Two stories in one post? Wow. Prepared for a long post? I hope so.
Each story took place on a Sunday. I shall tell the more recent one, first, which details the things I did at the reunion party.
After my father and I went to Queens to see an old friend of his, we went back to my old hometown, Valley Stream. I entered an ice cream parlor, one that once held my 3rd birthday party. I was the first one there. I put my stuff (my yearbook, a camera, and an old class photo of a few of my friends) down at a table, and looked around the room, thinking about how much smaller it looked compared to how it was 15 years ago, though it was exactly the same room.
After about 5 minutes or so, the first few old friends came in. We exchanged greetings, and talk about how time has changed us. As more time passed, more people came in. We sat down at the tables, though at one point we had to shift to the other side of the room, as another party of about 11 people also came in. We all told stories about what happened to us after many years of not seeing each other. We wondered who had changed the most.
I won. When I was still living in Valley Stream, I was short, skinny, had very short hair, a gap in my teeth, and VERY hyper. They were looking at pretty much a completely different person, one who was fat, had long hair, a not so huge gap in his teeth, and considerably much calmer and quieter, and had a pair of glasses.
To prove this, I shall give images:
I'm in the bottom right corner, with the green shirt and blue pants, holding up the sign.
Do I have to point out who I am?
So, after about an hour or so at the parlor, the party had moved to a nearby diner. Some friends parted, others joined us. We talked a bit more about our old school, and wondered if old teachers we had were still there, and the daily routines we had.
After that, the party had pretty much ended, though I tagged along with a few of them to a house in a neighboring town, for another "party".
Hm...I don't think I'll be getting into that. After that, I was driven back to the parlor where my father picked me up and drove me back home.
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This story took place on the previous Sunday, in a place called
Cherry Grove.
My father and I went down there, as I was feeling bored and felt my summer was being wasted in the house. We went down to the town that had the ferry service that'd take us to the Grove, on Fire Island. As we waited there, more and more people were coming to the waiting spot for the ferry.
After that, the boat had arrived, and we boarded it. Some couples had brought dogs along with them. A few of them decided to remove their shirts. As we went down the ocean to the barrier island, I looked around me, seeing many happy couples, conversing, talking about their plans when they get there. The ride wasn't long, maybe 10-15 minutes in length.
As we docked, we were able to hear the dance music at a nearby bar blasting very loudly. You also couldn't walk a few feet without finding a rainbow flag. There were no roads, just a boardwalk. The houses there are usually just rented out for the summer, but there are many in number, and a few people do live there permanently. Our first stop was the beach. We went down the boardwalk, passing by many houses. We got to the beach, and my father immediately found who he was looking for: his old boss.
His old boss is a lesbian, and lives on a house that borders the beach. She was there, with her partner, and a few other women. She took us back to her house where I was able to change into my swimsuit. We returned to the beach, and settled down there for about an hour to an hour and a half.
After that, we had left the beach, and returned to the main part of the Grove, near the dock. We were both hungry, so we started to look for a restaurant that wasn't blasting loud dance music, and were quickly able to find a nice restaurant. Once we were seated, my father started to joke around with the waiter. I considered uttering a "try living with him" when the joking refused to cease. After the banter, we ordered our food, and my father asked me what I thought of the place. In all honesty, I found it to be very nice. A little eccentric for me, but still very nice.
We ate, and by the time we finished, we quickly left to catch the ferry that'd take us back.
I hope I did not bore with my two stories.
