The Jersey Shore Perpetual Calendar

This calendar was created by me for fans of the Jersey Shore. We used the profile image from our Face Book site " Tales of the New Jersey Shore"

It makes a great gift and since the day of the week, month and date change but never the year it is truly perpetual and never goes out of date.
Take a look at the image. An ingenious series of hidden wheels permit you to turn the dial on the sides of the calendar and change the date.

Buyers are looking for a convenient, secure way to purchase the calendar so I created this PayPal button. Just select it and PayPal will guide you through the process
The calendar is $20 plus $5 UPS shipping and handling. ( please no Box #'s as UPS will not deliver )
It is created and produced by hand in New Jersey and there is a 100% return guarantee. If you are not satisfied just return the calendar and you will be refunded your $20 minus the shipping and handling.
There is a limited supply no do not miss out.

A Beautiful Cape May day - 1918

This is one of my favorite photos of Cape May, NJ .

There is so much history in this one image. An early horse-less carriage on a street, Beach Drive, that is today impossible to find a parking space.

On the far right are the massive columns of the old Lafayette Hotel-now replaced with a newer hotel.

Center right is Denizot's Ocean View Cottage ( built 1879) and operated at the time as the Arnold Cafe. The proprietors of the cafe altered the old cottage and replaced the bathhouses with an open beer garden.

The electric railroad on the left ran from Cape May Point to Sewell's Point along the boardwalk and on the beach, and was eventually extended to Schellinger's Landing in 1913. The boardwalk arches were illuminated with electric lights and extended the entire length of the old wooden boardwalk until the early 1920s.

The boardwalk was destroyed by the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, rebuilt and destroyed again by the Great Atlantic Storm of 1962. It was then replaced with a macadam seawall still referred to by the locals as the "boardwalk."

Emil Salvini

Peter Paul Boynton - The Pearl Diver

In the era before resorts hired lifeguards you entered the water at great peril. Should you require assistance and were lucky there might be a very skilled swimmer, an unofficial lifeguard for hire, on the beach. This was a common practice. While they would not throw you back if you or your family did not pay a reward :) ... it was expected.

A very interesting character was Peter Paul Boynton - known as the "pearl diver" because of his amazing swimming and diving skills. His name appears often as I do my research on the Jersey Shore and the U.S. Life-Saving Service that eventually became the United States Coast Guard.

He first popped up at Cape May where he operated an oriental gift shop while supplementing his income by saving lives during the summer season. Local residents blamed him for the devastating fire of 1869, he was questioned and released. They seemed to have it in for him and later arrested Boynton on a charge of filing a pistol from a moving train and endangering the life of a woman who claimed the bullet just missed her head. The City of Cape May fined hm $5.00 and Peter Paul had enough with New Jersey and moved Coney Island where his reputation as a swimmer, showman and entrepreneur grew. Boynton broke numerous swimming records and is credited with developing a rubber diver suit used by the early Coast Guard.
More to come on this amazing individual.

The Last Days of Pompeii - Coney Island Style

Yes this is a blog about the Jersey Shore but from time to time I like to post something of interest from one of our sister resorts.

If I could turn the clock back I would love to have seen this display in 1885 at Manhattan Beach, Coney Island, NY. They did things up big at old Coney Island just the big apple today.

Every night during the summer season they would put on magnificent fireworks displays that were visible for miles.

They loved "historical tableaus" back in the day and this one; The Last Day of Pompeii, was a major attraction. There was an artificial lake in front of a monstrous stage setting. Live music played as actors played the hapless citizens of Pompeii before Vesuvius blew its top in 79 AD. Once the "eruption" began the actors would run for cover as the massive fireworks display represented the destruction of the city.

Gotta love it.