Dan’s Papers May 13, 2011 danshamptons.com Page 17
Losing a Pond Hard Times at the Save Lake Princess Noadonah Committee By Dan Rattiner It’s hard to keep from getting angry about what has happened to Mill Pond in Water Mill. Since the beginning of time and right up until 50 years ago, this pond north of the highway was surrounded by forests and fields filled with squirrels, turkeys, foxes and other creatures, and the waters teemed with fish, bugs, shellfish and other sea life. The view from shore was nothing if not a postcard scene of beautiful sunrises and sunsets. As a teenager, I sometimes fished in this pond from a rowboat. When we got tired of that, we’d jump out and enjoy a swim. You did have to look out for seagrass, crabs and jellyfish of course, but it was a small price to pay. The ruination of the pond came very slowly over a period of 50 years, which is why those liv-
ing around it, many of them for nearly that long, are so astonished to see it take place. It is also probably why the Southampton Town Trustees, which have jurisdiction over it, never acted to save it. The whole problem just snuck up on them. It might have been 100 years ago when some summer visitor first said oh, what a beautiful, sparkling clean and gorgeous pond. I will build a hideaway cabin on its shores beneath the trees and enjoy it. Nobody will even know I am there. So that’s how it started. Pretty soon, some other people came along, then some others and some others. The newer homes were bigger, and the owners, a bit desirous of having a better view, cut trees down to get that view. Lawns and gardens were installed, with beautiful flowers and
plants and then fertilized with chemicals. Cesspools were then installed—on the downhill slope so the outflow from them would not back up into the houses, for Lord’s sake—but which eventually would leach into the pond. And then roads got paved to the houses all around so there wouldn’t be bumpy dirt roads anymore and the runoff of the chemical fertilizers from the surrounding farms could wash down the paving and into sewers to be washed away, well, into you know where. Sometime in the 1980s and 1990s, people noticed that there were fewer fish and shellfish in the pond. Many of them thought that was a good thing. Less icky things to have to worry (continued on next page)
HELLO? IS THAT THE HOUSE CALLING? By Dan Rattiner So the other morning I found myself alone in the house. My wife was in the city. My son the composer did not come home last night. It was just me, the dog, the cat and the tortoise. It was a foggy, crummy morning with the sky hanging low over the boats in the harbor. I fed the dog and the cat, put the tortoise in his bath and made a fire. I made myself a breakfast and put the dishes in the sink. Then I walked back to the living room and read the paper. It was very quiet. I felt kind of lonely after awhile. Usually by
this time—it was 10 a.m.—I would have had at least a phone call or two. I looked at my cellphone. There was no message on the screen. No incoming missed calls. No texts. No alerts. So I walked into the kitchen, set the phone down and made myself some coffee. Then returned to the living room to read the paper again. Time passed. Now I thought of somebody I was supposed to call back. They’d called yesterday afternoon. I set down the paper. Where was my cellphone? It was not by the chair. Hmmm. I walked into the kitchen to the coffee maker and it wasn’t there
either. So I picked up the wall phone in the kitchen, the landline, and called the cellphone. And there from the kitchen, I heard it ring. It was on my desk, which is halfway from the living room to the kitchen. I must have set it down there on my way in to make the coffee. I hung up. The ringing stopped. Then I thought, now that I’m here in the kitchen, I ought to clean the coffee maker and put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. I did that. Finishing up, I swooped up my cellphone as I (continued on page 20)
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