# The Hamptons



## beeboo (May 8, 2007)

Planning to go to NY in June to visit some friends who are living out there and they/we have been invited to stay for a weekend in the Hamptons.

The little I know suggests the Hamptons is a beachy kind of place popular with well-off NYers getting out of the city in the summer.  

Is it somewhere that is worth going?  Is going to be awful and pretentious and not worth doing unless you are spectacularly wealthy and well-connected?  

Or might it be fun in a laugh-at-the-posh-people kind of way?  

Or have I got totally the wrong idea about what it's like?


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## JoMo1953 (May 8, 2007)

It is exactly how you describe........


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## Treacle Toes (May 9, 2007)

beeboo said:
			
		

> The little I know suggests the Hamptons is a beachy kind of place popular with well-off NYers getting out of the city in the summer.
> 
> Is it somewhere that is worth going?  Is going to be awful and pretentious and not worth doing unless you are spectacularly wealthy and well-connected?



The very little I know comes from watching Sex and the City  and the programme portrayed the Hamptons exactly as you have described above.....but, you never know.


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## Muddled (May 9, 2007)

My understanding is that is pretty awful and pretentious


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## catrina (May 10, 2007)

I've always wanted to go for a laugh. I think it is the equivalent of going to someone's 'country house' here, except it's on the beach.

Without completely overgeneralising, American posh people aren't quite as posh as English posh people. Or at least class rules aren't quite as rigid. (I wouldn't ask to use the 'toilet', but you're not going to be chucked out of the circle of friends for saying 'pleased to meet you'. The rules aren't so strict.) 

Go, it will be beautiful, the people will most likely be pretentious, but still, why not?!

When I was in Miami last I saw someone with a t-shirt that said 'fuck the hamptons.'


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## Pie 1 (May 11, 2007)

If you've got an invite then go - see how the other half n'all that.




			
				catrina said:
			
		

> I
> 
> Without completely overgeneralising, American posh people aren't quite as posh as English posh people. Or at least class rules aren't quite as rigid.



Generalising again somewhat, but there is also the factor that American 'posh folk' have more often than not made themselves spectacuarly rich, as apposed to being work shy freeloaders given it all at 21!


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## beeboo (May 11, 2007)

grrr...we're not even going to NY at all now, never mind the Hamptons.

oh well...think of the carbon footprint and that


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## catrina (May 11, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Generalising again somewhat, but there is also the factor that American 'posh folk' have more often than not made themselves spectacuarly rich, as apposed to being work shy freeloaders given it all at 21!



Yes, that was kind of what I was getting at. It's the meritocracy, you see! 

Sorry you won't be able to go after all, was looking forward to a report!


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## D (May 14, 2007)

You should definitely go.

I haven't been in ages, though I recently auditioned for a theater in Sag Harbor, which is close by.

I used to spend occasional bits of late summer with my family in our friends' (two totally unpretentious physical therapist/massage therapist lesbians) house in West Hampton.  It was fucking gorgeous.

And if you go out towards Montauk, it's even more beautiful and less poncey, if I have my info correct.  In addition, there are still some farms that far out on Long Island.  There's a whole permanent population of people in the Hamptons, Quag, all the way out on the Island who are, of course, down-to-earth, not spectacularly rich people (and, of course, some who probably are spectacularly rich).  The Hamptons also has a whole history connected to the visual arts in NY.  Jackson Pollock lived out there.  There's crazy, cool, little artisan food businesses out there.

It's definitely worth checking it out.  And it's so close to NYC that if you aren't digging it or you don't like where your friends are, you can just hop back on the LIRR (or "the Jitney") and come back to the city.

One of my favorite yoga teachers has a house and a studio in the Hamptons too:

www.blueskyyoga.com

I'll probably be heading out there to study with her some time soon.


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## D (May 14, 2007)

oops.

just saw the bit where you said you won't be going.

carry on!


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