Summer vacations 50's and 60's

We grew up in Irvington and took yearly vacations to Seaside Heights in the late 50’s and 60’s. My father was a stickler for leaving North Jersey at 6 am to beat the traffic. If you left after 9 am you would get stuck in hours of traffic to get there.

We mainly rented bungalows on Webster Ave. I think it ran about $35.00 a week... You would see the same families year after year. I still remember the addresses: 233 Webster Ave. in the house behind 233 there was a family that lived there year round. I still remember the 2 boys –Kevin & Shawn. Then there was 309 – I have a picture with my 2 brothers sitting on the stoop wearing white sweatshirts with our names on them and 330 (which isn’t there anymore).

No TV, or electronic games to keep us occupied. It was the beach, boardwalk arcades, miniature golf and playing cards that kept us busy. I remember going to play bingo with my grandmother at Lucky’s on the corner of Webster Ave. Lucky’s Has Everything…. a candy stand, cigarette stand and towel stand. I even work folding towels one year for them . I remember playing the cigarette stand where you could win a full carton of cigarettes for $0.10. and 3 big bars of candy for a nickel. I also remember doing the spin painting stand. Always looked forward to see what stuff animal was new for that year. Remember the stuffed snakes and the big stuffed teddy bears.Loved playing Sunny & Ricky’s stands… We won a lot of small appliances, lamps, stereo’s on that stand.

Remember the rides on Casino Pier – Wild Mouse, Dive Bomber, Flying Umbrellas, Bubble Bounce , Himalaya, Global Swings, , Round-up, Swiss Bob – I actually took my 5 year old sister (I was 14 at the time) on the Swiss Bob without telling my mom. She absolutely loved it. How about the flying Cages- They were great, watching people trying to get the cage to go all the way around….Flower Power and the train that would go all around the lower level of Casino pier. It would go thru a tunnel that had Disney characters painted on the walls…The Sky ride ran the length of the pier.

The cost to get on the beach was $.10 during the week and $.15 on the weekends. You had to put our dime in a hand held machine the beach attendant was holding. Who could forget.…IS ANYONE LOOKING FOR A LITTLE BOY ABOUT 3 YEARS OLD WEARING A BLUE BATHING SUIT PLEASE REPORT TO THE LIFEGUARD STATION WEBSTER AVE AND THE BOARDWALK. Do you remember the announcement for 11 a.m. on the PA system?

Do you remember the Candy Apple – It was where Midway STEAK HOUSE is currently . There was a BIG RED APPLE on top of the building. That’s were our parents told us to meet them if we ever got separated from them on the boardwalk.

Remember the arcade by the Casino Pier went out to the pool. If you walked to the back of the arcade there were steps that went down to the Olympic size salt water pool. Now there is a street separating the Arcade from the water park. I remember bus loads of people coming to the pool every day.

And do you remember the Bus station on Central Ave.

It was so busy in Seaside especially on Saturday nights the parking lot as you come over the bridge was packed. And trying to get into Seaside on a Saturday could take you hours. There was only 1 bridge with 3 lanes. On Friday night and Saturday there would be 2 lanes in and 1 lane out and then on Sunday night they would have 2 lanes out and 1 lane in. …

All of these memories added to to a fantastic child hood . It’s too bad the kids of today can’t experience the fun we had at Seaside Heights.