Before And After Go Through The Looking Glass

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This postcard
was created
as part of
a campaign
to sell plots of land
on the North Shore
of Long Island

The year was 1938

No one from my family
was there at the time
but my parents bought
a summer home
in Rocky Point
in 1959:

Twenty-one years after
that beach scene image
was photographed
*********

The second photo
of Rocky Point
is from 2018


I moved from Rocky Point
to California in 1981

Thirty-seven years before
that Rocky Point Clubhouse
image was  photographed
*********

In the first image,
a red line highlights
a black rock in
the water

In the second image,
a black line highlights
a red rose on
the table






You might ask why 
I posted each photograph twice
and I might answer
Because two of the most
monumental memories
of my life are associated
with the highlighted details 

Anyway, the AFTER memory
—approximately fifty years
after the beach photograph was taken—
involved a psychiatrist who was
more of a friend to me
than a therapist

That monumental moment
was articulated  here

But the very specific memory
associated with the floor beneath
the red rose involved a bunch
of teenagers who paid ten cents
every Friday night in the summer of '62
at the Rocky Point Clubhouse

We danced to whatever
Rock 'n Roll songs
—or Rhythm 'n Blues
or Soul music—
Nicky Brozini played
on the phonograph
situated at the top
of the staircase

Please note:
Nicky is a life-long friend
who recently sent me
the 1938 postcard image
and without whom
this page would not exist 

Anyway, at this particular ten-cent dance,
something spontaneous happened
which had never happened before:

This particular memory
is so monumental that I
may have posted it before
but it is so deeply tattoed
on my heart and soul
that it might as well be
written across the sky

I was dancing with Connie Torelli

She was three years older than me
and the same age as my sister
who was her best friend

The song was Dion's
Lovers Who Wander 

This boy was thirteen years-old
in 1962 and was dumb enough
to never touch a sixteen year-old girl

I was more shy than sly
at that age and was never
the best dancer on the floor
but quite possibly
the most interesting

The next thing that happened
to Connie and Paul was...
her best friend and my sister,
LINDA OLIVERIO gathered
a whole bunch of kids around us
and within thirty seconds,
we were the only couple dancing
in the Rocky Point Clubhouse

I made less eye contact 
with Connie than I did 
with Linda and remember thinking
Sister Dearest, I'm gonna get you for this 

The whole thing lasted
no longer than three minutes
but I have re-created it
in my head three thousand times

I have re-created it
in my heart and soul
three thousand other times        
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