Low Tide — Moore Good

Guest blog post by Kylie O’Hara • Farmingdale State College Visual Communications Intern • Spring 2021

Sometimes on an early, warm summer evening, when you step outside there is a strange smell that fills the air…low tide.

Growing up on Long Island was an interesting experience that is unlike living anywhere else in the country. I am a 45 minute train ride away from the greatest city in the world, and at the same time I am no further than 20 minutes from the ocean at any given point. Geographically, the island includes Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties, so if you’re trying to leave the island, you have no choice other than to pass through New York City, unless you’re willing to hop on a ferry to Connecticut. Nassau and Suffolk counties are essentially just an extension of NYC, the epitome of the “suburbs”.

Long Island is in fact, an island. You’re surrounded by water on all sides, although at the same time it doesn’t feel that way. For most of my life I have lived in the not-so-small town on the south shore of Long Island named Wantagh, or as all of the signs say “The Gateway to Jones Beach”. The second the temperature was above 80º, the traffic on the Wantagh Parkway started. I have very fond memories of my mom packing the car up with everything needed for a day at the beach. We would all hop in, ready for the five minute drive down there, only to be stuck in traffic for two hours as cars were shoved into the fields one by one.

As I got older, the beach became more of a place of relaxation. If anyone has visited Jones Beach on a hot Saturday in July, it can be the furthest thing from relaxing, but it is the off seasons and the odd times that always draw me there. Sometimes it was skipping high school during the first beautiful day in April with my friends and just walking through the sand on the vacant shore, or now when I ride my bike up and down the paths for hours looking for the perfect spot to stop and stare at the waves the day before a massive storm. Throughout the pandemic, the beach has been a place for me to go when I needed to get out and still feel safe doing so.

I am always drawn to the ocean and I feel like most people from Long Island would agree with me when I say the beaches play an integral role in our communities. Long Island is home to thousands of miles of beautiful coastlines and plenty of beach communities and these areas need to be protected.