The problem with Art Walk was that the vendors were scattered throughout the town. The best thing about Art Walk was that the vendors were scattered throughout the town: it made you stroll around the hamlet and take your time enjoying the views.

Art Walk was a success in that it brought more people into town: not only local residents, but Island-wide visitors.

Art Walk was a project of the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce and was held on Saturday, July 21. The weekend was another beautiful one for residents. The event was well-advertised and people came from all over the Island to visit the hamlet.

It was a great time to meet people. Many started the day at Taby's with breakfast. Dagmar and Walter Karppi, Madeline Bonasia and the Reillys (Carol, Bob, Connor and Shane) said hello over their first meal of the day.

Speaking of food, Barbara Sheridan of Look Who's Cooking was cooking hot dogs on a Weber Grill in front of Appliance World on the corner of South Street and West Main. They were free, courtesy of Weber, the grills sold of course by Anthony Nathan. Barbara is doing very well with her cooking school on West Main Street and has some new courses coming up.

Rob Crafa, director of the newly named The Waterfront Center: for Marine Education and Recreation, (the former Center for Marine Education and Recreation at Oyster Bay) said Barbara will be doing a local seafood cooking class for the center. Rob met Barbara at Art Walk and they decided to do the program in September and to call it "Yes, There are Oysters In Oyster Bay!"

Mr. Crafa had a booth outside the Oyster Bay Historical Society at 20 Summit Street.

On East Main Street, there was a large "maze" created under a tent that was made of panels that held framed prints. Watercolor artist Rick Mundy said he has always been an artist. "I recently cleaned out my parent's house and found my book You Are an Artist, by John Gnagy. I got it in 1948. I was one of four kids in the family and it was my book. I must have shown talent then," he said.

His work is now carried internationally by Galaxy of Graphics. "I had to hire an art attorney, it was so complicated," he said. He and his wife Ann live in Setauket. The couple attend out door art shows, 13 a year, from May to October - all on Long Island. He paints during the winter months.

"It keeps him happy and happy husbands are good husbands," said Ann. She was pleased to see the great weather on July 21. "Every weekend in June there was bad weather: flash floods, storms. It's nice for people to be able to get out and enjoy themselves this weekend," she said.

Inside Pleasant Valley Gallery & Gifts, Oyster Bay artist Rebecca Rhodes-Weinreich was running the shop for Claire Bellerjeau. Rebecca just finished painting a mural. "Karen Farley and I are going to go into the mural business together," she said. The mural Rebecca did was inspired by a chandelier in the dining room of her client's home. Rebecca met the mural-owner at Page Two Bakery. The woman had heard about Ms. Rhodes-Weinreich and asked if she did murals and Rebecca said, yes, eight years ago.

The mural is in a dining room and gives depth to the room, using ribbons from the chandelier pattern as its inspiration.

Looking around Pleasant Valley Gallery & Gifts, Florence Nobel of Oyster Bay said, "Oyster Bay should do more of this upscale type of store to bring people into town. New people are moving in all the time, from Bayville and Great Neck."

Nearby, in the plaza between Townsend Square and Teriffic Ten Nails, the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce had set up a table and umbrella where they were handing out local tourism brochures. David Lamb said he came down to the hamlet early Saturday morning, to set up and was surprised to see how dirty the streets were. He saw cigarette buts and litter. "So I swept them up and recruited others to clean up too." He even recruited some of the vendors to police the areas around them. He said, since they don't have a staff to sweep the streets, "If we could ask the merchants to sweep the area out, we'd be way ahead."

Mr. Lamb is the board president of the Oyster Bay Main Street Association that is involved in revitalizing Oyster Bay. The group brought Dan Burden and his Walkable Communities, Inc. staff to Oyster Bay recently.