Jersey Girls

It was a soft landing.  If you're going to leave your home in the Caribbean and return to the Northeast U.S., coming back to the Jersey shore was perfect.  In 1971, after three somewhat difficult years for Grandad especially, we headed back toward Pennsylvania.  Now there were 5 of us, including Aunt Diana.  I think we arrived in late spring.  We lived in Ventnor (immediately south of Atlantic City), a couple blocks from the beach in temporary housing for missionaries taking a vacation between or upon returning from work overseas.  After an internet search, I've figured that the property where we lived included for 4 houses owned by the provided by a non-profit organization, the Interdenominational Foreign Missionary Society.

My favorite memory is going to the beach that summer our buckets, shovels, towels etc. walking on the hot pavement, across the boardwalk and out to the sand.  Of course we played in the water, and discovered it was fun to play under the boardwalk where the sand was cool and we could see people walking overhead.  There were other girls around our whose families were staying in the complex -  Ruthie and Dawn.  Interesting, Steve and I have spent a couple long weekends in Atlantic City and drove around in Ventnor, eventually finding the property in 2017.  It's off Portland Ave (I had long forgotten the street name).  See the picture below - the house with the porch in the foreground.  Now the yard seems so much smaller and I realize it's attached to the house next door.  (A side note, many homes are now being permanently raised for flood protection - the 4x4 lumber stack was being used for to raise a house along the street.)

We enjoyed the yard playing with the other girls.  I remember going to a local church, where Grandad sometimes helped out with services.  My first memories of TV were from this time - Grandad liked to watch re-runs of Get Smart.  We found out there were cartoons on Saturday mornings.  I learned to ride a bike without training wheels here - after getting the basics down, Grandad told me I was all set except not to ride down by the bay.  That would have never occurred to me, so I immediately rode down to the bay, took a quick look around and came back home.  Some other memories are an outing to the fire station in Margate, visits from Nana and Grandad, and a weekend with Uncle Dick, Aunt Ginny and cousins Matt, Jess and Steve when we drove up to Atlantic City to walk the boardwalk.  I seem to remember Grammie getting almond macaroons, which are still one of her favorites.  During the next school year, I repeated second grade this time with English instruction (I assume Aunt Julie repeated kindergarten).  This was the only time of my life that I rode a school bus to and from school.  Here are two pictures of the Jersey girls from 1971.  Pictures of Aunt Julie are almost always "action" shots, since she had (and still has) SO much energy.  I'm sure Nana had knitted our beautiful sweaters.

In the spring of 1972, Grandad became the rector and Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Church, and we moved to Philadelphia.