The rhythm of Shore communities is different from that of cities and inland towns. At the Shore the economy is based almost entirely on tourism and second home ownership. Summer is the time when local businesses must make most of their annual income. Shoulder seasons exist, but summer is king.
Tradition sets Memorial Day as the start of that all-important summer season. Certainly the biggest crowds come a few weeks later, when schools are out and the weather is warmer, but being ready by Memorial Day is the goal in each of the county’s resort communities as they prepare for the annual influx that feeds the county’s economy.
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Cape May County grows from a town to a metropolis
every summer – by design, by effort and by tradition.
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Statistics tell us that the permanent population of around 95,000 individuals grows at various points in the summer months to as much as 800,000 people on a given day. If you take the census population of Newark, Jersey City and Paterson and add them together they fall slightly short of the population of Cape May County on a warm July weekend. It is, basically, a population the size of San Francisco, one of the country’s top 20 population centers.
When mayors from across the county unlock the beaches with symbolic keys visitors expect those beaches to be ready with sand and lifeguards, restaurants to be open and well-staffed, hotels, motels and short-term rentals to be ready to receive them and a variety of activities and diversions open and welcoming.
This is accomplished with an enormous army of workers, including international staff here on temporary visas, large numbers of county residents who each year fill summer jobs, college and high school students who man the lifeguard stands, and even part-time police officers who help maintain public safety. Some of these roles, especially in restaurant kitchens and in landscape and cleaning services, are even filled by those whose status in this country may be questionable.
Staffing has become a greater challenge than it once was, but somehow when Memorial Day is reached, businesses are open and somewhat ready for the onslaught.
Tens of millions of dollars exchange hands during the relatively short season. Enough is taken in that the county sends more than a million and a half dollars a day on average for 365 days a year to Trenton in state taxes.
All municipal services have to increase in the summer season, from trash pickup to emergency response, from parking enforcement to filling holes left on beaches, from controlling rowdiness to fighting very real increases in property crimes. The county’s only hospital gears up.
The summer represents a different world for Cape May County. It is what the rest of the year is spent getting ready for. The spring months are focused on preparation, the completion of construction projects, road work and anything else that can interfere with the smooth operation of the summer season.
The fall is a time to pack away summer equipment and to turn attention to those projects that were deferred for the summer. Shoulder season activities will keep some businesses open, and others will close until another summer is looming. The sleepy months of January and February see even the local population shrink as many head for Florida.
It will not be long after when everything will refocus on another Memorial Day and another season.
Memorial Day also remains a time to remember and honor those who gave their lives for the freedom we all too often take for granted. We can best honor them by honoring that for which they made the ultimate sacrifice, taking our responsibilities as citizens seriously.
We honor those who served but did not come home when we honor the principles that allow a nation of more than 320 million to exist as a functioning democracy. The greatest disservice we can do to those who died protecting our way of life is to lose the battle for that way of life on the home front through negligence and a misguided sense that differences of opinion make us enemies.
Memorial Day is part of the essential pulse of Shore communities. But is also a day to remember the words of Franklin Roosevelt, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”
Quotes From the Bible
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13
A solemn reminder of the true meaning of Memorial Day.
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