Nostalgia

Written By: Kimberly  Atkins

Frolicking care free through the back yard filled with honey suckles and butterflies while caressing the warmth of the sun along my body’s edges is but one memory I have growing up in eastern Long Island. My mom was born and raised in shelter island. She spent her childhood living in a quaint two bedroom cottage shared among herself and her three siblings. The household head being her mother. Not much has changed since that time. The cottage still has the hanging flower pots out front with the picket rail fence running parallel to the porch. Gma still has the Yankees on or the 9oclock news broadcasting whenever I visit. She still says “kimber, how about a cup of tea or a slice of crumb cake?” Shelter island is so nostalgic in so many ways. I’ll never forget the summer my oldest cousin- heather-, my sister- callie- and I all spent together. The trouble we got into! Not exactly, but we were pretty mischievous. I wonder what people down at coecels harbor thought when Heath and cal faked english accents and pointed to a lone sailboat in the harbor explaining how we had arrived here, from England, by boat. Keep in mind Heath was about 10, Cal 8, and I was about 6? OR the time we were walking home from Hiberry Lane up the treacherous John Tuts Hill with a tube the size of a dining room table, a 120lb black lab and all our beach gear. We decided this was too exhausting and we’d like to have a try at hitch hiking. Of course, no one was gonna pick up 3 girls, bubba our dog and a dining room table…tube! So we found a solution. I, being the youngest, would hide in the woods with the dog and our tube. Cal and Heath would innocently stand on the side of the road, thumbs up and sucker someone in. The face of that man in the Jeep with the long brown pony tail, clearly a laid back middle aged surfer, had when he saw me emerge from the woods with all that we had attempted to hide will stay with me forever. I’ve had many a fond memory summering on the islan, and still today, they continue. I know wherever I am or wind up calling “Home” in the world, shelter island will always have a place in my life and an imprint on my heart!