Former Pacific Ave Business Owners Recall ’70s Summers in Wildwood

WILDWOOD – For a small group of former local business owners and entertainers, spending summers in Wildwood, in the 1970s, was nothing short of magical.
Describing life back then, Bob Sheeran, now of San Diego, California, and formerly from South Philadelphia, said, “It was an upscale hippie life. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in Wildwood during the summer back then. It is a time and place that you won’t experience today.”
Sheeran was among a group of about 20 people who traveled from all over the nation to get together and “talk about the old days,” while “lamenting the demise of Pacific Avenue” and all it represented during their youth.
Sheeran, along with Buddy Seibert, now of Sayreville, reconnected as friends on Facebook about six years ago and decided to organize a reunion of former business owners. As one was contacted, they would reach out to others, expanding the reunion’s size.
“We lament the demise of Pacific Avenue,” Seibert said, “and we talk about the past, but we have a good time doing it.”
As an 18-year-old traveling salesman, Seibert sold belts to Sheeran, who owned a clothing store on Pacific Avenue at the time. A friendship developed between them and expanded to include John Marota, now of Margate; Jimmy Sheeran, now of Hollywood, Florida, and Bill Mason, now of Woodbury, who came together Aug. 10 for four days of fun, friendship, and recalling memories of their youth.
It had been two years since they saw each other because the pandemic forced them to cancel last year’s reunion, but neither the time nor the distance seemed to dim their enthusiasm to share their special bond. They’ve been getting together for five years after years apart, as they “grew up,” having families, careers and lives apart.
“We were a small, select group who shared a good time back then,” Mason said, about the early 1970s.
“Pacific Avenue would be packed with kids in bell-bottoms,” Jimmy Sheeran recalled. 
He and Bob Sheeran are brothers. 
“Traffic was booming down Pacific,” he added.
As the youngest, Jimmy Sheeran said he would “trail” around with the group and be included in their antics.
“I remember being at the Rainbow Club for my 13th birthday and the band there, the Magic Bus Band, had everyone sing happy birthday to me,” he said. “At the end of the night, when they stopped playing, they would announce that the party would be continuing at ‘The Hamper.’ That’s what our apartment was called.”
The Hamper was an apartment behind the former Yogi’s Hoagies, then owned by Gerry Giordano, who was a business partner with Bob Sheeran and is now deceased. It became the hangout whenever the group got together, according to Seibert.
The others shared stories of nights at the legendary Fairview, seven beers for $1 at the Shamrock, softball tournaments, and a laundromat that was “guarded by two large dogs at the door, so no one would use it.”
A young Bruce Willis worked at Mason’s store, he recalled. Mason said Willis was also a bartender at several places, including the Mansion.
Front man John Kay, singer, songwriter and guitarist with the rock band Steppenwolf, shopped at Sheeran’s store and became friendly with them, giving complimentary tickets to attend Steppenwolf’s concert at the convention center.
Bob Sheeran looked like David Cassidy at the time and was able to bluff his way into a concert, although he never met Cassidy face-to-face, noted Seibert.
“You didn’t want to be anywhere else during the summer,” Sheeran said. “We always thought Pacific Avenue would be there, so it’s heartbreaking to see it now. It’s gone, but we are still here.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.