Long Island Wealth

Summer 2006, I went to a kid's birthday party on Long Island, in the Hamptons. It was unbelievable, this summer house. The house was right on the beach, and they had a giant pool! The family had rented a trampoline that was docked in the water a few hundred yards out. They had kayaks, little electric cars for the kids, and food and drink galore. The weirdest thing was that they'd rented a petting zoo for the kids. There were rabbits, goats, and chickens. I've never been to a party at a home that had an actual petting zoo. To make matters even stranger, the petting zoo company never came back to get the animals. They got busy with some other project and never came back. The poor animals had to stay overnight and there wasn't enough food for them for that long so the owners had to make do with some sort of substitute animal feed. Bizarre.