Summer Memories of Patchogue

Let's see, I haven't posted in a while. Happy August! The summer is winding down and I guess I haven't done much. The kids are browned from the sun, and I am too to a point. I remember, as a kid and into my teenage years, it was "cool" to have a great tan. If you didn't, your friends and foes alike thought that you had been in a hospital for the summer.

My oldest friend and I thought we were the coolest. We would buy the cheapest baby oil from wherever we could and slather it on. We would lay on lounge chairs in the back yard, go to the beach on "ladies day"(which meant that the ferry was only $2 for a roundtrip ticket on that day of the week, Thursday I believe.) We went to the town pools and stretched out on our towels. If we didn't come home lobster red, we weren't doing it right.I remember one time we went to Davis Park, Fire Island, (right across the Great South Bay from Patchogue) and we got to the beach (ocean side, of course) and there was a dredging project going, some where near Davis. The company had set up a long pipeline to the ocean, that is where they were putting the mud and silt that they were taking from the bay side. Not a problem, except, they were pumping it into the ocean right where the bathing beach was! Right where the lifeguard stand was, right where everyone disembarking from the ferry was going to be stretching out and wanting to swim. The mud and sit was washing right back on to the beach on the waves! Ugh, ewwwah! Hold your nose, it smells like raw sewage! Of course, no one was swimming on that day. It was hot, steamy and sticky, and nowhere to cool off. We stayed at the beach until 10 am, I forgot to mention that we always arrived on the 7:30 ferry from Patchogue. Then we hopped the ferry back to Patchogue, and called Joyce's mom. At that point we went to Joyce's house, growing up, they always had a pool, and hopped in the pool to cool off. From there we separated for a little while, for me to go home and shower and put on some other clothing. Usually we did this once a week, sans the dredging, and we would stay at Davis for most of the day, leaving after having lunch, that we packed in the morning. We each had an IGLOO cooler to bring with our beach bags packed with sandwhiches and drinks, a few bucks to get something from the little general store,(that charged an arm and a leg) and snacks in our bags with the beach towels, baby oil and something to do while at the beach. I usually packed a couple of magazines, a book, something along the "real litereature" line, and I was good to go. Sunglasses were a must. Just feel that warm sand beneath my toes and I was a happy camper. There was a line of sand just past the boardwalk, it was darker than the rest, just at the dune line, kind of a grey purple, hotter even in the shade of the dunes.

Now, I never go to the beach. It doesn't interest me in the least, the thought of sand in my nether regions, all over my car when I leave. It just is so annoying to me. I guess the memory of the beach is enough for me, the memory of spending Thursdays with my best friend, the fun of the adventure, away from our protected world of Schoenfeld Blvd.