Montauk Moments

As I have written in early posts, sometimes it is much needed to get out of the city, even for a day. So a couple of girlfriends and I embarked on a day of bonding to "The End". i.e. to Montauk, Long Island. Its quite a ways away to The End...a three hour train ride on the LIRR, but it didn't feel too bad. I just dreamt about the Hamptons estate I would own someday in the future.

Once you get to the Montauk train station, you still need to make it into town. You can either walk a mile or so down the highway, or get a ride from one of the somewhat sleazy taxi drivers who are, oh so polite enough, to welcome/badger you immediately after you step off the train platform. We opt for the ride. As the cabbie cranks some 90s dance tunes, I know that this will be a day full of, what we will later call, "Montauk Moments".

When we arrive at the main strip, we stroll around, stepping into a few shops and enjoying the strangely quiet surroundings. Though its mid-April, our visit still falls into Montauk's "off season", so a number of stores and restaurants are still closed until the summer months. We're peeking into a bakery when we notice a concert poster on the window. I think the band was playing a concert that night.

It looks like this:

On seeing the poster, my friend, Annie, laughs, "That's Mick Jagger! I can't believe the band just stuck a picture of him on their concert poster." (or something to that end.)

We'll revisit this later.

We have a good giggle about it and then go get some grub at John's Pancake House. They are voted "Biggest Omelette In Town". Biggest. Behind the counter is a wooden-framed photo of Jerry Seinfeld and, if I remember correctly, a giant Swordfish devouring a Ken doll. Above the doorway to the bathrooms are other various celebrity headshots signed and all saying lovely things about John's pancakes I suppose. There were several other Montauk Moments that took place at this diner, which I won't go into, but let's just say that shaved ice, ET Pancakes, and the Jew Hunter from Inglorious Basterds were all involved.



After lunch we wander into this store called, "We Sell Everything" or something like that, so we go inside and look around. While we are browsing we begin to talk to the woman working there about this "Montauk Monster" we had heard about:

Story goes that this monster was found washed up on shore in the summer of 2008, perhaps  an escaped experiment from a research facility on a nearby island. When we ask the shopkeep, she says, "Yeah I know about it. My friend found it." beat. I felt like I was smack dab in the middle of a Nancy Drew mystery. She continues, "I knew about the monster before it came out in the papers. I saw it." 

What?! Woah! Oh my gosh! 

"Yeah, it was really weird looking...but they found out that it was just a dead Pitbull that a man had thrown into the ocean after it had started to stink up his dumpster." 

Huh... Mystery over. Created quite a hullabaloo at the time though. Worth a Googling. We buy some friendship bracelets and then move on.

Leaving the store, we're chatting a bit, when Annie points to a man who has just walked by and exclaims, "THAT'S THE GUY FROM THE POSTER!!!" And true enough, I see the "Mick Jagger" man disappear into a shop. We nearly die laughing. BAH! If only I had the guts to go take a picture with him! But, hey, take a look at this comparison I've composited so you can see what I mean:

Here you'll see Joe Delia pictured on left, and Mick Jagger on right. It's uncanny. And if you're having trouble believing this, you can even take a look at "Joe Delia and Thieves" Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/JoeDeliaandThieves. Give 'em a 'like'!

We then spend some time at the beach, dipping our toes in the frigid water and lying in the sun, clad in jackets. By the time dinner rolls around, most of the stores and restaurants that actually were open that day, are now closed for the night. I had had great hopes to eat the succulent seafood that Montauk boasts of, but we found ourselves eating at a Chinese restaurant called "Wok and Roll". The worst Chinese restaurant. We were the only ones in there. BUT, I think it was the most perfectly funny way to end our day of Montauk Moments.

It was a really good day.