All it takes is a morning of winter thaw and I’m immediately remembering the beach. Summers when I was a boy, my family went to Far Rockaway beach. Rows of tiny bungalows, a boardwalk and a beach. For an apartment house boy, it was heaven. The boardwalk extended from Beach 1st street to around Beach 168th street, wood for almost all of its length, and once a summer all of us used to get up early and bike to the end of the boardwalk (the long way). You actually reached the end–the metal pipe railing extended straight across it. We’d rest, eat the sandwiches our mothers had prepared, then bike back.
Stone jetties broke the waves every 5 blocks or so. My friend Freddie and I used to sit at the end of the Beach 35th St jetty, as far out as we could go, and watch the spray break right in front of us. You could get far enough out that the spray never hit you, but burst right up in front of where you sat. At night, I’d turn around and watch the lights of the arcades and fast food places throw rippling red, turquoise, amber, white, and blue lines on the waves. The carnival lights on the water… for real.
After a while, we’d pick out way back to the beach, then hit one of the food places for pizza. Truth be told, it wasn’t great pizza–frozen crust, cooked in a small square oven that sat on a counter–but it came out bubbling hot. We called them scorchers and I loved the dance of taking small bites of molten cheese without searing the roof of my mouth.
When I took a class at the CIA, one of the rules was to serve “hot food hot and cold food cold.” The Chinese have a term-wok hai or wok hay–that refers to the smell and the taste that a searingly hot wok imparts to a stir fried dish. I love when a dish comes to the table bubbling and hot. I sneak tiny tastes until that perfect moment when it has barely cooled enough to eat. Thirty seconds later, it is warm and the life has gone out of it, no matter how good it still tastes. Grab life when it’s ready I suppose is the lesson. Remember to breathe when the air smells tantalizingly of humus.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Certainly, my bro. That and Love me tonight and I promise I’ll love you forever. Two lines to live by. At least before you’re married.
Is that a Springsteen reference big bro? Took care of someone who grew up in Far Rockaway today (much younger though).
Fun to read this. I like the reflections on the water.
A great story to read while dining on Frosted Mini-Wheats.