A Day at Far Rockaway Beach
‘’I’ve never been there,’’ I said wistfully. I was imagining this mysterious place, faraway and with lots of rocks scattered all over the place.
‘’Of course you have! I know for a fact that Dad took you there,’’ Matthew said.
‘’I cannot recall that at all,’’ I said.
Teal’s friend said, ‘’We used to live there. On weekends it was horrible to travel on the subway. People from everywhere crowded to the beach. If you had to travel then, the subways smelled of seaweed, the ocean and hot sweaty bodies. Ugh!’’
With that statement, my mind flashed back to the year of 1979. That was the year we arrived in New York. We got here January. It was a long, grey and you very much espresso, espresso, dismal winter. When summer finally arrived, my Auntie Flora suggested to take my mother, myself and my son and daughter, who were eleven plus years old and ten year old at that time. We happily accepted.
I always took pride on my children’s appearance. That day Jessica was dressed in a pastel smocked dress, with white strapped shoes and white socks. Kelly was in a pair of navy blue shorts and a striped top. His feet were clad very similarly to his sister’s. We women were in stylish dresses with gathered skirts, low heeled sling back and open toed shoes and carried our lady like leather handbags on the crook of our elbows.
Auntie drove while my mother sat next to her. I sat in the back between my children. ‘’It is such a nice day, I thought we would take a stroll on the boardwalk on Rockaway Beach then will go eat fish in one of the eateries there,’’ Auntie said, as she drove.
I can’t recall how long the drive was, but it took quite a while to get there. My children were getting a bit restless, so to amuse them, we played ‘I spy with my little eye.’ They always loved that game. It made the time fly and their delighted laughter filled the car.
Finally we arrived. It was either late spring or early summer. The weather was perfect. There was no hint of the cloying humidity that plagues the New York summers. Once on the boardwalk, the children began to run. I hurried after them. Forget the beautiful model children, those children flew out if the window! They were replaced by two little happy urchins at play. I smiled to myself. I loved watching them. We walked and walked. My mother and Auntie chatted and sauntered behind us at a leisurely pace, chatting away happily.
Suddenly my two children stopped. They looked at me with an amazed yet fearful look on their faces. I did not understand the reason for that. I looked at them in puzzlement until they pointed at a couple sunning a short distance away. For an instance I did not register what I was seeing, then quickly I hid my children’s faces in my skirt and switched direc…