What was it like to grow up on Long Island?

Oh gawd, don't ask

It’s a shithole like where I live in East Hampton, NY.

You do know it’s a big place OP?

I always imagine it to be very peaceful

On Long Island all seems to breathe freedom and peace and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.

r5, um?

It's nicknamed Lawn Guyland for a reason, cupcake.

^ correct

R6 is new here

Some super wealthy areas. Some really cruddy areas.

The Long Island Expressway is the world’s longest parking lot.

Parts of the North Shore and parts of the Hamptons are beautiful.

The rest of it not so much.

Are there farms? I just imagine a place that going from west to east becomes less dense but not completely devoid of people.

Yes, it has farms. Also, as it so happens, the long-running hotspot for most of the past decade or so has been in Montauk, which is at the literal easternmost end of the island. The edge of Long Island's North Fork is another story, however. Try asking any given person headed to the Hamptons if they've ever heard of Orient. Most will think you're using a dated term for describing East Asia, but in reality Orient Point is the furthermost edge of the North Fork. (Note that most New Yorkers haven't ever been to Staten Island, either.)

And really: it's mostly bucolic and small town-feeling, albeit extremely bougie in the Hamptons in particular. Still, the North of the Highway area – yes, that's its proper name – is considerably less chi-chi, solely because Hamptons snobs insist on facing the *ocean* instead of a bay. (Nowadays it's at least socially acceptable to own real estate there, amongst high-society members, and last year North of the Highway had the Hamptons' priciest real estate sale for the first time.) It has a ton of equestrian goings-on, so obviously it has a lot of horse farms, but also at least a few for actual produce.

In any event, just keep in mind that the entire Hamptons vicinity is only a small part of Long Island, and the rest of it ranges from old money to super-tacky new money as displayed by Snooki types. (Remember "Growing Up Gotti"? It was filmed there.)

When you were growing up on Long Island did you run into the Long Island Medium much? I love her hairdo and nails, do all the women look like that?

It's the San Gabriel Valley of New York

Some beautiful wealthy areas - and alternatively, some of the loudest, tackiest brutish assholes you'll ever meet. The Baldwin Brothers. Rosie O'Donnell with her 'nice' mask taken off.

It's really big. And you shouldn't forget that technically Brooklyn and Queens are also on Long Island.

I’d say it’s a playground

Horrible people. All image and postering in the rich areas. Over priced. Over crowded. Trying too hard. Not the kind of beach vacation I would do again. I used to go out there in the summers when I lived in NYC. Now I would rather be in Coastal Carolina. So much better in every way.

Loved every minute of it. Everybody got along. Walking down my street at Christmas time and one house would have a Christmas Tree in the window and the next a Menorah and so on. 45 minutes on the LIE and your sitting in a Broadway theater, yet 15 minutes from world famous beaches. Alas I've heard its MAGA now.

Any twat who goes to Long Island for a beach vacation deserves whatever it is they get.

Stuff it in your pipe R20.

OP Long Island is so big and vast it’s hard to have clear cut picture. For one technically there are over 10 million people on Long Island as Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island from a geographical point of view. But like most people I know you mean Nassau and Suffolk counties. The parts of the county closest to Queens are basically extensions of the urban landscape and culturally just like Queens with all the black West Indians and other minorities. The main bulk of Long Island is upper middle class, middle class white households. Then there is the fuck you money of the Hamptons. Long also has a pretty prominent upper middle class African-American population. The Long Island accent currently actually has the more stereotypical New York accent than NYC itself.

They made the Long Island medium look ridiculous on purpose.

It has its problems but it’s better than Staten Island.

R24 1000 times better.

State Island is like what happens if like if you have bunch of rednecks with New York accents that aren’t scared of minorities and play basketball.

OP, if you want an old, quirky, romanticized view of Long Island, specifically Montauk, read The Long Secret -- the book that follows Harriet the Spy.

(It's fun and a good summer afternoon read. Great characters and illustrations by the author.)

Depends on when you grew up, OP

People who grew up there in the 60’s had a very different experience than those growing up in the last 20-30 years. Having MS13, The Bloods, the Crips, and the Latin Kings around can change a place. Walter Chrysler and the Vanderbilts used to live there. Now it’s known for the likes of Amy Fisher and the Buttafuocos.

Not much to romanticize, though, then or now.

It should be noted you chose the word classic and not "classy."

I remember there was lots of iced tea.

[quote] It's really big. And you shouldn't forget that technically Brooklyn and Queens are also on Long Island.

R16 Here’s a cross-thread post. Between 1950 and 1967, I counted only two instances in which a contestant from Queens on What’s My Line said they were from Queens. Every other time, they stated the section of Queens and then said “Long Island.” In contrast, every contestant from Brooklyn said only “Brooklyn,” i.e., no subsection or “Long Island.”

I have also noticed that postal locations in Queens are frequently the name of the subsection, but postal addresses in Brooklyn are almost always just “Brooklyn.”

Do any NYC mavens know why these differences between Queens and Brooklyn occurred?

R31 Because traditionally Queen has always been more suburban and thus functioning more like a county. I’m not saying it’s like a county, just more so than than the other boroughs for my technical “queens” no pun intended; therefore the parts of the borough take more ownership as towns or small cities. Queens is also bigger(I think).

It was... Heaven.

R31 Presumably because the City of Brooklyn was itself a city until Kings County was annexed by New York City in 1898.

I took a day trip to Montauk and Easthampton and it was lovely but I prefer Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

Last year, I went to a former coworker’s home in Manhasset. Lovely home and neighborhood but almost no land. And Northern Boulevard cuts a charmless swathe right through the area.

My last boyfriend grew up in Great Neck.

My last boss grew up in Great Neck.

Is he Jewish, r37?

Are people who grew up on Shelter Island similar?

R23 - they may hype it up a bit, but trust me - there are women like that there. Not as many as there used to be - but the hair, nails, tan, makeup and clothes - South Shore Long Island.

That's like when people can't believe Fran Drescher or Cyndi Lauper actually talk like they do. They do - and there from communities where it's the norm.

By heritage (is that how we say it now?) but not in terms of worship. Like, totally not religious. R37.

Good guy, incredibly ethical, good kids (except for the K-Pop vampire music video his son was in - Dad didn't like that), happy marriage, and still has all his hair.

R27 I loved Harriet the Spy and the Long Secret as a kid. I ran around carrying a notebook and spied on my family. My spying was confined to my suburban yard as much as I wanted to peer into neighbor windows like Harriet did. But I had forgotten about the Long Secret. Great idea for the perfect hot summer afternoon read! On my library list.

Cyndi is from Ozone Park in Queens, R40. I have also heard that both she and Fran play up the accent when acting/making public appearances.

But yes, the dreaded Lawn Guyland accent is a thing.

There’s a movie made in Sag Harbor in 1996 starring Jennifer Connelly called [italic]Far Harbor.[/italic] The film pretty much sank without a trace and seems to be unavailable now but I have always remembered the locations, which were gorgeous.

I imagine Long Island to be like Jordan Belfort's neighborhood in The Wolf Of Wall Street.

[Quote] State Island is like what happens if like if you have bunch of rednecks with New York accents that aren’t scared of minorities and play basketball.

This is what people from Pittsburgh think Staten Island is

Just locations from movies shot on Long Island

Long Island is the home of James Delmage. Daddy cooks.

r7, I need a hot lawn guy to come here and mow my lawn.

Moy gowd they love us 💅🏼

It’s an island version of New Jersey.