Let me say at the outset that, except for about five painful minutes, I have not watched the wretched the “reality” TV program called something like “Jersey Shore,” which is set in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

When I was a boy, Seaside Heights was the place where our blue collar parents took their “vacation club” money and their kids for vacation. To us kids, it was heaven on earth. It is where I first tasted pizza (called, back then, “tomato pie”) and where learned that placing a nickel on the right square could win you a whole box of Clark Bars! Equally as important, we learned that it was possible to blow a bunch of nickels and win nothing — a valuable lesson they didn’t teach in school.

As we aged, the place still offered excitement and adventure. Exploding hormones, girls, romance and broken hearts. It was all there. If nothing else, it was always great to have dinner “on the boards,” which meant you ate your way from one end of the boardwalk to the other – fries with vinegar, Taylor Ham sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, pizza, caramel popcorn and frozen custard.

Once we became old enough to imbibe, the place really rocked. I am fortunate enough to have played at some of the joints in “Seaside.”

My old pal Paul sent me this rather amazing (albeit corny) video from 1960, in which, for all I know, I may appear.

Enjoy.