Detour to a Bygone Era 

Mom lives on Long Island, New York, a place populated with too many people, cars, traffic lights, paved roads, parking lots…I live in New Jersey. Hub and I drive the Garden State Parkway north, cross the Outerbridge Crossing (a bridge) to Staten Island, navigate the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, meander on the Belt Parkway to the Southern State and Meadowbrook Parkways, and finally arrive at Mom’s assisted living facility, quite a few dollars poorer after paying extortionate tolls. The GPS claims the trip takes 3½ hours, but that is rarely never the case. The journey usually lasts four to five hours, depending on traffic.

We take pee stops, sometimes a meal break, and rarely sidetrack to a tourist destination.

Until this week. The September weather was pristine – sunny and 70s. We reached Brooklyn mid-day, our stomachs demanding lunch and our bodies needing stretch time.

A lightbulb moment hit my brain. Why not stop at Coney Island for a Nathan’s hot dog?

Coney Island – a place I heard about all my life, but never visited. 

Coney Island is an iconic amusement park, boardwalk, beach, and one of America’s first seaside resorts. The first hotel was built in 1829, and the area quickly attracted crowds from nearby Manhattan and Brooklyn. The world’s first roller coaster opened on Coney Island in June 1884, and an amusement park followed in 1903. The Coney Island Cyclone, which replaced the original roller coaster, opened in June 1927, and is the world’s second steepest wooden roller coaster. Coaster enthusiasts flock to Coney Island to experience the thrill. 

I am not a roller coaster fan. 

I am an enthusiastic diner.

We purchased lunch at Nathan’s, another iconic Coney Island spot, and sat on a bench facing the Atlantic Ocean munching our pricey fast food. Originally a nickel, a hot dog now runs anywhere from six to ten dollars, depending on add-ons desired. Folks of all ages sat on benches and picnic tables and sipped drinks, chomped hot dogs and fries, basked in the sun’s rays, and napped. Kids fidgeted, impatient to hop on rides. Moms played with toddlers on the beach. Elderly men leaned against the guardrail between Boardwalk and beach and smoked, or vaped, or…

In the early 1900s an immigrant, Nathan Handwerker, worked at a restaurant called Feltman’s on Coney Island. Two of the restaurant’s waiters – Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante – encouraged him to go into business. True story or interesting yarn? No one knows. The hot dog stand, launched in 1916 by Nathan and his wife Ida, was an immediate success, and over the decades grew into an empire, with restaurants throughout the world and products in supermarkets throughout the United States today.

We wanted to get out of Brooklyn before rush hour. It was time to move on. We returned to our car, steered through Brooklyn’s jam-packed streets and onto the highway, our detour to a slower-paced, nostalgic interval over.