One of the lovely offshoots of this project is spending an entire week with my brother, just the two of us. I don't believe that's happened in more than forty years. As kid, we were paired off and sent to visit relatives in the summer. First my two old brothers would go, later the two youngest kids. Rick and I would always go together.
My father had relatives living in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he'd grown up. We would be dropped off at Uncle Wayne's to reacquaint ourselves with our cousins and the very finicky ways of their mother. In the daytime, we were free to roam. Atlantic City in the early sixties was a wonderful place for a kid. There were jitneys to take you to the Boardwalk,
the same Boardwalk where the Miss America Pageant would be held around Labor Day. We could cruise the Boardwalk, looking in the shops, admiring the fancy hotels, buying salt water taffy and getting it stuck in our teeth.
There was the ocean of course, and the wide sandy beach, but I don't recall spending much time there. What I loved was the Steel Pier.
You paid an admittance fee and once on the Pier, you could pick from a zillion things to do and see. There was a movie theater (I recall seeing a Bob Hope movie called "Call Me Bwana" three times). Spin Art was a favorite pastime. Watching the Diving Horse or going down in the Diving Bell were also great fun. You could attend concerts - I remember the group The Birds driving past me on the Boardwalk on their way to perform.
There was always plenty to do on the Steel Pier. Once he finishes, we're going to take a drive to the beach. A different ocean, a different pier, but I'm hoping we can recreate some of the fun of our chidhood.
11 comments:
Did you take before pictures? Sounds like everything is moving along.
I do have some but the place was white walls with offwhite carpets, so they didn't come out too good. I've already forgotten how it looked before!
The Diving Horse on Revere Beach was very special to me! I worked on a food stand across from it.
I put the scene in one of my books in the 90's and got all kinds of comments that said that wasn't possible -- horses didn't do that! Nice to see someone else remembers.
I didn't know there were other diving horses, Camille. I did wonder how they got the horses to do that. Probably I don't want to know!
I didn't know there were other diving horses, Camille. I did wonder how they got the horses to do that. Probably I don't want to know!
I did some research at the time and found out they were actually ponies, led up a long ramp, and, yes, there were injections involved.
When I was six I got to spend the summer with my grandparents while they vacationed in Atlantic City. We went to the beach every day, walked the boardwalk, ate salt water taffy, went on rides, played games in the penny arcade. My cousin Mary Jane joined us for part of the vacation and we got along very well - we were the same age or close to it. Her favorite game was pretending to go to Mass. She was a very pious little girl, but not at all stuffy. (She wanted to be a nun, but died of leukemia when she was twelve; this was back before much could be done about that dreadful disease.) I remember the diving horse. And a little boy who could sing like Johnny Ray, a popular singer at the time. And a man who lived inside a huge block of ice, saying he wouldn't come out until taxes came down. The grownups laughed at that.
Great memories, Monica. I don't remember the man in the block of ice, but there was a woman who refused to sell out to the casinos in the eighties and she lived in her tiny house dwarfed by buildings going up around here for some time.
AC was a special place.
I remember visiting Atlantic City as a child, Terri, and walking on the Boardwalk--and eating salt water taffy samples! Fun times.
How nice that you and your brother get along so well. My brother came for my son's wedding. I hadn't seen him in around ten years. We had a great visit.
Thanks, Linda.
Glad you got to see your brother, Betty. They are special.
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