To the Editor:

It’s fitting that LBI is a barrier island, with a seashore washed by the suds and the foam, and I’ve been here so long I got to calling it home.

Seventy-six years ago, my mother used to lay in the dunes on 76th Street in Beach Haven Crest and open her dress to let the sun beat down on her huge belly when she was pregnant with me. I was born weighing 9 3/4 pounds. Sorry, Mom. Sometime I blame her act on me becoming a beach bum.

July 1, 2026