So far, the spring/summer of 2022 has been a spring/summer of weekends: Sunshine has been a Sunday thing. We’re all OK with that, right?
Kenny B’s annual outdoor birthday party saw a record number of friends and neighbors. When regulars gathered to crowd the bars with the overhead TVs blasting the Preakness race they found their local watering holes filled with people actually seated and eating. Visitors had come across the Bay to enjoy the day and evening and joined residents to watch Kismet’s own Tim Mooney and band playing outdoors.
Taryn and Judy Phelan at Kismet Fire Dept. Auxiliary plant sale.
Memorial weekend brought sun and occasional but drenching showers. The Kismet Fire Department Auxiliary (KFDA) Plant and Potting Soil sale was a fabulous success. The firehouse opened for sales at 4 p.m. Friday and over half of the inventory was gone by 5:30 p.m. Ela Swicord won the KFDA raffle donated by the Boatel. At Avalon it was crazy, it was wild, as the Kismet League for Animal Welfare (KLAW) Mini Mart Flea Market did as promised and “sold between the raindrops.” The morning drizzle ended just in time for a steady parade of people bringing things and buying things. One customer scored everything to set up a new household, saving a trip to the mainland. Lamps were popular. A new Oster 12-cup coffee maker was surprisingly not snapped up. The sale was closed down just before Saturday’s surprise downpour.
The June 4 New Year’s Party, held under breezy summer sunshine at the municipal playground and tennis courts, was also a great success. The remarkable idea for this event surfaced sometime in the cold, bleak days of late February. Linda Roundsman Knoth said it came to her as she lay not sleeping after a mainland birthday party for John Altieri, reflecting on the warm feeling of community when Kismetians gathered together. She thought about an event that would bring Kismetians of all groupings together – year-round residents, seasonal homeowners and long-term renters. The invitation was posted on Facebook’s Homeowner’s page and spread through the Kismet grapevine. Waves of people poured in last Saturday, bearing food and drink for all. Chairs were not needed: Kismet parties have historically been standing room only, the better to meet and mingle. In any case, the playground benches offered a respite, especially for parents watching over their young children. A line of tables overflowed with noshes, salads and desserts of all kinds. Tommy (Duck) Sennes, known Fire Island songster, provided music from a lonely perch across the courts. John Altieri voiced the party’s theme: Kismet is a real community, one that has been through a lot of hardship and joy that has brought us together, for whatever reason each of us came and whatever reason keeps each of us coming back. John reverenced an upcoming remembrance ceremony for Jill Metcalf.
The Kismet Community Homeowners Association semi-annual meeting will be held Sunday, June 12, at 10 a.m., at the firehouse. The KFDA is selling tickets for wines and a wine table donated by the Wood family to be held June 19. KLAW will be selling tickets for its annual bicycle raffle to be drawn July 4 (July 3 in Kismet) at the annual Parade and Fire Department barbecue.
