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are so many wonderful memories I could write about my family and all
the great fun we had the places we went. But, my clearest and most
vivid memories revolved around the shore and the little house my grandparents
had in Seaside Park. I would wish the week away during the summer
to get to the weekends when we would go back to the shore. If my parents
weren’t going I would go with my grandparents. But the best part
of the summer was the last week or two at the end of August when my
father and mother were off from work and we stayed at the shore.
Every
morning as soon as the sun came out, and sometimes before, Frank,
Dan and I would load up our crabbing gear and head down the street
to the fishing pier and try to catch some crabs. After we started
to get tired or started fighting we would head home. We would have
breakfast and go to the beach. Every day would be almost the same.
Sometimes at night we would get to go to the boardwalk, that always
took a lot of begging.
The
summer that I had the most fun was when most of the Cino family
was down at the same time, the Dessino's, Monterosa's, Ilaria's,
Cino's and the Petruzzi's. Everyone had their own houses, and every
day we would have the biggest clan on the beach. Every night the
party moved to a different house.
The
night everyone came to our house is the most memorable. We had a
big barbecue, with tons of food. Our little yard was packed and
we had chairs lined up and down both sides of the driveway. We all
sat around the yard and talked and laughed all afternoon. When it
got dark we lit the lanterns and candles. We sat the lantern in
the middle of the yard and put all the chairs around the lantern
as if it were a campfire and told stories. Then we played a game
called telephone, one person started off by telling the person next
to them a short statement, that person would tell the next to them
and so on. When it came to the last person they said out loud the
statement they heard. It was amazing how different one simple line
could be.
Whenever
I think of my childhood, my family and the shore I always remember
that day and the weeks at the end of the summer as the best part
of growing up.
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