The History Project News Letter

BOCA BONACKER BASH

Martha Kalser and Tony Prohaska were in Florida from March 5th until March 9th to attend the Bonacker Reunion on the 7th. The reunion was organized this year by Ward Freese and was attended by 70 residents of East Hampton who have either moved to Florida or maintain winter homes there.

While in Florida they interviewed Ethel and E. Monroe Osborne, Mary Louise and Norton "Bucket" Daniels, Tony and Sophia Moltisanti, Sara Handrup and Dr. Al and Hatter Pontick.

In the 40's and 50's, Dr. Pontick had the only veterinary practice between Hampton Bays and Montauk, including Shelter Island.

RECOLLECTIONS….

Dr. Pontick recalled when cows and horses far outnumbered the cats and dogs in his practice.

Tony Moltisanti recalled his memories of his father's ice cream business and soda fountain which was a community gathering place for many years.

Norton "Bucket" Daniels recalled a story about Frank Dayton, master carpenter. Frank's wife came home in a rush one evening and asked Frank to wash some string beans, snap them and put them up to boil, while she did some other chores. "Now Frank," she said, "I don't want to see those beans on the counter when I get back." She returned an hour later and sure enough, there were the beans on the counter and Frank was just coming into the kitchen from his workshop with a three-legged stool in his hands. "I just had to knock this stool together so I could be comfortable while I was working," remarked Frank.

"VOICES ARE PERHAPS THE MOST PRECIOUS SOUVENIRS OF THE PAST THAT WE INHERIT…"	"Every scrap of the past is worth preserving, and not least for this reason: that from one generation to the next we can never be certain whether the value of a given object - a coin, a book, a bundle of old letters - is great or small. Nor is this inconsistency in respect to value a function of anything as simple as scarcity; it is related also to how remarkably often scholars are capable of changing their minds. History is a speculation based on a vast kitchen-midden of indiscriminate facts, from which a variety of contradictory hypotheses can be plucked. We destroy at our peril what strikes us today as trash, for tomorrow we may be damned for having failed to detect its obvious importance. In 1976 a group of men with whom I was sitting, began to discuss the Bicentennial celebrations that were then getting underway. Somebody mentioned that while we were fortunate to have the documents written by the Founding Fathers, how much more fortunate we would be if only we could hear their voices as well - an advantage that, thanks to recording, will be in the future, an ever-increasing commonplace. Voices are perhaps the most precious souvenirs of the past that we inherit; after voices come diaries and letters, which, if they are well-written, with unselfconscious fidelity, echo the voice of the writer." Brendan Gill
In 1983, my mother gave me a book. It was a compilation of old letters that had been found in an attic in New York City. The letters were from a man named Gene Schermerhorn to his nephew. They described New York during the mid-1800's. Schermerhorn was a relative of my mother. The book, LETTERS TO PHIL, Memories of a New York Boyhood, 1848-1856, began my interest in connecting personal history to the larger world. The introduction to the book was by Brendan Gill and his words are the perfect preamble to The History Project. I would like to share some of them with you. Tony Prohaska Project Director
RECOLLECTIONS… Lib Davis (95), recalls when she was a young girl in Amagansett around 1915; her father Cap'n Gabe Edwards had large ocean fish traps just off the beach. Her job was to watch from the scuttle of their house and count the number of baskets that were hung from the fishing boat while the traps were being emptied. This would tell her how many trucks they would need and she would call the dock so that the trucks would be ready when the boat arrived at the Edwards' Dock in Promised Land.	RECOLLECTIONS: "I swordfished ever since I could walk. I used to steer my father, when I was probably ten or twelve years old. I pulled in the first one when I was 14. I harpooned that first one too." John Erickson 1918-1997
FINANCIAL REPORT Grants and donations to date total half our proposed budget for 1998. We are optimistic that we will be able to meet our goal of $10,000 by the end of this year.	VIDEOGRAPHER DICK WOLF JOINS HISTORY PROJECT. Dick Wolf, an award-winning film and video documentary producer/director, has volunteered his services to The History Project and has begun taping selected interviews, along with photographic and printed material. We are very fortunate to have Dick Wolf on our team and the work he is doing will allow us to have moving pictures of our subjects when we are ready to assemble our CD-ROM. While attending the Film Institute of CCNY, Mr. Wolf embarked on a film career that has included experience in every type of film productions from documentaries and TV commercials to feature films. Film making has taken him to every part of the world. Mr. Wolf’s films have received numerous awards over the year including the Intl. Film Festival Gold Medal. In 1986, he was particularly honored by receiving the Gold Eagle GRAND Award for having won more international film festival awards than any American director. Mr. Wolf’s career in the film industry began at fourteen when he worked as a summer "go-fer" at an animation studio.
	RECOLLECTIONS…. Lee Hayes remembered when he was in grade school he used to help his father who worked at Toby Griffing'’ Dairy. Twice a day he would get in his horse and herd 25 to 30 cows from the barn between Hand Lane and Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett, across Main St., down Deep Lane to the pasture and back. "The milk was so good then, it was half cream," recalls Lee. "We ran it through a cooler and when it came out it was so cold and good, my gosh.
INTERVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, INTERVIEWS! The first three months of 1998 have been extremely busy for The History Project. We conducted 21 interviews, for a total of 56 to date. We continue to transcribe and edit the interviews, working toward our goal of presenting the first group of transcribed and indexed interviews to the Pennypacker Collection by the end of the summer. We are well on our way to reaching our goal of 100 interviews by the end of 1998. We expect the entire project will take two to three years, culminating with the creation of a CD-ROM containing video of our subjects, the indexed interview transcriptions and photographic and printed material. Martha Kalser Project Manager