BoomerGirl Diary

Lois: Somewhere along the line, a student gave me a framed quotation that reads: The three best things about being a teacher: June, July, and August. My apologies to those teachers who are in school year round. Life is grand when you awake on a beautiful summer morning, wake the girls, and announce, “Let’s head to the shore!“

The allure of the beach is as simple as the ocean tides, washing over you, and pulling you in. Once the undertow grabs your feet, and the ocean whirls you into its magical trance, there’s no turning back, you are a beach bum.

The New Jersey shore, has a culture all its own in the summer time. Summer days, weeks, and months are filled with the pursuit of “going to the shore,” an expression that reveals a specific town to each beach lover. Lifestyle yields to a relaxing drift. You never feel like a tourist. It fits, like home. Even working down the shore all summer is still a vacation.

True beach lovers are the most forgiving folks. Bathing suits are a nightmare for almost all women, but on the beach they are the great equalizer. Some look fabulous in their fashions, and although you hate them, you have to acknowledge they look great. Lifeguards are always dreamy. Some people wear things on the beach that they wouldn’t walk around in in the privacy of their own homes. Speedos — well, just the word is enough! Although there will always be the catty jibe, “Do you believe he/she’s wearing that?,” no one really cares. Just as you are ready to judge all these indiscretions, the great and powerful ocean whispers to you “It’s okay, you’re at the beach.”

Breaching beach etiquette is forgiven as well: feeding seagulls during the day on the crowded beach; (This is a beginners error. They are being kindhearted until there are fifty sets of wings flapping right over their heads and they’re looking for cover!) shaking a blanket out spraying sand all over anyone downwind; hitting someone in the head with a football or Frisbee… Some people arrive in a caravan and set up a campsite. The veterans bring a chair, towel, bottle of water, suntan lotion (nowadays sunscreen), sunglasses, a book, and maybe an iPod. For the little ones, a bucket and shovel open their imaginations. Older kids bring their boogie boards, drop their towels on the beach and they are off to the water! Just lying there, napping, catching up on summer reading, talking about stupid or really important stuff with the girls, the water lapping at your toes… there’s nothing else like it.!

Evening requires a stroll on the boardwalk lined with shops, food, miniature golf, amusements and entertainment piers open late into the night. Breathing in the salt air all day makes the food the best you’ve ever had. Everyone has favorite shops and checks to see what’s new or on sale. We were going to buy friendship tie ankle bracelets last week, but I couldn’t commit to leaving it on forever to ward off the dire consequences of removal! So, we compromised with mood rings. Arcades provide the gaming challenges like pinball and air hockey for a pocketful of change. Until the store owners begin closing their doors, and the flashing lights dim on the amusement piers, the boards are full of beach lovers.

Tradition dies hard with me, and although I know the girls think it’s corny, I always insist we watch the sun set into the red orange sky and the moon rise over the ocean glistening with its reflection, truly defining “awesome.” A perfect day.

The best thing about June, July, and August? Summertime at the beach.

Jackie, 18: There is something about the beach that makes you go back for more. It could be the shops on the boardwalk, the ocean, or the sun. For me, it was always a drag to go to the beach when I was younger because it meant sitting there in the gross sand when I could be home playing with friends. Now, the thought of going to the beach is what helps me get through each week, knowing that as soon as I am done work for the week I get rewarded and get to go to the beach for a day with my mom. I now enjoy sitting in a chair directly under the warm sun, soaking up all the great weather, and occasionally dipping my feet in the water. What once felt like an endless walk on the boardwalk! is now too short. I find myself wishing the day were longer, so I can lay in the sand listening to music or reading a book. This type of relaxation and enjoyment can only be found by the ocean.

Laura, 25: It’s funny the things I become homesick for over time. When I first moved away from the East Coast, I obviously missed my family and friends. Living in comparatively isolated Montana, I found myself homesick for good restaurants and good shopping. Now that I live near Kansas City, and have both of those at my fingertips, I now find myself longing for the places I grew up around. The college football stadiums in the fall. And especially the South Jersey shore on these unbearably humid Midwest summer days.

I’m not one for the summer. I prefer the low 60s of the fall, with cozy turtlenecks and fashionable jackets. But I’ll gladly bare it all in a two-piece in 100-plus degrees if it means I can spend the day at the beach. I’ll even take high 50’s as long as it’s not raining. I went back to the beach for the first time in three years last summer. It was in the 70s, overcast and sprinkling rain. It felt like I hadn’t been gone a day from my college-age summers spent working there. It welcomed me back like an old friend, because that’s what it is, right? It gives you time alone when you want it, letting your thoughts carry out to sea with the tide. It’s friendly when need it, with seagulls squawking and kids running all around. It lets me really be myself. I mean, how can you fight naturally curly hair at the shore?

I miss the shore, like I miss my girl friends from “home.” But I know next time we see each other – just like the gals back in Philly — we’ll pick up right where we left off.

Chrystin, 30: My name is Chrystin, and I am addicted to shoes.

You may think this is an odd way to start writing about my affinity for the shore but, in fact, it makes sense.

What do you where down the shore? When you were a kid in the 80s, you wore Jellies, they were awesome, and the different translucent colors matched your outfits. That’s where I think my shoe addiction started.

Just the thought of those summer kicks takes me back…

Some of my nicest summertime memories involve the beach, from early childhood to present. Like my mom said there’s something in the salt air! When I was very young, I can distinctly remember cruising the boards in Ocean City, NJ, with my mom and dad. Hoisted on my father’s shoulders, I would scream my face off because he would try to sell me to the little monsters that lived on the roof at Playland. These little monsters would come out all through the night and taunt youngsters – this was back in the day when it was still ok to scare kids. Too long ago to remember, I learned the joys of pizza at the beach. Sitting on a stool at the counter of Mac-n-Manco’s, watching the pizza dough whiz up and down. The sauce there shoots out of a magic sauce-shooting hose! Excuse my description but there’s no other way to describe a magic sauce-shooting hose. Is there? Being the big sister, I can remember building sand castles on the beach with Laura using plastic buckets with handles that would always snap-off, and trying to fill-up the hole we made in the sand with water, which never worked by the way. I still don’t know where all the water goes?!? And as a two-time big sister, I can remember guiding Jackie through the steps of hanging out down the shore.

There’s a certain sense of freedom to act like a child, be an adult, be a shoe fiend, be a bookworm, be whomever I want at the shore. It’s one of the few places where you can frolic like a child and still be cool!