This past Sunday at Rockaway Beach, I met my first book customer: Bailey the Puppy.
Bailey told me that he’d ordered River to River: New York Scenes from a Bicycle the moment after YBK published it last Thursday. He confirmed his purchase with a printout of his Amazon receipt, and paid for the book with Greenies. I was touched and gave him a hug for giving up his tasty treats for my first photography portfolio.
After a swell visit with Bailey and his two buddies, I headed down to Surf City at Beach 96th Street. I watched many Dudes and Dudettes hang ten, riding sweet Rockaway waves all the way in on their surfboards. I sold five books to the band playing under the boardwalk, literally (see the guy with the standing bass instrument below). I sold one copy to the guy in the hammock. He said it was for his sick mother in Yorkville. All in all, another groovy day in the Rockaways. Here are some pictures from the beach.
Thomas Pryor has been featured on A Prairie Home Companion and This American Life, and his work has appeared in the New York Times. He curates City Stories: Stoops to Nuts, a storytelling show at the Cornelia Street Café on the second Tuesday of the month (next one September 11th). Check out his blog Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts.
