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S potted Beach Mirage
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The Arverne area of Rockaway beach has recently become developed, but not long ago, the beaches past 70th street were totally deserted, along with the fields behind them. This event occurred in 1998.
I took a walk in late Autumn on Rockaway Beach. Starting at 90th street were the usual fishermen and beachcombers. But after about twenty blocks, nobody. Not a soul, not a foot print. As a matter of fact, not a building. The beach is fronted by vacant lots and an occasional abandoned beach house. It's desolate, and not the desolation of pure nature, which can be soothing. It's the desolation of an empty boundary, where humanity seems to have given up on a portion of its city, letting nature reclaim it. And nature is taking her time about it.
Heading down to the waterline I saw something odd on the sand. A kind of beach mirage suddenly happened. I literally was seing spots before my eyes.
It looked like rows of bocce balls, or mushrooms, or gravestones on the beach
I then had a taste of the disorientation and loss of reliability of the senses that a wanderer lost in the desert might experience. I took my camera and tried to photgraph it.
Until the flock took off.
