I recently took a trip down to the New Jersey shore – a rare occurrence over the last few years.
You see as a child that was where my entire extended family vacationed. It was inexpensive and close to home, which made it an ideal choice for a modest family to escape the chaos of life.
Stepping foot on the Seaside Heights boardwalk at the New Jersey shore was like stepping back in time. Truthfully it had been some twenty-five years since I last walked up and down the strip, and now at 37 years old, I could see that while much had changed, so much more had stayed the same.
Thousands of deck boards, which lined the pathway, seemed as though they hadn’t been touched since they were installed decades ago, though now starting to show their age due to the weather. Game stands and eateries looked just as they did when I was young, with the addition of a few “Dunkin Donuts” sprinkled throughout. The same rides still lined one pier, some falling into disrepair and now just sitting there like an old skeleton.
It was eerie to say the least that this place so tied to my past still looked and smelled just as it did twenty-five years ago. With the technological superhighway forcing everything to evolve at record speeds, I was surprised that the shore has basically been left untouched.
The New Jersey shore was no longer a place I could see myself frequenting with any regularity, but it was nice to return, even for a brief moment, and relive some of the more happy memories of my childhood.
“Look not at the days gone by with a forlorn heart. They were simply the dots we can now connect with our present, to help us draw the outline of a beautiful tomorrow.” Dodinsky
