MEMORIES
A Day at the Ocean
A summer day in 1954
I think the last time my wife and I went to the ocean was probably in the late nineteen eighties. It was not long after that when we started vacationing in the Massachusetts Berkshires instead.
Yesterday I was sitting in a parking lot while my wife was at her physical therapy session. My car windows were open, the sun was playing hide and seek in bright cumulus clouds. Gusts of wind blowing in the windows reminded me of days at the beach.
My first memory?
The picture above is of my older sister, born seven years before me. I thought the location might be HorseNeck Beach in Massachusetts, but it turned out to be Duxbury. It was 1954; I would have been six.
A Cooking Pit
I imagine this would be totally forbidden today, but I remember my father digging a pit for coals and seaweed to cook corn and perhaps some other food. My sister told me that my mother had prepared baked beans and hot dogs, which also warmed up in the pit.
The Dunes
Again, probably verboten today: I remember exploring the sand dunes behind the beach.
My sister says we stayed until sunset and stopped for ice cream on the way home. I was probably…
