On the Way to Cape May

Almost three decades ago when I relocated from New England to South Jersey, I worked for a weekly newspaper, including a summertime publication. There, I became acquainted with that all-encompassing expression “Something for everyone.”
It was touted by just about every business and every circumstance: A restaurant’s menu had “something for everyone” and a boardwalk amusement pier had “something for everyone.” It applied equally to the offerings of a deli or a candy shop, a rug store or a garden shop.
It wasn’t long before I would cringe every time I had to make it a part of an ad for the paper. Each business owner claimed they had “something for everyone” even if the store down the block selling the same products made the same assurance. How could they do that?
I’d awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat fearing I had placed two ads side by side, both claiming “something for everyone” and that someone would call the publisher, complaining they had responded to the ad and the store did not have “something” they wanted. Good thing there were plenty of summertime tourists, since we had all this “something” to go around.
And so I have to smile each time I come to work now at MAC here in Cape May because that “something for everyone” seems to be following me through life.
Over the years, I figured out that “something for everyone” must be a necessity in a tourist area if you want to grow and prosper and satisfy both visitors and year-round residents. Of course, it’s sometimes a monumental guessing game — and always a lot of work — to pinpoint that “something” that spells success.
Take the Cape May Music Festival, going into its 22nd year and kicking off later this month. We invariably start with Irish music because everyone becomes a little Irish under the spell of banjo and fiddle, bodhran and bass. And it wouldn’t be a Music Festival without classical music, so the Bay-Atlantic Symphony follows the baton of Jed Gaylin to bring Mozart, Bach, Haydn and all those gone but not forgotten composers to life.
If you think all classical music and music lovers, and orchestra directors in particular, are snooty and patronizing, you need to come and meet Jed, who is as warm and friendly as a teddy bear and absolutely passionate about music and takes “something for everyone” seriously.
That’s still not enough “something for everyone” so we also mix in Afro-Cuban jazz, chamber music, a brass band, and a favorite local pianist tickling the ivories. Now we’re getting there.
Of course, it’s true of a lot of things we do at MAC, both in our own programming and the events we co-sponsor with other groups and businesses in town. We don’t know how much of a boater Dr. Physick was, but we offer visitors and locals boat tours with the Cape May Whale Watcher.
Surely Victorians were interested in the coastal ecology of the area (even if ecology was not a Victorian buzzword), so we partner with the Nature Center and the Bird Observatory to reveal the secrets of our beaches and birds.
What I’ve learned over my almost-30 years here in Cape May County is that offering “something for everyone” is really what we do best. The phrase may sound trite but it’s true and it’s why this is such a great place to visit, or eventually come to live, as so many of us have. It is not, as I thought in my early years here, a claim without substance.
Look around you and what do you see? Well, “something for everyone,” of course.