As I've said before, I'm an "Accidental Hamptonite." I belong more in the "land of genteel decay," as a colleague once described Roland Park, than in a summer playground of the rich and sometimes-famous.
That said, I have just returned from my 10th summer visit to Long Island, N.Y. Again I visited close college friends and their families. One has a house in East Hampton; the other is in Sagaponack, near the site of the Hampton Classic, where she and her daughter ride each year. Being with old friends makes me feel at home, even with some surrounding alien lifestyles. Rambling shingle and clapboard houses feel like Roland Park, even if many are two to three times the size of those here, and few show peeling paint or overgrowth in the yards.