1953: Touching the Atlantic Ocean

Sixty years ago today, my mom touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. In 1953, my mom, her sister and their mother drove to New York to pick up my grandfather, who had been working in New York for a year. They made a long vacation out of it, touring New York sites and then driving up to New England.  On July 31, 1953, my mom notes in her teen journal that they walked around Central Park (& zoo), took a carriage ride, visited Coney Island and touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. I’m not sure how important this milestone is in the context of a lifetime, but it does have this Cali girl wondering about her first time touching the Atlantic Ocean.

And maybe the milestone itself isn’t actually the point, but the opportunity it gives to ask mom for more family stories. NPR’s Scott Simon beautiful-but-painful Twitter tribute to his mother was an important reminder about the value of a mom and her stories.