Tag: tattoos

UNDER THE BOARDWALK

Yeah, under the reinforced boardwalk, down by the sea, yeahOn a mobility scooter with my obese tatted baby is where I’ll be

Out of the sun(Under the boardwalk) We’ll be havin’ some funnel cake(Under the boardwalk) People waddling above(Under the boardwalk) We’ll be fallin’ in love with fried oreos & fudge(Under the boardwalk) Yeah (riding the tramcar instead of walking)

We finished our vacation week in Wildwood. No more stories about drunken nights at the Shamrock. It is now a construction site, with new $800,000 cookie cutter condos slated to replace a famous institution, which gave me unlimited fodder for at least two dozen articles about the crazy nights spent at our favorite bar over the last fifteen years.

Tom Gerace, 59, owner of Shamrock, stands outside of the Shamrock as it's being torn apart inside to clear way when moving the Victorian house above it on Friday, June 25, 2021. “It’s depressing and we put a lot of work into it,” Gerace said. “Stuff happens and I did what was best for me at some point. If I opened back up I would lose my liquor license.”

We still see Billy Jack, as he regularly plays at The Cove, two blocks from the old Shamrock, but it isn’t the same. There is another construction boom in Wildwood, but I won’t be lured into buying at the top again. I’ll wait for the crash that may never come. But some things never change in good old Wildwood. It’s lucky they replaced a good chunk of the boardwalk, because I don’t think the old boards could support the obese land whales waddling towards the funnel cake stand or racing down the boards on their mobility scooters to buy a fried twinkie washed down by a 128 ounce lemonade (extra sugar) on one of their eight credit cards.

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AMERICAN FREAKSHOW

“When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.” – George Carlin

MONTEGO BAY RESORT - Updated 2022 Prices & Motel Reviews (North Wildwood, NJ)

When we saw the forecast for this past weekend on Wednesday, we quickly booked a room for Friday and Saturday nights in Wildwood. Even though we are headed back down to the beach in two weeks for our annual vacation, we couldn’t pass up an 80 degree day in May. The Montego Bay hotel is one of only a few that are open all year in Wildwood. It’s kind of dumpy, the staff is grumpy and the one elevator takes five minutes to arrive.

You park underneath and there is always water dripping from somewhere. It always reminds me of that condo tower that collapsed in Miami last year. The rooms are clean and the view from the 5th floor balcony is spectacular, looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. You get to see a stunning sunrise, majestic sailboats, and dolphins frolicking close to the beach.

Of course it’s easier to see when there isn’t a five story pile of sand in front of your hotel and the beach access is blocked off. It’s normally peaceful when there aren’t dump trucks and other heavy machinery operating from 6:00 am until 4:00 pm. It’s also quieter when your ghetto neighbors in the next room aren’t blasting their music at volume 11. It seems the North Wildwood authorities attempt to defeat Mother Nature every year by replenishing the beach that washes away every winter during coastal storms. So they pile up tons of sand and truck it up and down the North Wildwood beaches all spring, trying to create a decent sized beach by Memorial Day. It’s not working so well this year.

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WORLDS MADE BY HAND

Having recently finished reading The Harrows of Spring, the fourth and final novel of Jim Kunstler’s World Made By Hand series, I couldn’t help but compare and contrast his dystopian post economic collapse America versus our current warped egocentric pre-economic collapse America. His world made by hand is forced upon Americans who have survived some sort of conflict resulting in the destruction of Washington D.C. and Los Angeles by nuclear blasts.

The Federal government has ceased to exist. The nation has splintered and varied factions are vying for power in autonomous regions of the country, but the small community of Union Grove, New York has been left to fend for itself. The four novels detail the trials and tribulations of average Americans in a small rural town after the implosion of modernity, as the world is stripped of its technological oil based comforts, devastated by terrorism, racked by epidemics, and having endured the ravages of economic collapse.

Kunstler’s dystopian future isn’t as bleak as the dystopian visions of 1984 or Brave New World. If dystopian means a world characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or a cataclysmic decline in society, then Kunstler’s World Made By Hand series doesn’t match that characterization. There is more humanity and hope in his novels than you would expect in a dystopian vision of the future. The novels focus on various types of societal segments who represent the different courses society could chart after a breakdown of modern social norms, enforced by central authorities. Living through a national catastrophe and stripped of the modern conveniences provided by cheap plentiful oil, the citizens of Union Grove see their community falling apart from neglect, natural decay, disease, and lack of hope for the future.

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