I love the beach in September. Just after Labour Day the beaches are much quieter, and there is more room to spread out and enjoy the sound of the waves breaking on the shore (as opposed to people shouting and blasting music from every side). September has always been my favourite month in NYC (even though it signifies the end of summer and the beginning of autumn which is always followed on by cold, cold winters…): the air is cleaner and les muggy, the sun is still shining and warm and the nights are cooler. There really is nothing like walking barefoot in the warm sand, relaxing right by the water and soaking up the sun, never knowing if this will be the last time you will make it to the beach before the cold sets in.
The Rockaways have always been my favourite part of NYC. I’ve
written many times about my trips to the beach, to Rockaway Park or Fort Tilden
(when you could still go there before Sandy). A 45 minute subway ride from my
home in Bushwick finds you in the middle of a lovely beach community, with
miles of beaches to choose from, a perfect place to get away from the
oppressiveness of the city and the humidity that coats everything through-out
the summer. There have been years when I have spent at least a day per week on
the beach, and then other years when I have struggled to make it out there more
than a couple of times a month. I have to say that I have done better this year
than I did last year, and mainly because I felt the need to support the place
that I love so much after all of the devastation that happened there during Sandy.
The first time I walked down the street towards the beach the boarded up places
(especially the Sand Bar, a regular stop-off place for my friends and I), made
me sad, although the fact that so many businesses were back open and ready for
customers surprised me and made me realize how hard people had worked to go on
with life even after part of it was destroyed. The beaches themselves were
completely different. Smaller, with only partial boardwalks, the rest swept
away during the hurricane. Fort Tilden closed for the foreseeable future, but
beaches that were still accessible, comfortable with all of the amenities that
one would need. I’ve always preferred the Rockaways to Coney Island – it’s more
laid-back and less noisy (and there is always Pickles and Pies deli where you
can buy sandwiches and fruit, not just places where you can only get fried food
like hot dogs and fries). Coney is fun, but the Rockaways are my real place to
go to, to relax and swim and be in the sun.
I realised this week, listening to the Psychedelic Furs and
contemplating the future while lying in the sun on Beach 106, that this is
probably my last summer in NYC and that my future visits to the Rockaways may
just be that – visits. There are oceans and beaches all over the world but this
one will always have a very, very special place in my heart. Today some of the
beaches are “closed” (although if you listen to the construction workers they
will just tell you to walk over the dune and hang out on the beach – that no
one is going to stop you from going there), but only because there is still so
much work to be done to clean up after Sandy. I just worry that we will get hit
by another super storm again this year… Or next year. Hopefully the work done
will help avoid the extent of the damage that we all suffered last year. Right
now a huge man-made dune has appeared all the way down the beaches, exposing a
large pipeline (carrying water?), and the beach is even smaller, especially at
high tide. But the same feeling is still there, it will always be the same
place, no matter what the natural and man-made changes are… And it will always
be a place that represents freedom, happiness and beauty in my heart. Hopefully
I will still make it out there a few more times until the end of the month as I
still want to finish a photography project I started using film earlier on
during the summer. Fingers crossed that the weather will hold out until
October.
