Growing up in Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore (Brigatine/Atlantic City to Cape May) holds many memories of  family, fun and funnel cake.  While my family never owned/rented a shore house, my uncle Bill lived there all year round so I would stay with him (he had a pool).  As a child he would call us his “shoobies”, the locals used that term for the Philly folks who came to the shore for a day with their shoebox lunches many, many years ago.

The shore towns have their own unique identity but only a few have a boardwalk.  As a child, I loved the Ocean City boardwalk as I could play mini-golf, try my luck with carnival games and enjoy the amusement rides.  I would also eat my body weight in sugar with treats such as funnel cake, soft serve ice cream, fudge, salt water taffy and boardwalk fries to name a few (normal kid stuff before nutritional menus/labels).  As i grew older, I graduated from the Ocean City boardwalk to the Wildwood Boardwalk (“Watch the Tramcar please!”) as many teens did back then. The tradition upon high school graduation,  was “Senior Week” in Wildwood. It was a town filled party for a week (there were two weeks – one for Catholic schools and one for Public schools).  Good times, great memories, no smartphones!  Each night, the boardwalk was alive with excitement, anticipation and teenage fun.  Life on the boardwalk was (and still is) interesting – it’s own little summer bubble of boardwalk memories. It only takes a piece of fudge, salt water taffy or funnel cake to remember.

Which brings me to Atlantic City (A.C.) and it’s famous boardwalk.  With such a storied history, Atlantic City, to me, has the everchanging “everyman” vibe to it – it has the carnival games/rides on the pier but  in the past few years is trying to reinvent itself with the beach bars, new restaurants and concerts.  It doesn’t have the returning generations of families of Ocean City and Wildwood but rather a more transient nature given the conferences, casinos and daytrippers, which changes the boardwalk scene everyday.

The boardwalk still has the standard vendors that continue to baffle me (see observations below) and the parade of people is definitely a melting pot (plus a bit of a great casting call for “what not to wear” but i’m being snarky).  A.C. doesn’t have the famous tram car that Wildwood does but rather the old fashion push carts which will set you back some bucks to ride in them (they charge a flat fee by the number of blocks they push you). They are always a bit tempting but given the salt water taffy and fudge intake, it’s always best for me to walk and walk and walk some more.

While walking along the boardwalk, I am always left with the same queries:

1. Does anyone buy those lewd T-Shirts or any T-Shirts for that matter? (no photos, the sayings were that crude)

2. Um, why so many “massage” shops – I never see anyone walk in although the lure of the beat up couch in the doorway is so tempting to just say “why waste money at the luxury spa in the casino, I think I will go to that questionable boardwalk shop” to relax

3. A plethora of psychics – every block has a new one waiting to tell your future – I never understood how they stay in business – I guess they can just “see the rent money”?

4. Why is there a Ripley’s believe It or Not – doesn’t the internet negate a need for this now?  Walking the boardwalk you can play your own version of “believe it or not”

5. Does anyone buy anything on the boardwalk other than food/drink? I didn’t see anyone with a shopping bag but i saw lots of people eating food

The Atlantic City boardwalk is alive all year round due to the casinos and walking the boardwalk is a fun (free) form of entertainment for me – revisiting the foods of my childhood (that keep my gym membership active) as I walk looking out toward the ocean under the bright lights of the casinos.

So through the years, my carnival games have evolved into slot machines and my foods much more nutritional (damn, labels and calorie boards!) but walking along the boardwalk stirs memories that keep the summer nostalgia bubble floating for just a little longer with or without the tramcar (the fudge also helps!).