southhampton blizzard

our grandparents amagansett little home

Jihanah and I took a drive out there just a little over a year ago, and as we drove, we drove into a legitimate blizzard. It was an experience. We went to the beach in Southampton first- the one I used to go when I was a child and we lived there.

We sold our Southhampton house when I was 12. I still can't go back and see the actual house; it is now bigger and renovated to fit into Southampton's "new era." I miss Southampton the way it used to be. My grandparents still have a little house on the water in Amagansett, but still. We can't really go there in the winter.

I have so many memories in our Hampton home-- especially with my cousins in the wintertime. My grandfather would light a fire in the fireplace. We'd toast marshmellows and make popcorn and string it through a needle and thread to decorate our tree. No cable, and only a Beta tape player. All my grandfather had on beta tapes were mainly taped made for TV movies--the Ewoks Adventure movies being perhaps the top watched, the Alice in Wonderland movie from the 80's, and Sherlock Homes taped from PBS. Oh, and we did have Marry Poppins somehow- I wonder how they made that on Beta. And on tv it was The Price is Right by day, then Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune by night... and you know, of course we can't forget how much we looked forward to TGIF on ABC on Fridays. Then, before bedtime, it of course a game of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego had to be played on our ghetto IBM computer. Or connect four. Occasionally Monopoly. And always Go Fish.

Of course, then there were the Burgers and Milk Shakes at Sip and Soda. And button candy from The Fudge Shoppe.  And the toy store. Kites, sprinklers, slip n' slides, that rusty swing set,  and days of watching Shakespeare in the park.

Ah, those were the days.

I don't think the Hamptons will ever be the same for me. Somehow this trip sticks in the mind. Things have frozen over since I was a child, so to speak; I miss my hamptons winters.