Treacherous Fire Island

This past weekend marks the end of my reporting on the beach this summer. The cast of characters remains more than interesting but the legions of small insects which literally attacked my feet on Friday night, the two hour walk down a fog enveloped beach from Davis Park to the Fire Island Pines and the remnants of a stubborn summer cold made this weekend a bit more challenging than most.

Last week's developments -- the alleged Suffolk County Police assault against legendary DJ Susan Morabito at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove and the tragic GHB overdose of a 31-year-old man in the Pines -- were among the stories about whose aftermath Fire Islanders continued to talk. Overhyped parties and the ever-present drunken barely legal gay man made themselves clearly visible as I undertook my journalistic duties this weekend on the island. A friend and I joked to ourselves that Fire Island remains a reality largely foreign to our daily lives. In many ways this reality remains a highly interesting [if manufactured] comedy that one simply cannot turn down. The movement for LGBT rights claims the Pines and the Grove as an all important cradle. This fact cannot go understated. But the reality remains, however, Fire Island, by its very nature, continues to assert itself as an escape which allows its visitors and residents to enjoy themselves in fantasy, hedonism and more.