FLASHBACK: 440 Ocean (Summer 2007)

Like David, like Leon, I just couldn't quit him.  Florian persisted from Chicago--he sent me a rubber ear scrawled with the message "I'd love to hear from you"--and eventually I relented. He flew back to the Pines for one of the early Ascension parties.

 

Chris and I had taken the plunge and signed the lease on our most expensive house ever, three times as much as we had paid our first summer.  It was almost as far east from the ferry as you could get, on the ocean.

Many but not all of our housemates had returned from the previous season.  We also had to recruit some new ones, including Varick (front), who commuted from Holyoke, MA.  Victor resurfaced with Tommy, a new boyfriend.  Dan continued to exercise reluctant guest privileges.

Joe made a rare appearance, too.  I can't remember if this photo was taken before or after Vita chewed up Steven's pricey sunglasses.

Nearly everyone in the house but me continues to insist it was the most beautiful we ever shared.  Of course they mostly had oceanfront bedrooms.  I slept in a cabana by the pool, just a few steps away from the hot tub where I puked after an appletini overdose, not quite as bad as the fate of this splayed frog who imbibed too much chlorine.

We seemed to be directly beneath the monarch butterfly superhighway.  Birds occasionally flew into our windows.

Barnet made his annual pilgrimage the same rainy weekend that Tom, Audrey, Magda and Zoltan visited.  

As a result, Zoltan eventually became one of the few lieutenants in the U.S. Army who could instantly identify the opening notes of Company!

Although my passion for Florian had cooled into friendship, I still loved taking his photo as much as he loved posing.

Snake Season

Thom and I returned to the Pines after missing a week due to covid 19 quarantine.  Victor and Tommy invited us over for a belated celebration of my 67th birthday.

Tommy shot time-lapse video of the sun setting over the Great South Bay.  

After birthday cake, he also showed us mesmerizing images he shot in pre-covid New Zealand.

Later in the week, we served them Varick's chocolate peanut butter balls.

 Both Varick and Thom cooked up a storm

Have you ever eaten a sausage clock?

Thom adapted this burrata recipe from Better Homes & Gardens.  I got a free subscription after buying a floor lamp at Walmart.

Wine with that delicious lunch contributed to the spontaneity of a video we shot to commemorate Magda's & Joe's sixth wedding anniversary.  Randy & Thom knocked it out of the park with their infant and toddler impersonations.

Another house honored a Supreme Court justice.  Have flamingoes ever been used to such fabulous effect?

Returning to the Pines enabled me to swim for the first time in 6 weeks,  twice in the ocean and once in the bay.

Walks to Cherry Grove led to some interesting natural encounters, including a pair of brown snakes

. . . and a very bold buck.

"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."

Additions to my collection of clever (and sometimes X-rated) Cherry Grove house names.

Plenty of random images, too.

Looking forward to my 34th season!

But first, the roughest ferry crossing of the Great South Bay that I've ever experienced.

Season 33

Not even a pandemic could keep us away.  I'd be lying, though, if I didn't admit that we tried to postpone our arrival for as long as possible.  And due to international travel restrictions, we probably won't see Chris at all this summer.

Our first weekend was a doozy, even aside from that bird.  Take for example, the mostly empty harbor and boardwalks on Saturday at 8 p.m., the rush hour of the Pines social scene.  Typically dozens of people gather for the sunset.

More people partied on a docked boat (not this yacht) than at tea.

Wearing a mask on the boardwalk is de rigeur for the OK Boomer crowd.  Less so for the Millennial Speedo parade.

I took the beach route to the Grove.  Never have I ever seen a dead porpoise.  So sad.

A Grove house made clever use of old license plates.

The Belvedere never looked prettier.  Said one day tripping husband to his wife:  "What IS that?"  "Their church," she replied.

Boulders have been imported to keep climate change from swallowing bay front homes.  If it's good enough for The Breakers in Palm Beach, I guess it's good enough for the Grove!

Our Pines bubble includes Victor and Tommy who hung a protest banner from their home.  It retools an AIDS activist message from the 80s.

Silence = Death

George Floyd

There were a couple of demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter, including one that raised nearly $30,000.  I paid tribute to Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd in my own way.

Still, this sign struck a nerve.  What was certainly true for my first 30 seasons in the Pines isn't anymore.  I counted 12 African Americans among less than a hundred people on the entire length of the beach one afternoon during the week when day trippers aren't as likely. Unscientific to be sure, but that's approximately the same percentage as is found in the general population.  Just sayin'.

The Pines has never been as diverse as it is now.  Whether or not it is diverse ENOUGH is another question, particularly when it comes to home ownership.

Pandemic or not, some aspects of the Pines remain unchanged.  Like the beauty of the newly replenished beach.  Let's hope that freshly planted dune grass takes root.

And the meals.  Keep in mind, these are the leftovers.

All too soon, it was time to go home again.

Randy isn't kidding around.  He had to take the LIRR back to the city.