[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by 2newyorkers

I also grew up on Long Island. Every summer day and sometimes evening I would be at the ocean, bay, Sound or Lake Ronkonkoma. Not only to swim, sun and to have fun but to fish and go crabbing. Camping at Wildwood or Cedar Beach in East Hampton. These were all part of my wonderful childhood memories. The strange part is as I grew older and had a home of my own with an in ground pool the salt water, sand and crowds no longer appealed to me. I am perfectly content never to go to the beach again.

It is a lot easier when the kids are school aged to install an inground pool in the backyard........we did the same thing. Every day through the summer, they were in that pool with their school friends and neighborhood friends (plus I had all the moms sitting with me to help me to supervise the diving board maneuvers, the "Marco Polo" splashing, etc., the sliding board into the water.....good memories for sure.

But, still, we always took our weeklong vacations.......one in the springtime during school vacation to Disney and the other "end of summer" to N.H., Maine or Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard/Nantucket...........the ocean has always beckoned.

My husband's dad had a boat so he recalls many great childhood memories of fishing off the N.J. jetties, out in the ocean, etc., etc. and also surf fishing off the Jersey shore using sand spikes on the beach ..........again, as teens we went to all the beaches up and down the Jersey shore........didn't miss a one.

They also did clamming, etc. but lots of fishing off the boats as well as surf/beach fishing.

For those of us born in the Mid Atlantic States or the New England States........the beach was the place to go.

But, I agree, the pools are easier as they are right in your own backyard.