Dan’s Papers February 17, 2012 danshamptons.com Page 24
Scoot
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to let others pass) might make for problems, but that’s just a bit of careful scheduling and the LIRR has been doing that successfully for years. In the future, when the LIRR Cannonball from New York City comes roaring through in the early evening every day, the Scoots will have to run for cover. I’m told that years ago there was a Scoot between Greenport and Riverhead. But I don’t know anything about it. What I do know about was a Scoot that ran from Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor every day between 1870 and 1939. That six-mile trip back then was taken in a Scoot about the size of a streetcar trolly. It went from the Bridgehampton Station all the way to Sag Harbor and right out Long Wharf. Yes, there were train tracks going to the end of Long Wharf. Produce and merchandise could be loaded onto or off of the trains to the ships. This service even survived a train wreck in the 1920s, when an incoming train keeled over on its side and slid out the wharf. There’s an interesting story connected with the Sag Harbor Scoot. In early times, a very straight road was driven between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor that was a toll road. You’d pay a woman or man in a booth a fee, and your horse and wagon could then have one use of this six-mile road. The fee varied depending on what you were hauling. The road itself was privately owned, which is how they could get away with charging for it. The toll road was in business for 60 years or so, and then the owners closed it—maintenance did not equal the income. But it’s still called “The
Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.” In 1870, when the LIRR surveyed for their trackage to the Hamptons, they set track out from New York City to Southampton and Bridgehampton, then turned northward and ended in Sag Harbor. There was no trackage in East Hampton and Montauk for the next 25 years. The “scoot,” however, ran to Sag Harbor for half a century, along with the regular train. But in 1939 the little scoot was abandoned and in 1942, the tracks were all torn up. The army needed the steel for the war effort. (World War II.) At the present time, there are numerous ways that the North and South Forks get linked up. There is a County Bus that does the horseshoe but on the highways. There is an inland waterways taxi that takes you out from Sag Harbor by boat to somewhere else in Peconic Bay and back. And, beginning last year, a shuttle bus that took you to the beach in East Hampton from the Lumber Lane parking lot. Almost everybody thinks having the new Scoot is a wonderful idea. The only person publicly objecting to it is Commissioner Bill Aspinall of the privately-owned Hampton Subway System. He says if they want a North Fork connection, he will build one underground. Well, he’s been overruled. The new Scoot should be in place for the summer of 2014. By the way, “Peconic County” is the name we chose 20 years ago when we first started lobbying for the new county. The name was chosen because all the five towns are linked
together by Peconic Bay. Each town has waterfront on this Bay. Personally, I have never liked the name Peconic County. It’s kind of blaah. Since our requests have been rebuffed for all these 20 years we’ve been trying to do this, I would suggest we try a new, and more zippy name. I like Five Towns County. What do you think?
Game
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and sacked Brady on his third try. On fourth down, Brady did throw a short complete pass for a first down, but the game ended with the Patriots at the 49. There had been, before the game, two taped interviews with the two opposing quarterbacks about how they felt going in. Eli told the press he knew he had a daunting task ahead of him. Brady would be a formidable foe. He’d do his best. Brady said they’d been lusting after this all year and they were going to take it. He was asked would he want the lead with one minute to play or would he want to be behind by a few points with the ball? He gave a very provocative answer. He said he wanted the ball. The Giants didn’t stand a chance. Well, of course, they did. Divorce her, Brady. There are a million supermodels out there waiting for you. No problems.
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