I spent about three hours at the East Hampton Library last Tuesday doing research for an upcoming lecture at Clinton Academy. I had to retreive some information about the WWII years so I began by loading up the microfilm machine with the reel that contained all the East Hampton Star newspapers from 1941 through 1944. I expected to be there about an hour but became so engrossed in what I was doing I stayed for a good part of the day. It was great fun.
I began with the paper which was published right after the attack on Pearl Harbor and it was fasinating to follow the community as it came to grips with war and to see how it affected life around here, with notices for air raid drills and instructions for black-out regulations posted regularly. One week they were announcing a scrap drive, the next the need for bandages to be made. The community was wholly involved in the war effort, yet at the same time there were reports of such things as birthday parties being celebrated and town meetings being held. Life went on.
The best thing about rolling through page after page of the local paper was spotting familiar names and faces, or events that I'd heard of growing up. When that happened my mission was momentarily forgotten and I'd read with interest about the wedding of a couple that I'd known only as elderly people. I studied photos of beautiful young brides to catch sight of the people I'd thought of only in the context of being mothers of friends, or ladies who belonged to the LVIS.
Sometimes it was the advertising that grabbed my attention. Ads for businesses long gone but still remembered. Or ones that touted things like cigarettes that would never be seen now. It was an escape from the world of today and a trip back in time to an amazing part of our history. I really loved it.
By the end of the three hours I'd picked up all the information I needed, along with a stiff neck from looking through my bifocols at the screen and a sore back from holding my arms out so long to work the machine. If I could have those reels and that machine at my house I'd be as addicted as my son is to his video games. Because I felt the history of this place in my soul. Within those newspapers I scanned I'd caught site of announcements for my father's graduation from high school (with a photo!) and my great-grandfather's sudden and unexpected death. I felt somehow connected to every report of a dead soldier - and my heart ached at the reports of families who were waiting for word of their sons who were missing. I may not have been alive then, but this was my community and my people I was reading about. It was the parents and grandparents of my friends and neighbors - people I go to church with and see at the grocery store.
I came home exhausted and exhilirated. What a great way to spend a day!
2 comments:
Hey Barbara,
See you like to hang out in that microfilm room at the library. Becomes additive. Being a history buff, I have spent alot of time in the basement of the John Jermain Library. They don't have microfilm machines, so I have to look at the actual Sag Harbor papers, 1850 - 2008 when I need to research something about Sag Harbor. Anyway, I want to pass something along to you and your readers. If you have a valid library card for your local library,go to the following site. Suffolk Historic Newspapers, at the following link,
http://shn.suffolk.lib.ny.us/
You can read and print any NY Times article from 1851 to 2003. It will ask you for your library barcode and password. This is a free service to Suffolk County library cardholders. Otherwise this would cost you a $1.50 per article. I find it most useful. For example type in Abe Katz fire, and it will bring up the Times article on Abe Katz's big barn fire in East Hampton in 1960. Of course the East Hampton Star is much more in-depth, but it is not indexed, except for births, deaths, accidents and you really got to know approx. date of what your trying to look up.
Another great site to check out is
http://www.historicaerials.com/
Type in your zipcode and see different aerials of East Hampton from 1954 and 2004. You can even overlay these maps side by side to see changes.
Speaking of WWII, I did some research last year for Bob Hefner ref. to the June 1942 Nazi landing in Amagansett. After researching trial transcripts and old photos, it was ascertained the saboteurs buried their explosives approx 100 feet east of the comfort station in the rear paring lot of what is now Atlantic Ave. Beach. You might be unaware, but Coast Guard man, John Cullen who stumbled upon the Nazi's on the beach that night, is still alive and well and in his eighties. He resides in VA nowadays.
Regards,
Bruce
Great tips-thanks!
I read about the Nazi landing with interest when I saw it in the paper - of course all of us who grew up here have heard the stories nad in fact we had a lecture on that event a couple years ago at the Historical Society so I know about John Cullen as well. My own father-in-law was stationed out here in the Coasst Guard and he told us that only one guy had a key to the ammunition case - and he was off dancing at Jungle Pete's at the time.
Great stuff! Thanks for writing!
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