Westhampton Beach HS Yahoo Manorville Yahoo Hamptons Yahoo Long Island Yahoo Forest Hills Yahoo New York City Newsday My Main Page Wedding Wedding Advice Florida Rook Princeton WPI Grab Bag Thesis Don'ts Friends Bottom 95 WHBHS 1987 Pool Party '98 Peter A. Dutton, Jr. dutton@adapco.com March 7, 1997

Long Island! I wasn't born on Long Island, but I moved there when I was three. My parents still live in the same house in Manorville that we moved into when I was five. Manorville is in the middle of the island: 60 miles east of Manhattan, and 60 miles west of Montauk Point. About 95% of Long Islanders live west of there, so for them Manorville is "way out east". Lots of forests and farms give the area a nice rural character. Friends from western Long Island think it's the middle of nowhere, and friends from elsewhere are surprised that we have trees and not shopping malls in our backyard and can drink from private well water. They're not surprised that we didn't have cable in our neighborhood until 1991. I went to South Manor schools when I was young. There's no high school there. So being just west of The Hamptons, I went to Westhampton Beach High School and graduated in 1987. Westhampton Beach is dead in the winter and packed in the summer, but a nice town all year round. Take a look for yourself: Here's an aerial shot (courtesy of Peconic Online), and a live photograph (courtesy of Goodies Hampton Information) of downtown Westhampton Beach. Those who are interested can join a Long Island Mailing List. It used to be good, but has since degenerated into lots of noise and chat and no content. That's only my opinion; you might find it worth joining, but don't say I didn't warn you. I now live with my wife in a nice apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, which is not a typical trendy yuppie neighborhood like Hoboken, Brooklyn Heights, or Park Slope, but it's very nice and much cheaper. Queens is of course on Long Island, but it's part of New York City, so it's not really part of Long Island, if that makes sense.