Get your red, white, and blue ready for my favorite week of the year in Ocean Beach! The majority of this year’s events will take place on Wednesday, but there is plenty to do this weekend as well. Saturate your house, wagon, children, dog, and anything else you can wrangle in stars and stripes, and you might be selected the winner of the Ocean Beach Association’s house decorating competition!
On Saturday, July 29, the Ocean Beach Association will hold their summer meeting at the Community House at 11 a.m. Go and pick up your OB Directory and a surprise gift! Later that evening, there will be a free concert at the freight ferry dock starting at 7:30 p.m. A big thank you Landscaping and More for sponsoring it.
This is the final week to see Luke Kaufman’s incredible exhibit, “The Wooden Boats We Rode,” at the Ocean Beach Historical Society. If you have not had the chance to see it yet, I encourage you to pop in and look at his collection of historical photographs and his own intricate drawings of the ferries that have crossed the Great South Bay. I grew up in a shipbuilding town in Maine, and Luke is a true “Old Salt,” as we called the seasoned sailors with fantastic tales.
Old Salt could be a good theme for the annual Children’s Wagon Parade on July 4th! Everyone is welcome to decorate a wagon and join the fun. The lineup begins at 10:30 a.m. in front of the firehouse (Midway and Bayberry) and extends both east and west down Bayberry. The parade will begin at 11 a.m., and the route extends down Bayberry to Baywalk, then circles the Village Green. There will be prizes for all participants!
The celebration continues at the ballfield at 1 p.m. with the Ocean Beach Fire Department’s annual picnic, featuring only the finest hot dogs and keg beer! The Ocean Beach Youth Group will provide games and activities for kids beginning at 3 p.m., and if that’s not enough to wear your children out, I will happily put them to work fishing sodas and watermelons out of an icy horse trough! If an eager-eyed man approaches you with a large Uncle Sam hat and a camera, don’t panic like I did the first time. It’s Marc Millman documenting his hat’s annual journey across all the heads in town.
If you have anything you would like me to share, please email me at OceanBeachKelly@gmail.com or say hi when you see me in town!
