The Flushing Toilet

My father worked all week repairing luggage and selling luggage so that my mother and sister could spend a month each summer at the Jersey Shore. Bradley Beach was the spot. We rented a room in a rooming house with a number of other Jewish Families.

Mrs. Rosen was a rooming house neighbor and she took a liking to my mother and myself. I believe that I was about five or six years old when Mrs. Rosen would take a walk holding my hand while we walked along the beach.

One day, I remember asking her “Why is the ocean making those water waves run up onto the sand? She thought for a moment and replied, “That’s the Flushing Toilet!”. “What?”, I asked. “What’s the Flushing Toilet and ….where is it located?”, I questioned!

She said “it’s very far away, down at the end of the beach!” I asked, “Can we walk there to see the Flushing Toilet?” She replied, “It’s a very, very long walk … are you sure you want to walk that far to see it?”

“Oh Yes”, I replied … I was really anxious to see this amazing thing, which I never had heard about before.

I knew what a toilet sounded like when it flushed, but I was hypnotized by the idea that God, himself, would create a “Flushing Toilet” to wash the waves up on the shore, every few seconds!

We walked for about another half hour! To me, it seemed like HOURS and HOURS, when I finally stopped. “I’m really tired, Ms. Rosen! Could we see this Flushing Toilet another time?”

“Sure we can”, she replied (probably hoping I would eventually tire myself out and turn back).

The end of this story is …. it was years later when I realized, the story itself was so fascinating to this five year old that this was a clever way for Mrs. Rosen to keep me walking and thinking about this “special miracle” until I got so tired, my imagination was not as strong as my leg power!

To this day, I really wonder, “WHAT IF THERE IS, IN FACT, A FLUSHING TOILET AT THE END OF THE BEACH” … IS IT ONLY GOD WHO PULLS THE HANDLE EVERY FEW SECONDS??? SO? WHO KNOWS??