LAST CALL AT THE BEACH
Visiting a disappearing world — New York’s seaside clubs,
“Changes? This place never changes,” Dave Gelfman, 101, said as he leaned back in his beach chair at his regular spot at the Silver Gull Beach Club and pressed his feet on the warm concrete deck.
It was a warm Saturday and Gelfman had a pool behind him and the ocean in front of him, just beyond a nearly empty beach that stretched into the hazy distance. All around him, the Silver Gull was coming to life. The cabana staff carried chairs out to the beach, set up tarps and tables, and carried the day’s first round of drinks to members sitting poolside at this oceanfront summer colony that lies on an oddly deserted stretch of federal seashore near the western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.
The Silver Gull is part of a disappearing world of private waterfront clubs in New York City, where most people flock to crowded public beaches or head elsewhere for more pristine seashore spots. But in a city of constant change, these timeless clubs offer tradition and continuity — a reunion that lasts a few balmy weeks every year, pulling together familiar faces who may not see much of one another after the chill of fall settles in.
For Gelfman, the seaside retreat is a mere15-minute drive from his home. Several days a week, he drives to the Silver Gull, which is unique in the city because it sits directly on the open ocean.
It is one of the few remaining clubs of the sort portrayed in the1984 film The Flamingo Kid, in which Matt Dillon plays a cabana boy, and the Silver Gull retains much of the early 1960s feel of the movie.
“This club is the best-kept secret on the East Coast because nobody knows it’s here; you could be in Tahiti,” said member Jerry Schackne, 84, who kept a bottle of 12-year-old Chivas Regal Scotch by his side, along with two friends, Art Maiese and Tony Costanzo. Costanzo nodded and said the club was “like Lourdes — you come here and all your worries are gone.”
Members are virtually all white and consist mostly of middle-class families and retired couples from southern Brooklyn, a short drive away.
Some members are avid ocean swimmers, while others never touch the sand, preferring to socialize on the patio or from a cushioned lounge chair in a cabana. Another group plays paddleball.
The piers and cabanas suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It was just one of the many times over the years that the club seemed on the brink of closing; in the past, the federal government has threatened to not renew its permit.
The Silver Gull, which is open from Memorial Day weekend through Labour Day, has 2,300 members and 457 cabanas. The cabanas are like large walk-in closets that serve as miniature beach houses, though no overnight sleeping is permitted. Like Gelfman, most Silver Gull members tend to be long-standing and return every June to catch up and make new memories.
“No one leaves this club; we just die,” Gelfman joked.