Eddy, Sky & Rob at the Beach 129th Street Block Party

We lived on Beach 129th Street upstairs from Sophie and her family before we bought our house on Beach 124th Street.

Our kids grew up with her kids.  The Laczynski kids and the Krakauer kids.  Somehow we were all family, all Polish – even me, and all Rockaway through and through.  Although we don’t live on there anymore, we are still part of the annual block party in August.

Beach 124th Street

Anyone who is anyone on Beach 124th Street will be parked on the beach under their own personalized beach umbrella.  I can catch up with everyone on the block, have pizza delivered from the boardwalk and feed all the kids, and even leave all my stuff and walk home to start dinner.

I have lived in this beach community for over twenty years and to some locals I will always be “the new girl”.  But I too, have sand in my shoes all year round and share a fierce pride in wearing my flip flops way into December to show how beach proud I am.

This is a small town in the sense that friends and neighbors don’t move away.  Seth’s family and our neighbor Mrs. Murray, the crossing guard, have known each other for close to four generations.  My kids have friends they have known since they were 18 months old.

I feel grounded here with a sense of place and identity.  One generation ago, my parents left that sense behind them when they stepped foot into this country and slowly recreated a life for themselves and for us, their children.  Perhaps the pragmatic approach to living should be the acceptance of place as something you create for yourself no matter where you are.  Place then becomes internal.  It can be projected outwardly with your personal energy which inevitably influences your immediate environment.   I am very aware of what I bring to the everydayness of my Rockaway life and consider it a privilege as well as a responsibility to honor my place here.

So, every morning that I drag myself out of bed to run on the beach I think to myself,  “You are in your beautiful space.  Enjoy the sunrise you are so fortunate to see.”

Where do you belong?  Where is your beautiful space?

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