…that New York was Nieuw Amsterdam. Observe: the fading light over the harbor on the last day of summer in Sunset Park—
Alright, it may be a bit of a stretch, but it was the Dutch [East India Company] who sent Mr Hudson in search of a new passage to Asia in 1609— a failed endeavor, but what he jolly well found would become the capital city of New Netherland by 1625.
*
Aside, but on the wistful-sad subject of summer’s end, here’s a do-dad from 2007(!) that I came across the other day and has been on my mind, as I didn’t make the ride to Coney even once this summer. (Though I may yet.)
August is nothing more than a wisp of memory now, it seems, the leisurely day of Labor having passed and September already teething, but in these recent times of Global Warming we do seem to enjoy what used to be called Indian Summer…
Tara Lynne and I rode our trusty wheeled steeds again to the Isla del Coney on Tuesday. A different route- McDonald Avenue, of elevated train tracks, double parking, mechanized shadows and angles unexpected. A zigzagging whir of helmets and red metal fleck gleaming and disappearing into shadow alternately as trains passed over our heads and traffic kept us guessing. A hot, still day and us riding fast, as we’d lost time and got a late start– by the time we reached the boardwalk it was time to swim, and we didn’t even bother with finding a stair to the beach, just climbed through the fence and raced to the ocean.
Riding bikes in this kind of atmosphere, and for such a purpose as “emergency swimming” (as she put it), makes me feel very much like a kid again.
Afscheid en bedankt, Summer— ’til next year.
Still strange to me that a summer passed without our usual adventures. Besides the week I spent there in July, I missed Brooklyn and you and TL and our routes so very much. xo z
I know. Me too, peach. xo