Nostalgia By the Sea: Coming of Age In the Wildwoods

By Robert Friedenberg

Nostalgia by the Sea is Robert Friedenberg’s recollection of his summers in Wildwood Crest during the 1940s when the Garden State Parkway was still on the drawing board and the drive from Philly via the Delsea Drive took most of the day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359404889

Book preview

Nostalgia by the Sea

Coming of Age in the Wildwoods

Nostalgia by the Sea

Coming of Age in the Wildwoods

Robert S. Friedenberg

2018

Copyright © 2018 by Robert S. Friedenberg

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

Note: Photos Copyright by their respective owners.

First Printing: 2018

ISBN 978-1-387-69307-8

www.bob-tales.com

[e-mail]

Contents

Introduction      1

The Summer House      3

Grandmom Nagel      7

LULU      9

The Delsea Drive      13

The Crest Shopping Center      15

Atlantic City Was Another Matter!      17

Three Cents Each      21

The Train      23

WWII      25

Summer Jobs      29

The Summer Shower      31

The Crest Boating Center      33

The 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane      35

The GWYC Sailors      39

Hunting Out on the Bay      43

The Dock      47

The Kite      49

Showtime      51

Freedom      53

The Magnetism of the Shore      55

Octogenarians Reminiscing      57

Introduction

Nostalgia by the Sea is my recollection of my summers in Wildwood Crest during the 1940s when the Garden State Parkway was still on the drawing board and the drive from Philly via the Delsea Drive took most of the day.

The Crest had huge sand dunes running the length of the beach where the motels are today and fields of yellow daisies and cattails grew on the undeveloped land. There was a private airport on the beach near the Rock Pile for small planes.

Activities at the Crest Pier included a dance band, a Mitch Miller type sing -a- long and an amateur night contest that were always well attended.

Mario Lanza worked as a ticket collector on the open-air trolley that ran on Pacific Avenue. A bus during the War replaced the trolley line.

The streetlights facing the ocean were painted black to ward off the German subs that were sinking ships off the Jersey coast. It wasn’t unusual for the tidal zones along the beaches to be covered with crude oil from a torpedoed oil tanker and when it got on your feet it was tough to get off.

Just a few blocks away from the Crest was the Wildwood Boardwalk that attracted about a 100,000 or so vacationers every week from Philly between July 4th and Labor Day.

The Boardwalk was Disneyland in a straight line with miles of amusement rides, games, movies and every kind of fast food imaginable. From one end to the other there were hot dogs, cotton candy, caramel coated popcorn, soft ice cream, corn on the cob, subs, french fries, root beer, fruit drinks, Taylor pork roll and waffles with ice cream.

The hot dog was king! Hot dogs...you can’t imagine how many different deals. One guy, named Singer, got rich selling them for 10 cents or you could spring for 15 cents and get a grilled hot dog at Art Schaffer’s, with the works. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Strange as it must sound, no one sold hamburgers or pizza.

Pizza was still called Tomato Pie! For a couple of years, it was hard for me to imagine someone eating a pie made of tomatoes when your frame of reference is an apple or cherry pie. The pies were baked at a few bars that advertised Tomato Pies on brightly-lit neon signs. Nobody made them better than Dino at the Victoria Bar on