Anyone and everyone who grew up in Jersey knows all about the Jersey Shore, not the reality show, but the real Jersey shore. The one where everyone headed in the summer time.
The place that's a second home to us, where you hit the beach and walk one end of the boardwalk to the other end, and loving every single minute of it. The home of Bon Jovi where in the beginning they would play, on the stage in the middle of the boardwalk. Where you can meet up with your family and have a ball.
Where a slice of pizza was bigger than your hand, a real sausage and pepper sandwich never tasted so good. And salt water taffy was the best thing in the world. My mom loved that she was able to pick out the flavors she wanted.
Crabbing and fishing off the docks at the bay were the best things to do, and of course swimming there. Hours we spent crabbing with daddy, and all the crabs we caught the adults eat them because us kids wanted nothing to do with them after we caught them. How many crap traps did we lose? Because we forgot to loop them. The fun we had and daddy swore he could get them back.
Back in the day when children could hit the boardwalk and parents knew they were safe. Being in the ocean with daddy, so far out and jumping the biggest waves are the memories we try and share with my niece, so she always knows about her grandparents.
Some of the best memories are with our cousins, we were always down the shore, for weeks and the family was always together. After a day on the beach, we would shower, and the kids would head to the boardwalk, spending hours walking around playing games. Back then 5 dollars you could play games, like crazy. We always seemed to run out of money lol. Meeting up with our parents at the Saw Mill for some dinner of pizza, best.Then us kids could go about our ways and always had to be back at 10. Those are the best of times.
The Jersey Shore took a really bad hit, when hurricane Sandy rolled in. She almost destroyed all we grew up on. Half of the boardwalk was destroyed. The Ferris wheel and the rollar coaster ended up in the ocean. But as bad as it was, the people that loved the shore have helped in rebuilding it again.
