The Ship Of Time

The night life in this small shore community was just beginning to unfold when Jim and I decided to take a romantic walk on the beach. We walked a short distance on the boardwalk looking for an entrance to the beach. We passed some wild rides and some kiddie ones as well, like the merry go round and the circling swans. We stopped to place a dollar on a wheel to try to win a pack of cigarettes . We lost. So we walked until we found the stairs descending to the beach. When our bare feet touched the sand, we felt that it was still warm from the day's brilliant sun. We walked slowly as we gazed at the ocean. We focussed our eyes on a ship coming toward shore. It was odd that a ship would come this way. When it got closer I noticed something eerie! There was a strange light emanating from the hull. I looked down to get my cel from my pocket and found that my clothes had changed from denim cut offs and a T shirt, to an old fashioned sun dress ! Was I hallucinating? I looked beseechingly at Jim and realized, he too was now dressed in an outfit that could have been worn in the nineteenth century. Anxiety ridden, we both decided to go back to the boardwalk where the crowd was gathered. We hurried up the stairs to the boardwalk to search for an explanation. What we found amazed and alarmed us both. The "boardwalk" with its electronic games and bustling scantily dressed crowd, was now transformed into a 1920's "promenade". How could this be? Fancy dressed couples paraded past us, some women were holding fans! All were dressed as if at a costume party for antique clothing. Both men and women wore hats. The men wore derby or bowler hats...and the women wore elaborate sun shaders. The beach had ropes going into the water. I guess with the heavy wool bathing suits they wore, it was hard to keep balance without holding onto something. A prominent feature of the promenade was an eclectic variety of performances and entertainers who vied for the people's attention. Many, seemingly greedy men, were hawking their games. The Pier housed a theatre and a large open-air dance floor. Couples were dancing the foxtrot while a gravel voiced singer named Louis Armstrong played the trumpet and sang a song called "When You're Smiling". In addition, there was a live band and a "Barbershop Quartet". We watched as women called "flappers" danced the jitterbug. Most odd was the existence of bathing machines, because beachwear was considered immodest ( I was told by a passerby in answer to my query). We even saw a man playing an instrument, I think it was an little organ, with a monkey working the crowd for money. Can you believe this? Most men had handlebar mustaches and most women wore long dresses. We had seen enough. In a panic and with hearts racing we scurried back to the beach where we saw the ship. When we arrived at the spot, we caught sight of the boat heading away, out to sea. Its light grew dim as the night progressed. We waited there for quite some time waiting for the ship to appear again. Exasperated we sat down on the sand. I realized the sand felt cool so I must be bare foot. When I turned toward Jim, I realized that we were now dressed in our original outfits once again. We felt relief but feared to even mention to each other what had happened. We silently got up and walked to the car. To this day neither of us brings up the strange experience .