Meet Me in Montauk

Montauk Point Lighthouse, built in 1796

View from Bluff Lookout

Romantic and desolate is how I imagined Montauk to be, as many coastal towns lying at the end of the road usually are. Perhaps if I had visited during winter that may have been the case, but I arrived into the tiny hamlet by the sea on the tail end of the season, just days into autumn. Tourists were still buying lobster rolls at the famous Lunch restaurant, the local brewery had recently replaced their Watermelon Session beer with their seasonal Pumpkin Ale, the state park campgrounds listed vacancies, and the beaches and roads were void of congestion.

Montauk had been on my list to visit for many years, and for years before that it had remained tucked away in the recesses of my mind after first being made known of the town from a movie, which the title of this article references- the movie being Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  The two main characters, played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, had met there and revisited the area in their dreams. Even though it’s been over a decade since I’ve seen the film, and I wouldn’t even be able to remember enough to discuss the plot, the name Montauk stuck with me, evoking both mystery and nostalgia concurrently.  

While in Montauk I ate crab chowder on the beach, watched the sunset across Fort Pond Bay, hiked through Camp Hero state park to Bluff Lookout to check out the “most southerly oceanfront bluffs found on the Eastern Seaboard,” drove by the popular surf spot of Ditch Plains, learned that 200 feet of land near the lighthouse has eroded in the two centuries since the lighthouse was built in 1796 ( the first one built in the state of New York), car camped at Hither Hills state park, drank pumpkin ale at the local brewery, and discovered an incredibly moving sculpture exhibition titled Dark Elegy.

My brief time in the small town satiated my curiosity and uncovered the ambiguous allure, to disappointingly reveal just another pretentious town on Long Island. Perhaps it’s due to residing next door to the infamous Hamptons, or maybe it’s due to my lack of money, but I was reminded of my position as a nomadic bum when I returned to sleep in my camperolla at the campground after reading a realty listing hanging in one of the window fronts downtown- the house in mention was listed for the astronomical price of 11 million and some change. I suppose I had expected too much. I had hoped to find Montauk an undiscovered beach town full of eclectic outsiders residing off the beaten path, but I guess that was naive of me to think due to the high population density in the Northeast, specifically New York City which is just over 100 miles away. Still, I’m glad I visited and got to see how “the other half lives.” I’ll have to keep searching for the Montauk of my dreams.

Land Acknowledgement: Montauk is located on the ancestral lands of the Mantaukett (native-land.ca).

I wanted to share a little more about the sculpture exhibition, Dark Elegy, created by Suse Lowenstein. I had stumbled upon a picture in the local paper, The Montauk Sun, which gave a brief description of the pieces, and I was immediately compelled to check it out. The next day I drove to the Lowenstein’s home, walked into their backyard where the sculptures resided, and was suddenly brought to tears. There were dozens, I think around 80, sculptures of women in varying positions of expressing grief. See, Suse lost her firstborn son, Alexander, back in 1988; he was on the Pan Am flight 103 that was bombed in an act of terrorism. 270 people were killed. So being an artist, she started sculpting figures in various expressions of grief, pain, and rage. Other women who lost loved ones on that flight wanted to be part of the project and came to her studio and went back to the moment they learned of their loved ones’ passing. Suse replicated those moments in art. I was especially moved to read that each piece also has a memento of the person lost that resides within each of the sculptures. The emotion and sorrow emanated. I left hoping that those women have since found some peace.