Tony Pilla Knows Oyster Bay
Tony Pilla emailed this answer saying, “This answer to the Nov. 9 mystery picture in the Enterprise Pilot will be a big guess on my part, since it will be over 50 years since I have seen what I think I’m looking at in the picture. My gut tells me that it is a picture taken from West Shore Road and that you can reach that area by walking on the sand from Beekman’s Beach. The area in the background that juts out toward the water brings me to this conclusion.” He is correct, and the photograph was taken by Patricia Aitken, Friends of the Bay executive director.
Preston Rosh of East Norwich also recognized the area on Beekman Beach.
Tony Pilla, now of Anniston, AL, sent an email to identify the Nov. 2 mystery picture. He wrote, “Glad to see you made it through the storm. I hope you didn’t suffer too much damage. The picture might be the end of Beekman Beach where it runs along Shore Road. They used to have the broken concrete there at one time, I think.”
Belle Santora called and said, “I’ve weathered another storm. I’ve been throuth a lot in 101 years. This is the pits. But my neighbors and my granddaughter and her husband helped me through it. He got a generator and propane in Connecticut and my neighbors brought some propane. They really were wonderful. My neighbor didn’t have heat so they stayed here. At night they went to Christina’s which was open, and brought back dinner for the four of us.
“My neighbor brought her fancy coffeepot and Gloria made all kinds of coffee. It could have been worse, but I hope never to see that again. I have three eighths of a tank of gas left. I was going to get it filled up — tomorrow. You should never put off to tomorrow what you could do today,” she said.
“Getting back to business, the mystery picture in the Nov. 2 issue is the ramp next to the big pier where the Christeen is docked. Hurrah, I made it again. And you can see Shore Road opposite, before the road caved in.”
On a totally different topic, but about Oyster Bay, Belle said she dialed the wrong number last week and ended up talking to a member of the Yanotti family of Oyster Bay. She apologized to the woman and said something about being 101 and born in 1911. “She said, her grandfather was born in 1911 in Oyster Bay. I said, ‘That is a very old Oyster Bay family. As old as my mother and father. My mother was godmother to half of the Yanottis.’ Oh, said the woman, ‘that was my grand aunt.’ We had a nice conversation,” said Belle. Of course you know she had a great conversation as she does with everyone she meets. She’s “our Belle.”
We hope these are all good incentives for you to want to answer “the mystery picture.”
— DFK
