Tonight, YG and I went to this event at Harvard Book Store. I had heard about Kelly McMasters' book, "Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town" and was immediately intrigued because my family has spent every summer in Shirley since my dad was a kid. And nobody ever knows of Shirley, and if they do, their impressions are never favorable. People always assume that our house is in the Hamptons because that's the only thing they know about Long Island, and when they visit Shirley and our house, I usually get a lot of "oh, I didn't know it was so....so...so working class." As if that's always a bad thing.
I saw the ad for the event on Bostonist so we decided to go. We listened to the reading and then I spent some time chatting with the author after. I told her about our house and where we lived, and she said, "Oh, I used to have friends on that street." I asked who, and she answered, "The Posts." Seriously, dudes. My freakin' next door neighbors. And my best girl friend in the world when I was a little kid. So, so random. I also used to go with the Posts to Vacation Bible Camp at Grace Lutheran Church, where Kelly McMasters said she spent a lot of time. We figured that we were probably there at the same time. Proper use of the word "random" here. What are the chances that I'd run into someone from Shirley way up here, far away from home? It was one of those great "small world" moments.
It also made me realize that someone else wrote the memoir about Shirley first. :-) Oh, Shirley. With the beach and riding bikes all day in shorts and flip flops and buying Slurpees at 7-11 and fruit salads at Carvel. And fishing and camping and man hunt and the playground at the bay. We're going in 3 weeks. I can't wait.
1 comment:
I'm partial to the bright orange plastic cereal bowls that Pop-Pop used to take down from the cabinet and spin on the table.
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