Down The Shore Through The Years

Welcome to 2026! And welcome to the Down The Shore blog!
In this new forum we’ll be highlighting great stories and images from our books — things that gives us joy and perspective as we go about our lives along the Shore today.

We’ll be sharing many of the amazing photos from 42 years of our calendars — and the stories of photographers who have contributed. It’s a visual chronicle of this coast for nearly half a century. All told, since first published in 1984, the calendar images total nearly 3,000 different photographs — we’ll post our favorites.
 
Today is January 1, 2026, and we begin with an image from the very first Down The Shore Calendar — 1985. It’s an early ‘80s photo of the frozen bay in Harvey Cedars, taken in an era when Barnegat Bay would freeze solid enough for local kids to have a makeshift game of hockey with brooms. For a week or two back then, even salt water was ice, and only the channels were open. On the northern end of Barnegat Bay, ice boat races were held. And local legends (mostly true) are told of cars driven across the bay to the mainland, always noting that some didn’t make it and there are still Model Ts buried somewhere between Barnegat Light and Barnegat.