A Century of Tennis on Quantuck Bay

Andrew’s father’s family has a little compound on Quantuck Bay in West Hampton, a half-dozen houses all set around a clay tennis court. Kiddes have been spending summers there for more than a century, and it's an incredibly grounded, relaxed place where second and third cousins hang out together, and you can go for days without anybody asking you about your job.

Alas, Andrew’s dad's branch of the family no longer has its own house there, but his aunt Kay graciously put us up in her guest studio, and we quickly settled into the easy pattern of Andrew’s childhood summer vacations. Tennis in the morning, with non-players gathered in the shade to watch, chat, and play with the dogs.


Then it’s off to the beach, where the cycle of reading in the sun until you’re hot, then playing in the waves until you’re cold, then reading in the sun until you're hot again, is occasionally interrupted by a visit to the ice cream stand. I know, I know, it's a grueling regimen -- but we suffered through somehow.

The tennis is really quite serious here. On our first morning, Andrew set out to achieve his lifelong dream of beating Bob Dunbar, his dad's cousin-in-law, who has dominated the court here for decades. Interest in the match was high, and the atmosphere was tense. Simon started out as a very enthusiastic ball boy, but when his enthusiasm edged over the line into distraction, Kay took him over to the neighbor's court to hit some balls around:



As they played Kay was reminded of Andrew at this age, "He had an English accent when he was seven -- they had just come back from living in London, you know. And he used to knock on my door every day and say, 'Can we play tennis now? Can we play tennis now?' It was hard to resist." This reminded us of the summer Andrew's two-year-old nephew Gabriel visited from London with his adorable English accent, and kept chanting, "I want to play on the tennis court!" Oh, these tennis-loving Kidde boys!

By the time we got back to center court, Andrew had emerged triumphant, and a more relaxed game of doubles was going on. Andrew is in the red shirt; the legendary Bob Dunbar is in blue.



And here we have Andrew's grandfather on the same court in 1908:


See the resemblance? It's nice to imagine Simon and Josie's kids picking up the game here in their turn. The family will be running well into fourth cousins by then... And maybe Andrew will be the one everyone dreams of beating.