Island Girl

I am an Island girl, born and bred. Long Island may not be tropical, but it is an island in the sense that we are pretty much surrounded by water. Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world look out over the Atlantic Ocean to the South, and Long Island Sound washes over the rocky beaches of the North Shore.

 I surely have salt water running through my veins; if I am away from the water for too long I get a little bit buggy. The only thing that comes close to the peace and serenity of the water, to me, are the mountains with their deep woods smell and quiet stillness. The Adirondack Mountains are a few hours drive from my home, and between these two worlds I have spent much of my life, therefore a few of the reasons why I feel I am "the luckiest woman I know."

When I was a kid, my Uncle Dan was the head of sound and lighting at the Jones Beach Theater. He worked there for 50 years, an icon in his own way, still remembered by some of the guys "in the booth". My Aunt Eileen worked as an usher, and I used to stay with them during the summer for a bit. I got to sit in the audience with my cousins and watch all the musicals that were staged; it was really a magical time. The place was much different back then. The stage "floated" on Zach's Bay, much as it does now, just smaller. Before the show, Guy Lombardo would whip out in his beautiful boat right in front of the audience and introduce the show. The lights would dim, the orchestra would begin, and the magic would happen! You were transported to distant lands, faraway places, memories to young and old alike.

Which brings me back to the reason why I started this post in the first place, and the meaning, in part, behind the title of this blog. There was a show that a little girl became a part of many years ago, floated away on the mist of a memory....Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific", and the haunting "Bali Hai".....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NROmUb7o0