The Sand Between My Toes
In just one short day, the bakery's doors will be open again after our 3 week summer break and a wonderful 95th Anniversary celebration. Our time off afforded us a week at the Jersey Shore with the extended Haegele family. Making sandcastles and chasing waves is such a wonderful way to keep the
generations together. As I sat on the beach watching my son play with my grandson, it was as if the hands of time stood still! In so many moments, I could clearly see all three of my sons playing in the sand at the age my grandson is now. It's amazing how the sunrise and sunset, the ocean, the sand, the salt air, and the sound of seagulls never change. There is comfort in sameness. If trips to the Jersey shore are among your childhood memories then you will know what I mean when I say "the sand between your toes" is so much more than just having sandy feet.
The "sand between your toes" is somehow a metaphor for some of the best memories and emotions of life. One blue sky day, my Aunt Kay was able to join the family at the seashore. At the age of 89, Aunt Kay walked across that beach with a bounce in her step. She took a deep breath of salty air as if she was savoring it's taste. She exhaled and greeted the beach "Oh Hello Stone Harbor", as if she was meeting an old friend. Before Kay ever married into the Haegele family she use to visit Stone Harbor as a little girl with her grandmother via train from Pittsburg Pa.
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If the feel of the sand between my toes was taking me back some 30-40 years, I could only imagine what her heart was feeling. Without missing a beat, she knelt right down in that sand to greet her great-great nephew. I love this third picture; the youngest and the oldest, 2nd generation and 5th generation together in the sand... Priceless! In a world that seems to be ever changing some things are so worth preserving. Pushing back the hands of time to July of 1981... I was 14 years old when the cutest boy I ever knew, Glen Haegele, drew a heart in the sand on a Stone Harbor beach.
He carefully placed our initials in it. As he finished he looked at me and told me that if we were going to continue to date he needed it to be exclusively. Yup, noone else (as if there ever was). I remember that salty kiss and the fireworks that followed both figuratively and literally as it was the 4th of July and Glen had timed things just right. He was a baker after all and everything was always about timing. Oh the sand between my toes and the sweetness of such memories. I was blessed to marry into the Haegele Family. Beach week in Stone Harbor is nothing short of a gift!
Oh the joy of finding seashells and the ride of a wave. How magical is a "drippy castle" in the eyes of a child, and even how more so through the eyes of an adult. What a blessing to be adding generations to the pages of these family memoirs. Yes, beach week in Stone Harbor is indeed a gift... a big beautiful gift, wrapped up with blue skies, salty air, and sand sifting between your toes!
Seas the Day!
8/10/25