Dans Papers - May 11, 2007 - Memorial Day May Be Postponed 2 Weeks

Driving down Main Street in Southampton this morning, it was quite clear to me that, at least as far as the foliage goes, we are not ready for Memorial Day. The trees are trying mightily to bloom. And I am sure that sometime, perhaps by the middle of June, they will succeed in doing so. But I just don't think that they are going to make it for Memorial Day, which is only two weeks away.

This is the first time in memory that this community finds itself not quite ready for the influx of the summer people.

In the past, every spring, everybody gets out there and pulls together to drag the shabby remnants of winter away and get everything else all shined up and tip-top for the summer. Windows are washed, old tires are hauled off the beaches, picket fences are painted, the stores are restocked -- with the work shirts and galoshes put away and the bikinis, tuxedoes, flip flops, Calvin Klein and Prada brought in. This year's celebrities are interviewed and selected. They even nail up the new signs. Down come the store signs that read Amy's Cafe and Donut and up goes Eli Tahari. Down comes Todd's Beer and Beverage and up goes Ralph Lauren Kids. And out come all the workmen with their hedge trimmers and pool supplies. You'd never think for a minute that what you find here on Memorial Day weekend -- the greatest and most glittering summer resort in the world -- has just spent a winter and early spring hiding away the beer bottles, broken TV sets, yard sale junk and pickup trucks. Instead, what they see are flowers everywhere, hedgerows trimmed to the nines, lawns mowed to within an inch of their lives and trees freshly burst into full bloom in green foliage sheltering everything from high above the roads.

But then (it was bound to happen), there comes this year. On April 14 and 15, snow and sleet slammed into the East End, knocking down trees and washing away beaches. The temperature dipped into the twenties and the winds blew at forty miles an hour. And after it was over, the trees and shrubs, God bless them, found themselves all confused. The groundhog had not only failed to see his shadow -- there would be four more weeks of winter -- he had been lifted up and flung over the rooftop of the nearest marina. Winter was, by a long shot, not done. It was nowhere near safe for the leaves to come out.

And yet, when the storm ended, the local folk came out from under their beds, put on yellow slickers and galoshes, and proceed to pick up where they left off. The lifeguard stands got hauled out of storage, the stage sets for the plays at Bay Street and WHBPAC got delivered. The catering tents got trucked in from Palm Beach. The boats got dropped into the water, the pools opened and the last of the new beach sticker laws passed. But the trees and shrubs just never could figure it all out. As this is being written, some of them have begun to sprout buds. Others are halfway to full bloom. And still others are rock solid, still in dead-of-winter hibernation.

So, with just two weeks to go, we are faced with choices. One is that we can postpone Memorial Day Weekend for two weeks, to June 11 and 12. Most people at least have heard about this very unusual April Nor'easter. We wouldn't have to explain it. There are certain things that are simply beyond our control. Not ready is not ready. People will forgive us.

But then, there will be those who will demand that, to make up for this delay, we extend the season until a week after Labor Day, a demand that will bring its own sets of problems. There are commitments elsewhere for some of those celebrities. There are fundraisers that will have to be rescheduled. There are whole orchards of grapes and potatoes that will have to be harvested two weeks further into the fall. And there is no telling if Mother Nature really understands that if you push something in over here, it has to pop out over there.

The other option is to acknowledge that the show must go on. We can re-double our efforts. We can get herds of volunteers to head down the Main Streets, sprinkling Lawngro on the tree roots. We can truck in the emergency cages of songbirds from South Carolina to serenade the trees and get them to try harder. And when that Friday morning comes on May 26, we can just suck it up, gather up our tools and head back behind the scenery, with smiles on our faces and our fingers crossed.

Perhaps the trees will have got themselves caught up by Saturday morning, or Sunday, at the latest. We can hope. Perhaps the tourists and summer people, so happy to just be here and away from their homes in The City, won't notice that there is a dead branch over here, or a hedgerow you can see through over there.

The powers that be are meeting today and tomorrow to decide which option they should pursue. Their decision, unfortunately, will be made too late for our final editions. Look over these pages next week.

Or go to our website, Danshamptons.com, and click on Entertainment. If everything is in place just as it is supposed to be, you will know that its been decided that, come hell or high water, the show will go on. If not, then Memorial Day is delayed for two weeks.