HERE AND THERE
When I was a kid, I spent my summers
near my grandfather’s farm in Port Benjamin,
in upstate New York. Port Ben wasn’t a port
anymore, not since 1900 when
the train replaced the D & H canal.
Anyway, the Rondout Creek ran near our house
and provided a great place to play, fish,
swim and have adventures that are with me
sharp and clear after more than sixty years.
To get to the creek, we had to cross a
hayfield, which, if recently mowed, was tough
on our bare feet , climb down the creek bank on
a rickety staircase and cross the muddy
bottom land on a wobbly wooden walk.
Here’s the point. While walking Atlantic Street
the other day, as in a foggy dream,
I found that old boardwalk spread over the
flooded soggy salt marsh, no doubt trod by
kids with sixty years of adventures remembered.
Marty Luster
Good Morning Gloucester 
Thanks Marty- brought back memories of my own younger days: Turning over rocks for crawfish in northern New Jersey, catching bass in Mountain Springs Lake, and so much more.
LikeLike
How sweet!
LikeLike
GORGEOUS photo Marty!!!!!
LikeLike
Really love this photo. It has a lot of emotion, Marty.
LikeLike
Thanks Marty. For bringing those childhood now dreams back to life.
LikeLike
Marty – Where is port Benjamin? Hudson Valley? I know the Rondout from Kingston & D&H from the canal house in High Falls, nY
LikeLike
Port Ben (you won’t find it on a map)is about 30 miles SW of Kingston off of Rte 209 in the Town of Wawarsing. It is 5 miles NE of Ellenville.
I know Kingston and High Falls well. A few years ago I co-led a senior group from Ithaca, NY to the canal house .
LikeLike