MonTalk©
with Ingrid Lemme

Dream Quote of the Month: " Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.” ~Samuel Butler

Dream Woman of the Month: Lissa Tovar, Fashion Designer extraordinaire and Assistant Producer of the American Dream Show.

Dream Man of the Month: Sunny Lemme M.S. - on March 16th he became a Nationally Certified Fire Service Instructor I.

Best Friends of the Month: Sandy and Laura

Organization of the Month:

The Montauk Century Club. On May 18th, two thousand cyclists will pedal the back roads from the city through the Hamptons to the ocean. Some of those Montauk cyclists will be riding in style, wearing our designer jerseys. All routes end in Montauk. www.5bbc.org

Dream Business of the Month: Becker Home Center

Dream Teen of the Month: Peter

Dream Kid of the Month: Christina

Dream Boat of the Month:‘Double Header’ with Capt. Jim Fiore - www.fishmontauk.net 

Movie of the Month: ‘Across the Universe’ captured my heart, and I realized that falling in love with a movie is like falling in love with another person.

Dream Teacher of the Month: Gary Swanson, fervent actor, impassioned teacher

Montauk VIP of the Month: Laraine Creegan

Dream Media of the Month: Montauk Sharpie’s – weekly fishing reports from Montauk by Jack Yee.

Dream Author of the Month: Philip Shabazz. Long before he became a poet, he was a singer/songwriter. As a young person, he decided to use his musical talent, to do something he loved: sing and write songs. He got busy. Soon, he was singing in the school chorus. He harmonized with soul music he heard on the radio. Inspired by the magic of song, he was on cloud nine about the possibility of "making it" in the music business. He had one problem. He was much too shy.…www.phillipshabazz.net

Dream Book of the Month: Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin. He writes: “our Inner Fish is a book about connections — connections between our bodies and the rest of life on the planet, between our lives today and our ancient past, and between this past and our future. As I wrote the book, I made another kind of connection — a far more personal one. This came about when I relived key moments in my career as a scientist and recalled experiences and intellectual adventures that I had long forgotten but that continue to influence my work.” My husbands favorite book this month.

Dream Couple of the Month: Ronnie and Dave

Dream Artist of the Month:  Bill Kinney, photographer and founder of the Montauk Fine Arts Festival.

Dream Website of the Month: www.montaukartshow.com. Save the Dates: May 24th to 26th Montauk Fine Arts Festival.

Never forgotten: Percy Heath

Montauk is beautiful in spring, weeks away from another crazy busy summer. I went for a walk with holy husband in the 'Walking Dunes'; the highest and most spectacular dunes on Long Island. Strong winds cause the dunes to move; slowly shifting burying all that is in their way.

We were the only visitors on a precious early Sunday afternoon, Cyril still closed, not rubber flip-flopping his grounds. Bordering the shoreline on the eastern side of Napeague Harbor , the Walking Dunes are like an ocean of sand. The winds are slowly pushing the dunes southeast, bedecking all. We found stems of pine and oak set free, after they had been buried by the shifting sands for ‘God knows’ how long. And we also discovered the trees that are slowly but surely disappearing in the sand. It was worth getting it in our shoes climbing to the very top for a 360-degree water view.

Parts of the film 'The Sheik' with Rudolf Valentino was filmed here in 1922. It was the time of change: 1926, the Old Montauk Inn burned down and Gurney's Inn was founded by W. J. and Maude Gurney, who had previously managed a hotel in Miami Beach for Carl Fisher. The very Mr. Fisher broke through the dunes to create the inlet into Lake Montauk and set the foundation for the Montauk Manor, Montauk Yacht Club, Tennis Building (Montauk Playhouse), the Carl Fisher tower and others. In 1929 the stock market crashed and forced Fisher to leave several projects on Montauk unfinished. (Don’t you wish our grandparents had bought a lot of land in Montauk?)

The vegetation in the 'Walking Dunes' is precious. We were surrounded by bayberry, beach plum, dune grass, Virginia creeper, goldenrod, heather, beach pea; at least that is what my husband says. If one knows what one is looking for, one can see wild cranberries, sundews and rushes growing in the fresh marshes. And on the slopes of the dune, meant to hold the sand, is bearberry, a plant with tiny pink flowers in the spring and, now, red berries in fall.

The splendid shad tree in its understated beauty, crowned by delicate white flowers which only blossom for two weeks in May each year coinciding with the annual run of the shad up the Hudson River . Remember how in years past the LIRR would bring hundreds of eager early morning amateur fishermen to the center of the Montauk docks which was then located in the area just around the east side of Lake Fort Pond? After a full day of fishing, the lucky ones would then bring home their catch on the late train to enjoy with their families. That very spot was the central hub of all activity until 1938 when the most infamous hurricane decimated the town and the survivors relocated to the south, where in its present location the town was strategically planned around the central green…No more changes, please.

~ Love Ingrid

Ingrid Lemme is Director of PR and Marketing for Gurneys Inn Resort & Spa in Montauk. She is show hostess of her talk show American Dreams® which airs on WVVH TV, 78 Hamptons Television Tuesdays 6:00 pm, Fridays at 7:00 pm and Saturdays at 2pm. Send her e-mail to ilemme@mac.com, or a letter to PO Box 752, Montauk N.Y. 11954 if you like.

The American Dreams® Show is aired on Hamptons TV, CHANNEL 78 a commercial cable and broadcast TV station serving New York and Long Island and are watched world-wide in real-time via Live-Web-Stream on http://www.WVVH.com. The American Dream® Show is also available on: Time Warner Cable's video-on-demand system.

NEW Airing times: Tuesdays 6:00 pm, Fridays 7:00 pm & Saturdays 2:00 pm