Who has childhood memories of first time they saw ocean
 

"BEACH TO US MEANS A GREAT VACATION"

Who has childhood memories of the first time they saw the Atlantic Ocean???

Who has childhood memories of the first time they went to either the "Jersey Shore" or "New York's beaches"........or any others for that matter? Cape Cod, etc.?

Obviously, midwesterners would not have the same memories as those in the Northeast......or any from the Mid Atlantic states, etc.

Going "down the shore" is a New Jersey phrase we've all known since childhood.

Unfortunately devasted during Hurricane Sandy, it's rebounded via a wonderful effort of all those who love the place.

However, my first memory is of the New York City "beaches" such as Coney Island and Far Rockaway......as those were my own father's childhood memories.

Once we were teenagers with "wheels of our own" to do the one hour drive to the "Jersey shore" that was our Saturday and / or Sunday destination.......as well as that of all of our friends.

So many beaches, too numerous to mention.......but we went to them all. Of course for the "boardwalk" Seaside Heights was the place to go. Too loud now. But, as a teen, it was great.

Once married, we even would rent a home for two weeks each summer, first two weeks in July........and after a few years, would bring our baby daughter, plus invite for the second week some other relatives (parents, siblings) to share the beach house with us. Great memories. My mom and his mom wouldn't have had a vacation otherwise. They shared a bedroom and always complained about each other's snoring.

Once we moved up to Vermont, we had a three hour ride east to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire or Rye Beach, N.H...........and then up the seacoast to all of the MAINE beaches.

Just as we've explored all the Florida beaches..........we've done all of the Maine seacoast from bottom to top.......and then on to the Canadian Maritimes.

The interesting thing about the Maine beaches......it can be 90 degrees on the coast and just drive out to one of the scenic "points" and it's a refreshing 60 degrees, like stepping into a refrigerator........so many memories of all the artists with their easels and paint supplies trying to duplicate the heavenly scenery..........Maine is for artists for sure.

Getting off the Maine Pike ; exploring each and every peninsula which takes forever......is the only way to see the Maine seacoast.

New Brunswick Canada has some great pristine empty beaches as does Prince Edward Island, Canada. Very very pretty.

Massachusetts' Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island were also close to us for autumn vacation weeks............with the kids in tow. Again, wonderful memories along with the ferry rides over......best seafood is found in Maine and Mass.....

So, "beach" to us means a great vacation.

If one looks, they can find the hidden gems..........one just has to get off the "beaten path" and go in search of the true beauty in each state........not artificial beauty, but "nature".

When we began our road trips driving "west" we discovered that the GREAT LAKES BEACHES looked, to us anyway, like the ocean.........Presque Isle State Park is great. Lighthouse and all.

Growing up in New Jersey.........not only the "shore" but the lakes were our weekend destinations..........I guess only natural to gravitate to WATER.

Where we are now.........within 3 to 4 hours we can be to any New England beach, and a few more hours to the "Jersey Shore"..........

Great memories, for sure.

Last year we did our first two week family reunion at the Maine Seacoast with our five grandchildren and their parents/friends who joined them, etc...........what fun in a big modern rental home. Cousins bonded, etc.


This year,2014, there will be six grandchildren. All wonderful kids who add joy to our lives. With everyone's busy schedules at school, work, extra curricular.....it stands to reason that seeing these "kids" is a rare event.......that's what makes the two week family reunion.........plus other holiday times of the year so special.

Old people aren't meant to be totally alone in their old age..........our kids were raised knowing their grandparents as they all moved UP HERE TO VERMONT. But as the old saying goes......you enjoy the grandbabies and then they "go back home".

Manasquan, NJ
 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacken...57603909641821

This was pre-Sandy. We still don't have the protective dunes in place (and, honestly, it looks much more impressive without them). The dunes will be built up again beginning this fall. Growing up in NJ, both my wife and I had experiences very similar to yours. There were also many concerts and shows at the shore as well as rides (before all the huge theme parks). Thanks for the memories!

I grew up on Long Island, and it seems like Jones Beach (west end 2 and Smith Point Park) were always there. We would go every weekend and often during the week. It seemed like all the radios were tuned to either 77wabc or 1010wins. The water was always so cold it was hard to get into at the beginning of the summer, but the waves for body surfing were great and we would spend hours in the water and come out with blue lips and chattering teeth. Remember, this was before air conditioning was commonplace and going to the beach was the only relief from the heat. Some of my best childhood memories!

Buckeye Lake
 

was our beach in Columbus, Ohio. Had all the same kinda fun and memories and all the same kind of family connections too, Martha.


The first time I saw the ocean I was overwhelmed with it's beauty, but it was not a greater event than the little Columbus girl wading for the first time into Buckeye Lake.

Grew up on the beach, beginning part of Buzzards Bay so salt water is in my blood. Every day in the summer was spent at the beach, just a very, very short walk, 4 houses away. Ocean water was just a part of life.

When I finally got to live near the Pacific, again, nothing out of the ordinary since I had spent so many years around water. What I did notice though, the Pacific was a heck of a lot colder than the Atlantic AND the air at the beach on the left coast didn't smell quite the same as it did on the right coast....;)

I was born in the Atlantic City, NJ Hospital and our house was in Ventnor NJ right by the ocean. I recently moved to the Cape area in Florida. Just returning to my roots. There is nothing like the peace and tranquility of it.
Nancy

First time I saw the ocean was when I was about 8 years old. I was disappointed................thought it would look bigger than that.

Absolutely wonderful photography.......which brought back so many memories.....of so many places.

The last time we saw the beautiful cherry blossoms illuminated at Branch Brook Park was in 1965, right before our wedding.

The extreme storms that have hit New Jersey most recently truly seem to point to climate change. Lets hope for a calmer road ahead........for all.

Thanks for sharing; you are a talented photographer indeed.

Jones Beach was one of my dad's favorites
 

Jones Beach was one of my dad's favorites, as well. He would take us there when we were very young. I forgot to mention it earlier. Thanks for sharing.

I guess it all depends from what vantage point one is seeing the ocean.
In the past few decades we've enjoyed the bold open ocean of the Maine seacoast as seen from places like Schoodic Point or Bar Harbor, where the waves are crashing against the big rocks and boulders. Great place for photographers.

When we rented a home on "The Nubble" at York Beach Maine last summer for the two weeks (family reunion with all of the kids and grand kids), we were sitting on Short Sands Beach so that the toddlers could play in the gentle water, when a family from Atlantic City, New Jersey (inland) struck up a conversation. The father told me that even though they were somewhat inland away from the actual beach, their home had damage from Hurricane Sandy.......he was thinking of selling that house which had been in their family farm for such a long time........as the weather was no longer what it used to be plus taxes were rising higher and higher. It was a difficult decision for him and his wife. Their son was encouraging them to move to Florida!!!!

I agree with you re the peace and tranquility of the seashore and the ocean.......

When you say the Cape area, are you referring to Cape Kennedy near Cape Canaveral?? I've heard that Cocoa Beach is one of the flat beaches (never been there as of yet) compared to the rest of them in Brevard County south of the Cape.......most of those have a twelve foot drop down to the beach........but nice stairs and ramps over the dunes and down to the beach. When we lived in that area back in 1973.......it was a flat walk out to the beach......I guess storms have eroded the sand over the years.

However, the nice thing about that coast is that it is not touristy........but has many nice small towns, which just happen to have a beach !! Not to mention the inland waterway. All great for boating.

Thank you for your very kind words.

You're very welcome; thanks for capturing some unique shots of N.J.

I believe you mentioned Watchung area. My husband and I have our initials carved inside a heart on a tree at South Mountain Reservation in the Watchung Mountains........we used to hike/walk up there all the time. Wonder if that tree is still there?

We met at age 17, our high school senior class picnic, which was held at the South Mountain Reservation, back in June 1962.

p.s. Strange but true, we actually lived two blocks away from each other, but had never met. Attended different elementary schools; our paths never crossed in high school........until the picnic.

My first memory of the Atlantic Ocean, was when the family went to Brooklyn, and I was body surfing with the waves. I was maybe seven years old,, and a wave picked-me up, and dumped me on my head, as I tumbled into the shore. It was my first impression of the ocean's power, and that was only a small wave.

The Jersey Shore and Jones beach was a way of life, for those raised in that area. Always looked forward to the family vacation to Asbury Park beach and boardwalk.

There is nothing like the ocean and salt water for playing/enjoying the sun and water. I remember it always made me hungry while at dinner, at the end of the day.

So sad to see Sandy destroy, most of the shoreline, but it will get back to, what it once, was. A lot of people have their fond memories, of the Atlantic Ocean.

When Muhammed Ali fought in Atlantic City for the frist time and it was his first trip from Louisvile, Kentucky. He was only used to the lakes near his home. When he first saw the ocean, he remarked, "that's the biggest damn lake, I ever seen". :D

I graduated from high school in 64 - we will be having our 50th year reunion in September in Atlantic City which has become a very popular spot. Your tree might still be there in the Reservation. Development has been minimal. My wife was a docent for a number of years at the Turtle Back Zoo. It has undergone some nice improvements over the years if you haven't been back there. It is nice to meet you here.

Turtle Back ZooTurtle Back Zoo

Thanks again for enjoying some of my photos.

I was born and raised about a mile from a beach. I can't remember a time when I hadn't seen the ocean.

When I was very young, in the days before air conditioning, on hot summer nights, families in my community would take blankets and go sleep on the beach. My parents did this when I was a baby. I think that this is why I love the ocean so much.

The one disappointment I have about living in The Villages is that it is so far from any beaches.

No, but I remember my first time seeing a REAL mountain, on honeymoon with my wife in Estes Park, CO. All I'd ever seen were the bumps we have in Ga and Tn. I never expected the Rockies to be so huge! I knew they were not covered in trees, but I thought they'd be a similar scale to the Smokies. I was awestruck.

My first time was Hampton Beach NH. My parents vacationed there every year. Being it was my first, I thought the ocean would be kind and easy on me. But noooooooo.... smacked me in the butt every chance it got!

http://www.tourspecgolf.com/forum/pu...iley_beach.gif

Nice to know our tree might still be there
 

Thanks for the link !!! Nice to know that our tree might still be there, after all these years. Unfortunately, we have not been back. Vermont has been our home for the past 44 years.


(The N.J. elders have all passed away or relocated to Arizona/California/Florida with the exception of some cousins in Westwood, Bergen County, N.J. / Princeton, N.J. area)

I hope ou acclimated before you went up to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes
 

I hope you acclimated before you went up to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Colorado !! You are correct, the Rockies are awesome to view. Our son/family live in Denver. They were married at 8,000 to 9,000 elevation in Tabernash which is near Winter Park, CO. We also have many friends who lived in Colorado Springs for a long time (Air Force Academy, etc.)......all high elevation if you are not used to it, or coming from sea level I should say. Pikes Peak is close to Colorado Springs.

Colorado is a beautiful state, but lately they've been having some severe weather.

We live in the Green Mountain State ; our mountains would be like your mountains..........as well as those in New Hampshire, Maine and neighboring New York State.

Blue eyed , fair skinned, red haired Italians
 

Perhaps your Italian ancestors came from northern Italy? Maybe generations prior to the ones you've heard of, wherever that Italian location might be......maybe the original ones came from "the north".


While doing my Italian genealogy, awhile back I discovered the reason for my own paternal grandmother's blue eyes, light skin, and that of several of her children (red hair included).......


Her branch, over the generations, had migrated down from the Trent-Fondo area which sits near the Austrian border.


Prior to that "the family name" was traced to Graz Austria. In the present, those folks in Graz Austria are carrying Italian surnames with Austrian/German sounding first names.


Evening is a nice time to be at the beach, as the sun is setting........or early morning, before it is up. We also no longer sunbathe, or else stay covered up in light clothing........due to D.L.E.

When we left N.J. for Vermont Hampton was our first also
 

[QUOTE=skyguy79;889747]My first time was Hampton Beach NH. My parents vacationed there every year. Being it was my first, I thought the ocean would be kind and easy on me. But noooooooo.... smacked me in the butt every chance it got!


When we relocated from New Jersey to Vermont back in 1970, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire was also our "first" New England beach.......back then it was on all the "old roads"........now, especially from the Manchester New Hampshire area, it's all super highway.

Our first opinion of Hampton was , "What, no rides?" We were thinking of the Jersey shore........but did find a carousel for our two year old daughter in Salisbury Beach, right below Hampton.

Now, we just pass through Hampton Beach as it's the FIRST OCEAN we come to......to get out and feel the salt air.....

We like to take the shore roads all the way up, past Rye to Portsmouth New Hampshire and into Maine........avoiding the Maine Turnpike..........then stop at L.L.BEAN in Freeport Maine before continuing on. Nice little dock on the ocean in Freeport Maine that has the best "fish fry". Quaint, but excellent fish. It's where the fishing boats come in.

However, when our two children were young, we did rent cottages in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire........they enjoyed the sand and looking out for "JAWS"......while I read the book on the beach.
We met a lot of French Canadians in Hampton Beach.

Great memories. Thanks for reminding me. Beaches were always our preferred vacation place when the kids were little......plus, of course, Disney World each April school vacation, flying out of Albany, N.Y.

I also grew up on Long Island. Every summer day and sometimes evening I would be at the ocean, bay, Sound or Lake Ronkonkoma. Not only to swim, sun and to have fun but to fish and go crabbing. Camping at Wildwood or Cedar Beach in East Hampton. These were all part of my wonderful childhood memories. The strange part is as I grew older and had a home of my own with an in ground pool the salt water, sand and crowds no longer appealed to me. I am perfectly content never to go to the beach again.

It is a lot easier when the kids are school aged
 

It is a lot easier when the kids are school aged to install an inground pool in the backyard........we did the same thing. Every day through the summer, they were in that pool with their school friends and neighborhood friends (plus I had all the moms sitting with me to help me to supervise the diving board maneuvers, the "Marco Polo" splashing, etc., the sliding board into the water.....good memories for sure.

But, still, we always took our weeklong vacations.......one in the springtime during school vacation to Disney and the other "end of summer" to N.H., Maine or Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard/Nantucket...........the ocean has always beckoned.

My husband's dad had a boat so he recalls many great childhood memories of fishing off the N.J. jetties, out in the ocean, etc., etc. and also surf fishing off the Jersey shore using sand spikes on the beach ..........again, as teens we went to all the beaches up and down the Jersey shore........didn't miss a one.

They also did clamming, etc. but lots of fishing off the boats as well as surf/beach fishing.

For those of us born in the Mid Atlantic States or the New England States........the beach was the place to go.

But, I agree, the pools are easier as they are right in your own backyard.

East to West Coast difference in water
 

Katama Beach in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts was that really big open wide beach, right? It reminds us of the beach in Prince Edward Island Canada where Anne of Green Gables is located.
Huge, empty of people and very wide.

We would drive to Woods Hole, Mass and take the ferry across to Martha's Vineyard........after being there a week, we'd take the bigger ferry over to Nantucket (where you couldn't drive your car).

I should get out a map to see where Buzzard's Bay is.
After college, our daughter and her husband lived near Boston in Cambridge.........then Quincy where they bought a condo.....prior to relocating back to northern Vermont. But our beach days in Mass were when they were teenagers and then when we had the "empty nest".

Funny you should mention the "air" as we had a neighbor in town here (who retired to Saratoga Springs, New York) but was born in Brooklyn, New York. When they'd go to Florida they were amazed at how BLUE or AQUA the water looked compared to their "grey" water at the shore in N.Y. where her family still lived. She couldn't figure out why the Atlantic Ocean could be grey up north but such a pretty blue in Florida. The Gulf of Mexico beaches do have that white sand and azure blue water.

Cousins of ours who visited California when her hubby had R&R during the Viet Nam War era........said things pretty similar to what you are saying..........plus were amazed at the rocky cliffs above some of the ocean front. (which we've now seen in Maine, but as a younger person only knew the flat beaches of the Jersey shore).

So, I think you are right that the east coast beaches vs. west coast beaches are different. Our son's wife has family in the LaJolla (San Diego) area of CA. so those grandchildren of ours will get to see both types of beach.....Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.........and do already.

Yes I do remember
 

I do remember 1010WINS !!!!

Yes, the water was cold but that's why the people flocked to the beaches.

I have pictures of my dad's sisters on Jones beach in the "flapper days of the roaring twenties". Though demure by today's standards, those bathing suits must have shocked my sainted old Grandmother.

I also have pics on Coney Island where it was "blanket to blanket" congested with people escaping the city heat. I think some must have gone by train.

Also, anyone from Jersey remembers "The Garden State Parking Lot" on Sunday evenings heading back home........the Garden State Parkway was always bumper to bumper..........but we eventually found side roads through farm country........should anyone forget that N.J. was known for their tomatoes and other crops.

People only think of the N.J. Turnpike oil refineries as shown on "The Sopranos"........but our birth state did have a lot of farmland plus historic sites from the Revolutionary war.......many historic towns, ditto........like Princeton, Morristown, etc., etc., etc.

Plus, Cape May N.J. is very quaint if one is looking for quaint and not filled with the teeny boppers as depicted on the show about the Jersey shore at Seaside Heights........who by the way are not even from N.J. (maybe one of them was).

We also would go to Asbury Park and sit high up on some ledge there, enjoying the view of the ocean...........that was before Tony Soprano met his fellow hoods at Asbury (on the show).

Ditto for Wildwood Crest, Wildwood, Long Beach Island, Sandy Hook State Park, Point Pleasant, and so many others........especially BARNEGAT LIGHTHOUSE STATE PARK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also grew up going to Buzzards Bay and Parkwood Beach where my aunt had a house,also used to love going over the bridges to Cape Cod to my destination of Yarmouth, Dennisport, Falmouth, etc. There's nowhere like good ole Cape Cod!!

My earliest memories are of going to LA, OC and San Diego County beaches. La Jolla Cove, Torrey Pines and Huntington Beach are probably my favorite SoCal beaches. Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of NC has my favorite East Coast beaches. https://www.google.com/search?q=ocra...w=1280&bih=738 My favorite European are on the French Riviera at St. Tropez. Tahiti has some beaches comprising volcanic black sand, my favorite tropical beach. https://www.google.com/search?q=tahi...w=1280&bih=760

We will always remember the first time our twins saw the ocean (at age 5) which I caught on video:

Andrew and Josh meet the ocean - YouTube

Our twins will be age 21 in January and we will be celebrating with them on a cruise (they've seen the ocean many times since that first time!)

I remember it well. I just started to walk and there in front of me glistening in the sunlight the ocean as I watched it began to turn in a counter clock position disappearing for just a second and then suddenly a gurglying sound and the ocean appeared again:D

I grew up right by Jones Beach. It was wonderful!
My Dad was FDNY and on his days off would take me and my older
brother. The beach was pretty empty back then. He would have
each one of us in each arm in the water.
I loved the beach and swimming all my life.