March 17th 2017, snow lay on the ground from the snow storm a few days before. We contemplated taking public transportation, but Rachel was slightly under the weather and it was pretty cold out. Instead, Rachel borrowed the family car and picked us up around 9:30. We drive down Ocean Parkway till we hit Coney Island beach. We park near the entrance with the Coney Art Walls and Nathan’s on the corner of the block. The parking lot is empty except for a few other cars. It is our first day for ethnographic field notes. We look at the boardwalk seeing white snow everywhere. There is a tiny single file path that is not covered in snow. We walk up the path sideways one foot over the other laughing as Michelle videos our feet. The boardwalk is empty except for a two workers shoveling a path to the bathroom. I hear their shovels pound the ice and scrape against the hidden wood planks.
We walk on the snow covered ground, sinking into the crunching ice. We come to an area that is more solid. It is slippery and we’ve found a new activity at Coney Island, ice skating! We ice skate across the surface and see foot prints so deep that you can see the underlying wood, but the foot prints are frozen in shape. The footprints lead back to the beach. I call over Rachel and Michelle who are by the Cyclones Stadium gate. As we follow the prints back we notice a man. In shorts. Headed to the beach. We try to pick up our pace to reach him and interview him, but the snow slows us down. We then see a women headed towards us in a beige coat. She looks cold, but we ask if we can interview her. She speaks little English and seems to have a Russian accent. She tells us she is from Uzbekistan and came to live in the area for family. She is headed home.
We continue down the boardwalk towards what sounds like construction. A man is standing outside a construction site in short sleeves staring at the ocean. Michelle asks if we could interview him. His stance stiffens and he says no ready to head back inside. But Michelle is persistent and asks what they’re working on. He says a restaurant. She comments on his short sleeve shirt in the dead cold. It’s Coney Island, he says. We are on the beach.
An Asian man walks up to me and asks if I can take a photo of him by the beach. I assume he is a tourist, out in this weather to take a photo. We ask if we can interview him and he is ecstatic. He explains that he has lived here for over 10 years and is originally from China. He is a school bus driver and every morning after he does his shift he has breakfast and then comes for a walk on the boardwalk no matter what the weather is. He tells us about his two daughters beaming with pride; one works on wall street and the other is in high school. He then asks if we want him to take a picture of us. He bends down like a true photographer trying to get a good angle so we ask if he is also a photographer. He laughs and says it is just a hobby.
Our fingers are numbing so we head back to the other end of the boardwalk. On the way we walk down the pier. Michelle spots a cigarette butt; signs of life. The pier is empty. We continue toward the exit and come across a couple. Rachel asks if we can interview them. They are from England and came to see the famous Coney Island. They hadn’t expected such cold weather, but they’ve been here for a week and have enjoyed their stay in New York. They are off to visit the Brooklyn Bridge; something about St. Patrick’s day. We are back to the shovelers and so we ask them about their work. The man is quiet, but the women makes up for him. She tells us she is from Puerto Rica, but feels like she has lived in Brooklyn all her life. She tells us about all the crazy people she sees coming in the winter for the polar plunge. The man explains that each worker has his station for shoveling and maintenance. They work from 8:00 am until 4:30pm.
We walk off the boardwalk down the narrow path we had entered from. As we head towards the car, Rachel stops to take a photo by Coney’s wall art. We are glad to get into the warm car.
This first visit opened my eyes to the diversity of Coney Island and its significance to individuals from a morning routine or income/livelihood to a tourist site. I hope our next visit will be more productive in regards to our senses in the warmer weather.
