Monday, June 13, 2011

Watch Where You're Going and Other Stories

For quite a few years we rented a house in Sea Bright. It was right on the beach on Ocean Ave. It had a circular driveway and there were two other cottages. The owner, Mr. Cleftman, lived in one of the cottages and the same people always rented the other one. Sea Bright is really the closest New Jersey beach to New York City. It probably only took an hour to get there from Newark.

We would stay there all summer, but my father would come down Thursday or Friday from work in time to go out on the boat to catch fish for Friday dinner. He always went fishing on Friday.

I remember going up the Shrewsbury river to Red Bank to watch the boat races. Mother would dress up in stockings and a hat. It all seems very silly.

Mr. Cleftman, I think, was in politics in Jersey City. They had an older daughter 18 or 19 and a younger one about six. One day the elder daughter was backing out of the driveway and ran over her sister who was riding her bike. I think she broke her leg, because I remember going to visit her in the hospital with her leg in traction with a lot of pulleys.

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