ON THE AUGUST BEACH
BREAD, SALAMI, SUN COOKED
COATED IN WARM SAND

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hen I was younger, during summer vacation, my mom and the neighbor ladies would pile all their kids onto the #76 Diversey bus and head down to Fullerton Beach. Sometimes there'd be 10 kids, our 4, the G's 3, the H's 4 or 5. I can imagine the bus driver must have loved seeing us all at the bus stop.


At that time the #76 ran all the way to Fullerton, and probably past it, but I don't really remember. We'd get off by the conservatory and walk the block or two to the lake. Never ever could we decamp in the first section, and if there was a day camp in the next section, we moved further down til we were in a relatively uncrowded section of the beach.


[For those unfamiliar with Chicago beaches, there are piers that occur at regular intervals and separate the beaches into sections.]


We never ever bought lunch at the concession stand. Far too expensive. The moms would have made sandwiches the night before and sometimes froze them. Other times, the sandwiches would have been made that morning and moms would try to keep them in the shade. They meant well.


We'd get down there about 9 or 9:30 am. The kids would spend most of the time in the water. After all, that was what going to the lake was for. That and tossing dead alewives at each other. [But that's another story.]


Lunch would come between 11 and noon. There would be a thermos of juice or water and out came the sandwiches. Our choices were bologna, salami or liversausage, or some combination of the three. There may have been jelly sandwiches on occassion, but frankly I don't remember them.


I think my favorite had to be the salami sandwich. Even if it had been frozen the night before, the sun always melted it and by time lunch came it was nice and warm. Not toasted or fried, just warm.


And being kids and in the water, we would be covered with sand by time we got to the blanket for lunch. No matter how carefully we rinsed our hands in the lake [yes, we actually used the lake water to wash up for lunch. And we're still alive!], there would be some sand on them by time we sat down.


We'd get a spot, get as comfy as one could in a wet bathing suit on a sandy blanket and dig into the sandwich. There always seemed to be a wind off the lake that would deposit a fine layer of gritty sand on the meal.


No matter how hard we tried to cover the bread, keep it out of the wind, whatever, the sandwich would have sand on it. Eventually, the kids came to realize it was a sandy sandwich or no lunch at all.


I gotta admit, I actually came to enjoy the warm sandy salami sandwiches. I remember them fondly. I've actually warmed up a sandwich a time or two in the microwave to try to recreate that taste of my youth. But oddly enough, I've never sprinkled sand over it......


Funny how things you would never think of doing now have made such great memories.