Heirs Apparent

Randy, Victor, Varick, Thom and I gathered on the beach (plus Chris who participated from Prague via FaceTime) to celebrate the end of an era.   We've all been housemates at one time or another during the past three decades but none of us will be returning to the Pines as shares.

A few stats from my tenure:

34 consecutive summers (1988 - 2021), all but the last three at least a half share, beginning at age 35

9 houses, all but three on the ocean or bay:

• 140 Ocean (1988)
• 613A Shore  (1989 - 1996)
• 448 Fire Island Boulevard aka The House of Six Mes (1997 - 2004)
• 485 Tarpon (2005)
• 447 Ocean (2006)
• 440 Ocean  (2007)
• 491 Bay (2008 - 2010)
• 511 Fisherman (2011 - 2015)
• Just Another Sunday
• Houseguests
• The Real Housewives of Uranus
• Full House
• A Return to Paradise, Post-Sandy
• Scenes from a Summer
• 492 Tarpon (2016 - 2021)
• Penultimate
• Hooks
• Big Personality
• Snake Season
• Roaming Rights
• Season 33
• That Bird
• Smackdown:  "Living Our Best Lives" vs. "I Want to Be the Girl with the Most Cake"
• The Not-Quite-Lost Weekend
• Not Quite Goodbye To All That
• Table Envy
• Colorful Weekend
• And Then There Were Two
• Fall Bonus
• 30 Summers And Counting
• Arko Does Fire Island
• Pines Thanksgiving
• The Three Sisters

84 housemates (including  one woman and a baby, unrelated), 10 pets (all dogs but one) & 6 Airbnb guests

2 pandemics

3 guest stays:

• 72 Bay (2022)
• Pines Thanksgiving (2022)
• Seven Uh-Oh (2023)
• Fire Island Forever (2023)

Ever since we reduced to a quarter in 2019, I've been perusing #fireislandpines on Instagram, curious to see the strangers with whom we shared our last house.  I'd never had any success until shortly before our final weekend.  In a discovery I only can describe  as cosmic, I came across this dewy picture:

Randy and I goofily mimicked the pose as best we could.  Time waits for no one, but where better to spend it than the world's premier gay resort with people you love?  May they have as much fun as we did!