Flower Power, Tuning In and Turning On, ’67 Graduates Stroll Down Memory Lane

WILDWOODS — Fifty years ago, while American psychologist Timothy Leary encouraged America’s youth to “tune in, turn on and drop out,” and poet Alan Ginsberg coined the term “flower power” at another “happening,” Wildwood High School seniors were having parties on a golf driving range in Wildwood Crest, enjoying alcohol under some bridges and living in a community “small enough” that allowed teens to know many, many people.
William Shea, who lived throughout Cape May County until he moved to Beverly Hills, Fla, in 2006, and Steve and Carol (Sandman) Wade, who live in Erma, recently took a stroll down memory lane as members of the 1967 high school graduating class, the same year the Herald began.
“I’m glad I was fortunate enough to grow up in the Wildwoods,” said Shea, who turns 69 later this year. “The community was small enough to allow us to get to know many, many people.
“My father owned and operated Shea’s 17th Street Market in North Wildwood for many years, where I began working at the age of 7,” he added.
“Having that experience allowed me to become acquainted with people of all age groups and financial situations, and to be more tolerant in dealing with people,” he said.
Shea lived in North Wildwood from birth until 1974, when he moved off the island to work in the Middle Township Police Department. He was there for 26 years when he moved to Wildwood for three more years and to North Wildwood for two more. His son, William Jr., attended Middle Township High School.
“My favorite class was civics,” he recalled. “I was involved in band during high school, and I remember we had 105 graduates in our class. One of my favorite memories besides graduation day was the senior prom.”
Although Shea has moved from the area which makes it difficult to see classmates, he maintains contact with several via email and Facebook.
“I have little personal contact with high school seniors of this era,” he noted, when asked what was one big difference between the 1967 graduating seniors and today’s graduating class.
“I hesitate to offer any opinions comparing the two because I still remember the uninformed opinions of the senior citizens of my generation in relation to us,” he said.
With the Beatles’ album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” topping the charts all over the world and becoming certified gold on its day of release 50 years ago in both Great Britain and the United States, Wade and his wife are part of a “core group of about 10 classmates who married classmates and still live in Cape May County.”
Wade was born in a maternity home four blocks from his family’s home in Wildwood. While his wife moved to the area when she was 5 years old. They graduated from Wildwood Catholic High School, with about 88 other students.
“I was in the Glee Club and Student Council for a year or two in high school,” Carol said, recalling there were “very little sports for girls at the time.”
Her husband called himself an “over-achiever” during high school, noting he was manager of the basketball team for three years, and two of his four years they were state champions. “Not that I had anything to do with that,” he joked. “I played baseball and was class president during my senior year as well.”
Wade recalled the first time he saw Carol Sandman in school, who eventually became his wife. “Carol is about five feet tall,” he said, “and when she entered the cafeteria for the first time during freshman year, she stood out. We dated on and off during high school and college.” He went to Villanova University, and she attended Rosemont College, both just outside of Philadelphia.
“We never really separated,” Carol said. Now, they’ve been married over 45 years, have a son who lives in Portland, Ore., and a daughter who lives in Somers Point.
They have four grandchildren. His son attended Lower Cape May Regional High School while his daughter attended Wildwood Catholic High School.
“One of my favorite memories from those years is a party we decided to have at a golf driving range in Wildwood Crest,” Wade said. “There were about two dozen of us, and we got caught drinking beer. A number of the kids ended up with poison ivy all over their bodies, too.”
He also recalled parties under bridges, which may have been pre-cursors to today’s mini-reunions, cocktail and pool parties that often are the scene for the Wildwood Catholic classmates who married and remain in the area and enjoy their long-time friendships.
“I think we had more freedom as a child of the 1960s,” Carol said, as she thought about differences between today’s graduating seniors and those of her generation in 1967.
“Even in high school, we would go out and do things. Today, kids are in front of computers playing games. We were luckier back then; it was simpler back then,” she said.
Carol was a teacher for 28 years and said she’s seen “all sorts of things. Lots of today’s teens and young adults think the world owes them a living,” she said. “They don’t have a work ethic like we do, and did.”
Currently, the couple is a dealer in office furniture Atlantic County, but over the years have owned other businesses, including the Angelsea Pub, (then Wade’s Tavern).
Carol’s father, the late Charles W. Sandman Jr., built Two Mile Landing in 1976, she said. He was a four-term Republican congressman and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1973.  He was appointed a Superior Court judge in 1984.