On the Causeway

The Causeway

The east end of Long Island, not to hoity toity Hamptons, or the millennial Montauk, but the sedate North Fork, 50+ wineries, 3-4 dozen NY priced restaurants, rocky beaches and summer afternoons on the porch...real Norman Rockwell stuff.

Although contiguous, the east end is really a stone's toss of little islands connected by causeways. In some places the distance between the Long Island Sound and Peconic Bay (for crying out loud, go look at a map) is measured in feet.

The most famous connector is affectionately known as "the causeway" that separates the bodies of water with oyster ponds as a buffer. The area is old as dirt, with folks from Salem coming down in

dead end

the 1640s and perhaps earlier, with one town still having families living on the same land bought just under 400 years ago...and not one but 5 families and their families still occupy some of the land.....

Breaking into that society is a difficult thing...."you don't live here and you haven't been here for 300 years so wadda ya know?" type of thing.  This is, unfortunately, the land of "we've always done it this way".  That is a shame.

This was once an area of fresh starts, people breaking from the mold, and all that.  Not so much any more.

A real shame, let me tell ya'.