Ninth Street Beach in the 1960s in Ocean City, New Jersey
Now I was a Wildwood (NJ) boy, who only discovered Ocean City (NJ) after I met my wife to be, Leslie. She likes to say: "I got him out of Wildwood and brought him more culture in Ocean City." And as in most things, she was right. We stayed in an old B&B called the Hanif Inn on Wesley Avenue off Ninth Street in the downtown section. Her parents knew the owners, the Olmars; and I enjoyed talking with them into the late evenings. We spent about 20+ years visiting them each summer until we bought our first cottage. Our son, Nick, also visited there often in the 1970s and 1980s.
So a recent Sandpaper (August 27, 2010) article, "Ninth Street Beach was a very Different Place in the 1960s" got my attention. That was our beach for much of the time we visited Ocean City. It was a very downtown location ... from Ninth Street going north to the Music Pier. As one moved south, the beach got a lot smaller for much of the day. Always crowded (particularly with teenagers), and we were only in our late 20s at the time, there was always something happening there on the beach. It certainly kept the lifeguards moving ... both in the water and on the beach. The article went into much more detail than I will do in this posting. But it did remind me of how it was way back when.
As we got older, we continued to go to the Ninth Street Beach, but we also started spending some days on the North Street Beach and the Surf Road Beach, both in the Gardens residential area in the northern part of the island. These areas were far more family-oriented as well as being less tourist-populated at that time.
Reflecting back on those years ... the Chatterbox right around the corner from our sleeping location (and still there), the Watson Restaurant right around the other corner and a block away, and the nights on the boards checking out all of the zany activity from one end to the other. Those were the days my friend ... we thought they'd never end. And, of course, in some ways they didn't as we retired from one job and location and moved to Ocean City which moved along from a second home to a permanent residence. dap
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