Memories of Seaside Heights, New Jersey

Doe's anyone remember "the hippie shack" thet was under the Seaside Park boardwalk?

Does anyone remember the name of the bar on the south end of the boardwalk in the 70's. I think it was McKelvys or something like that.

In the mid to late 1950's my parents took us to Seaside Heights for 2 week vacations. Just south of Freeman Pier were bungalows right on the boardwalk. I believe there were 2 buildings, each had about 6 units that formed a horseshoe shape with a sandy area in the middle. I can remember playing under the boardwalk and watching the people walk above us. Our dad would give us rolls of pennies and sent us to the pier to play in the arcade (you couldn't do that these days!). My sister always managed to get the brass ring while riding the carousel and got a free ride! I remember the carousel horses had real horsehair tails and I had a favorite black charger horse to ride. I also spent a lot of pennies in the "claw" machine where you would try to pick up the toy you wanted. Great memories!

My family owned a home on Fremont Ave from 1950 to 2005. I remember going to the ice house on central ave for ice, crab bait, and vanilla soda. We would walk to the bay pier to catch crabs.

Food shopping was done at "Paruta's Market" on the Boulevard, and we would go to the movies in Seaside Park...don't remember the theatre name,but may be "Strand",not far from the original "Maruca's" pizza.

Mr. Tunney lived on the corner of Fremont Ave and Bay Ave. Mr Ipri also lived on Fremont Ave before his house was moved to Eisenhower Ave.

Those were happy days.

When I was a young boy my family would travel from Elizabeth to Seaside for the weekend and we would stay on the beach all day them go get cleaned up and stay on the boardwalk til 2 or 3 in the morning. My father would play the nikcle & dime bar and win stuff. We would eat at the different sea food resturants on the boardwalk, me & my brothers and sister would ride all the different rides but we likes the bunp cars best. Then when I was a teenager I worked on the boardwalk for the whole summer with my friends, we would stay in a room with 1 bed and just slep there, we would usually touchup paint on the different wooden structures, or work a ride or wash dishes in a resturant, what ever the boss told us to. I remember the Chatter Box lounge on the boardwalk, my older brother Tony was a bar tender there and at night the Sonatones would play music, I remember Earl Garner was the lead singer. They were good. Some of the best times of my childhood were spent in Seaside Hights.

My husband and I were discussing the Surf Club in Ortley Beach. When we were single back in the 60's we would go there when at the shore for the weekend. Is Joey Harrison's Surf Club part of the original Surf Club? What weekends we spent at the shore when we were single. We brought our kids to the shore and now they are taking their kids. We all loved the Seaside Heights boardwalk.

Does anyone remember the "Monster Bowl" skateboard park in Seaside Heights? It was there in the late 1970's. I used to skateboard there. I remember the local skateboarders were Bob Julich, Matt Stabley etc... I would like to see some pictures of the park.

Does anyone remember a place called Nevers? I remember my Mom loved that place & we would always have to stop there. I think it was steak sandwiches? Can't remember, maybe I am wrong. But the name is stuck in my mind!

Anyone remember John Waynes Candy Store on the road into town when you could drive straight into town?? John must have been in his 80s in the 50s..I met a girl named Ruth and took her there....I think we were both about 10 at the time......

In the 70's I spent summers living above McKelvey's Bar with Mr. McKelvey, Kathy and her sister Janet. Her brothers Dave and Jack were around as well. Does anyone know how to get in touch with Kathy. I'd love to contact her and reconnect. I lived with her in Seaside for at least four summers-- hanging around with Annie Walker, Dolce, Gary Pine among others. I worked for the Federosas running a game stand by day and wailing on a pinball machine called Aquarion by night. I remember when Greetings from Asbury Park hit the stands and a little known local started to imprint himself in our collective Jersey brains. Fond memories. Would love to get in touch with Kathy McKelvey. -- Diane

I remember seeing posters for Sticky Fingers and Twisted Sister when they played at the Chatterbox when I was young. Does anyone know when it burned down? I cannot find any history and only 2 photos of it on the web.

Doe`s anybody remember Macks Pizza on the boardwalk and Mrs Mack who always stood in the corner by the birch beer barrel.We went to Seaside Park every summer and I can still see her selling a slice for 25 cents.

Used to live in Toms River, now I'm in upstate NY but gotta make a trip to Seaside at least once a year. I worked at Henry's Playland, Casino Pier on the "Love love love bugs bugs bugs"; I remember the sky ride ran from the end of casino pier to the arcade and back before a storm came through & tore it up. Casino pier arcade had a machine right up front where you'd put a quarter in and get a small white box with some cheezy prize in it. The Funtown pier train ride, which is now at a small amusement park in the Albany NY area. Rainbow Rapids waterslide, Wet Banana water slide, the log flume at funtown pier, the dark ride that ran in the basement of Coin Castle arcade. Hearing about the recent fire (9/13) was almost like hearing a family member died. Can't wait to see you rise again!

I grew up on the boards and on those beaches. Several fond memories there! My kids grew up going there as well but it wasn't the same. By then mom and dad had bought a condo down in WWC and so they spent more time on the WW boards.

Though we had plenty of family members with homes down at Pt. Pleasant and Seaside we would always stay at a little place called The Venetian Villa. A sweet, quaint little place. Anyone remember that?

Also, does anyone remember the old beach "badges"? They were pieces of fabric on a little brass saftey pin that you'd pin to your suit. Each day it was a different color/patterned fabric!

Anyway, after viewing a recently discovered 1960 tourism film for Seaside many memories came flooding back. I remembered the "Nickel Pier" and I vaguely remember the salt water pool.

However, I sometimes have false memories about places or events I never actually visited myself but just felt as though I went at some point because family members would talk about them a lot. For instance, Palisades Park closed when I was a baby so I know I never went but I feel as though I did because family would speak of it often. Same with the diving horses of AC.

So I'm trying to figure out if I would have been to the salt water pool or not. When was it closed and why?

Thanks!

anybody remeber lucky strick game throw a dime in the center red spot win a big prize a bike big stuffed animal never could do it spent 2 weeks every summer trying i think the spot was smaller then a dime went back their in 88 for my honeymoon {what a waste that was} threw 1 dime and won or shot the star out never did that either till i learned the secert dont play no u shoot around the star i do that all time now only took my 40 years and i have nt been there in 25 years live in IN. now only play at fairs we. Would stay in a house on the street across from the boardwalk and across from the saltwater pool house owned by mr and mrs rose any buddy remember them it was on corner behind a motel remember name across from arcade with skiball and bingo i have so much more to ask

I spent a lot of time at my aunt and uncles house on Good Luck Point across the bay in Bayville. It was the best time of my life and it lasted for 66 years until Sandy took the house, garage and a lifetime of great memories away forever. As a kid I remember two large wooden speedboats that would take people for rides from Seaside near the end of the Rt37 bridge down towards Island Beach turning around at exactly the same spot every time and returning. I remember the one was named Miss Seaside but I don't recall the second boats name. Does anyone remember these two boats from the 50's and maybe what ultimately happened to them?

Who remembers this gem that disappeared after the 1984 season? I spent a season working inside, and had the most fun scaring the heck out of people as the crypt keeper as soon as you walked inside. A few of my older co workers, and by older I mean 18 or 19, got fired after having some fun with females near some of of the passageways and dressing room.

I was born in Jersey City in 1941. We often visited Uncle Benny )Benjamin Berger) at 221 Hancock Avenue. Later my Grandparents inherited the house from Uncle Benny and lived there for the rest of their lives. The house has been replaced but the chain link fence that I installed for them around 1966 is still standing there. The next door neighbors were Bonnie Poane and her husband who was a coin collector for the meters. Their son graduated law school and I think practices in Lakewood. Mary Antonelli lived across the street. I remember the 1955 boardwalk fire and also when the gaming wheels were shut down as illegal gambling. My grandfather (Poppy)and I would get up at 5 a.m. and he would take me crabbing by the second piling on the left at the pier where Stewart's Root Beer stands now. The crabs were 8" and blue-clawed in those days. George McDevitt was the Chief of Police then and I played with his kids Joanne and Georgie in milk boxes in the empty lots which had plenty of poison ivy. I remember the clatter of the old wooden bridge as Daddy drove us into Seaside.
The beach was free and there was no fence along the boardwalk. The laughing Lady at the fun house always frightened me. I remember the "Walk-Away_Sunday", a slice of ice cream brick in a rectangular topped cone. I had my first slice of pizza on the boardwalk. My little sister and I loved to collect seashells, take them home and paint them.
Now I am 73 and live in Beachwood. I took my own little grandchildren to the very same pier by the same piling where Poppy took me. I wept.

When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's, we spent time every summer at our grandparents house in Seaside Heights. Their house is no longer there but I remember it like it was yesterday. Their house was located on the beach right next to the bath house at the north end of the boardwalk. We could walk right under the boardwalk and be on the beach.
My father spent his entire summers there as a young man. He worked at Henry's Playland in the summers and because of this when we stayed at our grandparents cottage, my brothers and I always looked forward to visiting Uncle Henry. Uncle Henry would always give us each $5 knowing full well that we would head straight for the cashier and get change to play skiball and every other game in the arcade.
Summers at Seaside Heights was always special. The smell of the ocean mixed with the smell of the creosote of the boardwalk. The sounds of the pier each night. Good times growing up.

Jetstar roller coaster, FunHouse, cheesesteaks, french fries with vinegar( white) Taylor ham pork roll winning on the boardwalk at the food stand and my very first Rolling Stone album some girls..

I am trying to recall a ride from late 60s, early 70's, inside one of the arcades that was cone shaped, about 3 ft high in the middle, maybe 6 inches on the edges, and about 30ft in diameter. We would lay on the disc and join hands around the middle as the disc spun faster and faster until the centrifugal force finally broke us apart and threw us into the padding along the edges. Tell me I didn't dream this up. Great fun then, lawsuit in the making today. I think there was also slot car racing in the same arcade where the winner got a checkered flag. Any thoughts or pics would be great. I reviewed the two films and didn't see the ride pictured.

From 1938 to 1942 my family vacationed at Seaside Heights, We rented cottages on Franklin Avenue and Webster Avenue. We would take the train from Washington, DC to Philly and ferry over to Camden and take a train to Seaside. Steamer trunks were sent ahead via Railway Express. The cottages had ice boxes and daily the iceman would come up the street. Dugan's Bakery trucks peddled fresh breads, coffee cakes and doughnuts.I was enthralled with the huge steam engines that arrived in the morning and departed in the afternoon and would race to the station to watch every arrival and departure. Have many fond memories and photos of those vacations. When the Second World War came blackout curtains were erected along the boardwalk to hide the lights of the town. I remember live pony rides at a boardwlk stand. My older brother and I would go beneath the boardwalk in the early mornings and sift the sand for coins that were dropped and fell between the boardwalk planks. Ah the memories!

Does anyone have photos of the Italian Village or The Hippy Shack. I can't seem to find any and would love to see them again. Lifelong Seaside resident

Memories of a little Italian Restaurant called Don's pantry across from the boardwalk. When I was between 7 and 10 years old my family would drive from Staten Island to Seaside in just enough time to be seated.The raviolis and house salad dressing were amazing. Always wondered what the secret ingredient was in that salad dressing. Such good times.