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April 16, 1998 - On the road again, and heading northGA • The Suffolk Times • April 16, 1998 On the road again, and heading north We passed through South Carolina where farmers were busy plowing their fields. Our destination for the night would be an Army Corps campsite on Lake Jordan in North Carolina. ROGU$ Redbud, that early flowering ON tree of the south, was out all along NATURE the highway as by Paul well as dogwoods Stoutenburgh and the yellow jessamine. Deciduous trees had their first un- folding green leaves, but as we drove further north the trees and shrubs seemed to withdraw, with just their buds showing. Winter still holds on there and spring has not shown its true warmth as yet. Our course was west- ward so that in the days to come we could travel Route 81 northwest and thereby bypass Richmond, Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. At the campsite we ate our dinner outside as we watched the sun go down over the lake in a huge red - orange ball. Three or four chickadees hopped above in the bare branches of the trees looking for insects' eggs and those that had already hatched. We knew the insects were stirring, for every once in a while we'd hear one buzz around our head. The "no- see -ums" were starting their campaign of annoyance. We left North Carolina with fond memories of the redbud blossoming and yellow swallowtail butterflies try- ing out their newly developed wings. We traveled the back roads northward and once had to stop for instructions at a really old- fashioned country store. It reminded me of Mabel Richmond's General Store on the Main Road in Peconic years ago, but this one was twice as big and had twice as many wares to sell. They had everything from work gloves to chewing tobacco, from kerosene to groceries. The wood- en handle on the swinging screen door was worn thin from use. It was the cen- ter of activity of the area. All along the winding roads were old, abandoned log and slab houses with their wide front porches and tin roofs that were desperately trying to preserve them from the elements. Usually some distance away was the new brick home. The old cabins ap- peared to be left standing as a sort of historic reminder of the past. They showed the progress from "rags to riches." We stopped at a roadside nurs- ery just to see what they grew down there. When we finished our browsing and came back to the car I noticed a robin building its nest in the tree right above us, for spring was truly busting out all over. We even saw a handsome male bluebird chasing the drab female across the road as we drove along the spring -laden back roads. When I was a kid blue- birds were com- mon on Long Island but today they are only found in a few selected places. Heavy rains cause washout We could see evidence of the heavy rams they'd had down here. Every river, stream, pond and lake was chocolate brown. Where the highway had cut through banks, mud slides showed their glaring scars and every- where new drains were being put in that had been washed away. The good side of all this rain was the greening of the fields and roadsides, and with the ever - warming weather you -could feel spring just waiting to burst out. We located a town campground in Buena Vista halfway up the Blue Ridge. We didn't go up the parkway because the campsites up there were not yet open. Remember, those high elevations freeze up long after spring has come to the valleys. Our site was a large, open, grassy field with only one other camper as the regular campsites higher up also were not even open yet. This becomes a problem when camping this time of year, as most parks are closed until sometime in April this far north. Just before dark I walked outside to stretch whiff of cattle as we passed a field recently manured. We made such good time, and the lure of home was so great, that we threw caution to the wind and set our sights for Long Island. We knew it would be a long trek but we were on a roll. I won't go into the details about getting through New York except to say WE MADE IT. The congestion and stop- and -go traffic never ended until we reached the out- skirts of Patchogue. Could this mess ever Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh Although gannets nest far to the north, we often see them off shore but very rarely In our local bays as they appeared just last week In Orient Harbor. lI V_—_ "r ! aw 1 0%,0% r� Q w i► r-W moo&" ■ *7 igv%Fr1L YI fvr� 75 Years Ago April 13, 1923 Spring rush on at local shipyards: If one does not think that Greenport is a busy place these days, just take a walk through any one of the local shipyards where everyone is busy getting all classes of boats, from small power boats to large yachts, ready to go into com- mission. Painters are busily engaged in repainting the hulls and interiors of the boats that have been stored during the winter months, machinists are overhauling and repairing the motors of these different boats and ship carpenters are working overtime to make the nec- essary repairs so that all may be ready when the season really opens. 50 Years Ago April 16, 1948 Observatory dome placed in position: The John W. Stokes Memorial building at Custer Institute, Southold, is rapidly nearing completion. At the regular meeting of Custer, held on Saturday evening of last week, president Charles Van Duzer reported that the large observatory dome has been placed in position through the coopera- tion of John Norkelun of the South Shore Dredging and Construction Co. A vote of thanks was given to Alvah Goldsmith of Southold, who built the observatory dome and donated it to the Stokes Memorial building. my legs and saw my first bat of the sea- son darting back and forth picking up insects: another sign that winter had taken its wrappings off and awoken its fold. Back at the camper we did a little writing and then headed in early as we wanted to get out at daybreak. As usual Barbara did the navigating. We would be traveling through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania before we plunged into the mad congestion of New York City traffic. Our early start had us traveling in bright sunshine. The rolling country- side slipped by as field after field of cows grazed on increasingly green fields. Every once in a while we'd get a Greenport boy has narrow escape: Sheldon Sage, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Sage, who is a student at Syracuse University, had a narrow escape from death when the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house in which he roomed was burned on Friday of last week. The fire started in the boiler room and spread with great rapidity. Sage and another student were aroused from their slumbers just in the nick of time. With the interior of the building a roaring furnace and the stair- ways on fire, the two students climbed down the fire escapes on the outside of the building to safety. All of Sage's clothing, books, radio and other personal belong- ings were burned. Fortunately, he had left the switch key in his motor car which was parked close to the burn- ing frat house and some of the other students moved the car to safety. 25 Years Ago April 12, 1973 Village votes to Increase sewer rates: Because of rising costs of labor, materials and supplies, the [ Greenport Village] Board said sewer rates will go up from 30 to 48 cents per 1,000 gallons as of June 1, with the minimum yearly charge for 100,000 gallons $48 a year. Sewer rents for outside the village will be $48 with an additional fee of $24 annually for each connection, plus 12 cents per gallon for anything over 100,000 gal- lons. reach our East End? Home, sweet, home How good it was to be back home. The lawn looked a bit battle- scarred with winter's debris of dead limbs and eaves and the chickens numbered fewer than when we left; the casualties were charged up to Mr. Fox or a roving dog. The barn was deep in manure, the fence needed a quick repair and the water pump in the house wasn't operating correctly, but all that seemed trivial for we were now home. Down by the pond the willows were showing their greenery and .the swamp maple glowed in a deep maroon as the buds of this early arriv- er showed their color. There were grand gatherings and feasts galore with kids and grand- children. Could they have grown so much in such a short time? How won- derful it is to have family about once more. No sooner were we settled in when a phone call came from my son out in Orient, who wanted me to get out and see gannets feeding in Orient Harbor. In no time I was in the pickup and out there scanning the waters to see these handsome, white, black- wing- tipped ocean travelers diving for fish right in our own local waters. (Jim House had also left us a message that he had seen gannets while cruising around Shelter Island.) We had seen gannets off the east coast of Florida not 10 days ago and it was a nice surprise to see these so close in -shore in our home waters. They brought back memories of almost 40 years ago when our family camped on the Gaspe Peninsula at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada. There gannets nested by the thousands along the cliffs of a huge rock off shore. I took a boat out there and climbed to the top of this gannet rookery and before me and below me were nesting birds within striking dis- tance of each other. It was a sight I'll never forget as these birds, with their eight -foot wing span, glided above me almost within arm's reach. As I watched the birds off the causeway I wondered if any of these had been raised on those rocky cliffs that I visit- ed so long ago. It was a good omen of things to come, things to see, things to write about, things to be thankful for.