Past and Present

Telling my children about the day my mom and I got splashed by a large wave while wearing our Sunday Church clothes made me think a lot about the St. Joe Pier and Tiscornia Park.

Today, I took all three boys to the beach where I used to go when I lived in Benton Harbor. The waves were really high, the water was warm and the sky was clear. The place is called Tiscornia Park, and I have deeply fond memories of swimming, walking on the pier, playing Frisbee, walking in the beach grass covered dunes and even napping in them.

We can not relive our childhood and we can't go back into our pasts. The best we can do is to cherish the best of our memories as the priceless gifts they are, and pass on something similar to our children. I told my three sons "this is where I would swim when I was your age." They love swimming in Lake Michigan; we usually swim at the Holland State Park.

Holland State Park has a pier that we walk on and a long and wide beach, whereas, Tiscornia has a shorter and more narrow beach, but a much longer pier. The youngest didn't quite realize that I was taking him to a different beach as we left my mom's house. He said, "it's going to take too long to go to the beach."

We went to my mom's house to use my step-dads automatic coin roller. Nathan, the youngest has been saving change since Christmas. He has begged it from all his relatives and managed to get enough to take all of us to Michigan's Adventure. My plan was to go there roll the coins, go to the beach and then go back to my mom's house.

We did that, but our stay at the beach was longer than expected because the waves were great and everyone was having a fun time. St. Joe Pier is longer and more intimidating than the Holland State Park and Adam, the eldest, went swimming or more like wave jumping, which is something that he normally doesn't do.

As we left the beach, I looked around and admired the view and remembered my childhood days at the beach there. I was glad that I could show my children where I used to swim and the pier I walked on. We didn't have a blue Frisbee, but we had an afternoon of fun and adventure.

I was glad I took them.