Potatoes in the Mist

This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold -William Carlos Williams

We took the kids to Coney Island today. I like that you can get there on the subway, and most of the ride is above ground. The mood of the passengers gets more and more easygoing and relaxed as you get closer to the beach. The beach is fun and a little honky-tonk, with a boardwalk, every kind of food imaginable, a playground climber on the sand, a tall sprinkler shaped like a palm tree, and tons of amusement park rides. The kids love it.

Just finished The Glass Castle . I was sorry to see it end. It was basically about the author's crazy childhood, which reached its nadir in Welch, West Virginia - a decrepit, backward mining town. She and her siblings escaped to New York (which seemed to have a different energy back then, kind of gritty, lots of jobs available but also some mugging attempts). It seemed like heaven to them after West Virginia. Then their parents followed them, were homeless for a while, etc. Very colorful story. She has another book I haven't read yet - Half Broke Horses. I'm going to give it a try.

I just finished reading The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls. It's the story of two sisters, who have a colorful but unreliable mother who abandons them. They go to Virginia to live with an uncle and things unfold from there. It was a gripping story. Now I'm reading her memoir, The Glass Castle.