The Long Beach Island Reader

''This book gets real — the real Long Beach Island, as its people immersed their lives in it. The stories are invigorating, more fascinating than fiction. Some legendary histories, other essays in the book cover nature to nightlife, and literary stories that capture the essence of this Jersey Shore resort island. This is a collection of 60 of its best stories.'' — The SandPaper

The authentic Long Beach Island is rediscovered in a collection perfect for the beach.

The Authentic Long Beach Island is Rediscovered in a Collection Perfect for the Beach

For the last half of the 20th Century, one Long Beach Island publication, The Beachcomber, featured observations, essays and literary stories that captured the essence of this Jersey Shore resort island.



The Beachcomber (now a publication of its one-time competitor, The SandPaper) was for decades the dominant summer weekly. Fat issues were delivered to every doorstep on the island on Thursday nights, to be read with Friday morning coffee just in time for a weekend at the beach.



More than sixty of these stories, spanning the period between the 1930s and the beginning of the new millennium have been selected by the publication’s former publisher and editor and are included in The Long Beach Island Reader. This 230-page softcover book brings a solid collection of wonderful writing to a new audience in the 21st Century.



The anthology offers an all-encompassing perspective of Long Beach Island – the real LBI we love and hold in our collective memories. It includes our happy, carefree childhoods at the beach, our parents and grandparents making the trip to the shore, our summer foolishness as teenagers, and our pursuits and reflections on what matters as we mature. Those activities may be a little different in different eras, but the experiences (and feelings) are much the same today.



And so, in this collection, there is the poetry of fishing and the beauty of sailing; the life-affirming thrill of surfing; and the ghosts of summer watering holes. There are violent storms and zen-like beachcombing. More textured and reflective than simple accounts of fun at the beach, the stories were chosen from several thousand published over five decades.



There are eye-opening accounts about blowing up a beached whale with dynamite (not just a beach-urban legend!), shark attacks (true), a sea serpent (perhaps), and an aquaplane. There is remarkable natural history, including horseshoe crabs, gulls, terrapins, and a story about preservation of natural, wild shoreline for threatened species habitat. There is the youthful freedom of summer beach parties, the birth of the Surflight Theatre with the legendary Joseph P. Hayes; a tradition of serious sandlot baseball (and a last interview with Roger “Doc” Cramer); and the fun and responsibility of summer jobs.



The lure of Long Beach Island has drawn visitors and new residents for generations. Each generation sees this place with fresh eyes, making discoveries as if for the first time and that is captured in this collection of delightful essays and engaging articles.



The book includes a foreword by Andrea Feld, a former Beachcomber summer staffer, a student in the 1970s, who went on to a career in publishing including managing editor of Bride's Magazine.

CHAPTER LIST
The Islander

A Hike to the Shore: Marlton to Long Beach Island

Winter Paradise

Waiting for Godwit

Stanley Sea Gull

Midwinter Visit: The Love Between a Man and the Boat he Built

The Way We Were 35

March of the Terrapins

Pioneering the Terrace

The Magic of a Ship Bottom Childhood

Viking Figurehead Found on Conklin Island

Barnegat City Memories: More Than Fish Tales

Hawkeye’s View: A Long Beach Island Childhood

Seaweed: Once a Thriving Island Industry

A 5&10 Store Romance That Lasted a Lifetime

Joe Inman: Twenty-five Years on Watch

The Winds of Fortuna

Longing for a Childhood Fourth of July

The Gateway to Long Beach Island: Mud City Memories

No Long Beach Island Magic for Wartime Beach Patrol

Sinbad: From Seaman Pooch to Chief Dog

The War, the Storm and the Jap Shop

Remembering the Lucy Evelyn

On the Homefront

By Bike to Ship Bottom

1,200 Bucks Buys a Crappy Crab Boat
Howling Southeaster on Saturday Strikes Long Beach Island
1944 Hurricane: Personal Survival
An Evacuee’s-Eye View of Gloria
Gloria: Requiem for a Hurricane
A Summer Squall
Back When the Fish Were Biting
Mother of All Bluefish Blitzes
One Man from Norway
Home from the Foggy Sea
The Endless Surfer
Shore Things: Treasure the Obvious
Saving a Perfect Day
Combing the Beaches
Whistling, Women and Other Fishing Superstitions
Blubber Blast: A Dynamite Whale-of-a-Tale
Stafford Man Sees a Sea Serpent
The Jaws of History: The Last Shark Attack
A ’30s Summer at the Engleside Pharmacy
The Nifty Fifties: Summer Jobs
Buckalew’s: When Clams Were Six Cents Each
Big Art and the Aquaplane
Sweet, Soulful Sailing
Horseshoe Crabs
Eleanor Miller and The Surflight
Passage to Valhalla
Fishing: What’s It All About?
Sail Away, My Two Sons
The Island Heritage
The Boys of Summer: Looking Back
Doc Cramer: Beach Haven’s Gift to the Major Leagues
The Last Beach Party Generation
Ghosts of Barrooms Past
What We Take for Granted
“But She’s Only a Girl”