The experience of vacation beach houses on the East Coast is that it’s hellacious to get down there through traffic, but able to mellow you out about midweek, by which time you have to pack up, sunburned, sandy, and full of insect bites, back up through even worse traffic to go home.
We’d been waiting forever for this summer’s vacation – until the very end of August, when some kids had been in school already for a couple of weeks. Not only were the stores full of back to school items, but also Halloween candy. The sun was setting way early. Some leaves were on the ground. It was looking like it only just made being a summer vacation.
No hurricanes were in sight, but the weather was erratic. Two days of clouds and rain in the middle of the week that interrupted some’s five-day tanning plan. It was fine with me. I tend to burn in the sun and didn’t mind reading on the porch one day.
Mostly, I was trying to get Jonathan Franzen’s new book “Freedom,” which was getting so much press and was also Obama’s vacation week reading material, I understand. But most book stores looked like they didn’t have it.
When I went to Delaware’s Best Bookshop, as it billed itself, it did have it in stock. Which may have been enough for the store to retain its title, but this was a place that when you went inside you had to follow a little sign with an arrow that said Books this way. Like so many book stores these days, it had augmented its book selection so much with greeting cards, stationery, knickknacks, and such that one needed an advisory how to find the printed word.
We went back to Rehoboth Beach, Del., which was about the most crowded beach we ever go to. But in addition to the water and sand, it has one of those boardwalks with a family amusement park (“Funland”!) and some old standby’s that everyone had to sample, Thrasher’s fries, Dolle’s caramel corn (in lieu of its salt water taffy) and especially Kurh Brothers’ soft-serv swirl.
Went to a couple of bars this time too. Leo Nocentelli of the Meters showed up with a local acid rock trio and showed them about smoothed out funk and New Orleans rhythms. At a club up the street, a solo guy on guitar (and gadgets) did songs from Culture Club, something you just don’t hear that much.
Most of the action, though, centered on the beach, where in addition to the water, and the reading there was always the people watching (and all the junk people bring with them, in wagons and carts to the beach).
Dolphins were out more than usual and dunked around in the water, attracting attention. Jellyfish were said to be more plentiful this year, but I only saw a couple.
Sometimes I bring the dud pilots of the fall TV season with me, but this year had the good luck of bringing a handful of the very fitting “Boardwalk Empire,” the impending HBO series about the rise of nearby Atlantic City and the force of the ocean even back then.