BEACH!!!!

By Lisa Harmon

 

I spent today at the beach. It got me thinking - I can't believe all the stuff we used to take with us to the beach when we were kids! My brother and I would have to carry the giant cooler – it was about three feet long, twenty-five pounds and it was METAL. Yes, metal. Now cars aren't even made of metal. Back then, we used to use metal to hold our sandwiches!!!

Pop always had his backgammon board. All the old geezers would play backgammon and pinochle. They sat at tables under umbrellas – primo spots they never had to leave because their wives would bring them iced tea and sandwiches. About once a day they'd go in the water (probably to pee) and then their voluminous grandpa-type back hair would be all matted down. And we kids used to make them laugh so we could see their giant bellies rolling.

Then there were all the snacks and food, it never ended. We had sandwiches, fruit, cookies, chips, you name it. Gram was in charge of food and snacks and the giant thermos of iced tea with the spigot that lasted all of us all day long. Ahhhh, nothing like that iced tea powder – we grew up on that! I don't care what fancy teas we may drink now, nothing beats that junk powder we drank by the gallon as kids.

While the geezers all played games, the old ladies ran around feeding everyone and who knows what else they did? At least my Gram was American! There was one crazy old lady who used to bring pots of pilaf to the beach! Pilaf! On the beach! Puhlease, you can't eat a sandwich???? One time someone had McDonald's! I got so excited! I thought, oooh someone walked over to Mickey D's. Maybe I can have a hamburger! Well it turns out, nobody had McDonald's. One of those frugal (crazy) old Armenian ladies saved the Styrofoam burger boxes (they used to be Styrofoam – look it up) and used them to bring her own sandwiches to the beach. Bummer!

The beach is where we spent every summer. As soon as school let out, we'd rent rooms and stay till school started up again. My grandparents, and my brother and me. On Friday nights Mom would come out and stay with us the whole weekend. That was the best. We were always so happy to see her on the weekends.

On the way home we always stopped at Nathan's. Now it's a Dunkin Donuts. Back then it was a Nathan's. It was also a Wetsons and a Roy Rogers since the Nathan's days. Everyone ordered all kinds of stuff at Nathan's but I always ordered the same thing – onion chips. They were so good! Kind of like a blooming onion but separated, like onion petals. No sauce either. Just yummy onion chips.

These things seemed silly back then but those were the best times of my life. I think I would love to be that kid, eating my onion chips in the back of Pop's Chevy Impala, arguing with my brother and driving my poor grandparents crazy. What wouldn't I give for another day at the beach with my family? I might even carry the cooler without complaining.