the rix mix

Labels: boardwalks, jersey shore, postcard, Seaside Heights

Labels: boardwalks, jersey shore, postcard, Seaside Heights

The south end of the Seaside Heights boardwalk, including FunTown Pier, is burning down (the iconic roller coaster was at the north end). The amusement  Pier hadn't reopened this past summer, but dozens of boardwalk businesses in the Funtown section had. Most of the section lies in Seaside Park, the town south of Heights, & they always always correct you! The entire boardwalk was replaced. The Jersey Shore has already suffered so much, & the part from the Seasides north got the worse of Hurricane Sandy. The wind is blowing the fire north, the line of heavy showers expected there failed to materialize.

Labels: boardwalks, Seaside Heights

The Jetstar coaster in Seaside Heights was demolished today. Some people had grown far too fond of the iconic image  the coaster presented symbolizing the Jersey shore in ruins.  Some even suggested it be left there. Ridiculous. To what purpose?  An "attraction"?  Boardwalk businesses are always looking to ways to make more money. But boardwalks aren't about ruins. They are about summers returning.  They burn down, get washed away, are rebuilt. The boardwalk always changes from year-to-year. You pick up on these changes when you return year after year. The prizes at the game booths change. The rides change. The  games in the arcadrs change. Same but different. The memories collect. The boardwalk becomes an experience of  both the present & the past.  Occasionally there is radical change, the result of a fire or storm.  My Atlantic City boardwalk no longer exists, & neither fire nor storm effected the change. We will always have this image:

Labels: boardwalks, jersey shore, Seaside Heights

Jotting down various memories of Karen Battell Silva, who passed away far too young this week. As they accumulated they began taking on a "what a fool believes" quality. Which is all wrong. I don't overestimate my impact on a teenage girl in the 1960's who lived an entire life since then, or her influence on me. She leaves a husband, a son, her mom, six siblings at least a dozen nieces & nephews. My condolences to them. But as a writer  I'm always trying to draw a narrative out of the episodic, was already doing that when I was 18 years-old. I'm the son of a fine  "amateur" historian & storyteller. There are a number of anecdotes  about Karen & her family I've told  all along.  I repeated one to my stepbrother earlier this week, before I heard about Karen  -  he knew her as  my girlfriend & met his future wife shortly after I met Karen -   about a particular summer night on the crowded  Seaside Heights boardwalk.  Karen & I were strolling the Seaside Boardwalk on a balmy summer evening just digging the scene. Karen probably wearing some light summery dress - she was very much a dress kind of girl in those days. Over leaning against the boardwalk railing were my stepbrother & his girlfriend, a tall attractive blonde, both in leather jackets.  At the timehe  had a beard & a bike & looked a bit like an outlaw Abe Lincoln. We sropped & chatted for a few minutes, the most natural thing in the world to meet in that place at that time.

 I 've told a few stories on the radio. None of them are negative.  I  began writing some of them down only after I started this blog,   I allude to Karen in a very general way  in just one of my poems  I can think of. Most of my poems are located in their moment of creation, recent past, or mythic time.  She was long gone when I began writing publishable poems. She has her place back there, mainly in mythic time,  but she is so distinctive a personality,  attractive,  sensual,  intelligent,  even as a high school student, so memorable - & I've been with several remarkable women since then in longer, more serious relationships. I imagine  Karen would  appreciate being so memorable. She wanted her presence & personality felt. She was very good at  letting me have the spotlight, but when it was her turn, I got out of the way. Maybe I learned that from her, when to get out of the way.  She also had small tolerance for crass or vulgar people, & that taught me something important, too.

 Karen was not only the first woman (at 16), but the first person to give an unqualified  "yes" to my creative aspirations, which at that time were vague & largely undefined & searching for outlets, but very strong.  For Karen it was part of who I was, just as dancing was who she was, & something she liked in me, & no further discussion was necessary.

Labels: boardwalks, growing up, jersey shore, Karen Battell, love, Mahalo, Roselle Park, Seaside Heights