Bed In Summer

By Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

Do you remember the anguish of going to bed while it was still light and the laughter of people older than yourself drifted up to torment you? I do.

Living History

For the first time since I've been eligible to vote for the President of the United States, I'm excited and terrified by the possible outcome of this election. Excited by the possibility of change. Terrified by the possibility of the status quo.



I turned 18 in 1986 with Regan in office. Two years later, while still not old enough to drink, I was given my first opportunity to vote for our nation's leader. The choice was between George H. Bush (The Weenie) and Michael Dukakis (The Dork). I honestly can't remember who I voted for but I'm assuming George Bush since I was a Republican and I don't remember being very hopped up about Dukakis.

At 7:12am this morning, I walked into the community rec center and cast my vote for Barack Hussein Obama, a Harvard educated black man with an African/Arabic name. I can't ever remember being excited about a Presidential candidate. I've never wanted to give money, or volunteer. I never understood people who were so passionate about one candidate or another. They all seemed rather lame to me. It was more about picking the best of the worst.

But I always voted. I'm a strong believer in our right to vote. I believe it is a gift that is awarded to the citizens of this country. We assume it's a inalienable right, but history says otherwise. It should be cherished. And on a more practical note, I believe that if you and your peers vote, as a group, you will be recognized by government and pandered to. There's a reason why senior citizens in this country are heard and young people are not. Old people vote. Young people don't. Historically.

For the past two elections, I've been one of those frustrating voters known as undecided. I honestly didn't know who I was going to vote for until November 4th. I simply didn't like either of them. In our last election, I voted for a Libertarian candidate. I can't even remember his name. It wasn't important because I knew he had no chance of winning. I wanted to be counted. To say I was there and that I voted. I wanted the politicians to know that there was a 36 year old, white male, living in Goshen, New Jersey that voted. And he didn't vote for you.

I feel like I did between the first half of Game 5 of the World Series and the conclusion 46 hours later. Excited and nervous. Excited that Obama could win. Nervous that the polls are wrong and he won't. If I was a betting man, and since I'm not superstitious, I'd say Obama is going to win by a fairly large margin. Dare I say landslide?

We'll see tomorrow, or maybe even later tonight. Hopefully I will be celebrating and not gnashing my teeth and packing up to join my brother in Canada.

Sister Maria Loyola Dougherty, I.H.M. (1925-2008)

A Kindred Spirit



In memory of Sr. Loyola, a kindred spirit if ever there was one.

I first met Sr. Loyola 4 years ago when she came to the 10th Annual Nun's Beach Surf Invitational, held at 110-111th Streets in Stone Harbor. She had always wanted to learn to surf, so a longboard was provided and she stood at the water's edge, the closest she was ever to come to hanging ten. I took this picture that afternoon, but neither she nor I was prepared for the resulting mania over this photo.

While I have been approached many times for prints of "The Surfing Nun", I have never sold it for commercial purposes. Nevertheless, it has appeared on t-shirts and cards, on websites and Facebook pages.

I'd been surfing Nun's Beach since 1998 when we moved from Cape May up to Goshen, NJ. My step-son Ricky wanted to learn to surf so we bought him a used board and since I figured it'd be easier to watch him from the water than from the beach, that Spring, I bought a board myself. It was a 7'8" Challenger fun board from Kona and it cost me $350.

In the 10 years since, we've gotten to the know the 110 St. Surf Crew, a motley mix of aging surfers and their families.