Wednesday morning, we raced to the Sayville Ferry and returned to Cherry Grove on Fire Island...
...where we were seated in front of a photographer, two male models, and a film crew scouting out the Belvedere Hotel for an underwear shoot.
Fire Island is a long, narrow sandbar that protects the highly populated southern Long Island shore from Atlantic storms.
Though Robert Moses, the twentieth-century monstrous power broker, wanted to put a roadway across its thirty-plus miles during the 1960s, he was stopped by local residents working with the federal government, and the place remains blessedly car-free except for the occasional service vehicle.
There are about 15 different communities that range in size from ten people to a couple of thousand summer inhabitants and visitors.
Until the 1960s, most of the buildings were simple wooden summer shacks, but some of the communities have gotten a bit pissier and more elaborate because the federal government started offering flood insurance in what has been traditionally a hurricane path.
If you have read any "gay" fiction over the last 30 years, every other tale seems to be taking place on Fire Island, but in truth there are only two communities, The Pines and Cherry Grove, which are predominantly gay. The snootier and more upscale A-Gays rent summer shares in The Pines, and a few rich characters own their own summer mini-mansions (the pond above is from one of the latter).
Cherry Grove consists of more traditional beach shacks and funky restaurants/bars, along with the fabulously eccentric Belvedere Guest House for Men which dates from the late 1950s.
We spent a night in the Garden Room and it couldn't have been more amusing.
In the Islip, Long Island neighborhood I was staying in, there was an electrician with a few over-the-top right-wing bumper stickers adorning his truck, and I found myself genuinely shocked (and also giggling) by "First Osama, Now Obama."
Thoroughly repulsed, we decided to go to the perfectly named Democrat Point, which is the far western point of Fire Island at the end of Robert Moses State Park.
Long Island is a traditional Republican Party stronghold, though that demographic has been changing to more Democrats and independents since the disaster of Bush II.
The western sandbar at Democrat Point has similarly grown over the last 15 years and stretches a half mile past the traditional jetty ending.
It's an amazingly beautiful place, though bright and inhospitable to humans.
The place is a seagull heaven...
...where food just washes up to the shore for their delectation.
This was a special, secret place of my host who used to surf there as a teenager...
...but I'm glad he didn't tell me what else the place was famous for until I found out about it on the internet while researching the place for this post.
According to a commenter at a local surfer's website:
"Demo is possibly one of the best gette [jetty] breaks on long island. Especially if your goofy.......only thing is its kinda a chum bucket.......all the fisher man and captree boats fish about 1-2 miles offshore from demo. Surfing this spot we have seen sandsharks fish and even brownsharks. Now ur probaly thinken im jus sayen this jus to protect are (Local spot) If u dont belive me go to goole earth zoom up on democrat point look to the left of the gette.......and see for urself........"
Jellyfish and Lyme Disease ticks are scary enough to contend with, but if I'd known I was playing at "Jaws," I'd never have gone bodysurfing all afternoon.
In any case, I pray America gets over its Fear of a Black Man and elects Obama president.
