Today is the 1st day of fall. But before we break out cider and carve up pumpkins, we should take one last look at summer.
The Compo Beach seawall, after trying to protect Soundview Avenue from Hurricane Irene.
A Compo Beach resident — and alert “06880” reader — did just that the other day. The occasion was a story here about the seawall — it was damaged by Hurricane Irene, and of course Westporters are divided over how to repair it, who should pay for it, and whether beach dwellers are actual human beings deserving of help, or over-entitled rich folks deserving of having their homes washed away.
The Compo resident lands squarely (and naturally) on the side of the seawall being every Westporter’s business.
“The blog comments were of course typical of non-understanding Westporters,” the resident says.
They don’t realize that if the wall is washed away Soundview Avenue gets washed out too, and they can’t get down to do their triathlons here, eat at Joey’s, party on South Beach, walk their dogs (and poop on our plants), see the fireworks (and try to crash our party), stroll on the boulevard (and snoop at our BBQs), or just drive by and gawk at storm damage.
But our Soundview reader was just getting started.
A follow-up email noted:
They also come catapulting over walls and fences, when not watching where they’re going on bicycles, skateboards, etc.
They leave all their litter on the beach — and often leave new $100 beach chairs with price tags attached. And brand new toys galore.
They try to join our late-night, festively lit outside gatherings, assuming this is “Splash.”
They ask for diapers, Band-Aids, ice, corkscrews, bathrooms, warm clothes, mixer, water, booze, mustard , mayo, towels, rides home, parking spaces, and baby sitters.
Two families (sans nannies that weekend) have actually left the beach at dusk, and forgotten a child — for extended periods of time.
We probably can’t mention the obvious sex acts under blankets, or just plain parking on side streets, running into the water and “doing it” in the water with clothes on while folks are having early evening cocktails, or in the moon path on the shoreline (sans blanket).
Living on Soundview sounds pretty exciting!
But wait — there’s more!
A 3rd email added:
I forgot to mention people who drive by at dusk and drop their home garbage bags into beach cans, and think we don’t see them.
And those who come and take the plants we plant in our border gardens, thinking they are theirs for some reason, and pick all our blossoms that hang into the streets, and play thumping music so loud on their car radios that they bounces us out of bed.
Or unwanted church services set up in front of houses.
And someone’s ashes dumped where we sit to sunbathe, or that are blown by the wind onto our patio.
Without the seawall, Soundview Drive would be gone.
No more drivers. No more ash-scatterers. No more fornicators.
Just peace and quiet.
And the occasional house-destroying hurricane.
Not all beachgoers are this considerate and civil, Compo residents know.
The Beach is “THE” place to be in Westport. Everyone is going to be there at one time or another, and most as often as possible. I honestly wish the town would keep it open untill midnight all year long for our kids to hang out. Dispite the water, its pretty safe and not that much to damage. I do not feel there is another place in town, one police car could watch so many. Of course the seawall should be fixed. While some people might view the beach area residents as a privileged crew, these relatively smaller high assessed homes generate a per acre tax not found in McMansions, or the Amish portions of Westport. A typical beach area acre might have 8-10 homes. Surf’s Up!
Beach used to be open all night. Huge make out spot. Something else was always up!
Oh, let’s not forget other things they ask (and not necessarily just on Soundview):
They want to throw out their litter (empty cups and bottles) & their dog poop sacks (yuk !) in our personal trash cans; or they simply don’t scoop and leave their litter and dog poop alongside our mailboxes and in our flower beds…
They ask to borrow our telephone to make a call (cuz they don’t have a cell phone or can’t get a signal)…
Then there’s those folks one BARELY knows (sometimes friends of friends), who don’t happen to have a beach sticker, who ask to park in our driveway so they can go for a walk, or use the beach, or go Trick or Treating, or skip out of paying for the Fireworks…
And there’s the dangerous ones who think stop signs are optional in our compact neighborhood, or who gun it down Bradley, or on the side streets, or along Soundview and Hillspoint (tailgating those who respect the reduced speed limits).
Meanwhile, the rush to make a spectator sport out of the storm damage was one that had me completely aghast — seeing entire families with young kids on their shoulders, folks with cameras, people arguing with the police that they were beach residents in an attempt to drive in to the area (but could not produce any proof of address) — all with an air of excitement and anticipation, parking on the road in front of Longshore, and scrambling to come wade in the (raw sewage ?) ridden flood waters and gawk at the destruction.
And naturally, I think it’s the “one bad apple syndrome,” because I find the majority of people who come to visit the beach are polite and friendly and respectful that their recreation area is also our environs.
Yes, those bad apples sure do test the limits of human civility and leave one’s jaw agape at their bad behavior and lack of sensitivity. And most likely, Dan, they are the same ones who do the other stupid, obnoxious, and dangerous things that you’ve pointed out on your blog.
In this case, we get to watch it up close and personal.
MOVE!!! Move then. You sound miserable. Now IF everything your saying is happening (which I’m truely questioning) What are the police for? You live on the beach, how did you think it would be? Seriously, go buy an island. And how old are you? You NEVER had sex on the beach or a romantic evening on the beach under the moon or partied on the beach?? THAT could be your problem. I am not approving of people throwing their trash bags and things such as that, but come on….. A certain amount of that activity was to be expected given the location. Build the wall around your house, but something tells me even then you’d bitch.
Ah, here we go again …. Another dose of hyperbole. Sure we have issues but last time I checked there is no perfect little town. So cry me a river Argentina.
Maybe the Beach areas should form an association to make inprovements and spread the huge burdens of beach living. i would suggest that lending an occasional parking spot or salt would be a relative bargain if maybe the over head wires and poles were burried. Surfs up!
There are already beach area associations, some more effective than others. And burying power lines is outrageously expensive – though worth it in my mind.
With all the re-paving going on, and seawall fortressing, a couple hundred yard of burried wires couldn’t amount to much. Surfs up!
Talk to residents of Fairfield Beach where, each winter, they have college kids as neighbors who treat that area as an Animal House. If the repair of the seawall means so much to you, hire the Staples Gridiron Club. They funded the three artificial fields in town in no time. They can do wonders. But, please, stop the whining. It does not instill empathy but instead, nausea.
We all know what’s good for nausea. Surfs up!
Puff the magic dragon, Dude.
SO, next time YOU open your (email) mouth to report something that is obvious, obnoxious, and/or offensive to you, we can be certain to denote it as ‘WHINING”… ?
As Danny Ainge just remarked, when accused of being the biggest “complainer” in the NBA: “I am not a complainer. I am a whiner.” Ipso Facto.
Ya’ know… complain all you like, do it to proper authorities, you won’t you know why, then your name is attached to a “complaint” and you don’t want that. You want to seem like the “nice” neighbor when your really a no life biatch who just needs, wants to bitch about something. What did you think when you move across from a public beach?? Uuhhmm, the PUBLIC maybe?! Get real. Like I said before build the wall around your own property.Or move to a mountain or PRIVATE beach area. Get over yourslef.
A bitching sailor is a happy sailor.
BITCHIN’ CAMARO, BITCHIN’ CAMARO
I ran over my neighbors
Former Senator Phil Gramm pronounced “Americans as a bunch of whiners.” He was soon denounced from the GOP in the midst of the ’08 campaign. Since the GOP has made a rebound, perhaps they have settled in the Compo beach maze??? Some cheese with that whine??
Those who want to spend public monies money for their special interests are quick to criticize those who would do the same. Maybe it would be best to just eliminate all public funds dedicated to special interests. Public expenditures would be far smaller.
All that beach fornicating talk really makes me miss the 06880.
Nothing like sand in your crack in the morning.