Sounds of Silence

I think Paul Simon must have had Montauk in mind when he and Art Garfunkel wrote their classic hit, "Sounds of Silence."

Since, I've heard told, he's long had a house out here, it's not outside the realm of possibility. I have never actually seen Paul Simon, but then I have seen very few of the celebs, like Steven Spielberg, Dick Cavett, Julianne Moore,etc., who have homes in Montauk. "You just missed Robert De Niro," the barista at Coffee Tauk has told us on more than one occasion. "Jerry Seinfeld is sitting right outside Joni's," my son texts me. There are a lot of celebrity sightings in Montauk. Just not by us. We did, however, sit next to Cynthia Nixon at Clam Chowder House, so I can say for sure she was here. But I digress...

Hello darkness, my old friend.

The dark-sky movement is alive and well in Montauk, if not by design, by default. On a starlit night, the constellations have no competition. There are few street lights off the main drag and little if any light from summer homes closed up tight for winter. We live on one of those inky black streets. Surfside Avenue is lined with houses, but if you stand in front of our house and look east or west in winter, there is little evidence of it.

Last night, friends from Up Island picked us up for dinner.
"Why is it so dark?" they wanted to know
"Because," we told them, stating the obvious, "there's no one here!"

Surfside Avenue, looking west: The lights of town in the distance

Looking east: The only house with lights on besides mine is my 98-year old neighbor's.

As for the sounds of silence...

"I'll have to call you back, honey," I told my son who'd reached me on my cell during an early morning walk on the beach. "I can't hear you over the sound of the waves crashing." Probably not a response he often gets.

With Sloppy Tuna closed for the season, gone is the music that reverberates off of our deck as though Jimmy Buffet and company were tuning up in our living room. Gone are the inebriated revelers making their way down Surfside at night. 

Instead, there is the roar of the ocean, the cries of the gulls and the hum of small-town conversation. 

You can actually... Hear. Yourself. Think.

Roar of the surf