On my bike rides through Point O’ Woods, Ocean Bay Park, Seaview and Ocean Beach, and my walks to Cherry Grove, I often stop to read the flyers found on bulletin boards, the sides of buildings or most often stapled to telephone poles. With a cottage in tiny Oakleyville it is always interesting to know what is happening in the rest of the ‘world’. As far as I can remember only one flyer was ever posted in our community, by a photographer from Cherry Grove announcing his forthcoming exhibition back in 2008.

A few years ago I started to collect this diverse and fascinating material. Most of these flyers have a standard size of 8.5” x 11” (21.5 x 28 cm) and are printed on one side only. Nowadays they are often stapled to a pole or any other convenient surface with a plastic covering to help protect them from the elements, usually in sleeves or pockets or sometimes laminated.

This collection cannot claim to be complete mainly because unfortunately my visits to Fire Island are never long enough. And as I try not to remove a flyer until after the event, often they are torn down by irritated homeowners or businesses, or ruined by rain or storms and surprisingly often by seagull droppings before I can retrieve them. Not included or collected are undated personal or business advertisements. The majority of the flyers from the Fire Island National Seashore were obtained from the Visitor Centers at Sailor’s Haven and the Lighthouse.