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from the editor
“It looks like a beach day!”
Summertime at the shore appears as one long bright sunny day. Time appears to unfold differently here at the beach than from any place else. Like the tide, it makes itself known, leaving its mark and its memory behind. There are those snapshot photograph memories however that do not vanish with the changing of the tides, they just ebb and flow in and out of my life forever. I still walk by and see them every now and then, and say “hello, remember me?”
Wasn’t I the one in the clan who didn’t ever want to leave the beach? My mother told me that I would turn into a mermaid if I stayed in the ocean too long. I was sunbleached by the end of the summer~ just like a seashell in the sand. I think I listened to too many conch shells and somehow the sea got into me. That explains why I wonder every day if it’s going to be a beach day or not.
I love our island and even though on the outside it has changed, it is still the same on the inside. I remember Moore’s beach and Pop’s waterice truck and his pretzels that he would put mustard on if you wanted it and then sprinkle the salt on (yummmm!). . . riding our rusty Schwinn bikes to the Shell Shop. . . and remember the We Two Inn? that’s where they had the best corn on the cob and a big chalkboard that reminded me how many more days ‘til Labor Day there was. . . how could I forget the Lurae Motel on our corner and how pink and fun it was, their game room, their playground and that’s where we learned the art of hopping pools. . . and there was Sportland Pool and the trampolines and Aquacircus and how I loved to play the Rolling Stones on the juke box, and Hunt’s Pier that was more fun than anyplace else on earth. . . I wonder what ever happened to the drawing of me by the artist at the Douglass pavilion, I had a big head and a little body. . . and remember the horses at Diamond Beach? these are a few snapshot memories of places that may all be gone, but what will never change is the salt water, our powdery white sand and the sunlight mixed together to make Wildwood our summer place. The stories of the people who have their roots buried deep here, whose lives are intertwined with each other (like the wild wood they say that once covered our island) and the sandy shores of the Wildwoods, that’s what forms our island. These are the things I like to think and write and sketch about in The SUN by-the-sea. The stories and photos and art that capture the heart and soul of this 5 mile beach, some lighthearted, some nostalgic, ageless and timeless, all mixed together to make the happiest and brightest paper for you to reminisce with, to treasure- just like a day at the beach.
Like the tide, memories ebb and flow and have certainly changed me over the years. Profoundly deep within this island is my home where my favorite childhood memories keep coming back to say hello. I pray that as you sit looking out at the sea, digging little holes in the sand with your feet, that you can know why it is you continue to return, too.
“What we remember from
childhood we remember
forever.”
Welcome Back to your Summer Place!
Publisher, editor, and artist
The SUN by-the–sea, , WILDWOOD, NJ
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