Okinawa Beach
For The Boy, the summer of 1957 seemed to go on and on forever. Every day brought new adventures and new opportunities to explore—sometimes in the woods behind their house on Kelsey Avenue—sometimes elsewhere. But on one of those days, during The Boy’s travels he made the startling discovery that a properly motivated four year old could actually outrun a policeman.
Actually, not every day was filled with the freedom to explore. In fact, mother had held him prisoner on their property ever since that ugly little incident a few weeks earlier when he had been chasing stray dogs in the woods out back. On that day, The Boy had fallen and hit his forehead on some of that shale that seemed to be poking out of the ground everywhere. Mother had sounded so shrill when he came home with blood all over his shirt, and she had insisted that Dr. Hurwitz stitch him back together immediately. That had been a bad day.
But the stitches had been out for at least a week now—would she never forget the past? The Boy desperately needed the freedom to roam: after all, he was almost five, and hadn’t he just heard mother telling someone that he was “growing up?”
At that moment, mother was inside the house feeding his baby brother—this was The Boy’s opportunity to make a run for it—in a flash he had climbed over the back fence, and he was on his way!
But to where should he go? Mother and father had told him never to go into the marsh, because that was where the hobo camp was. And he was never, ever to go to the Savin Rock amusement area by himself. Right then he needed a change of pace from his trips into the woods, so The Boy headed for Okinawa Beach, for mother had not yet told him that he couldn’t go there.
Now, back in 1957, Savin Avenue extended from Elm Street all the way down to the base of Bradley Point; there it met Beach Street; from there, Beach Street ran along the shore from First Avenue all the way to Sea Bluff, where it linked up with Ocean Avenue. The section of Captain Thomas Boulevard that runs from present-day Turk’s down to the Cove River did not exist at that time.
The beach lying between Bradley Point and Savin Rock is known as Okinawa Beach, because of its resemblance to one of the beaches on the Japanese island of the same name.
So, back to our story: when The Boy reached Savin Avenue, he followed it down to the water, passing the old Carvel stand and the miniature golf range just before he reached Bradley Point, the intersection, and the beach.
The Boy spent the next half hour or so playing on the sand at the water’s edge, and filling his pockets with jingle shells. At first, he hardly noticed the approach of the black sedan with the red light on the top, but when the policeman got out and came toward him, The Boy realized that he just might be in trouble.
The officer tried to coax him into the police car, but The Boy knew that only bad guys were picked up in police cars, so he shook his head. The officer became frustrated and made a run for The Boy. Now the pursuit turned into a game, as The Boy ran up and down the beach in circles around the officer, laughing as he ran.
Finally, the frustrated policeman left The Boy on the beach and drove away, and The Boy had a few minutes to savor his victory; but then the police car returned, and this time the policeman had mother with him. Now the situation looked serious.
So, mother and son walked home from the beach together, and mother must have felt very relieved, because she bought The Boy a Carvel ice cream cone on the way. But when they got home, he was sent straight to his room, and when father got home from work, The Boy got something that was known in those days as a “wailing.” Never again did he repeat that adventure.
But there would be others.
Our thanks to Harold Hartmann for his assistance with this story.