January 12, 1995 - Life in the Country, Past and PresentSA � The Suffolk Times_ f January 1.2, 1995
Life ion the Country, Past and Present
By Paul Stoutenburgh
A break in winter's gray.
Squirrels romp about the lawn
and dig for hidden treasures in
the now thawed ground. One
enterprising adventurer slides
down the wire of my bird feeder
and hangs stretched out, head
d o w n ,
Focus on and hi k-
Nature ing how
nice it is
we pro-
vided what seems to be an end-
less supply of sunflower seeds. I
really wouldn't mind it if he or
she didn't have such a large
family for as soon as one learns
the tricks of the trade the others
soon follow.
Yet there's hope for control
for up on the back - pasture hill
sits my windmill, silent now
through the winter months, and
on it sits my control, a red -
tailed hawk. This is the large
hawk we see soaring around on
thermals throughout the year
here on our East End. It's a
hawk that as a kid we'd only
see occasionally; in those days
our land area was made up
mostly of plowed fields and
farms. Today, farms are fewer, many
have developments on them and others
lay fallow, which makes ideal habitat for
hawk hunting. Rodents of all kinds from
the smallest vole to the rabbit and squir-
rel are on Mr. Red Tail's list.
Usually these big hawks do their hunt-
ing over open fields but occasionally
they'll come into the wood edge and
pick off an unsuspecting squirrel, so
hopefully my squirrel population will be
kept in control by recycling as every-
thing is in the natural world.
A Break for Pruning
It's during these mild spells that I ven-
ture out and start pruning the small
orchard and grape arbor out back. Here
again a recycling process occurs when I
feed the branches and vines to the cow.
How he loves them. Those huge jaws
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
WAITING TO BE FED —Cows, like people, have to be fed and even more so when the snow falls
and covers the ground. Hay and water are the essentials for their survival.
grind up my trimmings and leave very
little to dispose of. His fondness for such
tender morsels is the main reason for the
heavy fence around the orchard, grapes
and garden. Once when someone left the
end gate open one of the cows went in
and really did a job of "pruning." It
wouldn't have been half bad if he was
schooled in the proper methods of prun-
ing but his fondness for buds and tender
tips devastated my orchard for the next
year. Then, to add insult to injury, when
I tried to round him up to get him out, he
uncooperatively charged around, goug-
ing the ground with his big hoofs. Each
time he'd stop, in that lush paradise of
temptation, he'd munch on whatever
was in front of him — pear buds, apple
shoots, tender rose buds. He'd try every-
thing. Needless to say, there were no
feelings of regret when his time came to
*_.M69A. *_.,...L nwwL
75 Years Ago
Jan. 9, 1920
East Marion News: A paper for signers has been
passed to each resident to have electric lights in this village.
They have been needed for a long time. It would be delight-
ful to go out of an evening and not stumble along in the
darkness. It would be a pleasure and great convenience to
also have them in the homes. It is reported that no decision
has as yet been reached.
Town Topics: W. Effingham Townsend and Mrs.
Joseph L. Townsend and family motored to New York the
latter part of last week. On Saturday Mr. Townsend and
Master Joseph Townsend visited Bronx Park and while
there saw the sloth bear, a native of China, break through
the ice and drown while drinking from the pool in his den.
They were the first to give notice to the keeper. This was
the only bear of its kind in the park, its mate having died
several years ago.
50 Years Ago
Jan. 12, 1945
Local News: Greenport—Next Sunday morning at
the Greenport Baptist Church, of which Rev. Floyd G. Ellis
is the pastor, a worship and praise service will be held at
which time the note representing the total indebtedness on
be put down and go in the freezer.
Each year we start with a new calf,
raise it through the summer and winter
and then have it put down and packed
for the freezer. People often ask, "Isn't it
hard to do in your animals after you've
watched them grow ?" My answer to that
is "No, for we never make a pet out of
them and, after all, most of us eat meat
and think nothing of it. Why should it be
any different here ?"
Years ago, when we were kids out
here on the East End, those scenes of
butchering and slaughtering were com-
monplace. I can remember in the Depot
Lane School in Cutchogue hearing pigs
squeal as they were "stuck" to do them
in at the farm next door. We'd all look
out the classroom window and see them
hoisted up and then lowered into huge,
steaming kettles of scalding water which
the parsonage will be burned in a fitting manner. Also, a
note for the new heater, recently installed in the chapel, will
be burned.
Shelter Island —On Jan. 6 a meeting was held in the
Community Hall for the purpose of deciding as to whether
or not a Youth Center should be organized on Shelter
Island.
The proposed center offered two nights each week of
roller skating, dancing, ping pong, pool and other games to
young people between the ages of 12 and 18 and Saturday
afternoons for those under 12. A vote was taken and was
found unanimous in favor of organizing.
25 Years Ago
Jan. 9, 1970
News of Local Servicemen: Lt. J.G. Gary Jack-
son arrived home in East Marion at 9:30 p.m. on Christmas
Eve after completing his active service in the U.S. Navy
aboard the destroyer USS Blue and receiving his discharge
in San Francisco on the morning of Dec. 24.
He was met at Kennedy International Airport by his
father, Dorrie Jackson, and John Duell, and the three men
returned to the Mattituck in Mr. Duell's plane. Mr. Jackson
is presently substitute teaching at Greenport High School
and plans to commence graduate studies this summer.
prepared them for scrap-
ing the hair off their fat,
pinkish bodies. And how
about the plump roaster
hens that were annually
culled to make way for
new, young layers? I'm
afraid we've gotten too
far away from the land in
this day of modern tech-
nology. Kids today don't
even know where their
hamburger comes from,
no less their milk.
A Thing of the Past
We once had many
dairies here on the East
End. The Tuthill Dairy in
Mattituck is now a horse
farm and the Corazzini
and Sills dairies in
Greenport are only mem-
ories. Silos (those tall,
round structures that kept
the food supply for the
cows through the winter)
are still around, if you
know where to look for
them. I see the one still
standing where the old
McCann farm stood on
the north side of the road
just outside Greenport.
Like a skeleton of a past
era it brings back memo-
ries of what we once had here on our
East End. Dairies are a thing of the past
on all of Long Island. The last one to go
was in Southampton.
I'm not sure how long we'll be able to
keep raising our own meat for our fami-
ly's consumption but
I hope the end is a Like a
long way, off for
there's nothing quite skeleton
like the pastoral of a past
scene of grazing ani-
mals. Of course, era silos
there are those rare bring back
occasions when the g
fence you put up memories
isn't strong enough of what
for the "eyes of
greener pastures" we once
and the cows get out. had.
I can remember one
year when I was
teaching and we were busy raising three
children we heard over the early -morn-
ing news about two cows that were
walking past the police station in
Peconic. Barbara looked at me. I looked
out across the pasture. Our cows were
gone. They had to be ours. We were off!
I was a novice at leading cows home
and so I thought it would be simple. I
brought the old feed bucket with corn
and a rope. My plan was to lay a lasso
on the ground with a bucket in the mid-
dle and when a cow fed I would slip the
lasso over its head. I banged on the
bucket. The cows came running. One
munched on the corn. I flipped the lasso
over. That's all I remember. Off they
both went. I fell on the ground and rolled
over. My glasses went flying. The cows
stopped and looked back at me. Needless
to say, that didn't work. We finally herd-
ed them back "cross lots" with time
enough left to get to school.
It all goes to prove there are some
things you know and some things you
learn. Today we have a stronger fence
and we don't try to lead cows back home
by tying a rope around their neck, espe-
cially cows that have been on their own
1 • *heee•they roamed free itr ttte -pasture -
I