COURTESY PHOTO Author Ethel Lee-Miller discusses her memoir, Thinking of Miller Place: A Memoir of Summer Comfort.

Ethel Lee-Miller spent every single summer, from 1947 to 1964, in Miller Place, from a newborn through her teenage years. The retired elementary school teacher, who now resides in Tuscon, Ariz., decided to pen her memories in a memoir after dazzling her children and friends with tales of summers spent hiking through woods, basking on beaches and building an unbreakable bond with her identical twin sister.

Ms. Lee-Miller (she’s not a descendant of the Millers, who founded Miller Place; it’s just a coincidence) took some time to tell Northshoresun.com about her book, which was released in 2007, called Thinking of Miller Place: A Memoir of Summer Comfort.

Q: What is your memoir about?

A: The book is a wonderfully sweet book. Miller Place meant so much to my family and I. It was a kind of getting away after a hard year of whatever you had in the rest of your life. It was the freedom of summer and being on our own, being in a beautiful place and having a sense of freedom from morning ‘til night. We spent the whole day on the beach. We had lots of very sweet memories. Any time anything bad happened to us, my father would say, ‘Think about Miller Place.’ Our whole family just loved it so.

Q: Can you describe one of your favorite chapters in the book?

A: One of my favorite chapters took place in 1954. I was 7. There was a very bad hurricane – Hurricane Carol. It was a horrible, horrible hurricane. We were in the house because it was raining so hard. I realized my mom was really nervous and my dad kept going, ‘Take it easy.’ The chapter is the description of the storm, the wind and the rain and things falling around us — and my perception of my parents. My father was always kind of my hero; he was a larger than life person. My mom took care of the family. A tree fell on the house and my mother had us sit under a little table thinking that would save us if the roof crashed in. I remember being very, very frightened and my father took out a deck of cards and started dealing them and had us playing Go Fish. He was very casual, very calm. The chapter is kind of my viewpoint looking back at how my parents took care of us — my father in his way, my mother in hers.

Q: What was Miller Place like in the 1950s?

A: Where we lived there, there were no paved roads. The only paved road was Woodhull Landing Road, but a lot of the other roads where there were cottages were dirt roads. We didn’t have a TV. We had a little radio. For a long time we didn’t have a phone. We were stuck back in time. We had an outhouse and a pump to get water. I remember if the pump was on the fritz and we couldn’t use the bathroom, we had to use the outhouse, which was a horrible experience; it was filled with spiders! There was no garbage collection, so we threw waste out in garbage pits. There was no mail delivery; we walked up to post office on Old Country Road. There used to be the Davis Peach Farm and we would take peaches from the porch and leave money in the basket. The last time I visited, in 2008, the first thing I noticed was the road was paved. The beach looked smaller; it might have eroded. The people are still the same. It still has that small-town feel, although people who live there now go, ‘Oh no, it’s too crowded.’ I think it’s still beautiful.

Q: What kind of research or preparation did you do for the memoir?

A: I talked a lot with my mom to get dates. My mom had album of these old, old black and white photos. My twin sister read every revision of the book and filled in gaps. My older sister read the manuscript too. A lot of my mom’s pictures sparked memories of things that happened. I contacted the  Miller Place-Mount Sinai Historical Society and looked up names of things now. I researched Miller Place school to find out when it was built to make sure I had dates right. I researched weather during the hurricane. It’s a memoir so it’s a lot of my feelings and perceptions but everything about it is true.

Q: Are you working on any writing now?

A: Two memoirs are on the back burner. I’ve been doing personal essays on relationships since I moved out to Tuscon. That may be a book of essays. I also started an essay of my young adult life when I was living in New York City, which was very different. I’m also pulling bits and pieces from when I was a teacher. I have a name for it: My Side of the Desk. It’s about what I learned from my students, especially young children who are extremely honest and innocent. Hopefully someday you’ll read about those.

[email protected]