Sixty-Something: The High Life On Easy Street

Life is so sweet when things are going really well. Feeling the love both at work and in the home can really put an extra hop in every step. Ever just look at your wife, husband, lover or partner and just say, “Wow how did I get so lucky?” I still can’t believe I found a wonderful woman who puts up with me on a full-time basis. But, there she was one full moon evening at a Sag Harbor event and the rest is the best of times for me.

If you are sixty-something-plus, you have had some great years and perhaps some less-than-great years. Funny how now we can look back at both and find humor from the best and worst times of our lives. Remember ever feeling like this is good as it can possibly get, or on the other end of the spectrum thinking, can things ever get any worse than this? We all have such stories and sharing them over a cocktail or coffee is often therapeutic.

My wife Cindi Sansone-Braff is a psychic-median who actually won Long Island Press’s Best Psychic five years in row (2010-2014.) I have had the opportunity to meet many of her clients the last 13 years that I have been with her.  Some of these clients have shared some amazing stories with me over the years while waiting for their session with Cindi. I have heard jubilant stories of finding love and horror stories about death through drugs. My point is we sometimes share our life experiences, good and bad, with strangers.

Many folks who have moved to the east end gravitated here for all sorts of reasons. Mine were because of an epic end to my family business and the divorce from the mother of my children. It was a dark time. The light at the end of the tunnel started by moving full-time to East Hampton without any real job. I had to scramble about like a kid just out of college to get by. I did many odd jobs. The wonderful community of local folks nurtured me back into the high life. I performed in local musicals, sang karaoke almost nightly, and took up writing articles. Writing somehow paid all my bills for a while.

I have sat through so many interviews with iconic local personalities who told me their stories of struggles that propelled them to their successes. The stories are sweet. One familiar theme seems to be work ethic, discipline and being in the right place at the right time. For them, it was also coming to the Hamptons. Some fifty or so years ago. As someone once said, it was only the Native Americans who are actually from the Hamptons. However, the fact that there are “those families,” with four-hundred years of history on the East End is still very impressive.

As for the newcomers of the last fifty years, some were wise enough to buy the buildings their businesses are now in. Others bought their homes that are now worth millions. I was at the “Blend,” a restaurant in the Springs by chance I sat next to Ed Cromer, now well into his mid-eighties. Ed founded Cromer’s Market. What a story he told me. First, he started working for his grandfather at nineteen years old in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Then eventually, he opened his own place in South Hampton, and moves it a few times before finally establishing the famous Cromer’s location on Noyac Road in Sag Harbor.

I told Ed Cromer I remember when he sold the business in 2006-ish but kept ownership of the 3500 Noyac building. I wrote up the story for a business column. He told he finally then that he sold the building to a few years ago to the folks he sold the business to and is happy about it. He believes the business is in very good, capable hand. It is just a prime example of the goodness in the souls of successful men appreciating the talents of folks who had successfully worked for them. 

The Hamptons is a place blessed in so many ways. It is a place where nature and good people combine to make it a very desirable place and location to be; whether you are visiting for a day, a summer or for a lifetime. It is a special place, with special people and great weather. Is it better in the Hamptons? For many people I believe it is. They hit it big and are living a high life, and now are living on easy street, sometimes even with an ocean view.