Born
in 1954, and growing up in Asbury
Park was the greatest! I went to Holy Spirit
School, and belonged to the 7th Ave pool. I was
there when Gary Giberson got stuck in the drain as I was a
lifeguard groupie and my girlfriend's dad, Butch Bruno was
director of the boardwalk. My first job was at the Berkeley
Sweet Shop owned by George Panas. At that time you could work at
14 yrs old for $1.00 an hour and sneak into all the concerts in
Convention Hall, because you had your "cool" white
uniform on.
I lived on 7th Ave, in a Victorian style home which was
once a summer home owned by my great grandmother. My
grandfather was an architect who had his office on Monroe
St., I believe. He was one of the architects for the Asbury
Park High School stadium, Holy spirit convent and a small
church I believe is on 3rd Ave. In 1963 he
retired and I guess things got a bit hard and we moved
to Sunset Ave. After the riots
we moved to Asbury Ave and took pleasure in watching
the elegant parties and dancing at the Metropolitan hotel
right across the street.
I remember going to Taborns for lunch with my grandmother, and
getting the bus to go "downtown" shopping
to Steinbachs, Teppers, Asbury Youth Center, La Plume, The
College Shop, CJ's record store. Hanging out at Donovan's
luncheonette after school was the cool thing to do. The
Asbury diner was the place to go after CYO dances and dance with
the "Barnstormers" from APHS
I worked as a candy girl in the Mayfair theatre remembering how
the clouds moved on the ceiling and how when I was a
little girl i would watch the clouds instead of the movie.
Later on, as I worked my way through college, being the drinking
age was 18, we would all go to the Goldigger for drinks
and dancing.
After
graduation from college I worked as an asst buyer for Steinbach.
About a month ago I drove through Asbury and to my dismay saw my
whole block torn down. I thought, wouldn't it be
great to turn this town and all it's buildings and homes back to
what they all looked like in the 1800's
|
