Down on Main Street- Sag Harbor in the 60's and 70's

Sag Harbor Main Street remains one of the most historic and beautiful Main Streets in America. And though the bones remain quite similar, through the years we have watched it transition from the center of daily life to a more chic and refined gathering and shopping place. I imagine Sag Harbor is a microcosm of the world at large - reflecting the fluctuations in society as a whole.

As I walk down Main Street today, I can’t help but feel how it once was during my formative years in the 60’s and 70’s – a bit run-down here and there perhaps-a few empty storefronts and affordable real estate- but a real living and breathing slice of middle America. These are just a few of the things I remember….

Once graduated from the rubber-toed sneakers I remember going into Ivan’s Shoe Store for my new pair of classic Keds. I can still see how the shoeboxes were piled up in the front of the store and used to display the new styles. What an amazing feeling it was to get that brand new pair. We’d be running up and down the driveway and leaping about the yard to prove just how fast and remarkable those sneakers were.

By age five when I learned how to properly write my name, I went to the John Jermain Library to get my very own library card-I think we all did. It became a significant milestone of growing-up and taking our place in the world. That card got stamped and placed in the pocket of every book I was able to borrow. I can remember the feeling of excitement bringing those treasured books with the shiny plastic covers home and how we were reminded to take such good care of them.

What a treat to go to the Ideal Stationary Store with a quarter and coming out with small white paper bag filled with 25 penny candies – Mary Janes, Fireballs, Pinwheels, Smarties, Sweetarts, Ice Cubes! It was amazing what 25 cents could buy. We had a bubble gum blowing contest in 6th grade- I won a quarter. Ran right to the Ideal to fill my bag with penny candy.

Sag Harbor Cinema was the hub of the village. It cost a mighty fifty-cents to get in. After you bought your ticket, the floor would take a slope down to the theater. The popcorn machine and bathrooms were about half-way down on the left. One day my friend and I decided we wanted to catch a movie-the only one playing was “Bonnie and Clyde”. We conjured up ninety-nine cents but were a penny short. We scoured the village and finally found a solitary penny in the alley near the Sandbar. We got in! As the dark theater erased the afternoon sun, it felt like a great escape from the everyday of every day. It was a day and a movie that I’ll never forget. Back then even pennies held value, everything did.

Before the dawn of Sag Harbor’s new cultural revolution, each small event was cataclysmic and something you looked forward to all year long- similar to when “The Sound of Music” was shown on TV at Thanksgiving. You waited an entire year to see that amazing movie-and I believe that the wait was part of what made it so very special. Each year we looked forward to the Cinema’s Halloween Costume Party that seemed to bring most all of the community together.

A regular meeting place for people of all ages was the original Paradise Restaurant on Main Street-with the pink booths-were they pink or more of an orangey pink? We’d run down after school for a Coke and some French fries, squeeze into a booth and let out the angst that had gathered and settled throughout the day. Remember the low stools at the counter and the more formal wooden tables towards the back in the dining room? And there was a take-out window for ice cream. Eddy’s Luncheonette was another local eatery on Main Street where many a local teen found their first job-but it burned down in one of the historic Main Street fires. Wouldn’t it be nice if our teens had a place to congregate as we did?

And who could ever forget the Hampton Bakery next to the Movie Theater. Oh, the best jelly donuts and eclairs and apple turnovers anywhere. When we had the Whalers’ Motel in town and spent the mornings cleaning rooms, someone in the family would take our order and run up to the bakery for some delicious and memorable pastries. They would come back with a white bag that sides were inadvertently sprinkled with sugary residue. If you close your eyes, I think you can still see the glass pastry cases and smell the sweet goodness.

At lunchtime when the rooms were all cleaned, my father would send me into the bakery to get a ‘round-rye-with-seeds’ and the baker would send it through the slicing machine. My family would all gather around the kitchen table, lined with newspaper. My father would drop a batch of the hot steamers he had just dug into the middle of the table. We’d all shared that ‘round rye with seeds’ and fresh steamers for lunch.

And there was Fredericos, Korsacks, Sarge’s Mess -Clevelands- Kulczeskis -Secret Sams-different incarnations of convenience stores sprinkled about the village where we would grab a cola, and a bag of chips. I can still hear the wooden floors creek when you walked about the aisles -but you generally didn’t because most everything you needed was right at the counter.

During snapper season we’d all get to the Hardware store to buy a yet another bamboo pole. Long Wharf would be lined with young fishermen and fisherwomen. Everyone was filled with the excitement of watching that little red and white bobber being pulled down into the depths by a shiny silver snapper.

A highlight of our years was waiting for the ‘Back to School’ posters to be put up in the window of the ‘5 and 10’ and going in to pick out our new three ring binder, along with a lunchbox, one of those elastic book straps and a pencil case that snapped into our three ring binders. It signified that a brand-new year was about to begin. It was a time when buying something ‘new’ just for our own personal use seemed like an incredible luxury.

And then there was the Cracker Barrel where we picked out some new clothes to get us through the school year. I can still remember the little table and chairs with some kid’s books on top where we could sit and wait while our brothers and sisters tried on clothes. The table was right near the large metal heating grate that hummed while circulating warm air. It seemed as if they had everything we needed as they knew our sizes and outfitted most all of the kids in the village.

And then there was Mrs. Allipo, who sat outside of her small Italian Restaurant snoozing in her chair. There were gas pumps there and what used to be some sort of auto garage behind where DJ Hart once stood.

Shopping local, being a part of Main Street was the way we all lived. Each of the shops seemed a vital part of our daily lives. I am grateful for the endurance of those that still remain-The Wharf Shop, the ‘Five and Ten’, Schiavonis, the Pharmacy……but many are now high-end clothing stores and art galleries. We know that local mom and pop storeowners could rarely if ever afford Main Street rentals. Around the world shopping practices have certainly changed. As with everything in life-things do change-but I am filled with wonderful memories of a childhood so truly grounded in - and grounded by – life down on Main Street.