Ocean Dreams...

On these hot, humid New York City summer days, when everybody walks and talks a little slower and the closest thing to a beach is tar beach. There's always the rivers. Carl Shurz Park on the Upper East Side is an oasis for sunbathers, pet walkers, garden admirers and those who can close their eyes and imagine that they are at the ocean. The East River does this a little better than the Hudson because of the fresh ocean smell that the tidal river sucks in from the Atlantic Ocean. I walked to Carl Schurz looking for that brief respite from the HHH (Humid Heat Hell). I had a good book and all I wanted to do was to enjoy an hour of ocean dreams while I read. I have a bench I sit on that is below the main walkway that runs over the FDR. The bench is close to the river where you can smell the brine best and look down at seaweed clutching boulders that the river laps over creating the illusion of being on a rock strewn beach. Sail boats, freighters, tug boats, barges, banana boats, yachts, jet skis, kayaks and the Circle Line stream past, sea gulls caw, and a lone loon continually dives for its lunch and coming from somewhere that I cannot see is the sounds of a bag pipe filling the ether and filling my ocean imagining mind with wistful loneliness and the yearnings for a long walk of beach-combing. I believed beyond a doubt I was on the beach and having a gaggle of women in bikinis lounging on the grass behind me was an added bonus. I sat there reading for an hour and was finally shook from my nirvana by the ripe smell of garbage from a garbage barge that
slowly chugged up the river. Never-the-less, the hour of respite was just what the doctor ordered for a sweaty, unbearable hot day. It was truth and testament that the Upper East Side with a little imagination can give many, many things to keep you inspired and at peace and even a day at the beach...