A look back to the 1950s and 60s near the ocean.

A childs memories of Monmouth Beach, Sea Bright and the famous Monmouth College Sailing Team.

Monmouth Beach during the quite gracious times

Ah those beautiful mansions gone but not forgotten!

Our old school 2 grades per class!

Our old beach pavilion and the new designed by Albert Benoist (before the second story)

The old ducks into the water for rescue.

Lockwoods a great place to get fish and view the ocean when it wasnt stormy.

And then we rowed around our house in a 1955 hurricane.. Before the BIG seawall.

Big news a poor whale hit by a prop 1961.. I was there..

Just gas.. No convenience store.

Benoist house doesnt look much different except trees, bushes and more houses have cropped into their space.

Sea Bright where are all the condos?

The P house and our H.S. reunion 1972

Navesink anomaly..
Walter Isbrandtsen restored this 16 square rigger as a project for his Mariner Scout troup (all girls). We sailed it on the Navesink but mostly were rescued from all the capsizations. 1960

Navesink anomaly number Two

This barge was home to the River Rats Sailing Club on the Navesink. 1959. Anchored out in the river it was a great place to sail from if you werent too close as it blocked the wind. One day it broke loose in a storm and almost took out the Rumson bridge end of the YC barge it was banned from the river.

Mihms without the Channel Club or docks in front of Jay Ross.1960

The era of the water car.

Monmouth College Sailing Team at Patton Point YC on the Shrewsbury 1965

Sailing in December.
The Monmouth Sailing Team was the darling for the Asbury Park Press. Monmouth had no sports teams that competed with Ivy League and military schools. So when we started winning the school used our notoriety to gain attention. The home regattas were held on the Shrewsbury.

We were the local sports heros.

When we gain the #2 spot in the Middle Atlantic conference we were the local media heros defeating Princeton, Navy, USMA, Rutgers, Stevens and others.

Brought up on music
My mother was a professional opera singer who also dabbled in nightclub performances. So we all grew up with piano, voice and acting lessons. All kinds of music were introduced (except Rock and Roll which she hated).

Best memory of the 1950s

So it was no surprise that we enjoyed our neighborsWe lived next door to Eddie and Phyllis Condon and their girls, Maggie and Lisa. Sunday summer afternoons would find us over playing with them (as 12 year old girls do), but to our surprise, the yard would be filled with musicians jamming dixieland. All the greats were there like Wild Bill Davison and Pee Wee Russel.

Listen to what we heard. (This recording is from 1962):

Wild Bill Davison (ct), Cutty Cutshall (tb), Peanuts Hucko (cl), J. Varro (p), Eddie Condon (g), Joe Williams (b), Buzzy Drootin (d). NYC, 1962.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u64iopZJ9wU&feature=related