The History Project News Letter

VIDEOS ADD NEW DIMENSION

With the participation of Dick Wolf, an award-winning documentary producer/director, and the generous grant and donation of videotape stock by Cablevision, The History Project has added videos to its growing collection of interviews. Since we started videotaping selected interviews in February, we have done 11 videos, including two hours with Abigail Edwards Field who was 100 years old on April 15, 1998. These videos will be used as insertions on the CD-ROM that we plan to produce at the completion of the project.

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Anthony (Tony) Drexel Duke was videotaped at his home at Boys Harbor. He told us about his youth, school days and the founding of Boys Harbor in 1937. He told us about his experiences during World War 11 and his return to East Hampton to settle Boys Harbor in its present location. We have spent 3 hours with Mr. Duke and have planned additional interviews with him and his wife, Luly, during July and August.

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Eunice Juckett Meeker was videotaped, first in front of the 60 year old wisteria vine that was planted when she moved into her house on David's Lane and then while giving us a tour of her unusual garden containing mailboxes from all over the world. In an earlier audio tape she spoke about growing up in East Hampton, her time as a reporter for The New York Times covering local stories such as the tragic sinking of the "Pelican" and her years of teaching school.

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In Montauk, we videotaped Shank Dickinson driving the carriage he built in his basement this past winter. In the new carriage, we toured Third House and Deep Hollow Ranch. Shank shared some of his recollections of growing up on the ranch. He was originally interviewed in 1988 and this recent video will be followed up with additional audio tape interviews.

Milton Miller was videotaped twice for a total of over 3 hours of interview time. Milton grew up in Amagansett and spent much of his youth at the Montauk Fishing Village. He became a legendary fisherman and conservationist and has been featured in national publications and film documentaries.

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Our video of Morris Hettiger, above, followed an earlier audio tape giving us over 3 hours of interview time. Morris's relationship with the Lester Family made many family connections for us. Morris has an encyclopedic memory of his boyhood in East Hampton.

Connie Willis treated us to a tour of her home 'in Amagansett where we were able to photograph many of her paintings and hear about her early days on the East End. This video of Connie followed an initial interview on audio tape.

FROM OUR VIDEOGRAPHER

I found the article in The Star intriguing. Some people who called themselves The History Project, were going around recording, then transcribing, East Hampton resident's recollections from the first half of the 20th Century. As an avid reader of history in general and a devoted follower of "Bucket" Daniels' letters of memory in The Star, I believed that the preservation of those recollections was a project that I would love to join.
     I had just retired as a producer-director of filmed documentaries and had spent many years convincing people to share their memories of past events and then weaving these recollections into my films. This seemed right up my alley.
     I knew I could not read, garden and fly-fish my way through retirement. Some of my time was hanging a bit heavy. So, I called Tony Prohaska and offered my services. We met for lunch a few days later where he introduced me to his partner in the project, Mickey Kalser. A few days later we did our first interview together; Tony asking the questions, Mickey on the tape recorder and me behind the camera.
     Eleven marvelous interviews later, with most of the wrinkles ironed out, I'm looking forward to many more reminiscences captured for the 21st. Century.

Dick Wolf

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E. Monroe (Ed) Osborne took us on a video tour of his years as a sailor and trainer of Chesapeakes. He also had some wonderful memories of his early years in school and sang, on camera, an old victory song from East Hampton High School. We originally interviewed Ed in March during our visit to Florida for the Bonacker Reunion. Since he returned to East Hampton for the summer, we have spent another three hours with him, including an hour's worth of videotape.

RECOLLECTIONS:

Sherrill Foster used to ride her bike to school in The Village. "Before school started you'd go to Halsey's Garage or you'd go to Dominys or you could put it in Schencks. You'd go and talk to the head man, say you want to leave your bike there during school, So all school year you left your bike at one of those three places... and so I never had my bike stolen. Only after World War 11 did you get things stolen."

     One of the inspirations for "The History Project" was Everett Rattray's wonderful book, The Adventures of Jeremiah Dimon. That book takes place just a little before the memory of our oldest citizens of today. Rattray's book, while a work of fiction, is an illustration of how this region was both unique and isolated and, at the same time, at the center of the action during the last turn of the century period. If we'd been able to start this project 20 years earlier, we'd have been able to tape real voices from that last decade of the 19th century, like that of Everett's uncle, Dr. Dave Edwards, an inspiration for his book. But in this project we have to be careful not to cry over spilled milk.
     There is no formula for a project like ours. Granted there are some major themes. As in previous centuries, in this century, global influences have come crashing down on us in many forms. There have been two World Wars in which we have sent our people off to fight, and Prohibition, which required us to both smuggle, and to fight smuggling. There have been many bad hurricanes, and almost everyone has a story about where they were during the Hurricane of '38.
     We don't do generic interviews. We believe that each life is important in all its uniqueness and detail and that each point of view is true in its own way. And so, we continue, with your help, playing our part in the ever-changing narrative called history; where we come from.

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Tony Prohaska
Project Director

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Lee Hayes, above, shared with us stories about his early years in Amagansett, his achievements at East Hampton High School, his time as a Tuskeegee Airman and the years following the war. This March videotape was in addition to an earlier audio interview we did with Lee in December 1997.

Everett Miller's gas station contains many beautifully restored examples of memorabilia such as old gas pumps and signs, along with photographic material of the early days of the business. We had previously interviewed Everett back in December, 1997 when he shared with us his recollections of the time when he was a boy and his father was a caretaker at the Devon Colony where he spent a great deal of time.

FINANCIAL REPORT

At mid-year we are still short of our first year's budget. We believe a town-wide mailing will close the gap, but we need $2000 to cover the cost of such a mailing. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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Abigail Edwards Field, above, at her daughter-in-law's home on Shelter Island. She tells about growing up on Franklin Farm in Springs and her years there as a young wife and mother. Abigail has a photographic memory and a wonderful way of expressing herself. A two hour video was part of the five hours we spent talking to Abigail on audio tape.

INTERVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, INTERVIEWS!

We continue to work as hard as we can to interview as many people as we can. At this writing, we have conducted 87 interviews and 11videos, but we still have a long list of people we would like to get to... and the list keeps growing. We expect to be very busy over the summer transcribing and indexing so that we can make our first presentation to the Pennypacker Collection at the end of the summer.
The 11 videos we have done so far will be used as part of the CD-ROM we plan to produce at the end of the project.

Martha Kalser
Project Manager