I have very warm memories of Asbury Park, especially when I was a child growing up in the 60's. Every summer my parent's would take me, maybe twice in a summer, down to Asbury Park. I would get so excited as we passed by the little lake with the white ducks swimming happily, knowing that we would be at the boardwalk in a matter of minutes. We would first stop and have pancakes at the round Howard Johnson restaurant with it's orange and blue roof. One of the best attractions was Ripley's Believe it or Not which was housed in one of the large centers towards the end of the boardwalk. I walked down the beautiful boardwalk always looking toward the convention center and it's ornate dolphins in blue and Victorian type ornate décor that continued toward the pier.

  We'd stop and get Kohr's frozen custard while we sat on one of the benches looking out at the clean sandy beaches, that I would later frequent as a teenager with my cousin. I loved the rides and remember the old spinning barrel that everyone liked to watch as people haplessly stumbled and fell in trying to make their way out. I was particularly fond of the scary rides. Once I had gotten the nerve up to go on one alone and while just in the first door, all the electricity went out and I was stuck in between doors terrified that I'd never get out.

  My parent's just went wild over one of the boardwalk stores that housed ornate Italian furniture. I was bored as we seemed to stay in there much too long but I now live in Georgia and have a glass coffee table and a crystal chandelier in my home that I had inherited from my mother ( which she bought in that store).

  Of course, who could forget that wonderful carousel across the street. I would sit on my favorite horses while the music clanged loudly and tried to capture as many brass rings that I could. Another interesting note of nostalgia is that the very same musical piece now stands in the Stone Mountain Park, Music and Treasures Museum in Georgia, and I can visit it anytime as I only live 15 minutes away from there now! It still works, just put a few quarters in it and you'll hear the very same music you once heard as a child. What a treat to have a part of my childhood so nearby. The museum also houses one or two of the Asbury Park carousel horses! A double treat.

  As I got older I would drive my mother down there from Perth Amboy for a day out, which also started with one of the last fixtures on the boardwalk, the Howard Johnson's restaurant. I had watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" where he had stopped by there to eat and sat at one of the two booths my mother and I used to sit in .

   It was such a bitter-sweet feeling as the place that impacted my life with so many sweet memories was disappearing into oblivion. One by one stores would close, rides shut down, restaurants closed, and only a few dime stores, which my mother still enjoyed, were smattered here and there between the empty areas of discarded trash where seagulls searched in vain for crumbs. The Carousel Building was empty and closed, with only the smiling face of the same clown that graced this landmark looking on through the changes the decades brought.

  I really feel a sense a mourning when I see the few landmarks left and hope that this gem of a place will be resurrected,maybe not to it’s former glory, but to a newfound life with many reminders of how it used to be.

 

Donna Yavelak