Wonderful Memory

I spend a lot of time thinking about Ocean City, New Jersey - I spent every single summer there between 1985 and 2001 - as well as many long weekends and holidays. So as a 1/3 year resident for so dang many years, it's one of the places that I consider home.

And, other than my current home, which I do truly love, it's the home that I love - and subsequently miss - the most.




I can't tell you what a different child I was between when I was in PA and then summers in NJ. I was happier, freer, calmer, nicer, and happier - did I mention that already? Just driving over the 9th Street Bridge onto the island from Somers Point was enough to elevate my mood, every single freaking time.

The last time I drove over that bridge, I was headed back to PA after having spent time helping my parents pack up the condo they'd owned for 14 years. Since I was about to graduate from college, and I was using it far more than they, they'd decided to sell and give many of the furnishings to me to start my new life wherever I landed. I was hysterical driving over that bridge for the last time. It's a two-mile-long causeway, and I was crying my head off the whole time. For me, that felt far more like leaving behind my childhood home than when I packed up from Pennsylvania and headed to Texas.

I would quite literally give anything that's within my control - which is not a lot, admittedly - to be able to spend summers in Ocean City with my future children like I spent as a child. I know that's not going to happen - our financials are far different than were my parents when I was a child, and barring winning the lottery, neither of us is on a career path to get rich. (Currently, single family homes on the island start at the mid-$400s; condos around $200) But a girl can dream, can't she?

Anyhow, the point of my post is that I came across another post in the blogosphere that's just about made my day. During the summers of 1998 and 1999, I worked on the boardwalk in Ocean City for a store called Cloud 9. I really think that it's still my favorite job to-date. Picture this: I worked the 4-12 shift. After we finished cleaning/shutting down around 12:30, we'd head over the bridge to Somers Point and hang out at the bar for awhile. (Ocean City is a dry island.) Some nights we'd get pizza and hang out at the store instead. Others we head to the island's favorite breakfast spot for late night munchies. Still others we'd drive 20 minutes to Atlantic City and hang out at the Casinos for awhile. I'd never get home until 2 or 3...sleep a few hours, and get up and go to breakfast at my dad's favorite little breakfast place. I'd hit the beach around 10 AM; sleep on the beach until around 2 PM. Come home, make dinner for us both (mom wasn't with us a lot of the time) and then head to work. Rinse, repeat. I got paid decently well, had a pretty free lifestyle, and LOTS AND LOTS of beach time. One of these days, I'll dig out a pic from one of those summers - I mean, I was brown brown brown!

Anyhow, I did a search on "Cloud 9 Ocean City", and found this post. Please go read it and check out the pictures. I haven't stepped foot in there since my last trip to the island in 2001, but it's nice to see that some things just stay the same, just the way they should. You can read another article with quotes from my old boss, Paul, here. And yes, if you're shocked, I once did care very deeply about trendy clothes. I simply stopped caring when I got out of college and had other expenses to worry about than looking cute! :-)

We're planning to go back to the island for Columbus Day 2008, which is also around my birthday. I can't wait to show Chris the place where I really grew up and had the best times of my childhood!! He's already been warned, however, that I am very, very emotional when it comes to my Ocean City, and he may have to drag me back off the island when our stay comes to an end.