Friday, July 07, 2006

"Riding the pinwheel," Coney Island, August 2005

"Riding the pinwheel," Coney Island

Growing up in New Jersey, I'd only heard about Coney Island, but it always meant summer to me. We, of course, have the Shore, but if you go up to the northernmost tip of Sandy Hook on a clear day, or climb up the tower at Twin Lights, you can look across the harbor and see the distinctive parachute drop, which now stands just outside the right-field fence at Keyspan Park.

I always thought of Coney Island as New York City's little slice of the Jersey Shore -- Surf Avenue, with Nathan's hot dog stand and the shops and arcades, and the Cyclone roller coaster and the entrance to Astroland recreates any number of New Jersey beach towns at the southern end of Brooklyn. Taking in a Cyclones ballgame and then wandering among the amusments, as we did on this night, did bring back some memories of Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights.

These hot, sticky August nights made bearable by the cool sea breezes -- that's summer in New York. Or New Jersey.

No comments: