ohh those wildwood days
the neighbors have a house in wildwood Nj.
We went down for the weekend. Boy did this town bring back memories. It has changed a lot over the years, but I still get the same feeling when I'm there that compares to when I'm shopping in a Walmart.
I grew up at the Jersey shore and I was NEVER allowed in Wildwood.
It was percieved by us "Ocean City beach people" as the ultimate white trash, nasty, scum of the earth beach.
it was the place to sneak to after the prom because there were tons of shady motels where teenagers can rent a night for 30.00 bucks and cruise over to the liquor store and buy cases of Milwaukees Best and Boonesfarm without being carded.
I remember the summer of my junior year in high school, the ultimate rebel---
I went to Wildwood in a convertible with some random guy my parents hated because he was 21, a substitue teacher at my high school, and was striving to make it in the major leagues. Ahhhhh.. that was good stuff.. ( I got him fired;) )
He takes me to Wildwood (my parents think I'm with my best friend) and I think I am so cool.
He wants to get in my pants and all I want to do is get the upper cartilage of my left ear pierced. He's saying lets get some booze and a hotel, I'm saying let's go get my ear pierced. Hotel- ear-hotel-ear.
Finally, i slip away to a pay phone, remember those!!!
Call the best girlfriend and tell her to grab the guy who was totally in love with me at the time (and didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell) convince him to come pick my sorry ass up because I am in a total crappy situation with a sleezy 21 year old substitute teacher, baseball player wanna be in the slimiest town in southern NJ. Like a good friend, she and he save me. I think we said there was a "death in the family". i did fake tears and all !!!!!
Of course I got the earring from some seedy tarot card reading/free ear piercing shop on the boardwalk before we left.
it lasted about 24 hours before my mom saw it and yanked it out of my way cool ear.
I would sneak the earring back in every morning on my way to school,
senior year in my '87 pontiac grand am.
As I write this, I can still feel the hole in my ear when I rub it.
God damn, I used to be cool.
Those were the days.
The best friend I called, still my best friend, and we are still saving each other.
posted by gerberdaisy @ 7:17 PM
4 Comments:
Great story! And hey, I think you're STILL cool. Did your parents ever discover your secret? Sure, they found the earring - but did they ever find out where you got it pierced?
You know, I just saw a documentary about Wildwood on History channel about 2 weeks ago. Until then, I had never heard of the resort beach town, so it's a neat coincidence that you've written about it here. I was completely mesmerized by the groovy hotel architecture. Sure, it all seemed a little bit seedy, but no different than any modern-day Spring Break destination. Most of all, it appears that a LOT of east-coast American teenagers had their first grown-up experiences there(drinking, sex, uh...ear piercing LOL)
Years from now, maybe your boys will sneak off to Wildwood and the family rebellion will come full circle? That's when you'll find out just how cool you still are. Ha!
The boys were with us and they LOVE it there! You are absolutely right!! when my mom found out about the piercing I had to get tested for AIDS and Hepatitis!
You're right about the architecture. It's all 50's era retro. All new business construction has to have that "look". It's actually pretty cool.
Hmmm... I always thought New Jersey was a myth. You mean it really exists?
If you have any other wonderful Wildwood stories to share please consider sharing them with us at http://wildwoodbythebeach.blogspot.com/
Nice writing. Good story.
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