The Hamlet by the Metropolis

South Salem and Lake Truesdale

Believe it or not, the above image lies within the New York City Metro. The village of South Salem (pop. 206) surrounds one mile long (83 acres) Lake Truesdale. The lake is one of seven lakes in Lewisboro, New York (pop. 12,411); with South Salem apparently being something of an unincorporated section. It is apparently a very well-to-do community, but with an apparent tinge of humility to it.... being so small and hardly gaudy in overall appearance. I noticed where a two-bedroom/two-bath house was being offered for $998,000, so this is not the Hamptons. There is however, as far as I can tell, no public access to the lake. I have mixed feelings about that, since quiet places near urban centers are not very quiet for long after they've been "discovered," and they don't have to be an affluent community either. Lewisboro is 55 miles from NYC, but looks like 30 miles on a map, and is sheltered from the north suburbs by a 4,315-acre nature preserve called the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation

[In the likely event that the above image does not maintain, here are some images of South Salem]

There are rural-looking communities much closer to large cities. Still, considering that we're talking about The Big Apple, the contrast is remarkable. I remember the 1997 film 'Copland', where a semi-fictional town called Garrison, NJ was right on the water across from the NYC skyline. Some of the scenes made the town look very green and almost rural. I think that we can all think of a few quiet locales close to the social and economic aggression of urban life. Places which somehow have escaped the gravity of such places. I recall recently, with demusement, of a person who was critiquing a great deli in one such location. This person identified themselves as being from the big city, but who worked in this town. They took the time to complain of the "townie feeling" there. It's as though some people residing within the centers of urban power, and self-identifying themselves with it strongly, don't like being resisted in any manner at all! Suffice to say, for the most part, this social dynamic is not a socio-economic one.

Ward Pound Ridge Reservation

Last November, AandE/Lifetime network aired a film entitled 'The Lost Wife of Robert Durst'. It was based on a book about the true crime drama of Robert Durst, a do-nothing social deviant heir of an extremely wealthy and powerful family, who has so far still escaped justice after murdering three people; although he is set to go on trial for murder yet again! I taped the film and set it aside, and didn't view it for several months. Just yesterday evening, I felt the urge to view it again. Although a gloomy but mildly interesting film, I was more impressed with the cinematography... which was to have portrayed the years between 1971 and 1982. Not only did it give the appearance of that time period, but it could easily have passed for... say a 1983-made film. It had a particular dim lighting to it. For such a dark-hearted movie, it had many beautiful visuals. Just the acting itself was excellent, with Daniel Gillies playing Robert Durst; and Katharine McPhee playing his wife Kathie Durst. The beautiful Katharine McPhee is an excellent actress and professional. Actors John Glover and Martin Donovan were also cast, as I recall them from older films.

One part of the film showed them at a somewhat secluded home on Lake Truesdale. The house had a large open living room, with a hardwood floor, sliding glass doors leading out to a beautiful deck overlooking the lake, and a dock below. One of the ironies of the film, to me at least, was the contrast of beautiful things being bestowed upon such an unworthy useless unappreciative man. In my mind, I have some type of fantasy of a very sunny and warm late summer afternoon, a house/cabin on the lake, with many trees shading the house and deck and keeping it cool. I guess I'm like a lot of people who want their cake and eat it too; they want the city, but they also want their sanctuary. Maybe they just want those special unplanned little hamlets, like little green islands amid the urban landscape. I always like those photos of Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, or Vancouver; where the city skyline stands tall, but is perhaps dwarfed by the nearby mountains. South Lake Tahoe or Reno are like mini-versions of that, with the several big casinos like an little urban island amid the natural beauty.

South Lake Tahoe

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