Summer in a Day: Wildwood, NJ
Don't Have Time or Money for a Full Summer Vacation? Try Summer in a Day!
The origins of Summer in a Day: As a single mom, with little time off, planning summer vacations for your child usually consisted of begging your parents to take them for a while. I was very lucky in this department, as my parents had retired to the town of Barnegat Light, on Long Beach Island, NJ, and in the summer my son, Richard, was sent to “Camp Nana.”
Now, it wasn’t exactly idyllic, as most of the entertainment was “walking around” or going to the Shop Rite supermarket on the mainland. Richard stared at the endless television advertisements for places like Fantasy Island amusements or Hartmann’s mini-golf and constantly asked to go, but to no avail. So, one year at the end of the summer, I decided that I would take a day off and we would do all the things he had been asking to do—IN ONE DAY. Fantasy Island games and rides; the water slide; Hartmann’s golf; eating elephant ears (cookies) from Bay Village; and buying Peanut Buster parfaits from Dairy Queen. You name it, it happened.
It was nuts, but fun and it stuck. “Summer In A Day” became a thing. We had a bunch of them. I think the last one culminated with my friend, Chris Nelson, riding all the horrific rides with teenage Richard at Great Adventure. And then Richard grew up and Summer in A Day was over… or was it?
—Mary Kate Murray
This is Robert writing now. And, no, Summer in a Day is not over. It has been revived for 2023. We hope to embark on a few such jaunts this summer. This is first of them.
I had a Summer in a Day in Wildwood long ago without knowing it at the time. In 1976, my family took a Bicentennial road trip from Wisconsin to New Jersey to visit my mother’s college roommate, Sparky, who lived in the town of Avalon, down near the southern tip of the Jersey Shore. (Sparky’s real name was Arden, so you can understand why she preferred Sparky.) One day, we all drove a few miles south to Wildwood, which is to Avalon what Coney Island is to Manhattan Beach.
That trip left an indelible impression on my young imagination. We went to Hunt’s Pier (“An Oceanic Wonderland”), where I rode the Log Flume, Gold Nugget Mine, Pirate Ship, Wacky Shack and the Flyer roller coaster—all iconic boardwalk rides, though I did not know it at the time. We also visited Sportland Pier, where I road the bumper cars, Ferris wheel, the Supersonic rollercoaster and a house of horrors. The evening was spent at The Red Garter, an old-timey sing-a-long faux saloon with banjo playing and pitchers of Schlitz and soda pop. You could buy a straw skimmer for $1.25 and get your picture taken for $3. I did both.
All of the attractions I enjoyed are now long gone. But there’s still a lot of summer fun to be had in Wildwood. It’s a small community simply packed with amusements. Here are a few suggestions.
If you’re coming from New York, you’re going to arrive in Wildwood close to lunchtime. Maui’s Dog House, a lunch place that closes at 3 p.m. on weekdays, will answer your needs. In business since 1999, in sells the best hot dogs in south Jersey. One of the founders is from upstate New York, which explains the use of Hoffman frankfurters and the existence on the menu of “Salty Balls,” which is just another name for Salt Potatoes, an upstate speciality.
The owners have a sense of humor. The wide variety of hot dogs all have goofy names and are served in dog bowls. But the food is homemade and fresh and prepared with care. Try the Forget-About-It dog, topped with spicy ground beef sauce, raw onion, spicy mustard, cheese and a sprinkling of bacon; or the Drunk dog, served with sauerkraut that has been cooked in beer. The Salty Balls are quite good, too.
Now, you’re probably going to want to walk off those hot dogs. Not far from Maui’s Dog House is the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, which was built in 1874 and looks like a haunted Victorian Castle. It’s open to the public and there are some lovely gardens in the back that lead directly to a great view of the Atlantic and a section of the North Wildwood Seawall, a concrete pathway along the shore that makes for a nice stroll.
For those who don’t like walking, the Wildwoods—as the communities of North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest are called—are a great place for driving, as many of the best sights in town can be seen from the car. I’m talking about the many 1950s and 1960s hotels and motels with their vintage architecture and signage. The area is actually state-designated as the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District. It’s an open-air museum of classic Googie and Doo-Wop design. Other architectural terms bandied about around this area include Vroom, Pu-Pu Platter and Phony Colonee. Who wouldn’t want to stay in a Phony Colonee motel?
Just pick any thoroughfare and slowly cruise down the street and you’ll pass literally dozens of beauts. My particular favorites, in terms of unusual neon art, include the Bird of Paradise Motel, Pink Champagne Motel (opened 1960), American Safari (1969), the Caribbean (1957), Biscayne (1968), and the Panoramic. Once upon a time, this country knew how to do motels right.
In terms of absolute oddball weirdness, don’t miss the Lollipop Motel (circa 1970s) with its round-faced neon tots ogling a giant lollipop, and the Suitcase Motel (date unknown), which sign depicted two people arriving not with a suitcase, but inside a suitcase!
If you like what you see on the streets, you may want to visit the Doo-Wop Preservation Society, where many old neon signs to defunct Wildwood business have gone to retire. The Society offers bus tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which I have to imagine are fantastic.
Of course, no visit to Wildwood is complete without a stroll down the boardwalk, which is probably the longest (2 miles!) and best-maintained of any boardwalk in New Jersey. Morey’s Piers, a collection of three piers, is the center of all rides and amusements if that’s what you’re after. The boardwalk itself is an endless buffet of eateries and arcades. Our first stop was Kohr’s. I recently wrote about Wisconsin frozen custard, so the subject was still on my mind. Wisconsin may have perfected the treat, but Kohr’s invented it back in 1919.
One of the great things about the Wildwood boardwalk is that there are two of nearly everything that’s important. Minutes after hitting up that Kohr’s, we passed another branch of the chain. There is also a Kohr’s stand in the corner of the Starlux Mini-Golf, which may make Starlux the best mini-golf course ever.
The same goes for Curley’s Fries, which makes, you guessed it, French fries. Actually, crinkle-cut French fries, which can be had in sizes Regular, Bucket and Barrel. The stand was founded by Joe “Curley” Marchiano in 1974, who used French-fry cutters from Germany and cooked his potatoes using peanut oil. These are classic boardwalk fries that come out fresh and hot.
Guard your fries carefully. It is far from unknown for a seagull to swoop down and steal a frie out of your mitts. In fact, the fries-thieving gull is such a phenomenon here that it amounts to a mascot. A popular souvenir is a stuffed seagull with a frie in its beak.
If you’re after pizza, Mack’s (which also has two locations) and Sam’s are the old guard, having held down the boardwalk since the 1950s. Both boast time-portal interiors. As for candy, fudge and taffy—and what’s a boardwalk without those sweets?—there’s Laura’s Fudge (since 1926), whose white interior is as bare bones as its pink-elves facade is over-the-top; and Douglass Candies (since 1919), which is directly on the boardwalk, less showy and has a more gentrified feel inside. If you want to do a side-by-side taste test of any candy, you’re in luck; the businesses are a block apart.
By this time, you’ll probably be ready for dinner. For old-school Italian, there’s the wonderfully named Ravioli House, in business since 1970; Schellenger’s restaurant, a family seafood restaurant with a wacky, whimsical maritime design; and the Two Mile Crab House, where you can get some “crabitizers” and wash them down with an Orange Crush (the Maryland-centric cocktail, not the soft drink).
The sun has perhaps set by now, so, on your way out of town, you may want to give those beautiful neon signs another gander.
Odds and Ends…
The James Beard Media Awards were presented last Saturday in Chicago. Toby Maloney and Emma Janzen’s The Bartender’s Manifesto took home the prize for beverage book. Other winners included J. Kenji López-Alt for his book The Wok, Vishwesh Bhatt for I Am From Here, Hanna Raskin for her substack newsletter The Food Section and Betsy Andrews for her Seven Fifty Daily article, “How the Supreme Court Decision Exacerbated the Dire State of Bar Industry Healthcare”… Bar Convent Brooklyn, the New York extension of the German cocktail convention Bar Convent Berlin, will run June 13-14 in Industry City… The backyard garden is open at Ferdinando’s Foccaceria, which has been serving Sicilian cuisine since 1904. If you’re having trouble getting into the trendy Cafe Spaghetti across the street, Ferdinando’s is highly recommended, and you won’t need a reservation… For wine and spirits lovers in Harlem, BTL Harlem has a good selection, fair prices and a friendly staff… A lot of New York cocktail bar anniversaries are this month. Quarter Bar turns 16, Clover Club turns 15 and both Leyenda and Dear Irving turn nine… Popina will hold a few “Chef Soirees” this summer in which it hosts chefs from other New York restaurants. First off will by Claud on June 18, with drinks by Forthave Spirits and music by Hawthorne… I don’t like donuts, but I would travel to Philly to try the Corn Dog Donut at Okey Dokey Donuts. It’s a Sabrett all beef hot dog in a honey corn donut and is served with a side of deli mustard.
I also want to mention that the Wildwoods are some of the few beaches in New Jersey that are FREE.
Don't like donuts?!? 🤯😲