Rye Beach Steamer

Best summer fun in 1952:   About twice each summer the Becker's took the boat from Hoboken to Rye Beach for a day at the beach.   I can't remember the name of the boat we called it the Rye Beach Steamer.   The boat went south around the tip of Manhattan, up the East River (actually and estuary not a river,) out in Long Island Sound to Rye Beach.   Approximate distance is 35 miles.  Sometimes the boat stopped in Brooklyn and our friends the Nadels came aboard.   Can you imagine traveling to a beach by boat?   What a water day!  The day at the beach was typical:   sand, waves, sun, yummy food, amusement park,etc.   I believe I went into my first fun house at the Rye Beach amusement park.   Everything was so new and exciting.   The trip back was after dark, and the boat had a band.   I remember dancing with my mother.   She showed me how to waltz.   I remember how big she seemed, but she somehow made it flow on the dance floor.   We both were really happy.  On that trip I also got to buy a copper kazoo shaped like a trombone.   The slide didn't work, but the kazoo part did.   The kazoo was saved and kept among my childhood momentos for many years in a drawer in the basement of the Springfield house.   Somehow it didn't get saved when I cleaned out the house in 1992.  It's one of several things I wish I still had.   Could play some mean boogie woogie tunes.