Sunday, September 05, 2004
Summer's End @ Point Pleasant
The best Summer's End party on the Point Pleasant boardwalk was Jenkinson's North, up by Manasquan Inlet. This small bar/restaurant & outdoor deck is avoided by the guidos & guidettes who pack Martell's & Jenks Club, attracting instead a mixed age crowd of neighborhood cottagers & people staying at the motels around the fishing wharf. Tonight there was a DJ playing funky oldies outside & everyone was dancing rather than striking poses. If it was a private party, no one was asking for invitations.
The northeast wind was chilly not raw, kicking up rough but unspectacular surf. Down on the beach by the amusement area of the boardwalk veteran radio DJ Big Joe Henry was emceeing a karaoke talent show for a large crowd, I heard a 14 year old from Philly sing "Where the Boys Are." She was good. Restaurants & arcades were were busy but there wasn't an atmosphere of panic, of time running out that one revels in at Seaside Heights over Labor Day weekend. I felt more energy, heard more screaming on the rides earlier in August. Even the "vacancy" sign was lit at Amethyst's Beach Motel. The weather may have had something to do with it. But Point Pleasant Beach never feels like it's about to go out of control. Which is what I always liked about the place when I had a larger choice of shore destinations on a Saturday night. Now I just notice the smallness, the gift shops are all alike - owned by Jenkinson's, the price of food is the same everywhere, there's no real choices because there's no competition; it's like a church carnival, none of the vendors have to do anything special to stay in business. You wanna play this wheel or the identical one fifty yards away? Might as well get the $2.50 slice of pizza here because it's $2.50 everywhere else. (Where do they find so many sushi chefs? Must be hundreds working seasonal at the shore.) The only wooden food stand with old time character sits by itself south of the main amusement area, with batting cages & a funky miniature golf course out back.What was once the biggest attraction for me is gone; an arcade with a row of about ten mostly classic pinball machines.
Although I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not really. I know what Point Pleasant Beach has & doesn't have. I appreciate the downtown area on Arnold Avenue, a mixture of upscale restaurants & stores, antique & crafty type shops, along withthe ordinary main street businesses that exist mainly for year 'round residents. Point Pleasant & Point Pleasant Beach are a nice pair of adjacent towns, quite wealthy at the upper end of the economic scale, but home to a lot of people who aren't. I love the Manasquan River nearby & proximity to upper Barnegat Bay, because the fishing industry is active all year, & bays & tidal estuaries are especially interesting in the winter when migrating waterfowl arrive & the ocean beaches are desolate & numbingly cold. An attractive place to live.
I welcome the end of Summer & hope to get to the shore many times offseason.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
The northeast wind was chilly not raw, kicking up rough but unspectacular surf. Down on the beach by the amusement area of the boardwalk veteran radio DJ Big Joe Henry was emceeing a karaoke talent show for a large crowd, I heard a 14 year old from Philly sing "Where the Boys Are." She was good. Restaurants & arcades were were busy but there wasn't an atmosphere of panic, of time running out that one revels in at Seaside Heights over Labor Day weekend. I felt more energy, heard more screaming on the rides earlier in August. Even the "vacancy" sign was lit at Amethyst's Beach Motel. The weather may have had something to do with it. But Point Pleasant Beach never feels like it's about to go out of control. Which is what I always liked about the place when I had a larger choice of shore destinations on a Saturday night. Now I just notice the smallness, the gift shops are all alike - owned by Jenkinson's, the price of food is the same everywhere, there's no real choices because there's no competition; it's like a church carnival, none of the vendors have to do anything special to stay in business. You wanna play this wheel or the identical one fifty yards away? Might as well get the $2.50 slice of pizza here because it's $2.50 everywhere else. (Where do they find so many sushi chefs? Must be hundreds working seasonal at the shore.) The only wooden food stand with old time character sits by itself south of the main amusement area, with batting cages & a funky miniature golf course out back.What was once the biggest attraction for me is gone; an arcade with a row of about ten mostly classic pinball machines.
Although I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not really. I know what Point Pleasant Beach has & doesn't have. I appreciate the downtown area on Arnold Avenue, a mixture of upscale restaurants & stores, antique & crafty type shops, along withthe ordinary main street businesses that exist mainly for year 'round residents. Point Pleasant & Point Pleasant Beach are a nice pair of adjacent towns, quite wealthy at the upper end of the economic scale, but home to a lot of people who aren't. I love the Manasquan River nearby & proximity to upper Barnegat Bay, because the fishing industry is active all year, & bays & tidal estuaries are especially interesting in the winter when migrating waterfowl arrive & the ocean beaches are desolate & numbingly cold. An attractive place to live.
I welcome the end of Summer & hope to get to the shore many times offseason.
