Ocean City, NJ….Part 2

August 30, 2018August 30, 2018 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

Our little family on the 40th Street beach in Ocean City in 1983

It’s hard to believe, but it took Susie and me 20 years before we rediscovered Ocean City. It was during a trip to the Jersey Shore, the spring just after we got married. At the age of 30, I walked the boardwalk I’d first walked when I was 5, and discovered that so much was familiar. Some of the stores were different, but the rides, and the smells, and the sights, and the atmosphere was exactly what I’d remembered! It was an incredible reconnection with my past, and the best thing was that the girl who had just become my wife felt the connection too! Who says you can’t go home again?

John’s House

So, although the connection was there, the early years of a young couples lives are full. For us, these were the years we bought our first house, and started our family. The next time the D’Elia Family traveled to Ocean City was the summer of 1983, when son Billy was 7 months old. We rented an old house in the 3900 Block on the west side of Central Avenue, and it reminded me a lot of the house we’d stayed in when I was a kid. First, no air conditioning. Okay, we’re at the shore and we’re in our 30s…of course we can live without AC! The bathroom was painted purple and had a huge claw tub, but no shower. The

The purple bath

shower was located outside, at the bottom of the back stairs. Billy was, of course, in a crib, and Susie and I got to share a double bed! The rest of the house was furnished as if some old lady had just locked the door in 1957 and never came back…which was fine! The one thing that cinched it for me, was that just like the house we stayed in when I was a kid, our rental house had a big front porch, full of more overstuffed furniture and surrounded by almost floor to ceiling windows. There was no TV in the rental, so just like when I was a kid, our afternoon and evening entertainment was sitting on the porch watching the world go by! We didn’t have Campbell’s Seafood Take-out to watch, but the comings and goings of Central Avenue, and the neighbors across the street kept us plenty occupied

We rented from a young guy named John who stayed in a small first floor apartment, while we had the whole second floor. We always wondered if this was indeed an old family home, because the decorating style was definitely not in keeping with a young guy who drove a black Pontiac Trans Am! (think Smokey and the Bandit) One of the downsides of the place was that the outdoor shower, at the bottom of the stairs, was just outside John’s kitchen door. We never saw what the downstairs looked like, but John and his friends always seemed to be in the kitchen, making the taking of a shower a little strange, because it kind of felt like you were showering in their kitchen!

But we were in Ocean City, half a block from the beach, and we loved it! So did the rest of the family who came and visited us that first year! My Mom and Dad came down, and relived those 6 summers long ago that Ocean City was our summer home. Susie’s folks came too, as did her sister and husband and her brother and his girlfriend, and everyone enjoyed our summer rental…even if it was only for one week! Traveling with a little baby is never easy, and we had “stuff” loaded in and on the car for our week in Ocean City. By the time we were packed, our little Toyota Tercel was full…trunk, trunk top luggage carrier, back seat, and even a portable roof rack! Porta crib, high chair, stroller, and all the other necessities made packing and unpacking a big job….thank God we have kids when we are young! That first week as a family in Ocean City sold us, and with the exception of extending our rental to two weeks, for the next 3 summers we called “John’s House” our summer home!

Billy and Daddy on John’s Front Porch

Our “summers at the shore” were filled with days at the beach and in the water, meals cooked at home most nights, walks on the beach in the evening looking for shells and beach glass, and trips to the Ocean City Boardwalk. It had been 22 years since I’d been a little kid in Ocean City, but there were still so many things from my childhood that remained. Stores and rides that were still on the boardwalk. A trip on the merry-go-round on Gillian’s Fun Deck, or some salt water taffy from Schrivers. A pizza “cut” from Mack and Mancos which I think was my Dad’s favorite place for pizza on the boardwalk when I was a kid. Sounds of the Ocean City Pops coming from the Music Pier, and the movie theaters I remembered. The Surf, the Moorlyn, the Strand, and even the old Village Theater, that had started on the ocean side of the boardwalk, but when they moved the boardwalk towards the ocean, found itself on the shore side! Just like when I was a kid, Ocean City was still a dry town, and even in the early 80s had Blue Laws in effect, making a Sunday night walk on the boardwalk very different than it was any other night of the week. Amusements and theaters were closed, as were most stores. The few stores that were open had large areas closed off containing objects that you couldn’t buy on a Sunday. On a Sunday night, the Ocean City boardwalk was about walking and looking at the ocean…much the same as it had been when I was a kid.

Gillian’s Fun Deck…now the Water Park

Dinner from Campbells with Susie’s Mom and Dad and sister and husband

It wasn’t just the boardwalk that held memories of my childhood at the shore, downtown Ocean City still looked much as it had when I was a kid. Stores like Stainton’s on Asbury or the Chatterbox and Bookers restaurants on 9th Street. So many of the big old houses through town were now B and Bs, catering to a new generation of tourists. Every summer we had to have at least one meal from Campbell’s Seafood, my old neighbor on Asbury. When we’d go down to pick it up, I’d look across the street at the old house we use to stay in, and be that 5 year old again. The new Campbell’s was built on the parking lot and the parking lot was where the old building was, but the menu and food was much the same. We’d get the meals in the white boxes and be fascinated when they’d run them through the string tying machine, giving you a neat stack of boxes, all trussed up and ready to take home. Unfortunately, something else was the same and that was when we got home, there always seemed to be something wrong or missing from the order.

Wonder who took this picture?

Another thing that was the same as when I was a kid in the 50s was communication with home. Now, this may be hard to believe in the times we live in, when virtually everyone is walking around with a phone in their pocket, but the only way we had to check in with what was doing at home and to assure everyone that we were good, was via a pay phone. Looking back in my mind, I recall there being blocks of pay phones on the Oceanside of the boardwalk, and lots of folks using them. That’s what we’d do on nights we were at the boardwalk, calling either Susie’s or my folks to check in. On nights that we didn’t go to the boardwalk, we’d walk the two blocks to the corner of 40th Street and West where there was a pay phone outside of a restaurant. This was the way it was in the 50s, and still the way it was in the early 80s.

Something else that our kids have a really hard time understanding is the fact that when we first started going back to Ocean City in the early 80s, there were no such thing as ATMs! Frankly, it’s even hard for me to remember what the world was like when you couldn’t access your bank accounts from almost every corner anyplace in the world, but that’s exactly what you dealt with when you went on vacation way back then! It really impacted us one summer vacation when oldest son Billy must have been 3. It was early in our Ocean City stay, and one morning we decided to go downtown and rent a surrey for a ride along the boardwalk. A surrey is basically a cross between a bike and a car, in fact it’s like having two bikes side by side…..four wheels, 2 sets of pedals, and instead of having two handlebars to steer with, there’s a steering wheel. So we rent a surrey, and since Billy is so small at that point, he gets to sit in a basket on the front of the vehicle. We have a nice hour or so ride, and as we get back to the rental place, I pull down the break lever on the steering column just as Billy turns and sticks his little hand in the wrong place! He screams, I scream, he starts gushing blood, and Susie grabs him up. We run down the street to the car, jump in, and speed off to Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point! Well, long story short, the X-rays showed a break and after an appointment with a local orthopedic doctor the next day, all was well…but for one thing. Billy couldn’t get the finger wet for the next couple of days!

So there we were, at the beach for 2 weeks with a three year old, planning that most of our days would be taken up by hours and hours on the beach, and suddenly we had to put that plan on hold. So what else could we do? Trips to the boardwalk, visits to Cape May, and just about everything else we could think of to occupy him cost more money than spending the whole day at the beach. Our cash that we had with us that was budgeted for our two week stay was going fast, and I really worried if we would be able to stay the whole time. Luckily I discovered a way that an American Express card and a personal check could buy you AmEx Travelers Checks, but I look back on that time and really wonder how we got along without our modern conveniences like ATMs and Cell Phones!

So we spent 4 great summers at “John’s House” as a family of three, but by the next summer, everything would change. You see, upon getting back from Ocean City in the summer of 1986, pregnant Susie’s scheduled appointment with the doctor revealed not one little baby growing inside her but two! With just a scant few months to wait, we needed to wrap our minds around the fact that our family of three was about to turn into a family of five! Our twins, Krissi and Kenny joined the family on November 20th and suddenly we were parents of 3 kids under the age of five! Of course, with changes in family size, other things have to change, and our plans for the D’Elia Family’s Summer of 1987’s Vacation did too!

One thing that didn’t change however, was our destination. Where better to introduce our new babies to the beach, than Ocean City, NJ? So, come June of their first year, Susie and I loaded up the van with a 4 year old and two 7 months olds, two cribs, two high chairs, two walkers, and about everything else we could think of, and headed to Ocean City. Two changes though, this year we decided that 3 weeks would be better for our expanded family and our destination was not “John’s House”.

Billy and Mom at 3917 Central Ave

For the summer of 1987 we upgraded our residence by moving from the west side of Central Avenue to the east side. That summer, we spent our time on the second floor of a beach front house just across the street from John’s house. We were now living side by side with the folks we’d been watching for the last 4 summers! 3 bedrooms meant that the twins had their own room as did Billy and two bathrooms plus a real indoor shower meant that life was much more comfortable for us. Just being able to take the path over the dunes to the beach also meant that it was a lot easier for us to bring all the junk that three little kids need from the house to the beach. It also meant that when we had to travel back to retrieve the one or two items that we always seemed to have forgotten, that wasn’t such a big deal anymore either. It was an idilic 3 weeks at the beach and all the kids loved it.

Krissi and Kenny on the OC Beach their first summer

As usual our days were spent at the beach and most meals were home cooked. There were occasional nights along the boardwalk pushing twins and sometimes carrying Billy. There was a lot of Dad standing outside stores on the boardwalk, because getting 3 little kids in a store was not easy. There also was the night we felt sorry for ourselves as we waited in line, trying to get into Mack and Manco’s pizza with the twins in a double stroller. Our attitude was changed greatly through when a woman came out pushing triplets in a Triple stroller!

The first taste all three of our kids had of beach life happened in Ocean City, NJ. It was a great introduction, and it was a continuation of my summers in Ocean City to the next generation. While Ocean City would be a part of these three kids’ lives every summer growing up, sadly, after the summer of 1987, our visits would change and it would be a number of years before we’d get back to this kind of an Ocean City visit, so the summer of 1987 is really the end of part two of our saga of the D’Elia Family and our love of Ocean City, NJ!

To Be Continued

Ocean City, NJ..Part 1

August 28, 2018August 28, 2018 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 3 Comments

My Mom and Dad on the 32nd Street Beach in Ocean City in the 50s

Are you lucky enough to have a special place, a sanctuary, where you can go to recharge your batteries, or to hide from the world? A place that’s populated with family or friends that feel like family? A happy place that just getting to, no matter what your mood, makes you feel happy? Well, Susie and I do, and it’s Ocean City, New Jersey! Ocean City is located on a barrier island, accessible from the New Jersey mainland by 4 bridges. It is the largest and northern most city in Cape May County, deep in the heart of the southern Jersey Shore. But never confuse our Jersey Shore, for the Jersey Shore you see on television. What we love about the place is that in the summer it’s a thriving summer resort, when the population swells to 150,000, but in the winter time is a lovely little town with a resident population of just under 12,000. What we really love is the friends and the life we have there, and the feeling of happiness that washes over us every time we drive across the 9th Street Bridge! Ocean City is now our forever home, and here’s how we got here!

Our family’s association with Ocean City started the summer of 1955, when I was 5 years old. My Mom and Dad sang in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, and although the job of a singer in the Metropolitan Opera Chorus may seem glamorous, in the early 50s the Met’s season was less than 30 weeks long. That meant that my Mom and Dad only got paid for 30 weeks of work a year, and we survived the rest of the year courtesy of New York State Unemployment Insurance. Not exactly the kind of financial background that led to summers in the Hamptons, but when I was 5 years old, a financial background that allowed us to spend most of that summer and the next 5 at the shore!

Another married couple who sang at the Met were from Philadelphia, and as such knew the Jersey Shore very well. So well that their family had a home in Ocean City. Founded in the late 1800s by 4 Methodist ministers as a Christian seaside resort, Ocean City in the mid 50s was still a dry town and a place where businesses closed because of Sunday Blue Laws. They called it, America’s Greatest Family Resort and did all they could to prove that it was true. A great family friendly boardwalk, two and a half miles of white sandy beaches, and a small town attitude were what they were selling, and we were buying! Of course, based on my folk’s finances, we weren’t buying too much, but I sure enjoyed those summers!

3220 Asbury Avenue

Their friends Walter and Kathy’s family had an old summer cottage in the 3200 block of Asbury Avenue, and Dorothy, their next door neighbor, rented rooms. Well, we spent those wonderful summers in Ocean City in a rented room and as so many folks say when they look to save money on a resort room, all we did was sleep in it! Two different days of each week my Mom and Dad would need to head back to Queens to sign up for that week’s unemployment benefit. On Tuesday my Dad would take an early bus from the Public Service Bus Terminal on 9th Street, be at the Unemployment office for his 1 PM appointment, and then head back to Ocean City late in the day. Every Wednesday afternoon we’d drop my Mom off at the bus terminal and she’d do the same thing, but since her appointment time was first thing Thursday morning, she’d spend the night at our apartment in Jackson Heights, and then sign for her check the next morning and be back in Ocean City just after lunch. They did that every week we were in Ocean City and netted a combined amount that was under $80.

The Public Service Bus Station on 9th Street in Ocean City

Looking back on it now, I’m sure that as a family we were on the lowest rung financially of folks who were summering at the beach, but we were summering at the beach, and frankly, we may have been doing it on the cheap, but I never knew it! Our days were spent at the beach in the sun and the waves. An inflatable raft that was bought at Hoys was my prize possession, and it entertained me every day better than the most expensive video game! A sandwich wrapped in wax paper and as a real treat, a 2 cent pretzel from the beach stand at the 32nd Street Beach schmeered with mustard, and I was happy. My only concern was how long after eating did I have to stay out of my beloved Atlantic Ocean!

By the time night came, I was exhausted from a day in the waves, and I’m sure more FCA5D283-AE28-4639-B1E2-FE76B994E017 interested in sleeping than eating, so simple fare for our evening meal was fine with me. It could be pizza or a hot dog during an occasional outing on the boardwalk, or a quick meal cooked in our communal kitchen. What I do remember was nights sitting on the big front porch of the house watching the world go by on Asbury Avenue. Dorothy’s house was just across Asbury from Campbell’s Seafood take-out, an Ocean City landmark for many years, and I’d amuse myself watching the customers head in and out of the parking lot. This really became a sport on Fridays, as this was back in the days of meatless Fridays for Catholics and Campbell’s business would double! Even the adults watched those nights!

Occasionally there were special nights when dinner was a night out at Watson’s on 9th Street, or Chris’ Seafood Restaurant and Fish Market on the bay at the foot of the 9th Street Bridge, or perhaps Sim’s on the boardwalk. Honestly, I do not remember much about the food at Watson’s, but I do remember that anytime you went there for dinner, you had a long wait, and I’ll always be able to picture in my mind people sitting in white Adirondack chairs waiting to be called for dinner. I remember Sim’s as the typical seafood restaurant of the 50s, where I only ate fried flounder! The one I do remember is Chris’, not so much for the seafood which was caught on their own boats and sent all over the country, but for what happened after dinner. Everyone who ate there got a ticket for a free sightseeing ride on on of their boats, and the one you always wanted to be on was the Flying Saucer! A 75 foot wooden converted PT boat from World War II, the Flying Saucer would take up to 125 passengers on a ride out of the inlet and then for a wild wave jumping trip into the ocean. Now that was the way to end a meal!!

After six glorious summers spent in Ocean City, my folks started working at the Cincinnati Summer Opera, and our summers went in another direction. After that, there were occasional trips to Ocean City, but just for a day or two. We never again spent the summer at the beach.

To be continued….don’t you hate when they do that!

A Rainy Day in Key West

February 19, 2018February 19, 2018 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

So, they all can’t be perfect, and today it was the weather that threw us a curve! When we got up about 8:00 this morning, the temperature was in the 70s, but the weather forecast said that it was a cloudy 70 degrees. It also called for sporadic rain, but as we were sitting around getting ourselves collected this morning, the sun came out, so we hoped that was a good omen!

We were very relaxed this morning, as both of us had a good night’s sleep, and were in no hurry to start our day. Then I re-read the check in information, and realized that breakfast didn’t stop at 11, but rather 10, and it was about 9:30 already. Not wanting to get there for the last dregs of breakfast, we decided to get into the car, and drive around a bit, and see what we could see, and then look for a place for a late breakfast/early lunch, so that’s what we did.

We started out with the windows and sun roof open, but soon we were getting rained on. It was not real rain, more of a heavy mist (what we call “misting”), but enough that we had to use the windshield wipers. Our first task was to find the local Wells Fargo bank to take some money out of the ATM. That task completed, our plan was to look for parking somewhere around Mallory Square, and spend a couple of hours wandering the streets and taking the Conch Tour Train through town. The rain was on and off, but we still figured we’d be able to get through the day. Guess where we ended up parking? At Mr. Buffett’s Margaritaville Resort and Marina. Having just recently opened, we considered staying there, till we did a dummy booking, and saw what the price was going to be. Let’s just say, that only the most well off Parrot Heads will be partaking from it’s hospitality. We went in the lobby, and figured we’d look around, but the lobby really just consisted of a check-in desk. Oh well, we had a place for the car, and now we were on foot.

Right next door is the Museum of Art and History at the Custom House, with some interesting and large works of art in the courtyard.

We checked out a couple of tourist shops, but as we all know, we already own too much stuff, so no purchases were made. It was about 11:15, and the rain was still falling, so we thought we’d look for someplace to get a little something to eat. We spotted the Red Fish, Blue Fish restaurant, and decided to see if they were open. There were people inside, and indeed they were serving lunch, so in we went. We had an order of incredible Conch Fritters, then Susie had a Chicken Sandwich, and I had a Shrimp Po-Boy Sandwich. We both agreed we should have stopped with the fritters! Oh well, we were out of the rain, and had something in our stomachs!

We pulled out our phones, and looked at the weather forecast, and even the radar, and it looked like the weather was going to improve. The radar showed the storm pulling out of the area by 1 PM. We had hopes for better weather as we walked over to the office for the Conch Train. The train in the station was full, but the signboard said the next one would leave at about 12:15. It was getting brighter by the minute, and we both decided to give it a try. I bought us a couple of tickets, and when the next train pulled in, we jumped on board.

Launched in 1958, the train is about an hour plus tour in and around the old and new city of Key West. It passes lots of sights, and there is a narration conducted by the “Engineer” as you go around town, which brings up a question….why the hell do people take a tour that costs this much (our two Senior tickets me almost $60), and then proceed to talk through the entire tour! Here is a picture of the three loudmouths that talked, laughed, and even took phone calls through the tour!

These three couldn’t shut up till they got off the tram!!

So we were about a third of the way through the tour, when the weather forecast proved wrong, and the heavens opened! Did we get wet? Yes, but it’s warm and wet, so not the end of the world. We enjoyed the sights we saw, and at one point, the 3 talkers got off, so we could hear the narration better!

One of the sights you pass on the tour is the Southernmost Point Buoy that you always see in pictures. Hard to believe that there was a block long line of folks (maybe 75?) waiting to be able to take their picture by the buoy. I don’t know if this is an out growth of the “selfie craze” or what, but it’s a trend we’ve noticed happening more and more lately. People will wait in line for anything!

One thing that was obvious during the tour, is that the city is crazy! As quiet as the city was when we started out this morning, it was hopping now. Every bar was overflowing, and the sidewalks and shops were full of people! Bad planning on our part, in that this is President’s Day Weekend, but also there are 3 cruise ships in town. Key West is apparently a big cruise port, and with 3 ships in today, thousands more tourists were eating, drinking, shopping, and spending money. Key West is, after all, a tourist town!

So after getting off the train, and still being a little wet, we decided to get the car, and go back to the hotel for a bit. A drink, a shower, and getting ready for our 6 PM dinner reservation at One Duval at the Pier House Resort and Spa.

After getting ready for dinner, we took an Uber for $9.00 to the Pier House. We had a 6 o’clock reservation for dinner at One Duval, but first stopped at the Beach Bar for a Martini. After enjoying that, with a wonderful view, it was time for dinner.

Then we moved up to One Duval, and what can we say, other than the fact that it was the absolute best dinner we have had on this trip!!! A great setting, wonderful food, and a great server!!! Take a look at these pictures of the setting, the sunset, and our meal, and see if you can raise a doubt! It was awesome!!!

After a great dinner with our server Linda, (from Latvia) we moved back to the Beach Bar with bartender Merri! Some great conversation with other patrons (one of which had gone to high school with Merri in Massachusetts, and just wandered into the bar), a couple of more Martinis, and then Susie got Key Lime Colada to go! It was the perfect end to a perfect night!

Honestly, we are not folks to hang at Sloppy Joes, and drink out of plastic cups, and hope that the guy next to us doesn’t puke on us! The Beach Bar at the Pier House was the perfect venue to end our night!!!

Then a $10 Uber trip home with Jorge, ended a perfect night!!! This is our version of Key West, and honestly, we loved it! It was one of our best nights of this trip. We’ve had several great nights, and this was in the top 5!! Thanks Key West!!!!

See you tomorrow when we head north again!! Hope your Sunday night was half as good as ours!!!

Well, we did it!

February 14, 2018 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

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I commented yesterday how much we loved this Holiday Inn in Indian Rocks Beach, and what a good time we had last night at the on-site restaurant, Jimmy Guanas. We loved what we’d seen of the town of Indian Rocks Beach, the style of the hotel, and did I mention the bar at Jimmy Guanas? This morning, on the way to breakfast, we stopped in at the office, and we were able to extend our stay two nights. So rather than staying in a Comfort Suites in the middle of nowhere in Fort Myers, we are staying here till the morning of Friday February 16th. The primary reason that we were staying at Fort Myers, is because Susie wants to see Sanibel Island, but we figure we may do a day trip from here one day, and would much rather come back to this place. Mission accomplished.

Today, we wanted again to venture to the past a bit. I know, didn’t yesterday teach us anything? I guess not, because after breakfast, we ventured up the road to a place we visited 20+ years ago with the kids, Tarpon Springs. We let the GPS guide us there, and that was our first mistake. She took us on 19, which was 8 lanes of traffic, with scenery straight out of the American Business Playbook! CVS, Walgreens, Publix, McDonalds, Buffalo Wild Wings, and many more that I’ve already forgotten! In a word, the drive was boring, and half way there, I was already falling asleep!

Was Tarpon Springs like we remembered? Absolutely not! We seemed to have in our mind a sleepy fishing village set against the Gulf of Mexico, but what we got was a very crowded 6 or 7 block stretch with stores on one side, and docks on the other. It reminded me of Cozemel, Mexico, with people hawking you to shop, eat, or go on a boat ride. We were very sorry we ate breakfast at the hotel this morning, because had we not, we would have loved to stop for lunch in one of the many Greek Restaurants we passed. We decided to pass on it today, and thought that perhaps we might head back there on another day this week for a nice lunch.

FAF2D7B3-B65E-4533-A836-977C9D8885A7 Our trip back, however really hit it out of the park! We discovered Alternate 19 South, which was a lovely ride back to Indian Rocks Beach, staying on the water for the majority of the ride. We went through Clearwater and Clearwater Beach, and Sand Key, back to Indian Rocks. It may have taken a bit longer, but we loved the sights. Oh, did I mention that the temperature was in the upper 70s, and we had the windows and the sunroof of the Sonata open? It was wonderful for February 13th!

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For all our OC Family!

Since we were enjoying the ride so much, we thought we’d continue down the beach road to Treasure Island, a place where we stayed with the kids on that same trip. Back in the day, we stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment, right on the beach, at the Buccaneer Motel. It was a small place, surrounded by other small places, and we were surprised to find that many of those small places are still in Treasure Island, but not the Buccaneer. Susie found it’s former address on a web site, and there is now a big condo building at that address. Oh well, we did enjoy the ride!

We came back to the room, had a Rum and Coke, and got ourselves ready for a 6:30 dinner reservation I made at an Italian Restaurant just down the road, You see, the day before Ash Wednesday in my Dad’s family was always celebrated as Carnaval, or, Fat Tuesday! The last day before Lent started, was always an occasion to eat a big Italian meal, of all your favorite things you’d miss during Lent. Years ago, we started carrying on the tradition that I remembered as a kid, and we’d have family and friends over, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday for a full Italian celebration. Well, it happens that for the last several years, we’ve been on the road traveling, so be it in Las Vegas, or Disney World, or Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, we try and celebrate this day by eating out Italian, and remembering the years we put on the party!

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We never remember to take before pictures of food!

So now we are back from having a wonderful meal at Villa Gallace, right here in Indian Rocks Beach. First, great mussels, then Susie had Rigatoni Bolognese, and I had Lasagna. A restaurant that has it’s roots in an immigrant from Italy who settled in NYC, before moving to the Sunshine State! Excellent food, great service, and a perfect Carnaval celebration! Oh, and guess where we ended the night? At the Tiki Bar at Jimmy Guana’s! A perfect end to a nice day!

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So, that’s it for today! It was a good day, that Susie and I enjoyed, and as we’ve often said, it’s our vacation, and we do what we enjoy. Good, bad, or indifferent. We may not do what other people would do here, but it’s what WE like to do. No, we are not into sports or hiking, and spending hours on our feet sightseeing is no longer our desire. We question ourselves sometimes, but then remember IT’S OUR VACATION! We pace ourselves, and do what we want. How boring the world would be if we were all the same with the same tastes and desires. That’s why cars come in different colors!

The weatherman says that there’s a 60% chance of snow in Ocean City on Saturday, with a high of 37 degrees! The rest of the week in Indian Rocks Beach is forecasted to be warm, with highs in the 80s! That’s what we came south for!!

See you tomorrow!

PS…did you see what somebody in the graphics department at the ABC TV station in Chicago did? OMG!

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Kinda makes me want Chinese food!

A New Adventure in Our Continuing Adventure

August 5, 2017 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

Well, as of this morning, Susie and I have entered another new phase of our Adventure. For the last several years, we have been increasing our summer time spent in Ocean City. We started 13 years ago with 2 weeks, then increased it to 3, and the last year I worked (the summer of 2015), we spent the entire month of July here! As wonderful as that was, in a sense, it made the ultimate packing up of our “stuff” difficult, just so we could turn our dream over to renters.

Last year, with both of us retired, we spent most of May, June, and July here, kind of blocking out the need to empty out the Mineola house. Last year, however, on August 21st, we left on our Big Adventure trip across the country, which ultimately lasted 9 weeks. It was sad, but it made sense to rent the house again, and we did starting the first Saturday in August. That once again necessitated packing up our personal items, our good glasses, and packing away our clothes, shoes, and especially our booze! A sad time for us again, even though we were looking forward to the great trip we’d planned.

Well, today is the first Saturday in August, and I am sitting writing this blog post on our front porch, watching a new crowd of Pennlyn visitors unloading cars, getting organized, having their first beer, and starting their dream week of vacation! We are here, and we’re staying here!! For the first time, Susie and I will be spending August, September, and the beginning of October at the beach. In fact, if you really want to know, we live here pretty much full time now. The culmination of a dream we’ve had for years is about to come to fruition….We live in Ocean City, NJ!!

In fact, the reason I said the beginning of October, is that we’re flying out for a 2 week trip, exploring some of Nevada and California that we’ve never seen before, and to top it off, we will be leaving and returning to Philadelphia International Airport! We have made the move…in our minds at least.

Now, if you are interested in our progress on the other end, last week Susie and I came to the conclusion that we have moved virtually everything that we want from our old house to Ocean City (except for some last minute necessities we need there). Some of it will surely be weeded out from here (our closets are little full), and there are things we’ve stashed in our rented storage place down here, that we will go through over the winter, and some of that stuff will probably leave us too, but it’s done! What’s left at 40 Fairfield Avenue is not coming to Ocean City, and so a process that we wondered if it would ever end, has ended!

Progress too on other fronts…we’re meeting next Friday with a lady that conducted a tag sale at my Mom’s house, and hope she’ll say we have enough stuff for her to do the same thing for us. Then someone who is interested in the house wants to set up a time to take a look, so good things there too. When we left Mineola last Wednesday, Susie and I both realized it’s almost over, and trust us, we are glad!

So, if you are looking for us for the rest of the summer and fall, you can either find us on Pennlyn Place Beach, or on our front porch. As the new porch sign Susie got this year says, “Come Sit On The Porch With Me…The Drinks Are Cold And The Friendship’s Free”

Our favored view most mornings!

Our July Check in

July 20, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 3 Comments

So, the last time we checked in with a report on our beach bum life style we like to call retirement, was about a month ago. That was when we talked about the visit we had from Grandkids Layla and Henry, their Mom and Dad, and Aunt Krissi. We figured it was time to check in again and give you an idea what we’ve been up to.

We’ve been living the life we always hoped we would when we retired. Our daily routine is that we get up between 7:30 and 8 AM (without an alarm), check in on our iPads with mail, Facebook, and other happenings, and then get ready for the beach. We are definitely morning beach people, who like to hit the sand sometime between 9 and 10 AM when it’s still quiet and pretty empty. Our favorite place to park on the beach is as close to the water as we can so that the sound track of our beach time is nature’s best beach sound, that of the waves breaking on Pennlyn Place Beach! Most mornings Frank will remember to check the tide app on his iPhone so we can get exactly where we want to be and not have to move. We stay at the beach anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. Our length of stay usually depends on the weather (it’s been really hot and humid the last couple of days so shorter stays), what if anything we’ve got going later in the day, and how crowded the beach gets. On the 4th of July weekend, when a loud family plopped down 4 feet from our chairs, we decided we’d had enough! Our favorite thing is to be heading back home as the big crowds start coming to the beach. Often times we will pass neighbors and friends, just heading to the beach as we head home, and joke about Beach Sharing!

Once we are home and have hosed off the sand, it’s time for a cold one on our porch and a little relaxing time before lunch and a shower. We love sitting out there, watching the Pennlyn Place World pass by, having a drink, eating, or reading our Kindles. Speaking of our porch, we both agree that it is by far our favorite room of our Ocean City home…and to us, it is very much a room! This year Susie got a wish fulfilled she’s had for several years, when we bought a couch for the porch. The addition of this piece of furniture has really completed our outside living space and really cemented it as a room. Well, really two rooms…a living room and a dining room, as most of our meals are eaten out there too!

Our front porch is also the unofficial gathering spot for our Pennlyn Place Family. Be it planned gatherings or impromptu after-dinner get-togethers, our porch seems to be the venue of choice! For example, this past Friday, our good friend Sue joined us about 5:30 on our porch for Happy Hour. We met Sue a number of years ago at Charlie’s in Somers Point, and we are happy to say that Sue and her husband Jim have become good friends! After a couple of drinks, and an Italian dinner that Susie threw together, we were joined on the porch by our good friends Denise and Chris Maiden who were riding by on their bikes. A little later after Sue headed home, our neighbors Karen and Bob Byrne were walking their dog Abby past the house, when they were encouraged to come up and join us on the porch. This is the kind of thing that happens often, and the kind of thing that we love!! We always have a full beer cooler on the porch, and lots of other supplies on hand to take care of whatever drink folks might want. There is nothing we love better than a porch full of friends who think our porch is the perfect place to end an evening!

We are also lucky that we have so many great friends on our block and in the surrounding blocks that we think of more like our Ocean City Family. Be it a casual WAWA Hoagie dinner on the Somer’s Point Beach as we listen to 60s and 70s music, or a fun evening of just hanging out and ordering in, or a BBQ in someone’s back yard, a potluck supper, or a nice dinner in an off island BYOB restaurant, you can guarantee that every weekend our group will be doing something! Some weekends Frank will even go out on our friend Chris Maiden’s boat. This weekend was the Ocean City Night in Venice Saturday when there is a boat parade, decorated houses, and a fireworks display on the bay side of the Island. Chris and Frank, along with Karen and Bob ventured out late afternoon to check out the house decorations and the parties that had already started. Like we said, there is always something going on with our Ocean City Family!

So that’s what we’ve been up to. We leave in a little more than a month on our big trip, and trust us, we are excited about that, but at the same time a little sorry it’s happening. We’re sorry, because after 11 summers of being here for weekends and a couple of solid weeks, this 12th summer at our house is exactly what we hoped it would be. A little lazy, a little crazy, a lot of beach, a lot of bare feet, and a lot of feeling like it’s home and exactly where we belong. We have returned to Long Island every couple of weeks for important things like Nail Night, Doctor Appointments, and for Susie to check in on her Mom, but even when we are on the LIE, our minds are still at 854 Pennlyn Place in Ocean City. When some idiot Long Island driver cuts us off or speeds by us at 50 mph, we just look at each other and know we both want to be back on our island in the sun where the speed limit never gets over 35 mph. Even now, in the height of the summer, with all the tourists and weekly renters in town, there is no place we’d still rather be than right here on our island off the Jersey Coast with our Ocean City Family!

July 3rd, 1977

July 2, 2016July 3, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 1 Comment

This blog is called R New Adventures, and its purpose is to document our lives together as we move into our next chapter, retirement. That’s all well and good, but if something hadn’t happened 39 years ago today, there would have been no chapters in our life and no blog. That’s because July 3rd, 1977 was a monumental day is Susie and my life.

The summer of 1977 found me working as a Vacation Relief Engineer at ABC, but July 3rd found us in the middle of a 5 1/2 month strike by our union (NABET) against the American Broadcasting Company. That meant that rather than being in MUSICRADIO 77 WABC’s Studio 8A with the likes of Dan Ingram, George Michael, or Chuck Leonard or in 95.5 WPLJ’s Studio FM-1 with Pat St John, Tony Pigg or Carol Miller playing music, we were outside the ABC Building picketing 3 times a week! Meanwhile, Susie was working as an RN at Glen Cove Hospital, covering the evening charge shift in Pediatrics.

So, on Saturday July 3rd, 1977 we were both invited to an early July 4th BBQ at our friends’ Maryanne and Bill Epperhart’s house. I knew Bill from WCWP and Susie worked with Maryanne at Glen Cove Hospital. Years later, we discovered that the purpose of the whole party was to get the two of us together, but on that day 39 years ago, all I knew was that I was able to attend a Saturday summer party at a friend’s house, because we were on strike and I didn’t have to work!

I’ll tell you something that did work…getting the two of us together! Susie had some fireworks she’d brought back from a road trip visiting relatives, and I was designated to be the one to help her ignite the display. Something besides those fireworks ignited that night! Frankly, it was love at first sight and of course I wanted to see her again! The next weekend, we went out on our official “first date”. One of the elements of that date was dinner at a favorite Chinese Restaurant. My fortune cookie told it all that night. “You will marry your present lover and be happy”, was what the little slip in the cookie said, and it couldn’t have been more right!

So 39 years later, we still celebrate this day as a milestone in our life together, and every night I give thanks for meeting the most wonderful person, the love of my life, my best friend, and person that I have shared every adventure in this life with! Love you Susie and am so thankful that July 3rd, 1977 happened and gave me my life!!! You are the best and the key to our adventures!

Summers at the Beach

June 14, 2016 / Sue and Frank D'Elia / 3 Comments

In 1955, when I was 5 years old, we first came to a Jersey Shore town I have come to think of as my home away from home, Ocean City, NJ. Growing up and still living on Long Island, over the past 61 years I have been asked time and time again, “You live on Long Island, and you go to a Jersey Shore beach?”. Well, the story is simple. In 1955, both my Mom and Dad were singers in New York’s Metropolitan Opera’s Chorus. In those days, the Met’s season was very short…something like 40 weeks including rehearsals and the spring tour. The rest of the year, they got by courtesy of New York State Unemployment Benefits. So, with all this time off in the summer, and having a 5 year old child, it was the Summer of 1955 that they took the advice of people they worked with in the Met Chorus, and the D’Elia Family journeyed to Ocean City.

Walter and Kathy were another married couple in the Met, and my Mom and Kathy had been friends in Chicago. Walter, on the other hand, was a Philly boy, and his family had a summer cottage on Asbury Avenue and 32 Street in Ocean City. They arranged for us to rent a room next door in Dorothy’s “boarding house”, and for the next 5 summers, Ocean City, NJ was our address! I grew up on the beach and boardwalk of Ocean City, forever forming in my mind the image of a beach town in Ocean City’s likeness.

The story of our connection to Ocean City picks up in the spring of 1980, shortly after Susie and I were married. After those first 5 years, my Mom and Dad started working more during the summer, and our trips to Ocean City were few and far between. After being away for years, in 1980, Susie and I came down to sample the new gambling Mecca, Atlantic City, and our trip included a wonderful trip down memory lane for me in Ocean City, wandering through town and on the boardwalk, and that was the beginning of an ongoing relationship between Ocean City and our family.

Every summer, since 33 year old Bill’s first in 1983, the D’Elia Family has spent part of every summer in Ocean City! When his younger sister and brother, Krissi and Kenny came along in 1986, we continued our tradition of having babies on the beach and boardwalk of this great town. Some years we were able to rent a house for a week or two, some years it was a couple of day’s stay in a motel, and other years we camped in our Pop-Up trailer just off the island on Route 9, and made day and night trips to our beach town. Then, 11 years ago, in January of 2005, something changed for us. Thanks to a fortuitous real estate deal in Las Vegas, Susie and I found ourselves in a position to live out our dream, and we did! For the past 11 years, we have been proud owners of our dream home, on Pennlyn Place in Ocean City, NJ. Since then, weekends, spring weeks, summer weeks, holiday vacations, and whatever time we could steal have been spent here.

Then something else changed for us on January 29th, 2016…I retired and joined Susie, who had already left the work world, and now our time was ours, and less others. Now, what would you do if you owned a beach house? Yep, spend as much time there as you could!! So the past 4 months have found us traveling as much time as possible to Ocean City. Our trip down to Florida in late February did take some time away, and unfortunately the rather cold spring we’ve suffered through, and some ongoing health issues with Susie’s Mom has prevented us from having the kind of first spring in Ocean City I dreamed about, but all in all, it has been great! We no longer have to travel back and forth on the weekend, the beach is still only 500 feet down the street, so we go whenever we want, our great neighbors and friends are still steps away, and our life is settling into the routine we’ve dreamed about for years. It’s mid June, our daily dress is shorts, T-shirts, and flip flops, and we’re already tan…what could be better!!

One of the best parts of having a place that you love is being able to share it with people you love, and this past weekend was a banner example of that! Early Saturday morning, our oldest son Bill, his wife Lori and our two beautiful grandkids Layla and Henry joined us at the shore. They brought with them our favorite daughter, Layla and Henry’s Aunt Krissi, and the family was almost complete!! (Just missing youngest son Kenny, who is presently performing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean…not a bad deal!) It was a great weekend!

We could get very use to having these little shoes in our house!

We could get very used to having these little shoes in our house!

Layla is a little over 2 years old and such a beautiful little person. Henry is just shy of 8 months and starting to crawl. What a wonderful continuation of family tradition to see these two beautiful children in a place that I still so remember their Dad in at their ages. After the excitement of Layla exploring the house, finding her room, and helping Daddy unload the car, it was time to get changed and get to the beach. First there was a trip down to the water, and although it was cold, Layla would have stood there all day. Each time the ripple of water would wash over her feet, she laughed and splashed and loved it. Then it was sand castle time. She and Daddy dug a big hole, Dad went and got the obligatory pails of water, and Layla had a great time dumping them into the hole. Then all thoughts of sand castles disappeared and Layla discovered it was more fun to stand in the hole and have Daddy bury her legs in the sand. Meanwhile, Henry was busy keeping Aunt Krissi, Mommy and Grandma on guard, as his real desire seemed to be to get down on his knees and crawl all over Pennlyn Place Beach! And what was I doing you may ask? Taking pictures, watching the unfolding family tableau, and smiling ear to ear!

By afternoon, it was time to get the kids back to the house and prepare everyone for a trip to the boardwalk. On Layla’s agenda was some french fries (perhaps this little girl’s favorite food), and rides! Sounded like a solid plan to me, so as soon as the 7 of us were changed, off we went! One of the great parts of the location of our house, is that we just need to walk down the block, get on the boardwalk, turn right and walk 6 blocks south, and we’re at the commercial part of the Ocean City Boardwalk! As we walked by Wonderland Pier, Goofy Golf, Johnson’s Pop Corn, and the Old Time Photo place, my son Bill’s plan became clear. “How ‘bout we head down to Hamburger Construction Company and then go next door to Playland?” Playland is one of the two large amusement park areas on our boardwalk and Hamburger Construction Company has been a favorite meal stop for the D’Elias since Bill was Layla’s age!

Memories!

The kids have a great stroller that both Henry and Layla can ride in, and that made the mile or so trip down the boardwalk easier, as it would have taken a toll on those little legs of our Granddaughter…lord knows it was taking enough of a toll on her Grandparents’ legs, but we did survive and landed at Hamburger Construction Company! As we sat down, stretching across 2 booths in the back, suddenly I was back in the early 90s, and was sitting there with my kids and not my grandkids! That’s the great thing about Ocean City…some things just never change! The cheese steaks, chicken cheese steaks, french fries, birch beer, and even Layla’s hot dog were exactly like I remember when it was our little kids ordering. Heck, the same guy is even still manning the grill…he’s no longer the young life guard looking stud I remember, but it’s him! About the only thing that seemed different was the Garbage Fries that Bill ordered. A paper plate of fries, cheese sauce on top, and then it’s topped with cheese steak meat and fried peppers! Looked good…but I didn’t try it!

Then it was time for the rides! First was the Merry-Go-Round, where Layla, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Krissi selected horses and enjoyed their ride, while Grandma and Grandpa watched a sleeping Henry. Layla’s next choice was the helicopter that Daddy went on with her. Luckily, there was a bigger seat in the back for Dad to sit in, and Layla loved going round and round, especially when Daddy showed her that if she pulled the handle back, the ship went up in the air! After that, she and Dad sat down at a water gun shooting game called Stinky Feet, and they won a stuffed tiger for Layla. Then Layla and Aunt Krissi went on a ride that spun and went up and down and Layla was all smiles…Aunt Krissi not so much! Next, Layla picked the surf buggy car ride, and everyone could go on this…even Henry. Layla liked it…no comment from Henry! (Grandma and Grandpa babysat the stroller!) After that it was a ride on the train, but as it only made a small circle, that didn’t seem to be a favorite….I think Henry slept through it! The last ride was another car ride that she wanted Aunt Krissi to go on with her. It looked harmless enough, but when it started up, we realized it was a new incarnation of a ride that her Dad loved when he was little that was called The Whip. Layla loved it as the ride “whipped” you around the corner and she laughed at every spin. The look on our daughter’s face when she got “whipped” around at every corner gave us the clear indication that Layla enjoyed it more than Aunt Krissi!!

The Merry D’Elia Family at Playland

Then it was inside to the arcade and a few games before we headed home. Daddy showed Layla one of his favorites that has not changed a bit since he was her age, the Shooting Gallery. Populated with tomb stones, crows, old bottles, rail road signs, and even a “green guy in a box” (a younger Billy’s description), the object is to hit the electronic bullseye with your rifle “shot” and make things move or make noise. While Daddy was transported back in time by taking his turn with the rifle, Layla didn’t seem to be thrilled and moved on to play some Skee Ball with Mommy and Aunt Krissi. Meanwhile, Grandpa decided to put a $10 bill in the coin changer…I’ve still got about $8.50 in quarters…anyone need change?

“Sit on the couch Grandma, next to me.”

The kids (and the old folks) were getting tired, so after a brief stop over at Kohr Brothers for some ice cream, it was back to the house. Why is it that when you are walking like this, the return trip always seems longer? Could it be that it was late afternoon and the temperature had been steadily rising and the sun was out in full force? Could it be that we’d just spent several hours walking all over the boardwalk and Playland? Could it be we’re not used to keeping up with a two year old? Well, whatever the reason, we all made it home in one piece, and everyone started showering and changing. Grandma was done first, and was sitting on the front porch couch when her favorite Grand Daughter came out all sparkly clean in her cute jammies and put her little chair right next to the couch so she could sit with Grandma. As the rest of us would come and go, Susie would occasionally get up to do something and Layla would say, “sit on the couch Grandma, next to me.”.

Layla had a little bagel with “dip dip” (cream cheese) and Henry had a bottle, and before long we had two pooped kids who were ready for bed. There were kisses and hugs all around, and the little guys went off to bed. Then it was time for the adults to decide what to eat for dinner (take-out seafood won out) and what card game to play (May I was the game of choice). Unfortunately, the day had taken it’s toll on us too, and we never got through the entire game before it became night-night for us too!

I woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee, and as I opened the bedroom door, Layla looked up from picking up her little shoes in the living room and said , “Grandpa’s up”. Just thinking back to that moment and hearing those words, I have a big smile on my face. You love your kids with all your heart, but there is just something about that little girl, her beautiful face, and adorable voice. She owns my heart!

Unfortunately, Henry hadn’t had a good night and was all stuffed up and on top of that, Daddy’s work phone had been exploding because of the Orlando shooting, so it looked like Sunday was going to have to be cut short, but in the end, that didn’t matter. We loved having two of our three kids and our daughter-in-law with us and we really loved seeing the littlest D’Elias on our beach and boardwalk, and seeing the D’Elia Family’s love of Ocean City continue for another generation! All around just a great time, but Susie and I both agreed that having children is definitely a young person’s game. We were exhausted, but as our summers at the beach go on, these kids (and hopefully more) will get older and they will love visiting Grandma and Grandpa at the beach as much as we love having them!! If our plans work out as we hope, by this time next year, this Ocean City house will be our permanent home, and there will be lots more visits in the future as we all grow older. Till then, we have great memories of a wonderful weekend to start off our first summer at the beach!