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elleng

(130,126 posts)
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 03:42 PM Aug 2020

Nice one:In My Mind, I'm Going to New Jersey.

'Where the Bruce is loud, and the Rolling Rocks are cold.

Let’s go down the shore. Grab the Coppertone and the beach towels, I’ll fill the cooler with Rolling Rock and some hoagies and a bag of Herr’s Barbecue Flavored potato chips. Did I forget anything? The Kadima paddles? My black bikini? A novel by Agatha Christie? A cheesesteak wit wiz?

Oh wait, I know what I forgot — that between the pandemic and the sheer distance, the only Jersey Shore I can visit now is the one in my imagination.

Fortunately, coming from Philly, I have a lot of Jersey in my memories.

My friend Kenny’s parents had a house in Ventnor, where I lived the summer I worked at Lenny’s Hot Dogs. Years later, after his father Mickey died, the family put a plaque up on a boardwalk bench, capturing a thing that Mickey once said as he gazed out at the crashing waves.

“You know,” he said, “this beach is a good idea.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/opinion/summer-jersey-shore.html?

My daughter + grands live there, not I, but I like the sentiments. (From NY, in MD now.)

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Nice one:In My Mind, I'm Going to New Jersey. (Original Post) elleng Aug 2020 OP
What a great description of a perfect summer day!! Alliepoo Aug 2020 #1
Rolling Rock :-) CentralMass Aug 2020 #2
--- the little ones.... Green Grenades or Little Green Midgets. 3Hotdogs Aug 2020 #7
Just the other day customerserviceguy Aug 2020 #3
YES to Italian ices! elleng Aug 2020 #4
We called them Lemon Ice in Newark. Basic LA Aug 2020 #6
LEMON! Was the only flavor when I 'met' them, elleng Aug 2020 #8
Maybe it was Lemon only for so long... Basic LA Aug 2020 #12
I lived in Absecon, Dad worked for NJ Bell in Ventnor and I tap danced on the Steel Pier many a monmouth4 Aug 2020 #5
YES the beach was a good idea! elleng Aug 2020 #9
When I was young (and was being chased by a T-Rex...) discntnt_irny_srcsm Aug 2020 #10
GOOD MD crabcakes! elleng Aug 2020 #11
I love those memorial benches along the boardwalk. Tucker08087 Aug 2020 #13
'I sit and share their peace and I smile.' elleng Aug 2020 #14

Alliepoo

(2,195 posts)
1. What a great description of a perfect summer day!!
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 03:46 PM
Aug 2020

You’re making me yearn for the seashore!! Thanks for sharing the happy memories with us!!

3Hotdogs

(12,204 posts)
7. --- the little ones.... Green Grenades or Little Green Midgets.
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 05:43 PM
Aug 2020

I don't know if they are still made.

Anyways, early '60's. First one at the house would go to the beer store and load up the trunk and seats with about $150 worth of Green Grenades. These would last most of the weekend. This was at the time when a beer at the bar was .10

Party would be at Barnegat Boulevard. Look for the pink house ("No reflection on the character of the guys inside.&quot

and then the stories... which one do you want to hear? Denny cracking up his brand new car? Crashing the line at the Osprey? Bruce, getting pulled over by the cop and not having his license? Pat, explaining to a cop about why our rental was legal? Pat getting plastered and us, invading his room and him thinking he was dead? Or Paul, who wouldn't get it on with the hottest babe you ever saw... ?

--- and on and on.

By the way, in N.J., they are subs, not hoagies.

elleng

(130,126 posts)
4. YES to Italian ices!
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 04:54 PM
Aug 2020

I grew up in Brooklyn, and there was a shop 'around the corner' that sold them in little paper cups (that were 100% squishy by the end.)

Basic LA

(1,703 posts)
6. We called them Lemon Ice in Newark.
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 05:37 PM
Aug 2020

No matter the flavor. You'd say I'll have a Strawberry Lemon Ice. Or a Grape Lemon Ice. I don't know why.

Basic LA

(1,703 posts)
12. Maybe it was Lemon only for so long...
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 08:00 PM
Aug 2020

...that the name Lemon Ice stuck. (I'm from about the same era!)

monmouth4

(9,663 posts)
5. I lived in Absecon, Dad worked for NJ Bell in Ventnor and I tap danced on the Steel Pier many a
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 05:35 PM
Aug 2020

summer. Kenny was oh so right, the beach was a good idea. Thanks for refreshing sweet memories

elleng

(130,126 posts)
9. YES the beach was a good idea!
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 06:34 PM
Aug 2020

We lived in NY, and Dad represented bus companies that drove (commuters etc.) to/from beaches, towns + resorts, so he knew much more than I did about Jersey. 'MY' beaches, at the time, were on Long Island, but many years later visited Long Beach Island with my daughters, a very good idea!

discntnt_irny_srcsm

(18,470 posts)
10. When I was young (and was being chased by a T-Rex...)
Wed Aug 19, 2020, 07:15 PM
Aug 2020

...I was poor. Couldn't afford RRock. Five of us from college drove to the beer distributor (it's a PA thing.) The beer we could afford was $4.75 a case for pony cans. It was called Fox Head 400. To pay for this we all pooled coins and searched the seats of my '66 Caprice. (Sorry planet Earth, 6-9 mpg city.)

Drove to my then girlfriend's mother's place in Brigantine to following weekend. I had a paycheck that Friday from part time work which was around $65. Went to beach, proposed a year later at the beach, got married a year after that at a church with a really long aisle. We now avoid Brigantine like its Covid since the mother-in-law still lives there.

Maybe Asbury Park would be better.

I LOVE LENNY'S HOT DOGS. We frequented the location in NE Philly.
Ocean City boardwalk was amazing as well as Wildwood.

OT: Best crab cakes were at a place in Elkton, MD.

To quote a line from movie character played by John Houseman, "I miss that kind of clarity."

Thanks for this.

Tucker08087

(621 posts)
13. I love those memorial benches along the boardwalk.
Thu Aug 27, 2020, 11:40 PM
Aug 2020

I imagine siblings, young lovers, newlyweds, and those precious couples who are celebrating 60 years together all sitting on that bench, holding hands, their hair whipping in the seashore wind, and salt slowly accumulating on their skin, in a race with sunburn to see which does more damage first. I sit and share their peace and I smile.

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