*LINKS BELOW will help you skip around and give some details*
This is an extensive tour of world famous The Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove "gay resort" communities, beaches, and forest. Fire Island is a narrow strip of dunes a few miles south of Long Island NY. 30 miles long, it is less than a half mile across at its widest point with several small summer-only towns and state beaches along it. Filmed July 2015.
I grew up in Sayville, NY which with a rail line from NYC and Sayville Ferry Service is the main connection to The Pines and Cherry Grove. Sayville is relatively accepting with thousands of gays passing through on their way to Fire Island and for decades a famous gay bar (it moved), but for the most part locals avoid "Gay Fire Island". I first went to the Pines when as a teenager i was offered a summer job at The Pines Pantry grocery store. All of us who worked on Fire Island loved it. Entire town in a party atmosphere all the time, and you see what it looks like. Not all the jobs are for unskilled kids, some workers come back year after year.
I live in California now, made this during a visit to NY.
As a dreadlock weirdo, in suburbia i get a lot of funny looks from people. On Fire Island I can get away from the "squares" and relax until people i am in NY to visit get off work. As you can see in the video, this is a beautiful place to walk around. Most vacationers on Fire Island are from NYC, my weird appearance doesn't even register, they're used to much weirder.. Comedy, add that i'm not gay and i'm practically invisible.
People in Sayville tend to view gays as "ok whatever, we really don't care"/ Fire Island has been gay for so long we often forget how hard they had to fight to be there and still often struggle with being hated. Although it is expensive to own here, almost anyone can get to Fire Island. If you can't get there you can at least visit this way... That this kind of Freedom exists, that these folks went from being beaten and arrested at a tiny club in NYC for the right to exist (search Stonewall riots) to this...
The Pines and Cherry Grove are what i call Victory.
Special Thanks to Rich Coyne Fine Carpentry- a few years older than me, growing up in NY we lived across from each other in Sayville. In 1988 Rich was produce manager at The Pines Pantry and helped me get a job there, without him i would never have been to the Pines let alone make this video. He's a trained artist as well as fine carpenter, this is the guy to call for custom work. I put his sign/work in the film, link in list below will take you there. You can find more history and info of Fire Island on the internet, and I can try to answer any other questions in the comments, and if you visit shop at The Pantry! Thanks for taking a look!
1:00 enter Pines Harbor / town center
6:20 Pines Pantry
6:45 Pavillion rebuilding and see wood "silvering"
8:08 walk across Fire Island in 3 minutes
11:00 Ocean view and beach girls
12:00 Pines "town"
13:00 bay side area walk
16:55 looking at Long Island from Fire Island
19:00 walking the "Meat Rack" with a vague route description. This trail is the best way to walk between the Pines and Cherry Grove. It's also a world famous anonymous gay meeting spot. It's a nice walk, and no one will bother you if you are obviously traveling.
30:00 walking west into Cherry Grove
31:30 Belvedere Guest House For Men
33:55 we'll jump over downtown and then reverse course and walk east into Cherry Grove
37:10 selfies rant, part of why i make this video, nearly every video/photo online of the area is a selfie that doesnt show any scenery including when i asked people who went!
39:00 Ocean at the Grove
41:20 looking east at the dunes between Cherry Grove and The Pines
43:05 Poison Ivy PSA
44:00 Cherry Grove from Sunken Forest how to
45:00 Cherry Grove to The Pines route help
45:50 forest to The Pines route finding
51:20 Pines harbor area
57:10 beach and walking around Pines
1:02:40 Rich Coyne's ad sign and info. I ran into him in 2013, but couldn't get him on film this trip he was away...
22 дек 2015
