It was really great when my friend and neighbor asked my husband and I to go with them to the Oyster Bay Festival.   Never been there, and since I was babysitting I thought it would be a great outing for the grand children.  Driving there was a little slow since traffic going into OB is only one lane.  I guess we were not the only family heading out to the bay. Once we finally arrived in the town of  OB, parking became the dilemma.  We park along the side of a road and walked about 15 minutes to the festival.  Funny, I was so wrapped up with the grand kids that I never really thought about where exactly we were going.  As we entered the festival all I could think about was that their are soooo many people.  Christian was in his carriage being pulled by Grandpa and Sophie was told to hold my hand and never let go. My friend and her husband came specifically to eat oysters.  There were people upon people waiting to inhale a few oysters…YUCK, I hate oysters.  Here Miss Sophie stands.  There were less people over by the beach.As we all started to walk on the beach.  It hit me.  OMG, this is Oyster Bay.  Thunk ( That is the sound of me hitting my head).  I could not believe it, Oyster Bay, it had been many years since I had been to Oyster Bay.

This was not my first visit!  

Oyster bay was my families Sunday beach outing in the summers.  My mother would make all kinds of food to bring, my father  would wake us up at 6 a.m. to drive from Manhattan to Oyster Bay beach.  We never went alone.  My parents would meet their good friends with their children, and we all would just beach it together.   We never returned home before 8 p.m. it was truly a long day  at the beach.  The memories of Oyster Bay were all good ones.  Parents and friends, beach and sun, and let me not forget the oysters.

My parents would aways bring oysters home, they did not buy them, they dug them out from the bay…bags and bags full of oysters we brought home to eat.   I hated oysters, never liked the way they looked or smelled, but my parents and their friends always delighted in eating them.

What is that over there?  A tennis court. This is were we use to picnic….It made me feel sad to see the place were we picnicked  covered with this court…why would they want to do that? We continued on… I kept screaming look at that, look what they put there…what happened to the wide open space that was Oyster Bay…

Then it hit me…I returned to spend a day at Oyster Bay with my friends and family, and my friends ate oysters.. Oyster Bays had changed, yet in a small way they kinda remained the same… see you Oyster Bay at the next Oyster Bay Festival.

mb