Nostalgia, The "Smell" of Jones Beach

I took this picture on the way to the New Montefiore Cemetery, for my brother's funeral just over a week ago.

Jones Beach, that gorgeous Long Island beach, multiple beaches- by parking lots-  if I'm not mistaken, was my favorite summer place to go when I was young. Besides the glorious beach, which dwarfed all others, I loved the Indian crafts, basket-weaving and beading. I don't think I've been there since I was 18. That last visit was with a friend. I drove, and we danced to the Indian drummer...

For some strange reason, the rich smell of a certain flower always reminds me of Jones Beach. Those flowers decorated the areas between the parking lots and the beach itself.

Does anyone else remember Jones Beach? And do you remember the sweet smell of those flowers? What do you remember?

"all the non-conformists have green bookbags"

While popping in to comment on some blogs on Shiloh Musings's sidebar, I got sucked into a different blog world. Soccer Dad linked and quoted from Irina's Ignoble Experiment's Blogosphere's gone PC?, who had ranted over a topic on Suburban Turmoil called "Talkin' Bout My Generation." All I can say is that they take themselves very seriously. They think they've invented the wheel.

Every generation thinks they've done it better than the previous one, and most people, by nature must conform to whichever group in society they feel is best for them. That's life. That's human nature.

In the 1960's, when I was a teen and became a "person," there were all sorts of crowds in my Great Neck, Long Island, New York's suburban high school. There were the popular kids who were both top students and athletes, Jon Avnet was one of its stars. There was also a "hoody" crowd, which had very few Jews; most of the kids in that group had gone to the local Catholic elementary school, "Saint Al's" and weren't accepted into their high school. Then there were the "non-conformists," and the rest of us who didn't quite fit into the important categories. I'd say that Andy Kaufman was in a group of his own. I was in my own tiny group of those of us who were getting more involved with Judaism.

Which group was the most "uniform?" The non-conformists, of course!