To the Editor:
I came across this piece on Facebook via an old friend who lives in Riverhead. When I scrolled up to his post/your article and saw the “close-enough” photo of the shack, I instantly recognized it as one of the abandoned shacks I used to play in circa 1960 Babylon….(Ok, I wasn’t right, but I wasn’t wrong either.)
I hope that info is enough to tell how very real, familiar, and (sadly), beautiful your piece was to me. In 1960 my family moved from Queens to Babylon. It didn’t take me very long to discover those shacks there at the end of Sheffield Avenue, the kids who smelled like kerosene, and the stunning, all-invasive poverty. It was all there, too, 44 miles from Tin City.
Thank you.
Robert Payne
Pompano Beach,FL
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