NEW YORK SONG

Roger Gemelle

Text copyright © 2016

All Rights Reserved

For Dinah, Always For Dinah

Excerpt New York Song:
    Open and Sensitive

I have been told: You gotta be sensitive and stay open to love, and I do think it's true, but at times I don't seem to be either.

And the twins often put me to the test. On this particular evening we were driving to pickup two girls that Arnie had met and he wanted me to go with him so it would be like a double date. It was just the two of us tonight as Al had met a girl earlier and was with her. It wasn't far to the hangout the girls were at and we picked them up. It was clear from the start they were, uh ... how do I put this? They were not only unattractive but far worse they were extremely crude. I mean in this unfortunate case the word skank might just be, if not appropriate, at least accurate. I looked at Arnie with large WTF eyes and he just shrugged.

I tried to make some conversation with the girls and after a minute or two of their wild laughter and weirdly meandering comments (which they directed only to each other) I realized ... I was not gonna do this.

Two minutes into the ride they said they needed to stop for cigarettes and they got out at a corner drug store and went in. Arnie had gotten out as well and before he went in I said quietly, "Get in!"

Arnie said, "What?" He looked surprised.

I said, "If you don't get in your hitching home cause I'm leaving now!"

Arnie pleaded, "Oh come, on we can fuck these girls."

I said with what I hoped was menace, "Get in right now or walk!"

He shook his head, "Man, okay, but shit we should just..." but I started to pull away from the curb and Arnie jumped in.

As I gunned out of there he said, "Ah, Rog ... let's go back, come on!"

"Fucking forget it you idiot, I'm not going near those two!"

So yeah. Ya gotta be sensitive and stay open.

We got on the bus early for Rockaway beach. A hot summer sun warmed our faces as we walked the diagonally laid massive timbers of the boardwalk with a quick stride north up to 34th street where I always wanted to be. We carried two guitars with us, no cases, just held em. Hell we sang in the bus on the way in.

They ocean roared with breakers and mist blew into the air as the Atlantic swells hit the giant rock breakwaters that ran out like fingers into the deep water.

I walked in to Lee's Famous Takee Cup (so said the sign) and was hit with the mouth watering aroma of shrimp and lobster sauce and chow mien, to die for. Oh my God it was so good!

The thing was, they had this invention of a huge fried noodle, that was a giant square noodle with its center shaped into a cup! Into this they put either chow mein or shrimp and lobster sauce. The chow mein was great, but the shrimp and lobster sauce ... Jeez!

And as you got down near the bottom you began to eat the cup, the crisp delicious fried noodle cup, with the filling ... kill me now!

I think it was a dollar-something and even we could afford that ... sometimes. It was hot and the beach at 34th street was jammed. Blankets with girls, radios blaring Beach Boys and kids screaming with rage as they dropped their ice-creams. We were in heaven! We stepped down the old splintered stairs of weathered timber onto the burning sand. It was pretty hot but it felt good and we had our sorries on.

We found a likely spot strategically in between several blankets full of wriggling beauties and threw down our blankets and guitars. I knew it was only gonna be for a second because Arnie was gonna be aggressively aproaching one of these groups of girls, guitar in hand, shortly. I had never seen anyone more driven by devils when it came to chasing tail ... and I mean that in the nicest way!

It was funny but it ended up working very well for us. Al and I were usually to shy to just attack, and Arnie was too impatient, but together, we were the A Team! He opened up the dialoge (not good dialog to start, mind you, but at least a sort of communication) and then Al and I would go over and the three of us would sing them into our web. And we were good enough vocally to surprise most of them. It would go from offended glaring to appreciative smiles and giggles most of the time.

I mean of course occasionally we were beaten off, but ya gotta give it a shot right?

The guys were hitting it off with two of the girls and I asked a dark haired pretty girl if she'd like to go swimming. She said yes and we walked down to the water between the gigantic jetty of boulders.

"Whats your name?" I asked.

"Linda." She smiled and twisted her mouth in a very cute way. "What's yours?"

"Roger."

Linda dove into the water and I followed. It was almost warm and a lot of people were swimming with us, cutting across in all directions and splashing each other. It was glorious! We ended up meeting a couple who were visiting their cousins for the summer and we all hung out for a while talking and diving and having a great time.

Somebody had a gigantic surf board, the thing was ridiculously large, but we all tried catching the waves which were about one foot sad little rollers. It was pretty funny, this was definitely not Hawaii. Good thing too!

Then Linda and I ran up to our blankets and threw ourselves down and baked in the hot sun. The radio was playing P.S. I Love You, and I moved closer to her and looked over at her and into her eyes and thought: This one's pretty cute.

Now maybe in the mid-west Under the Boardwalk might be just a sweet summer song but, at 34th street in Rockaway it was how we lived. I had brought our blanket and Linda under the Boardwalk and we were kissing in the shade under the Takee Cup. Her breath was warm and sweet and her skin hot and salty and I pressed up against her, and she against me, lost in the timeless, mutual dizziness.

Well, ya gotta be sensitive and stay open ...