I really like the movie "The Truman Show". It makes me think. Is there a group of people moving around with me everyday? Does someone say : "she is coming down Main Street - get down there fast." I guess that is kind of egocentric.

The population census says there are eight million people in New York City and another three million on Long Island. Am I being lied to? possibly.


I have  been told the population on Shelter Island year-round is 2200 people. I believe there are only actually 37 people living on this Island. Every place I go I see them - the same people. They drive by and wave, I see them on line at the supermarket, then I see them at the post office. My car is next to theirs on the ferry. The same 37 people.

When I was nineteen years old I started working at an advertising agency in New York City, "McCann Erickson". My first boss was a man named Helmut ______. (I am not listing his real name here because I would not want him to know I wrote this. Try putting the name "Lockatoo" into the google search - up comes Lockatoo's column on the Condon Family Website - scary!).

Helmut was entertaining to work for - he was really good looking - he was possibly gay - and he said things like "Ach de lieber!" and "I should jump out the window" (we were on the 33rd floor) when he was stressed out. He handled all the advertising for Hilton Hotels and I enjoyed working for a few months for him and then I was transferred to working on the Coca Cola account and then the Barry Goldwater Campaign.

I have not given Helmut much thought over the past 40 years. Last year I had a yard sale at Lynda Early's house in Sag Harbor. A man pulled up in a cute little sports car and bought some things from us. Very good looking and obviously rich. I stared at him-there was something familiar about him. I asked him where he was from "Germany" he answered. I said "oh".

A few months later I was at the dump. In pulls a Mercedes and out comes this same man - he looked over the furniture, etc. and left. Wierd.

I was going through the phone book last week looking for a number - and there it was - Helmut___ lives on Bay Street in Sag Harbor. My old boss from McCann Erickson and I keep running into him and we don't recognize each other.

It made me think - how many people do I pass each day that I used to know but no longer recognize? How many relatives do I pass? How many people do I just miss? What a strange life we lead. Are we all really on some sort of a Truman show?