CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
WP DAILY PROMPT 6/3/2013:
MY DREAM “TOURIST” DESTINATION
FIVE BEACHES IN MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE
I pulled into a parking spot on the Ligonier (PA) diamond just after another car had pulled into an adjacent spot. As I inserted my coin into the parking meter—coins which must cover my time needed, since the meter maid knows our car and must have a sixth sense when the red sign will pop up and my rental fee for the space will immediately increase to $7.00—but I digress.
As I inserted my coin into the meter the woman who pulled in just before me said “I like your jacket. The purple…” She paused as she inserted her coin in the meter.
“It’s from Hampton Beach,” I told her, looking at the iridescent purple with the print letters proclaiming Hampton beach, New Hampshire.
“Ah, the beach, the place to be.”
As we walked down the sidewalk I asked her if she knew where Hampton Beach is.
“No.” It was an expected answer.
“It’s in New England.”
In so many words she responded that she yearned to go to New England, the end of our conversation as I reached the door to the diner and she continued on.
I, too, yearn for the New England beaches, a destination I love. However, I cannot select one as a dream tourist destination. Actually, the New England isn’t exactly a tourist destination for me.
It’s a visit to the land of my roots…
There are five beaches that equally top my list as a “tourist” destination.

Wallis Sands Beach at the end of my beach-walk
In 2003, the year my husband Monte retired, I decided I not only wanted to go to New England for three months, but I wanted to walk all possible mainland beaches (not island beaches) between Lamoine Beach in downeast Maine and Wallis Sands beach in Rye, New Hampshire.
Along my beach-walk I discovered Popham and Old Orchard beaches.
Thus, the four #1 New England Beaches that make up my dream “tourist” destination are, from north to south, Lamoine, Popham, Old Orchard, Wallis Sands, and Hampton.
LAMOINE BEACH, Downeast MAINE

The first time I stepped onto Lamoine Beach I felt a mysterious (more…)
Father’s Day…I Have No Dad
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CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS
FATHER’S DAY…I HAVE NO DAD
NOT
Father’s Day.
A regular day, a day without significance for my older sister and me.
The ads for gifts were ignored, the search for the perfect tie unimportant, the drawing of cards meaningless.
What was there to celebrate? We had no father living in our home, nor did we even know who our father was.
Granted, we lived with our grandfather for my first 8 years, and when I was 11 my mother remarried, providing us with a stepfather. Neither man brought the significance of Father’s Day into our lives—I don’t recall my grandparents celebrating holidays except for Christmas, and my mother didn’t encourage our celebrating Father’s Day with our stepfather—with whom we didn’t have a positive relationship anyway.
I don’t recall feeling left out or feeling pangs of pain over the situation. It was what it was.
Father’s Day didn’t hold any significance for me until my husband and I had our first child, a daughter named Sandy. Then less than two years later we had our son, Nolan. Now Father’s Day became a day to celebrate.
NOT
There are many children like us, children who have no (more…)