Sixty/Something: Solid Gold Rent

My first full-time year in the Hamptons started as a weekend and lasted a decade. I paid rent to a host of folks thinking I’d be moving back to NYC. Somehow the east end helped me transition to a very happily remarried east end guy.

This tale all started with me, a divorced dad having a fateful ride to Joe Shaw’s home as a favor to pick up a deposit on his sailboat. That day ended with me buying his sailboat. It was an on the spot spur of the moment epiphany moment. I knew nothing about sailboats or east end bays.

That purchase started my love affair with Gardiner’s Bay, now nineteen years and running. To me its beauty never ceases to amaze with phenomenal nightly sunsets.

On July 23, 2022 my second grandchild was born in Wimbledon, England. Someday I hope to show him and his older sister, still only two, the magic of the east end and the majesty of sailing Gardiner’s Bay.

Just before moving permanently to the east end I used to work a few blocks from the Nederlander Theater.  There the hit musical RENT was playing to packed houses regularly. Via a lottery system many times I won two front row seats to RENT. After winning front row seats I attended with my daughter. The very one who is now the mother of both my grandchildren.

On July 23, 2022 my wife Cindi and I attended RENT at the North Fork Community Theatre. My wife had never seen the musical staged and was excited. The show is running until August 7th. It is being produced by the “2022 Youth on Stage.” During intermission my wife said I have a strong notion your grandson is being born.

That night we watched a collection of young east end amateur actors sing, dance and act their hearts out to a standing ovation. All night long while enjoying the show all I could think about was back to the days of seeing the show with my then teenage daughter.

Then the next day, the email from England arrived with the great news along with amazing photos. Now I can dream of introducing both my grandchildren to the east end of Long Island. Funny thing; to them the Hamptons will first mean an area in England close to where they were born. They will most likely have those cute British accents as young children.

The Hamptons has many stories, more still to be lived and told. The last few covid years have taught many why living and staying on the east end full time is not a quarantine but a wonderful window of opportunity for a rebirth like I had that fateful day in Hamptons Bays.