Kismet Kapers
By Bradlee White

In the spirit of our theme, I interviewed some pets and their people. Angela at Tender Trap walks her baby Dachshund along with her full-grown Rottweiller. Christine & Pete’s adopted cat Midnight cuddles with their 3 boxers and sleeps on their heads when it’s cold. The Jenks family lost their 5-yr.-old Sandy to diabetes so this year they got a new Cairn terrier named Rocky (Cairn means pile of rocks in Gaelic – where the breed was used for hunting). The Berkowitz family – Joel, Midge, Justin and Jared – also got a new Lab puppy, Ace, after their older dog passed away last year. Fey Nyburg, a rare Singapura cat, drinks water from the tap, is fully prepared to go head to head with any deer and gets along with all of Ron’s relatives. Clarice and John, frequent visitors from Babylon, were walking a 12-yr.-old Minipoo, Bijou, and 3-yr.-old Afin Pincher, Pepper – both adopted from shelters. Along with finding abandoned kittens, Tony P. cares for his Boxer, Turbo, and occasionally lets him play with Cartoon Alley’s Burt. KLAW still has 6 kittens for adoption. They are truly delightful to watch. Deborah Shulman, along with her daughters Lillie and Jenny came to visit the kittens the 4th weekend. Since they weren’t able to adopt, they held a fund-raising event for the kitties’ care. They made $50 selling homemade cookies and lemonade (Daddy Fred kicked in $20 and Jenny gave $5 from her allowance).

Water, water: Our weekend was dominated by it or the lack of it. As always, on the beach, word of mouth ran far faster than the door-to-door Suffolk Co. Water Authority (SCWA) leafleting, announcing the possibility of tainted water. There was an initial panic – thirsty Kismetians besieged the first truckload of free bottled water brought in by SCWA. Supplies, overseen by Buddy, Linda and a SCWA official, were then rationed. The Market also saw a run on bottled water. It was tough for Betty Mayer’s birthday party. Maybe Xie was looking down and saying no one should drink water on this occasion, said Warren. Later SCWA water and ice were available on the dock and Firehouse and at a tanker at the pump house. According to Newsday, quoting a SCWA source, over 100,000 bottles of water and 10,000 cases of ice were shipped to ten Fire Island communities. By Sunday, people were more blasé, though the KFDA pancake breakfast people emphatically emphasized that bottled water had been used for everything, including washing the fruit. The Inn and Out were using plastic plates and utensils (and the Inn was slammed with a group of 70 for breakfast Sunday). By Monday, the word was “tests negative.”

Kismet’s Fire Dept. Auxiliary’s 2nd Pancake Breakfast Sunday was a smash hit, serving close to 250 people. Tables were set up outside the FD bay as well as in the community room. Alice and Patti R. sold tickets at the door, Sherri R. took tickets, Barbara L., Carole T., Rose, Pam, and Joan Mc. were busy in the kitchen, pouring and turning the batter made up by Tommy F. and Bobby R. while Elaine F. oversaw the fruit, coffee & juice table. Chris J. did a split shift starting at 6:30 a.m. Other volunteers included Skee, Vic, Bill J., Linda B. and Dorothea on cleanup. ( Dee left the floor cleaner than when they started). The hardest part of it, they said, was the water problem and running out of propane gas at one point.

A large group of people from Kismet, Saltaire and Fair Harbor, as well as off-island friends and family, responded to Ann Littlejohn’s invitation to remember Fritz at the Firehouse Sunday afternoon. The community room was filled with many photographs and old newspaper articles from Fritz’s long career, like one reading “Littlejohn gets high ABC Post” dated August 1953. There was a lovely spread of fruit, cheese and crackers, wine, seltzer and soda. There were three beautiful bouquets of blue hydrangea picked from Lee Lem’s garden and arranged by Linda S. The crowd then moved into the bay area where Ann expressed her gratitude for the love and kindness of so many people that allowed Fritz to be in Kismet in his 97th year. Planned speakers included city friends and family, Larry Cole, Regina English, and Russ Mayer. Ann told me how happy she was when people spontaneously stood up and shared their memories of Fritz – Jean Wood, who came out for the Remembrance and to visit her family, Jim Baker, Buddy S. and Don Decker.

Yoga classes are now going to be held in the community room on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 10:00… Red-haired Ashley was industrially sweeping Maple Avenue near the new construction. She told Linda S. that she couldn’t stand all the dirt on the walks (Greg says his mess will soon be gone, but there’s still the rain that washes mud onto the walks)… Emma from the Galt House was offering to carry baggage in her wagon for $1. That’s an enterprising family there—Maggie and Susana, the “Cooking Cousins,” are back and were handing out delicious brownies at the ferry. Call 583-7345 or 917- 697-6673 for baked goods to your door… Kismetian Drew Hendrickson’s (aka Andy) books will soon be on sale in the market… Despite the rumors, Warren says the Out has not been sold – “No contracts have been signed, no money has changed hands”… Joe B. in the midst of having his deck power washed and stained – he recommends Segundo Alvarez.

The Art Crawl is scheduled for next Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m.– see posters for the locations of the 11 artists or join Dorothea’s tour at 2 p.m. by the Market.