What I wouldn't give for just one more summer as a child!!

[jloewe]

My brother and his wife just came up from Florida to visit me, DW, and my mother, who we sprung from her nursing home bed for a few days. We had the most incredible time just reminiscing about our childhoods spent at the Wildwood, NJ shore. I am used to seeing Wildwood in its present form, my older brother hasn't seen it in years, and you could tell he was remembering when...

I will never forget the ride over the rickety Turtle Creek Bridge, each bump in my dad's chevy brought me closer to the greatest place in the world...a place where my $3 per week allowance lasted me all week.

A place where dinner usually consisted of Mack's pizza and Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer for the next 14 nights!!

A place where the landlord refused to accept any rent, with the caveat that my mom would help her do grocery shopping.

A place where you could leave the screen door open at night without worry...

A time where my only concern was which ride to hit on Hunt's Pier first...The Flyer, The Scrambler, The Log Flume????

A place where I would go to sleep at night close enough to the boardwalk to hear the sounds of the rides I was on only an hour or so ago.

Obviously, the places I mentioned are foreign to most of you, but the memories I have of them are just the same as your memories are of the places you enjoyed as a child.

What I wouldn't give to have one last chance to do it all over again. The places themselves are gone, Macks Pizza is still there, though not as good as I remember, or was it always crappy, and I just didn't care back then.

What I wouldn't give to have the he!! scared out of me by the Original Jaws, and the memories of waiting in line with my father, and they way I ran out of the theatre after the movie because I was sure sharks could swim on the land (as Jimmy Buffet later confirmed)

It breaks my heart to see the place I once loved in its current state, but the memories will see to it that I'll always love it for what it once was!

If you could, would you want one more summer??

 

[LaughingWater]

That sound wonderful! If I had your memories, I'd want one more summer too.

 

[SirenSongWoman]

Did you ever see the movie Avalon? It's about three generations of a Jewish family in Baltimore. I remember the part where the grandfather reminisces about all the places he knew when he was younger and how all those places are gone, but one. At that point he says something like "Thank God. I was starting to think I never was..."

Your story took me back to when my (late) mother said that It was so strange driving past the place where we spent our childhood and seeing the house gone. I was in such shock I had to go look for myself. The place was called the State Agriculture Labs and my father was on call 24-hours as a maintenance man. The Labs, as my parents always referred to them, were (and are) a bunch of buildings out in a rural area, east of Columbus Ohio and our big white house was in front, with another house next door. There was nobody my age (and gender) to play with so I spent my time "visiting" the office employees in all the buildings. The building I remember most was the one story building that housed THE INCINERATOR. This particular incinerator wasn't like any incinerator any of you have ever seen, I'm fairly sure. It was a deep pit, surrounded by a fence in the middle of a big room, floored in clay-colored tiles. People would bring dead or diseased farm animals wrapped in burlap sacks and throw them into the pit to be "destroyed." Then someone would flip a switch on the long control panel along the west wall. The room would vibrate from the loudest, most discordant noise. It sounded evil. Then my brother and I would stare down into the pit. After about 15 seconds a dark wall would rise, revealing a room of fire. After the wall rose all the way up the horrific noise would intensify as the floor with the burlap sack would move towards the firey opening, then slowly return, with the sack gone. Then the dark wall would descend and the firey room disappeared.

Sounds awful but every time I went into that place with my dad and nobody else was around I was like "Dad... do the incinerator." I thought that firey pit was Hell but it was fascinating. And I was a total daddies girl so he always obliged.

Stacey

 

[elliemom]

All of our summers were spent at the Jersey Shore. We loved it!! I am trying to give my kids the same experience. Nothing is ever really the same though, is it??? My boys are enjoying the rides and the boardwalk and the bike riding etc. I know some areas have changed, but the enjoyment factor is still there

I love to see the joy in their eyes and the wonder on their faces everytime we walk along the water, picking up shells and running from the waves. I hope they remember this as fondly as I do!!!
elliemom

 

[celestialtimes]

Ahhh Jerry! I have thee moments too...different locations of course...but...

I used to live in a neighborhood they used to call a bedroom community...but I lived down this road where there were horse farms...they're not there any more...one is...but I recently drove by there and there was a sign about having a public hearing to make this last horse farm a housing development.

It took me back to a time when I would walk down my tree lined driveway...or hide my golf card down behind the bushes to drive back down the driveway when the bus dropped me off.

We also never locked the door. We had 10 saddles in the barn tack room that was never locked up...

I still have family in the city that my home town has become...and if you don't lock your car door...anything that is removable...will be. My adoptive parents even have a alarm system in their house because they've had their home broken into twice.

Would I like to go back to a time in my childhood...UMMMMM...no. I only wish I new then what I know now.

I wish that society hadn't changed their values on farm land...cause it sure nice to see beautiful pastures and corn fields....even cows are beautiful. Drives me nuts to see homes on top of each other and a big house so close to another, they should just be connected.

But....well...

 

[tneah]

Jerry, I really enjoyed your post, thank you so much for sharing your memories with us all...I could almost imagine myself in your shoes..