"Sound Beach Was Different Then"

Sometimes before going to the beach, my mother would heat in the oven two round disk shaped soapstones that each had a hole in the center with a metal ring. A square metal box about 2' square had a round hole the same diameter as the stones. She would take tongs and lower in the first stone, then two round pots stacked, followed by the last stone and then the 3"thick lid was closed and locked. While at the beach the meat and vegetables would be cooked by the residual heat of the stones in this "Fireless Cooker" which was the grand daddy of today's electric "slow cooker".

I remember the Iceman that would come several times a week with a towel on his shoulder balancing a block of ice that he held with huge tongs. When we later got a small refrigerator I was sad to be told that the Iceman wouldn't be coming anymore.

Fresh bread and cakes and rolls were delivered weekly by truck by the Krug Company. One summer day, my big sister who was a tomboy climbed a tree at the top of the hill on Malverne Road and waited for the Krug truck. As he ascended the steep hill she let out a blood-curdling scream as he passed her. The poor man jammed on his breaks midway on the hill and got out of the truck to look underneath thinking that he had run over a child, which was my wicked sister's intent. I'm sure he must have been close to a heart attack. He never saw her in the tree and she got away with it.

My father made a cart out of two baby carriage wheels, a wooden milk crate with a wood seat and a long half-inch pipe with a tee coupling and two short pieces for a handle. This my mother used to take me on the short cut through the woods to Dawn's Pass when I was too little to walk the mile or recognize the poison ivy. Does anyone remember the "Big Bear" sign?

The entrance was nicer then. It was at the end of Amagansett and had a gazebo type entrance, a few stairs down, then a long cement walk to a refreshment stand that was intermittently open, then a final last stretch of stairs. All in all I think there were fewer stairs total because it went through a ravine, and the sidewalk stretch gave a break in the climb in those days of heavy wooden umbrellas and beach chairs.

Since we were on a dead end and abutted a vast forest, this became my playground . I would fill up a canteen with water and tell my mother that I was going exploring and spend hours playing Indian scout. There was a huge boulder all by itself in the woods. There were trails leading to it and everyone called it "The Big Rock". It is now just a lawn ornament in front of someone's house, but I'm happy that some developer didn't just blast it to bits. It was also called 'The Meteorite" and I would climb on it and pretend that it was from outer space, maybe even a disguised ship that was hollow inside. I guess that it's about the size of two or three full sized cars.

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