The beach

Sometimes our entire family, piled in the station wagon

So exciting on the bridge looking out the car window

It seemed like we were racing the train crossing over the river 

into Point Pleasant Beach

Loved cloudy days when our whole family would go including daddy

The beach was ours to run and play 

To be overseen by gigantic lifeguards ready to save us

Under the wooden umbrellas with all my brothers and sisters we ate donuts 

Thrilling excitement of two piece bath suits for my sisters and I

sun screen ad, dog tugging the bottom of the little girls suit in the pavilion 

Airplanes flying banners in the sky on sunny days

Grandpa wearing his straw hat seeing that the beach was clean, jobs done

We buried each other, my oldest brother dug huge holes, fought, laughed

Played chicken in the surf, such fun it did not matter if we were freezing 

tumbled getting up scraped from the shells, full of sand in our swimsuits

As we grew, we could walk to the jetty alone just my siblings and I

Showers so cold, mom made us wash the sand out of our hair

At the soda fountain, we would spin on stools, sneak sugar cubes and pickles 

When lucky, have a cheese burger, french fries and a chocolate milk shake

When no one was looking, we would play in the phone booth and on the scale

our whole family walked north to see the beach train,us kids ran

Sometimes we got to play skee ball and get a few pieces of penny candy

Maybe even go on a ride and get ice cream

Grandpa always gave us a box of saltwater taffy with a real postcard on top

Sometimes my older sister and I got to stay with my grandparents

Usually it was my brothers who got to make money during summers

It was as teenagers that my sister and I got to serve with syrup and soda water

We were not allowed on the boardwalk, too much rift-raft 

We picked up flounder, grandma taught me to bread and fry fish,

never lobsters, nuisances stuck in nets, were dinner during her childhood

The riverboat restaurant, so wanted to go, the idea had seemed glamorous 

Burnt down before I was old enough for my grandparents to take me

Things have changed since I was a little girl

Things change Yet the beach 

holds onto something that stays in our hearts

giving us pictures in our minds of people we have loved