Police Captain Reflects on Wildwood in ‘67

WILDWOOD – People concerned that Wildwood’s 2017 slogan “As Wild as You Want to Be” encouraged wild behavior may not be aware that Wildwood was just as – or perhaps more – “wild” 50 years ago.
“Wildwood was an appropriate name back then,” said retired Wildwood Police Capt. Wilbur Ostrander.
In 1967, the island was still rebuilding after the 1962 storm that flooded the island and wiped out West Wildwood. The urban renewal project was underway, replacing original storefronts with trendy retail spaces, despite lawsuits from owners of properties being demolished.
The police and fire departments had moved into a shiny, art deco City Hall four years prior. The police department, headed by Chief Anthony Fulginiti, had about 40 full-time officers.
Chevrolets were the police cruisers of choice because Burke Motors was still on the island.
Ostrander, a Korean War veteran and Wildwood High School alum who joined the police department in 1957, was just promoted to sergeant.
Year-round, he walked his beat: the 2nd Ward from the Boardwalk to the bay.
Most of the crimes Ostrander responded to were disorderly conduct, open display of alcohol, noise complaints, and fistfights – especially in summer.
“Not real serious,” Ostrander said.
Beaches did not yet have a nighttime curfew, and going barefoot or shirtless on the boardwalk could result in a $100 fine.
The Penalty Box and other nightclubs on Pacific Avenue were regular sites of arrests. Clubs traditionally stayed open until around 2:30 a.m., but the city was experimenting with allowing them to stay open all night, Ostrander said.
“We had more people at 4 o’clock in the morning on the street than we did at 4 o’clock in the afternoon,” Ostrander said.
New coffee shops were opening up, but Ostrander recalled young adults enjoying more marijuana than coffee in those establishments.
In making an arrest, an officer had to handcuff and take a suspect to a street-corner call box to ask for backup because there were no radios, Ostrander said.
“Everything was slowed down then,” he said.
Sometimes residents came out of their houses to help get a suspect under control, Ostrander said.
“Policemen back in my era could walk up to a corner and move a group of guys,” he said. “There was some sense of authority.”
If a taxicab was closer by than a police cruiser, the driver might have driven the officer and suspect to the police station, Ostrander said.
“The judge would fine the guy and charge him $20 for the cab,” he said.
After the suspect was processed, that suspect could bet on spending a night behind bars, Ostrander recalled.
“They just weren’t released like they are today with summonses,” he said.
Rooming houses, like the ones since replaced with condos on Pine, Maple and Glenwood avenues, were also frequented by police responding to complaints. Nighttime noise violations racked up as young adults and teenagers took to porches with bottles and cans in hand.
“You still have hot spots, but we used to have whole streets,” Ostrander said.
High school students on senior week traveled from Philadelphia by bus to the terminal that once stood at Oak Avenue and the Boardwalk. Buses were backed up to Atlantic Avenue, Ostrander said. Police officers were stationed nearby as teenagers got off the buses.
“Senior week used to be a monster here,” he said. ““Kids were very happy to come 90 miles.”
On Memorial Day Weekend 1967, police made 107 arrests in North Wildwood and 60 arrests in Wildwood, mostly for underage possession and/or consumption of alcohol.
North Wildwood police at the time described it as the “worst weekend of arrests” in the resort’s history, up from 17 total arrests the year prior, according to the Wildwood Leader from June 1, 1967.