I probably won’t shop there for more,

They did not know how to make a good cheese steak,

But I appreciate the picture there someone did make…

My home town just after the March 1962 storm,

Apparently a full moon tide & northeast storm did form,

Three days of tragic destruction way back then,

No evacuations till after it passed, leaving in its wake,

Sea Isle City New Jersey, my home town, like it was in a quake…

The house & property on the left circled in red,

That’s where we rode out the storm, we could have been dead,

I but 7 years old, watched other homes fall into the ocean,

Every body in that old apartment house stayed with us,

We lived on the top floor, but all felt dread…

Obviously we did survive,

Everything towards the ocean was wrecked,

My favorite amusement park right toward the ocean,

Blocked off the major force of the waves,

Keeping us safe, though most thought we were headed for our graves…

© ed J 9/2/08

ABOUT THE PICTURE:

The pilings made of cement & steel in the foreground were what held the boardwalk, obviously the boards gone but they remained.

The square pier behind the boardwalk & in front of our home, owner by the Ludwigs was the reason our house remained basically unscathed. As a little guy, I "tested" the rides in the spring before that amusement pier opened. Inside the right hand big square section were the BEST bumper cars that to this day I love to ride. The left side of the complex was the Sea Horse Shoppe, where they made pogo dogs, hot dogs in batter, my main staple of life in the summer months as I recall, also rootbeer floats, everything a neighbor kid could love, god I miss that time...

The building to the right of that amusement pier was the big carousel, hobby horses bigger than a car that after they were ripped out by the storms waves, surrounded our house and the tractors took weeks to remove all the debris around the house.

No water did we have, though it didn't bother me, as I hated baths, just like now, LOL. No electricity, nothing did we have for the few days that we endured the storm. We did eventually move out of our house, as a piling came through the ground floor wall and made the whole house tilt towards the front left side. We stayed in a house just back a block till we got taken off the island by helicopter after the passage of the storm.

Any questions about the picture or the experience feel free to ask and I will answer to the best of my ability...ED