Women, Nature, Love & Poetry on the North Fork
This Thursday the Suffolk Times completed a four-issue series about gays and lesbians on the North Fork. When Lori and I got to the house last night, I saw that Anne MacKay of Orient was interviewed about the growth of the North Fork Community.
“It was a wonderful place, not as expensive as the South Fork, and lesbians began coming out and buying property in the 1960s,” MacKay said. As a fourth-generation summer person, “I’m not really a local,” she added wryly.
A retired theater professor, MacKay moved into her home in Brown’s Hills in 1959, and summered there until she retired “in about 1990” when she moved to Orient full-time.
In the article MacKay described the beginning of the North Fork women’s community. Early on, the women would have gatherings in one another’s homes. “At first, we’d all just fit into a living room,” but over the years the group expanded. The North Fork Women for Women Fund now has a mailing list of about 500 names.
Lori and I met Anne MacKay at a NFWFWF event earlier this year. Engaging and energetic, she carried the perspective–but not the weight–of her 80 years. Her eyes are lively and intelligent. She is still a charmer.
Shortly after the event I made a point to go get copies of her books of poetry, Salt Water Days and Sailing the Edge. The Orient General Store carries them, in an old fashion wood and glass case. Women, nature, water, myth, and memory run and blend together in the poems, which is just perfect for me. 
