Moonrise - Mamaroneck (off-topic)
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, John Grocott wrote: From a TV programme, ''The Genius of Photography.'' broadcast on BBC 4 yesterday I learned that Edward Steichen's . ''Moonrise - Mamaroneck, New York. 1 9 0 4 '', was sold in auction for two million six hundred thousand pounds. Apparently the highest figure ever paid for a photograph.For the record, and perhaps to save folks some futile travel, I note that my family lived in Mamaroneck for a couple of decades, from 1947 on, myself included for part of that time... There were no doubt estates on Long Island Sound that could have offered such a view, but the only ones we ever saw were country clubs (scenes of parties, dinners, and bar mitzvahs) with whatever trees they may once have had sacrificed to tennis courts & golf greens. My folks' house was on a tide estuary called Guion (sp?) Creek, in the process of being "developed" with ranch houses on both sides, as construction runoff & pollution ruined its MARVELOUS resource of blueclaw crabs. They came down with the outgoing tide (mixed fresh and salt water) to the Sound so fat, stupid & easy to catch, that my husband, knee deep in the water with a net while we stood on the bridge and shouted directions (we could see the crabs from our elevation, he couldn't) could hardly keep up with them. When we had a basket-full we feasted... knowing that the days were numbered. Within a few short years, what had been "nature" was all housing & the crabs were over. My parents had built their little house, incidentally, on a leftover bit of land, sold cheap by the developers because they didn't think it usable. It was in fact mostly marsh and mud like quicksand, where my toddler son once nearly went under (pulled out by an alert neighbor, tho minus his boots). There was also the time, before husband & I left for Switzerland (where he studied for 6 years), we drove a rented truck from Morton Street to Mamaroneck, the back heaped with dirt we'd shovelled onto it -- as building inspectors had decreed we must excavate a backyard below-grade space & our funds were zero. (The truck rental was $20, husband drove, but what to do with the dirt? ) The hour trip to my folks' house was rough (I was 3 months pregnant) & by the time we got there it was dark. So we were energetically shovelling the dirt onto my folks' "back yard" (they were thrilled to have "clean fill", we were thrilled to save dumping fees) when a neighbor called police... "someone is dumping next door." The police arrived, all was straightened out, the concerned neighbor hadn't recognized us in the dark... and the episode was thus memorialized. I haven't had a blueclaw crab since Guion Creek, however....maybe like "Moonrise- Mamaroneck" some things can't be improved on. (In fact Mamaroneck's most recent spot in the news was something ugly involving "illegal immigrants.") cheers and thanks for your indulgence, Judy
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