REFLECTIONS  2

By Skip Conover

More stories and situations surrounded my youthful years in Somers Point. We as adolescents often engage in activities that may seem appropriate, exciting, joyful, or challenging  at the time,  but in later years, we look back and think that perhaps they were not the most intelligent things to do.  A few of those are written about here.

The beach at Somers Point was the center of summer activity for my age group between 1944 and 1951. We were young, free spirited, daring, and dreading the school days of  September. In addition to our local school classmates, we made many friends with kids from the Philadelphia area who spent their summers at the shore.

One of our favorite and dangerous activities was to gather at the beach, walk the few blocks to the Somers Point-Ocean City bridge, walk up close to the top, climb over the railing and jump into the water. The timing had to be perfect. We had to reach the top of the bridge before the bridge tender came out to chase us or call the police. The other  condition was that  it had to be high tide with the tide going out meaning water was running toward the Longport-Ocean City bridge. Low tide was very dangerous because there was the possibility of reaching the bay bottom at full force from the jump.  Once we surfaced from the jump, we would float with the tide the few blocks back to the beach.

The Somers Point beach in those days was similar to Bill Morrow beach today with the following exceptions. At the end of the pier there was a high diving board. Next to the high diving board were steps leading down to two floats which had a low diving board. Each float was approximately 8 feet by 8 feet and had ladders attached to help you climb out of the water. Diving or jumping was a way of life for us at high tide. The high diving board presented a dangerous challenge. We would climb onto the pier roof, jump onto the diving board and spring like birds into the water. Just a very small miscalculation meant almost certain injury. It was with mixed emotions when I changed from being  a participant to being a lifeguard whose  job it was to prevent this action in late summer 1949 and all of 1950.

The high diving board presented another unwise activity, but we did it anyway. We would dive into the water toward the floats and without surfacing swim under both floats and come up the far side. You had to hold your breath a very long time. There was about a foot clearance between the two floats so one could surface for air if you thought you couldn’t make it.    Skip Conover-Ed McDowll
This activity could have had very disastrous results.

Most of us who frequented the beach in those days were very good swimmers and we possessed  no fear. Occasionally we would swim from the floats across the entire bay to the meadows in the direction of Ocean City. Again the timing had to be just right. It had to be at low tide at the peak of tide change meaning no variance toward Beesleys Point or Ocean City. Low tide made the mud at the edge of the meadows visible for guidance and rest before the return swim. Those who did not want to attempt a return swim could walk along the meadow shore to the Somers Point-Ocean City bridge, cross the bridge, and walk back to the beach.

Certain summer conditions which we did not understand caused an abundance of jelly fish. The fish were the size of a baseball and perfect for having fights in waist-high water. The fish caused no harm  unless they broke open. However with our accuracy they broke open consistently and caused a red rash and burn for several minutes until washed off.

High tide at the beach was the best because one could swim from the sand to the end of the pier. At low tide one could walk to the end of the pier and the bottom was very muddy. Naturally low tide meant mud fights. Jelly fish, mud, it didn’t matter, we were always diving, jumping, or throwing.

Not all of our time was challenging the so called rules. Many lasting relationships were developed at the beach with time to enjoy the hot summer sun. Early in the season before tans were developing,  many of us would create our initials with tape on our back or leg and lie in the sun. After several hours and burned to a crisp. we would take the tape off and have perfect initials on our body. I suppose kids still do this today although I never see it.

The concrete supports for the Somers Point-Ocean City bridge provided a wonderful playground. Each support had a flat section large enough to sit on. Starting from the Somers Point Circle side of the bridge, one could walk to the first two supports during low tide and sit on the flat section. This area was great for picnics. If you waited there until the tide came in, you could swim back to shore. The down side of this activity were the barnacles attached to the supports which were very sharp. In addition, seaweed on the supports created a very slippery condition.

A popular summer water activity today is water skiing, but in our day we used a board called an aquaplane. Both feet were planted on a board towed by an outboard motor boat. It didn’t take a lot of skill, just some practice. Our shortcomings were the availability of only one board and one boat.

The lifeguards at that time, in addition to other duties,  had the responsibility of posting the water temperature and tide times on a board attached to the pier about half way to the end of the pier. The bench at that location remains there today. 

Ray Hyde, former lifeguard and owner of the Soda Pop at the beach, made a boat from an oversized surf board and was used by the lifeguards to patrol deeper waters. This boat was kept at the Soda Pop at night as was the first aid kit.

Other swimming activities occurred at Lake Whitaker, a fresh water reservoir, located at the 14th hole of the golf course. The water was used to irrigate golf course greens. Another source of water for swimming was at the sand pit where the town tennis courts are located today. Both of these water areas were technically and legally off limits, and we were chased often.

Other things we did in our younger days for fun and amusement, but not necessarily safely, was to place an empty tin can over a lighted firecracker to see how high it would go; pour gasoline on a pile of leaves to see how high the flame would go; climb into a storm drain on MacArthur Boulevard to be used as a hiding place (a tight fit, check one out sometime); build a bon fire at Lake Whitaker, throwing 22 caliber bullets into the fire, hide behind a sand hill and listen to the pop of exploding shells;  shoot at each other with a BB gun (After I was hit in the neck by a neighbor, police chief Bill Morrow confiscated the rifle, took it to the top of the Somers Point bridge and dropped it into the Great Egg Harbor Bay); sneak into the Dawes Avenue School gymnasium before school hours to play basketball, only to be chased out every day by the superintendent.

My father had two boats in our back yard that he worked on for years to make them seaworthy. I took the motor cover hatch from one and used it to make a knot  board for a Boy Scout merit badge. He was not a happy person to say the least and I never did earn the badge.

My friends and I dug a large hole under the sidewalk between 9th and 10th street on Pennsylvania Avenue. This was used to hide in and could accommodate three of  us. I would take food from our kitchen pantry and feed my friends in this well hidden area. Fortunately the sidewalk never collapsed as we would  have had no chance.

The aforementioned incidents are true as I remember them and although it seemed to be absolutely  normal behavior at the time, in retrospect they were potentially harmful and in some cases downright stupid. But somehow we survived the growing pains and can laugh about them now. My parents are gone now and they never knew about some of these situations.  Kids who do these kind of acts in this day and age face many legal issues that we did not have to deal with. We had a guardian angel, specifically Bill Morrow, Somers Point Chief of Police. Bill understood the complexities of kids growing up, nursed  us, coddled us, stuck up for us, and acted as a buffer between our immature actions and our parents. His various programs brought sanity to our lives and helped prepare us to become the people we are today. If Bill Morrow is looking down upon us, he can be reasonable proud of his role in our lives.

September 2002

Back