there is a shift in of who is deciding to live here and visit here. New tax laws, new job realities and upward economic costs may be narrowing the playing field of who can afford to come work and play on the East End. The chemistry of populations within the individual hamlets seems to be rapidly changing. Some places are on a hot upswing, others not so much. The power of the real estate market of the Hamptons is recoiling but remains attractive. The timeless Atlantic Ocean beaches fight an erosion battle of the man-made boundaries but will forever line the edges of the South Shore of the Hamptons. We all stand on the sand and look east at the sun over the ocean. It is a tradition, a ritual, a behavior that goes back to the first people of any kind who ever lived on the East End.

Take a few seconds and in your mind to project where you see yourself next year, in five years and beyond. Aim at something, have a grand destination, so that the journey will be filled with an excitement of actually arriving somewhere special in life, somewhere in time, someday.

The country roads of the Hamptons dip and weave naturally while passing through farms, fields, and old historic homes. The seagulls are always in the sky. The water is always near. But no matter what Long Island fork you are on; your drive east on the road will eventually end. Yet, I feel the magic and opportunities of living and enjoying the Hamptons may change over time, but that joy will never end. Enjoy this new year, this new decade, this new opportunity to experience the best a life has to offer and do it as much as possible.