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August 31, 1995 - Paddling Through Past and Presentr I.', q.r ..1 .. ,1 . . . �. i .I 8A •The Suffolk Times • August 31, 1995 Paddling Through Past and Present By Paul Stoutenburgh It was one of those perfect days we'd been having this past week when Barbara's energy spurred her to say, "Let's take the kids' kayak and go for a paddle." It Focus on had been a busy day Nature and I was looking forward to a bit of relaxing, so her sugges- tion sort of went unnoticed. My dreams of a cool drink on the front porch were soon shattered by her persistent "Let's go. It's a beautiful evening." I didn't deny that as I looked out over the bay at the setting sun paint- ing the far shore with its wonder glow of that time of day. So it was up and at 'em with a quick change of foot gear into something that would get me over the stony water's edge at the now -low tide. The only other equipment we needed were the double paddles and two life cushions to make us legal. In no time we walked the yellow kayak down to the water's edge and were getting ready to shove off. For some reason Barbara seemed more agile than I as I bent joints that had not been used in some time. It was something like getting into a giant shoe. Once in we were off; how easily we glided through the water, each keep- ing time with the other. We passed the busy marina with its lights and shining chrome and then along the bay. Now the shoreline brought back memories of years ago when we lived in that part of the woods. The waterfront has pretty much re- mained the same. It's the interior woods that has built up and it is there we see new houses. Old places I remembered as a kid have changed hands and new own- ers have added on, put in new windows or perhaps a new deck, but basically the structures still have that familiar water- front look of 50 years ago. Houses that BLUE CRAB —In the past few weeks crabs have been showing up in some of our creeks out the old newspapers on the table and get ready for a feast of steaming blue crabs. sold for $17,000 (we thought that was high then) now sell for $300,000 -plus. More paddling brought us up to the creek I was brought up on. It hadn't changed much from above but below there was now six feet of water where we used to have sandbars and mud flats. Our creeks have been dredged. The tall thatch grass rose above us as we silently slid by its ripe seed heads, reminding me of the grains that have just been har- vested from the rye and wheat fields of our local farmers. The tide had just turned and we were swept into the creek almost without pad- dling. A family of black ducks, now almost fully grown, was feeding, with their tails up, on some unknown morsel 75 Years Ago Aug. 279 1820 Vaudeville!: Pat Rooney and Marion Bent and Com- pany with Pat Rooney's Jazz Band and Pat Rooney Jr. will stage a big vaudeville show and dance at the Auditorium, show beginning at 8 pm. Five big acts of vaudeville will be presented with Mr. Rooney's Broadway novelties. In addition to the show being presented at the Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 2, Mr. Rooney and his company of play- ers will present a show at Belmont Hall, Southold, on Wednesday, Sept. 1, and also at Library Hall, Mattituck, on Friday, Sept. 3. Mr. Rooney says he has for several seasons contemplated putting on a Broadway show for these three towns and if successful on this occasion he proposes play- ing them weekly during the next summer season. 50 Years Ago Aug. 31, 1945 Blood Donated: Since June 10, 1942, the volunteer blood donors of the Eastern District of the North Fork Chapter have given 2,496 pints to the blood bank held at the Greenport High School. Now that the American Red Cross Blood Donor Service has been terminated as of Aug. 15, those who had charge of the work in this area and all the volunteer donors have a right to be justly proud. They in the soft ooze of the creek edge. A green heron, startled by our intrusion, flew off complaining loudly, telling all about that we were there. We passed bog islands that once yield- ed oysters as sweet and tender as any ever grown. All you had to do in those days was to pick them out of the bank. Perhaps when the commercial oyster beds out in the bay left, our creek oysters also left, or was it the intrusion of people and the pollution that silently and with- out notice sneaked into our waters that eliminated them? The land in back of the marsh is where the real change has occurred. While the main body of the marsh looked green and healthy, the edge along the water answered the call of their country when their services were badly needed. Sculptress Visits Orient: Miss Ray Shaw of New York City, the famous sculptress of human hands, was a recent guest of Mrs. Spencer Terry of Tenrywold, Orient. Miss Shaw has done the hands of many famous people in all walks of life, among them being those of Einstein, Lily Pons, Helen Hayes, Claire Booth Luce, Irving Berlin. Miss Shaw recently completed sculpturing the hands of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only hands of a presi- dent since Abraham Lincoln to be preserved for posterity. 25 Years Ago Aug. 28, 1970 LIRR Passengers Escape Injury: The catastro- phe of a serious train wreck was narrowly missed last Fri- day night when 400 commuters to the North Fork escaped injury in a trailer truck -LIRR collision at Wading River Road. The six -car train, the 4:59 out of Jamaica carrying pas- sengers to Riverhead and on to Southold Town and Green - port, was partially derailed at 6:34 p.m. The trailer section of a potato truck, after it was hit by the train engine, skid- ded into a utility pole, causing live wires to be exposed. The fourth and fifth cars of the train were partially derailed had pockmarks of docks, bulkheads and cleared places for bathing — all signs of a growing popu- lation. Places where I used to rabbit hunt are now solidly built up with summer and year -round homes. Yet the creek still persists and, if left alone, in time will renew itself. At least that's what we hope for. By now the sun had set and we were thinking about our trip back. We had purposely come this way because of the wind. One thing I've learned in paddling a canoe, rowing a boat or sailing is if you are out for a nice time, always work your way into the wind at first and then the trip home with the wind will always be an easy one. Now the house lights started to come on along the creek and bay fronts. Darkness was starting to set in and we paddled on back to the cottage. The next day I took my grandsons crabbing. I Spread knew a spot my son had found where there were some good crabs and so, with buckets and crab nets, we were off to catch the low tide and do some crab- bing. Low tide is essential. As we pushed along we soon started to see crabs. Youthful enthusiasm does not fol- low the proven path and so there were many crabs that scurried away, unaffect -. ed by dashing nets. The oldest soon caught on by not digging up half the creek when he scooped after a crab. The trick is to pick up as little debris as pos- sible and yet get your prize. Blue -Claw Bounty Much hollering and screaming, ex- citement, muddy boat and snapping crabs soon found us with a nice collec- tion of blue claws. The youngest grand- son was satisfied, after many futile at- tempts to just fool around with the crabs that were milling about in the bucket, when suddenly one reached up and latched onto his finger. With a scream and sudden movement, hand and crab came flying out of the tub. The crab fell in the bottom of the boat and a lesson was learned: not to get too close to snap- ping blue claws. Next was his lesson on how to pick up the angry crab in the bot- tom of the boat. Holding the back swim flipper, Paulie cautiously picked it up and dropped it back into the bucket. The highlight of the trip was a huge soft crab that Robby caught. I must say in all the years I've seen crabs, hard and soft, there were few that could top this one. Robby was thrilled. It was a perfect day, a step back in time to when I was that age and sloshed around in leaky rowboats crabbing and exploring every nook and corner of our creeks. Experiences in life are what make a person and I can only hope that the fish- ing trips, camping outings and the ad- ventures of crabbing or clamming or other outdoor activities will instill in our young people an appreciation of the world they have around them, for after all they will be the stewards of this land when we are gone.