{"id":308,"date":"2008-01-16T19:37:39","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T23:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/2008\/01\/16\/the-shores-of-avalon\/"},"modified":"2008-01-16T19:37:39","modified_gmt":"2008-01-16T23:37:39","slug":"the-shores-of-avalon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"The Shores of Avalon"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Mother would tell me that the best month to be at the Jersey shore was September.\u00a0 You have to understand… my Mother didn’t favour crowds.\u00a0 After Labor Day, the “summer folks” (the rentals<\/em>) departed the beach communities and retreated to Wilmington, Philadelphia and points beyond… leaving the beaches and still warm ocean to the owners <\/em>and the year ’round residents. <\/p>\n

Mom would say to me, “My Papa, your ‘Poppy’ who passed<\/em> before you were three, said that the sun was richer <\/em>in September… that the sky shed the white of humid July and August days and turned a breathtaking blue.\u00a0 A blue that you could only equal on a crisp clear February morning.”<\/p>\n

I think of what I miss.\u00a0 And what you miss falls into two trays.\u00a0 That which you know and remember… like the pumpkin pie that your Mother made on\u00a0Thanksgiving.\u00a0 And that which you don’t know — or that you don’t know enough<\/em>… like your Poppy who passed before you were three.<\/p>\n

Poppy and Nana were special folks… and they were a bit unique in living in Connecticut; but owning a cottage in the lower Jersey shore.\u00a0 “Your Poppy loved the ocean,” I was told.\u00a0 “Long Island Sound didn’t ‘do the job’… he needed a further <\/em>horizon… and<\/u> waves.\u00a0 But it was the far horizon, no hint of land.\u00a0 Something that would give space to his ideas… to his dreams.”<\/p>\n

I come now.\u00a0 Dunes protecting the beach just as I remember.\u00a0 The grains of sand and strands of sea grass holding memories of warm sun, cold drinks and the sound of surf breaking on to the shore.<\/p>\n

I think of those who are no longer here… folks who used <\/em>to be here.\u00a0 Here to see the moving\u00a0water and the distant horizon.\u00a0 But maybe they are still here… in this piece of sea glass, or this sea shell shard?<\/p>\n

That’s the beauty of the beach.\u00a0 The beauty of the ocean.\u00a0 It holds memory, yet at every instant its appearance changes.\u00a0 Happiness and tears come and go… but still, its beauty remains<\/em>.\u00a0 That’s its treasure.\u00a0 “Its beauty remains.”\u00a0 Those aren’t my words… those are the words of my Poppy.\u00a0 My Poppy in Avalon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Mother would tell me that the best month to be at the Jersey shore was September.\u00a0 You have to understand… my Mother didn’t favour crowds.\u00a0 After Labor Day, the “summer folks” (the rentals) departed the beach communities and retreated … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-brief-tales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}