Wildwood Days

Finally a new blog post! Things have been super crazy the past week with college. Everything is in pretty much crunch time right now and professors are starting to load a ton of work on to our shoulders for the next 3 weeks. So I’ve finally found some time out of my busy schedule to blog. So I figured why not write about my plans for Wildwood?

As I’ve written before on my old blog every summer my friends and I have made it a point to “go down the Shore” as we like to call it here in Jersey. This location happens to be Wildwood as it’s one of the best beaches at the Jersey Shore and it has the best boardwalk. Actually the good old and famous Wildwood Boardwalk. I grew up there during the summers when I was a child so I figured that my friends who have or even’t haven’t been there should share the memories I had.

Everything is still up in the air at the moment. There’s so much planning to do such as where were going to stay for the weekend, who’s coming, money, etc. I’m shooting for June as thats the last month I have to use my comp day. But it may look like it will be July or even August at the latest.

Things have changed so much down there since I was a child and since we sold our place down there. Most of the familiar motels/hotels are now gone and have been replaced with condo’s. There was one near our place that we went into all the time because they had a small gift shop where you could buy snacks, drinks, and kites. Oh and they had 3 arcade machines as well if I remember correctly. Now it’s gone though no more snacks, drinks, kites or anything of that sort. Sure you could go to a Wal-Mart, or an Eckerd/Rite Aid but you’ll be paying top dollar at those stores. Where as this place everything was reasonably priced.  The Board Walk has changed a lot too. The piers with all of the rides now have a new ticketing/wrist band system for rides. I would beg my parents to get the wrist band because it would get me on all of the rides and of course one Go Kart ride. Now a days it’s this plastic wrist band with what appears to be bar codes and they no longer apply to Go Karts. But hey they still work on all of the rides! But most of all what has changed is it appears Coca Cola bought out or made some kind of deal with the Morey’s. Everything such as the Tram cars are now branded Coca Cola and no longer have the signature bright yellow paint or the constant “WAAAWAWAAATCCHCH THE TRAM CAR PLEEAAASSSE!!!” when the drivers would hit the button repeatedly. Now it’s painted red, Coca Cola logo’s and “WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE”. The Tram cars weren’t broken it was just the way they got peoples attention and boy it did. Everyone would stop walking and watch them pass by. Now a days barely anyone does. They also now do the fireworks display and are done every Friday night. That’s cool and all but I always saw them as being special. Something that only happened on holidays and special occasions. Now it appears they’ve lost the meaning of that. And finally the one thing I didn’t like that they changed was the roller coaster titled “The Great Nor’ Eastern”. The original color was Bright Pink and you could see it for miles. It was like a landmark and I loved seeing it coming over the bridge, and seeing it from our place when I was kid. Now it’s painted White with changing color lights, and this year they completely changed the hanging cars, and renamed it “Fly The Great Nor’ Eastern”.

However a lot of good has come out of this transformation too! They built a new convention center right on the boardwalk, new street lights, sidewalks, etc. Ok well not a lot but still those are some benefits but the demolition of most hotels/motels, Coca Cola,  and what not was a bit much.

So this summer I hope everything goes well and that everyone I invite can come. I absolutely love it down there and I can’t wait to share the beauty and experience with every one.