Gone to the Beach!

I'm taking some days off to go to the beach; first time in 4 years! Not sure I’ll actually be able to walk around on the sand; as a matter of fact, I can’t. But, just seeing it again after so long a time will probably be kind of emotional.

I grew up less than a mile from Brighton Beach; a mile from Coney Island; both in Brooklyn. And  just a half hour to the east by bicycle put me in Riis Park, Queens. The next stop east from those places would be Spain. I never did swim it. As Burt Lancaster said in the film “Atlantic City”, “The Atlantic Ocean? You should have seen it in the old days. Yeh, the ocean was really something back then.”

It’s like that in memory; we enlarge things. And sometimes we get disappointed when confronted with the reality of what something has become. Burt Lancaster was right in certain respects. Back in the old days the ocean was a huge barrier. No transatlantic flights; telephone service was expensive and difficult; and ocean travel was infinitely slower than today. So the ocean is smaller than it used to be in that respect.

But it still holds all of its majesty. It still has that fury when the wind kicks it up, or when the tide pulls upon it to excess. Ships still go down to the bottom; taking their crews with them; somethings never change. I've lived near it; worked upon it; swam in it; and fished in it my whole life; but it has never ceased to astound me. It’s still both bigger and stronger than I am. They say it's where life began.

Well, enough for now, I'll see you when I get back! Enjoy my vacation…