As residents for 50 years at Goose Rocks Beach, we would like to express our overwhelming displeasure at what is happening concerning public access to our beautiful beach. Over those many years, we have made daily excursions down to the shore with our friends, from spring to fall, carrying chairs, blankets, coolers, toys and children. Indeed, even when a stormy day was in the forecast, we would find ourselves wandering down to the shoreline to look off into the horizon to find dark, multicolored storm clouds gathering over the ocean or afterwards, to catch a glimpse of a rainbow or to walk around and see what the storm might have brought ashore. A super low tide would find us on Timber Island looking for sea glass and other treasures. We have walked every inch of the beach; meeting up with old friends – making new friends of course – and helping the younger ones find shells and sand dollars. Even the beauty of our beach in the middle of winter is indescribable…the sparkling ice on the rocks and grasses near the shore…the quietness and serenity of it all…all of this was part of forming cherished memories.
We speak as well for our friends and neighbors in saying that a strong, loving family typically and unknowingly creates memories to dwell on into the future. Cultivating happy memories takes a lot of time and effort but it is worth it in the end. To emphasize this point, be aware that our younger generations are just as inflexible about preserving our access to the beach. With their own families, they reminisce and relive their own childhood by carrying on traditions of playing ball, looking for shells, chasing a Frisbee, eating a sandwich with actual sand in it, trying to outrun a big wave back to shore, building sandcastles, etc.
Upcoming generations of our families deserve to have the same opportunities to make memories of Goose Rocks Beach as we have had…we need to continue the struggle not to let them take that away from us.
Joan Heartz/Paula Kelson/Alan Gordon May 2010
How true! We all want those memories to keep on growing!