“This is one of my old Coney Island T-Shirts and um this shirt has resonance for me in a couple of different areas, more than a couple, maybe a lot. But one of them is- I was a child in Coney Island. This is not where the shirt… the shirt does not go back to the fifties *cough* pardon me *cough*, but uh I spent three years living in Coney Island in the projects. And that was the last time that everybody in my family was still alive. So Coney Island has a lot of pathos and a lot of meaning for me. My mother had not already gotten ill and died, my sister was a healthy and happy baby, so Coney Island is important to me. I think I got this shirt in the… 40 years ago, maybe 30 years ago, at one of the stands on the boardwalk. And I would go there every summer as an adult and see what they had in the way of souvenirs and shirts and it was a little kiosk run by a couple. And they were two really burnt out, wizened people. Maybe they were brother and sister, maybe they weren't a romantic couple and my story that I made up about them was that they spent the winter, like carnies, they would spend the winter in Florida, but then they would come back in the summer to open up this ratty little, very narrow, shop which sold suntan lotion and monkeys on sticks, mildly dirty playing cards and t-shirts. So the first time I saw it, this picture, this iconic picture with the Wonder Wheel, and the Cyclone, two people in bathing suits… I think I got this shirt, it was a summer. I would go there at 7 in the morning with a thermos of coffee and the New York Times and a little beach chair. And I’d sit and I’d read the paper and I’d be back on the train and be back in this neighborhood by no later than 9 o’clock. I love the beach, I don’t like to be hot and sweaty. And I figured the sun wasn't killing me too much because it was early morning. So this shirt for me, there’s the childhood connection where Coney Island was, I guess there was bad stuff going on but I don't believe it. It was idyllic, we lived on the thirteenth floor of a fourteen story building. This shirt has meaning that predates the manufacture of the shirt. It also has meaning for that four or five years where I was going and checking out this little ratty little store and seeing what else I could buy… what was I doing… I was working in a bookstore then, I was going to graduate school, I was busy seven days a week and I was writing like crazy. See all these memories are coming back now! I bought the shirt, I was at a time in my life, I was about your age when I was just doing all this stuff. It’s a great color , some interesting holes, it’s got some stains I don't care to investigate and you know, its Coney Island, what else can I tell ya?”- Laura
2087
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