Welcome to the Jersey Shore. I've lived here my entire life except for one year that my step-father moved us to Nebraska. My mother, sister and I were soon back where we belong. I'm fiercely protective of where I live. Even though, as another local put it to me last recently, I am in the minority because I don't like going to the beach.
People come here in droves to strip off their clothes and lay on a tiny blanket in close proximity to strangers under the beating sun. I never liked doing that. Even when I was a kid. I would cry from being hot, salty and sunburned.At the end of the day I'd mysteriously have a load of sand in my bathing suit bottom. My mother, sister and nephews are all little sun worshippers. They're there three or four days a week. I haven't gone since I was about thirteen.
Just because I don't like the beach in that way doesn't me we can't be friends. I like to explore a beach. Fully clothed, thank you. I'll happily comb the shore for seashells and seaglass. Marvelling at driftwood's gnarly forms. When I first saw the Pacific Ocean, while visiting Washington state, I fell in love with that style of beach. There you park on the side of the road, hike through woods to the beach and find yourself in a wild terrain full of wonders like giant rocky outcroppings, tidepools and driftwood so big it is tree-sized. I think it's cool to imagine myself as an explorer on the shore. Manicured beaches have no charm to me. I'm sure many people will think I'm daft for saying that.
The day I took these photos was my birthday. I spent the early part of the day by myself at the library. Then Sweets came home and we went over to the beach towns of Bradley Beach and Ocean Grove. Our first stop was Delponte's Bakery for some Italian pastries to eat for my birthday dessert later in the evening. Then we walked the boardwalk in Ocean Grove and wandered around the quaint streets. A uniquely Victorian architecture style is the signature of this town that started as a Methodist camp. Up until the 1970's, car could not be driven in town on Sundays. It's a place that has a quiet charm that I love to visit.
I have alot of history in that little mile-square town. On my thirteenth birthday, I started my first job as a counter girl at the bakery on Main Ave. A few years later, I moved out of my mother's house and rented my first apartment in town. It was a really safe environment to kick the training wheels off and figure things out. Trying out different jobs, relationships, friendships, recipes. I did alot of growing in that time. When I came to a point I was confused about something in my life, walking the boards often helped me sort things out. Sometimes I would keep walking for miles down the boardwalk that used to be the continuity through tiny beach towns. Feeling the wood spring under foot, as if it has a life of it's own propelling me towards an answer , makes me feel like everything will sort itself out.
Look into the environment of more people at the Self Portrait Challenge.
This is SO my favorite kind of post - I love your first photo but even more, I love all the Jersey shore 'tips' you've provided here. Being new to NJ (ok relatively speaking, 3 years still seems new to me) I have this idealization of the shore towns (and all the photobooths that are just waiting for me) so thank you.
Posted by: kristen | Monday, June 25, 2007 at 07:43 AM
those are wonderful! great environment
Posted by: Kim | Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 03:31 PM