Mulling the mysteries of the ocean’s depths on Saltaire’s beach last weekend. (Photo by Chris Degni.)
All right, the preliminaries are about to give way to the real reason we’re all meeting here, The summer, which will have officially begun a couple of days before you see this. So, welcome to the 2023 edition, accompanied, as tradition dictates, by our annual around-this-time reminder that the days are now getting shorter, so dust off those Santa suits tout de suite.
The Yacht Club is now formally open daily, so members are free to jump on their wheels for meals every night if they and their credit cards are so inclined. The usual, and unusually superb, wait-staff is fully staffed and patiently awaiting all drinkers and diners, the expected maelstrom of indoor activity is unfolding along its inexorable path, whilst outdoors the dwindling sunlight of our ever-briefer days isn’t dampening the pursuit of tennis and/or sailing. Softball season’s gotten underway, as will sundry field activities from soccer to more soccer, with Camp soon to pick up the slack (is Larry still around?) of inventive field use.
Amidst the surfeit of summer staffing you may have noticed the absence of a community veteran, Bob Rittenhouse, our former chief of Public Safety. Bob has chosen to retire and we join in thanking him for his services and wish him all the best. Anthony Campos is succeeding to, and succeeding in, a slightly re-combobulated position of chief, and hopefully he’ll soon be joining our year-round community. Anthony continues to be ably assisted by his deputy, Chris Degni, the pair backed by a solid bunch of Public Safety officers bound and determined to insure your safety despite your protests.
Deepest sympathies to the family of Marina Perna, our beloved friend who passed away earlier this month after a long and difficult illness.
Meanwhile, Rich Wilde’s lifeguards are massing along our beachfront massifs, poised to protect Saltairians’ lives and limbs, a task that’s taken on more literal meaning these past few years, now that the hoax of global warming has increased local water temps and brought additional chomp-inclined varieties of sea life into closer proximity to our shores and those undaunted swimmers paddling off them. No worries, the guards keep an eagle eye out for fish, if that makes any sense, you just need to heed them when they whistle you out and you’ll be fine. Besides, we have drones and copters of all sorts of aircraft patrolling the skies above the seas, so seize the day and see’s you dive in, serene in the confidence that if all else fails and a shark shows up we now have a jet-ski that the guards will use to zip out to your flailing form and pull you back to safety, or at least to Fire Island. Freedom from jaws is our priority, and I for one don’t intend to emulate the mayor of Amity, let alone go out on a boat crewed by Campos and Degni. It’s quintessential.
