8 o'clock
It fell on a Saturday , and Jim and Sara cut Saturday morning classes and invited Penelope to a day at Coney Island . Uncle Denny and Jim 's mother were to meet the trio for supper and return with them . It was a June morning fit to commemorate , Sara said , even Pen 's birthday . The three , carrying their bathing suits , caught the 8 o'clock boat at 129th street , prepared to do the weather and the occasion full justice . The crowd was not great on this early boat until the Battery was reached . Then all the world rushed up the gang plank ; Jew and Gentile crowded for the best places . Italian women , with babies , dragged after husbands with lunch baskets .