Empty Beachers

I don’t know if everyone feels the same but I know that as I get older time seems to move so much faster. I don’t mean in terms of hours and days but rather years which just seem to fly by. My wife and I were sitting on the beach this past weekend by ourselves and reflecting back on past summers and wondering just where the time went. Did it not seem like just yesterday when a day at the beach included multiple trips carrying playpen, umbrella, sand and water toys and more? We thought back to the summer just before Brandon’s first birthday when my regular routine was to walk along the shore with him on my shoulder when it was nap time. He would usually fall asleep after a few minutes and we would then lay him down in the shade. We knew that first summer he was a “beach baby” and watched him grow up on the 2nd Avenue beach in Seaside Park.

Before long pails and shovels were replaced by wiffle ball bats and footballs
and then boogie boards and skim boards. In looking back we smiled when thinking about Brandon, at about age 8 carrying his boogie board bag complete with gear and preparing for a long day in the water. He and his friends could spend hours catching waves…you’d have to force them to come in for lunch. Ironically at just about the time he was pretty independent at the beach we had a baby girl who was dipping her toes in the water for the first time so that entire process started all over again.

The one thing for sure was that there we no quiet days at the beach and it was never simply just grabbing a chair, towel and book and heading out. It was always a case (at least for my wife) of preparing from diapers to lunch to toys and snacks to sunscreen and extra bathing suits.

I thought about all of that this past weekend as the two us sat quietly on the beach by ourselves. Brandon, who will be 25 next month was in Belmar with friends and 18-year old Alex was working. We used to say how much we were looking forward to being able to read a book without being disturbed but I kind of envied the Moms and Dads who were busy filling pails with water and putting sunscreen on their kids.

Time really does fly as you get older.