714: Day at the Beach
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me I'm not crazy about the beach it's hard to think of a less comfortable place to read a book then flat on a blanket under the scorching sun going in the waves totally fun for a little bit but like all day and like many people over 40 I have no desire to ever be seen and a bathing suit by anyone ever for the rest of my life but now many times I've been to the beach this summer okay there were two quickie day trips and a seven-day beach vacation I don't like the beach but because we live in a world with no movies or plays or live music or family get-togethers I think maybe social and distance beach going has been my number one recreational activity for the year and why well because people I love love the beach hating the beach during summer and I believe I can say this with authority from personal experience hating the beach in summer is like being a Jew at Christmas you can try to sit it out but it's just too big at some point you're gonna drink some eggnog and you know what when I go to the beach I try I really try to get into it to have a nice time to appreciate the waves and the sand and the heat and I think about many hundreds and thousands of years of families and brought their kids to the waters edge to play pretty much exactly the same dumb way that we play in the sand and waves today how many ways are there to do that anyway and you know some people really love it so much a while back here on a radio show we also have this article about somebody like that at the time he was a 66 year old lifeguard who was suing New York state for age discrimination and I just want to pause on that for a second a 66 year old lifeguard all of us here in our staff we had no idea like that could even exist we all thought life-guarding is something you do when you're in high school maybe a couple years after into your 20s like who's still life-guarding at 66 and then it was even more of a question when we realized that the lifeguard in the story he has another job he's a lawyer he's a working lawyer his name is Rory Lester he's a bankruptcy attorney he's got his own firm and long island and then he lifeguards every weekend in the summer and can I just say today on our program we have stories about people like him people who love the beach not people like me from WBC Chicago it's this American life I'm Ira Glass they prepare today a program to listen to with the sun beating down on you the humidity through the roof a show of people embracing the beach people who are sons of the beach and let's just get right to it with act one act one the grapes are for half so one of our producers Janet Chivas she went out to Long Island and met that guy Rory Lester the 66 year old attorney lifeguard who was suing New York state basically the deal is that they tried to make him wear a speedo he refused he lost his job here's Dana if you ask Roy why are you still life-guarding at 66 he barely understands the question it's so self-evident to him it's been his life since he was 16 he and his buddies were kings of the beach he lived with other lifeguards his best man at his wedding was a lifeguard their kids grew up playing together on the beach while they were on duty he never wanted to leave this job even when he went to law school in California he came back to lifeguard every summer in law school you're supposed to have like an internship in a law firm or something like that I you're supposed to did you not do that I did not do that I never took it quite that seriously you know the idea of giving up the summer was something I just couldn't do he's not alone at Jones Beach where he worked for 40 years there are dozens of guys teachers fireman police who stayed with it into their 60s life-guarding at Jones Beach is such a thing that a former lifeguard made a film about it it's called Jones Beach Boys Roy insisted I watch it I did it was awesome here's my favorite song from it we're going for the rescue and getting to the victim I never really appreciated how thrilling lifeguarding is until Roy talked about rescues we were sitting in his law office the exhilaration of a good rescue is unlike anything you've ever had you know and you don't get that I sit here and I shuffle papers I wouldn't call it exciting I wouldn't call it rewarding but this is you're actually accomplishing something you're up there and all of a sudden you're going out in the water and the rest
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