Day 116- September 5

By Al

Today I went to the Rotary meeting at the Rockaway Rotary Club.  Rockaway is a  peninsula that is part of Queens  It sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean  It has eight miles of beach with a boardwalk all along the way.  It is a popular place to go in the summer.  It is about a two hour train ride from New York, but you can get there with one subway pass, so it is not expensive.  I have heard about it, but never been there before.  I thought it would be fun to visit a new Rotary club and to see a new part of New York City. 

The club was very welcoming.  It was the largest turnout at a Rotary club that I have seen in New York.  There were abut 30 members there.  The meeting was pretty informal, but they got their business done.  After the meeting, two members offered to show me around Rockaway.  It was very interesting.  After that I got to walk along the ocean for a while and I even stopped at a bench and read a little while I listened to the ocean.  It was a good day.

The restaurant where the Rotary meets.  There is a Rotary wheel on the side of the building.

Looking towards Manhattan from Rockaway.

Rotarians Barbara Morris and Linda Rugo at the Rotary Triangle.  The plague lists the names of Rotarians from Rockaway who have died.

The beach.  It had stormed about two hours before I was there.  But, it was still fairly warm.

The ocean was riled up.

The subway train actually goes over a couple of bridges over the Atlantic Ocean to get to Rockaway.  Here are some buildings at the ocean's edge that you can see from the train. The ocean is calm because this is the landward side of the peninsula.

You see JFK airport from Rockaway.


  That night, I watched the Democratic convention.  I really like Clinton's speech.  He really made the case.

Sally's Day- A Visit to South Seaport

Here is our favorite lunch in New York- at a Japanese restaurant (Iron Sushi)  1 1/2 blocks from our house.

Al always has katsu don.

                                                   I always have the shrimp bento box.

I spent the afternoon at South Seaport- located at the south end of Manhattan.  South Seaport was the original seaport starting with the arrival of the Dutch.  Today, it is primarily a tourist area with lots of expensive stores and restaurants.
I walked around the area, and visited the South Seaport Museum ($10 admission; $6 for seniors).

 Browne and Co. Stationers was established prior to the Revolution, and was one of the few building that survived.  It has been in continuous operation. and still has a hand printing press like the ones used at that time.

The manager is a former optician, and is very friendly and helpful.  He has hand printed cards and lots of reproduction post cards.  I was happy to find several post cards showing the Brooklyn Bridge shortly after it was completed. 

This small white light house is a monument to people who died on the Titanic.

Speaking of the Titanic-  here is a drawing at the museum created by a calendar savant.  The Titanic sank on a Tuesday.  He listed the date of every Tuesday for seven hundred years.  He worked on paper napkins because that is the paper he had access to.  This kind of thing always intrigues me- I wonder where it comes from in the creator's mind.

This sheep seemed rather gruesome to me.  It was hung outside of a woolen textile shop. But you don't kill a sheep to get the wool- so why make the sheep look dead?

 

This is an original Hitchcock chair.  This interested me because I inherited two 20th Century Hitchcock chairs and a Hitchcock desk from my mother-in-law.  My chairs look much like this chair, so apparently the company has been true to its origins.  The chairs were made as an alternative for people who could not afford more expensive handmade furniture.  The black paint covered the quality of the wood.

This is a 20th Century gorilla made from various found things.

This is an 18th century coverlet.

This chalkware was made for middle class people who could not afford more expensive hand made decorations. I don't know why the pig is with the cats.

On my way home,  I paused  for a minute when I saw these subway signs in Penn Station- not sure which way to go.  I was looking for my train- the 6- the arrows point at each other- leading me to wonder at first glance if I should just stand between them.  The arrows are about midway between the top and bottom of the photo.

The exhibit at the South Seaport Museum is from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum.  The AFAM lost its space by the MOMA.  I don't know if South Seaport will continue to exhibit their items.  I hope they do. The AFAM has a smaller (but very good and free) museum by Lincoln Center.

A fun outing I recommend.

Sally