Little PeaceBang With Uncle Marv
Here's little tiny PeaceBang out on the boat at a very tender age, with Uncle Marvin.
I'm thinking I'm about three minutes from barfing on Uncle Marv. He won't be smiling like that when I do.
PeaceBang has no sea legs at all.
This picture is making me happier than anything else today, pretty much. Sister of PB found it, and some other old dandies, and brought them to the funeral. Which was really an amazing thing. Kind of like ... well, imagine ... well, I can't really describe it. Except that I feel really, really sorry for all the people who were trying to get a good night's sleep at the Holiday Inn Express in West Point last night, and would like to apologize.
When I look at this photo of me as such a little squirt, I remember that my sister and I actually participated in a summer camp program called "Sea Squirts." We got picked up in a hippie VW bus and listened to this teenaged kid play the guitar (we sang things like "Blowin' In the Wind" and "Leavin' On a Jet Plane" -- does this date me, or what?). When we got to Compo Beach we got swimming lessons which I don't remember. All I remember was the sand bars, which were always magical because they never lasted very long. I also remember the duffel bag Mom used to pack for me, which was navy with nautical designs. It was probably the size of one of my evenings bags today, but back then it seemed just huge because it was stuffed with a beach towel (probably the size of today's pillow covers) and lunch. In a brown paper bag that Mom would decorate with our names on it.
I was a sea squirt. I went up through the ranks from Tadpole to Minnow to Fish to Flying Fish to Shark. By the time I was a Shark I think I knew how to give mouth-to-mouth. And by then we had moved and it all happened at the YMCA, which was always so chlorine-smelling and I really preferred the ocean.
If I squeeze my brain really hard I can remember the pride I felt moving from Minnow to Fish.
posted by PeaceBang at 8:37 PM
5 Comments:
Isn't she adorable?
Fausto, too, was once a Sea Squirt who learned to swim at Compo Beach, advancing eventually to Flying Fish, but we sang "500 Miles" and "Jamaica Farewell", which dates me even worse. It was called "Beach School", and isn't that a grand concept? I do remember the sand bars, and I remember even more vividly standing in line at the comissary shack for popsicles, the "quiescently frozen confection" that back then still cost only one nickel. My favorite flavors were red, purple, and root beer. Orange was okay. I didn't care so much for yellow, green, or blue.
I remember my dad taking launching his Sunfish at the town ramp and taking us to Cokenoe Island for picnics. I also remember the time on the Merritt Parkway that the Sunfish hull blew off the top of the station wagon. Luckily, it blew onto the shoulder and into the woods, rather than into the windshield of the car behind us.
Come to think of it, it might be time right now to start drilling "Blowin' in the Wind" into the heads of little kids again.
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
FAUSTO WAS A SEA SQUIRT!!!
WE ARE JOINED FOREVER IN DESTINY!!
((we sang things like "Blowin' In the Wind" and "Leavin' On a Jet Plane" -- does this date me, or what)))
FWIW, not really. Those songs are pretty timeless as comp songs. As a 12-year-old girl scout in 1990, I sung them too.
CC
And now you're a UU. Destiny's got a hold of you, too.
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