[PREV - GRUEN_HILLS_OF_EARTH]    [TOP]

LONG_ISLAND

                                              February 14, 2007
                                              February 15, 2007

Walking the Long Island
streets, curving around
the slight hills and tall
trees, we see no one        Save for a few dog walkers
outside of their cars.      in the small "Frog Pond
                            Park"... whose existance
                            I never noticed as a kid (!?)

                                            The actual pond is
   Gigantic inflated xmas                   elsewhere, by the
   dioramas ripple and hum.                 way, and it's not
                                            clear it has legal     Typical.
   There was a spate                        access...
   of baby jesus
   thefts from many
   a front lawn manger.

   Long Island still has some
   real "DEAD END" signs.                       Cold winds off the ferry
   It's not all wimpy "No Outlets".             docks in Port Jefferson.

                                                We visit a puppy gulag,
      I studied an                              a sullen goth girl in
      odd chainlink                             attendence.
      alley between
      lots closely;
      I peered through
      a broken fence
      in the back
      of parking lot...

         I was looking for the old
         empty lots and "sumps":                     The Chistmas gathering
         the unofficial parks                        was pleasant, but
         of my youth.  A stand-                      unremarkable: the children
         in for wilderness to                        of the older 40s crowd
         explore.                                    are all near 20 now,
                                                     with only a smattering
                                                     of young children of their
                                                     own.

                                                         Less excitement about
                                                         taking pictures.

                                                           Too many missing?
                                                           One sister absent,
                                                           one brother dead.

--------
[NEXT - ON_THE_ISLAND]