The traffic is now approaching as bad as it is going to be. The beaches on weekends will now be as crowded as they are going to get, the same is true for the movie theater and restaurants. Even spots to park private jets at the East Hampton Airport are becoming precious. Yes its mid August in the summertime in the Hamptons. This is the time when billionaire's become locals, and locals become irate. This is the time when a 20 minute run to the IGA or Waldbaums becomes an hour plus event. When my divorce/loss of job had me landing on the under belly of the east end where I labored to exist I found the month of August to be the month when living at home in East Hampton/Montauk to be like being on a vacation; meaning all of a sudden easy things became expensive and hard to do. My favorite local destinations were too busy for me to enjoy them. I remember going/needing to buy Aspirin and not being able to park anywhere near where I needed to buy it, as my headache grew worse by the second. Yes but the flip side was watching the "Off-Broadway Show" come out east with scenes and acts played out on the streets, beaches and restaurants. Rudeness of epic proportions worthy of the best TV sitcoms shows up everywhere. "That is my seat, my parking space, please remove that dog," and so forth. And the beautiful people, or as they say in the tabloids, "the celebrities" blossom just before the Montauk Daisies do. My favorite personal story is Ellen Barkin, (the actress and former Mrs. Ron Perlman) after parking her Mercedes convertible in the East Hampton Village Parking lot asking me randomly to get her a timed parking ticket because she forgot to get one, seriously. For a year I lived on Barnes Lane behind the Golden Pear in the village. Just standing on the Midtown Lane was a show in the evening. You have no idea how much ice cream they sell in town until you watch. When I moved to Montauk I learned how many cars can surround the Surf Lodge on a weekend night. Not to mention how many young people stand in the middle of 27 at Cyril's holding cocktails. Yet there is one thing the high season cannot ruin and that is the beauty of the towns and villages of the east end. I use to tell my former roommate/buddy/boss- David, "Billionaires break their asses, swindling folks, stealing, robbing, colluding just to spend two weeks here in August and we get to live here all year round." Come the first week in September tumbleweed will be rolling down Main Street in Amagansett, beaches will be sprinkled with just a few local faces and the best restaurants will have their best tables available all night. But for the rest of August, it will be a rodeo.
