60 Summers Throwback: The White Line in the Middle of the Street, from May 26, 1977

From the May 26, 1977 issue of Dan’s Papers:

Well, the Hamptons have finally made it big. For the first time in the entire history of the area—and the Hamptons go back 300 years—they had a truly professional company in the area painting the lines down the middle of the street.

The workmen were out here for a good solid week during the early part of May, and they had fancy trucks, hard hats, surveyor’s quadrants, and the latest equipment for line painting. They spent about three days in each of our villages, spray painting the lines in the middle of the street with a yellow paint so thick you could trip over it. They painted their lines straight and true. This was a professional job if I ever saw one. In fact, according to the signs on the side of their fancy trucks, this was the only work they did.

They were based in Woodmere or Lynbrook, or some place near the City, and they spent their days painting the lines up and down the villages of Long Island. For a pretty penny you may be sure.

This is not meant in any way to take away from the way our local painters used to paint the white lines. These were brave men, determined men, and if their lines kind of wandered all over the street, well, they didn’t ask much in remuneration, anyway.

You’d just give them a pickup truck, a can of paint and a brush, a six pack of beer and a tank of gas and point them in the right direction. There was a certain charm about how those old lines came out, now that I think about it.

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