Sound Beach: The Summers of My Youth

By Daniel Palermo

Sound Beach is set in 1940 to 1945 time period. It was an Italian American community and I share some of my experiences during that difficult time. Come with me to a past, most have forgotten or never knew.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728360003

Book preview

© 2020 Daniel Palermo. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/06/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6001-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-6000-3 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

The Summer of My Youth

A Horse

Four Flats

Fourth of July

The Fall of 1941

An Adventure

1942 to 1944

1945

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The Summer of My Youth

38651.png It was a summer home on Soundview Avenue in a sleepy summer town of Sound Beach, Long Island. The town had a town square with a general store that held everything one would ever need or want. It carried meat, vegetables, auto supplies, kerosene, beauty products, and swimwear – woolen swimwear. You haven’t felt real pain like walking home from the beach while wearing a wet woolen suit. (the, chaffing around the legs was worse with every step.) The store also carried a large assortment of penny candy – licorice, jellybeans, chocolate bars and all-day suckers (a large round ball of sweetness), that hardly fit in your mouth. There was a one-chair barbershop which also held the post office. Stamps were two cents for first class mail. The fire house was a small building with two doors painted bright red. It had one old fire engine that was orange rather than red. It was manned by all volunteers, mostly old men with a few younger guys that volunteered to capture popularity with the girls.

Before I go on, I must tell a story about the fire on Beach Avenue.

It was around 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon when the alarm was sounded – there were no sirens, whistles or fog horns. The alarm was sounded by banging with a hammer, rock, or any very hard object on a circular railroad track that had an open spot to produce ringing. It was bent into a circle and hung from a wooden structure made of two upright poles and a cross member at the top. Someone was banging on the alarm, using the code for Beach Avenue, 3-1-3. The fire truck left the fire house with eight or so volunteers hanging on the running board. Their route took them up Soundview Avenue, which had an uphill grade that slowed down the engine until it was barely going five miles per hour. Everyone jumped off the truck and started pushing – men came from the surrounding houses to help. There was yelling, cursing in several languages, words I cannot ever put on paper!

Finally, the engine made it up the hill and sped on to Beach Avenue. When they arrived, the shed that was burning was totally