To the Editor:
I want to get away from the ever-disappointing politics and politicians that are running my country into oblivion. I want to get a breath of Cape May Point fresh air. It isn’t a bad thing to remember when once in a while.
Anyone who has been in town since before 1937 I believe will agree with me about a big word: progress. Have we, or haven’t we? I want to bring a few neat things that have disappeared from the streets of town.
Huckleberries and beach plums. All you could pick along Alexander Avenue. How about the huge oak trees and brush that grew in the circle? It was a mess, but it was wild.
The water tap that we kids quenched our throats. Black tar-like material that covered our sand streets that you brought into the house on your feet.
Flies and mosquitoes, the largest in the world, and the paper strips that hung from the top of the screen door that the bugs would get caught on. Oh yes, the nightly gulf sprayer that everyone had to kill the mosquitoes.
There was our, as little kids, all-day playground, Lake Lilly, fishing, swimming and a chance to make a dime picking water lilies for the visitors. The corner store where you spent that dime for candy. The magnesite plant that destroyed the giant oaks and left a white residue on everything.
Beach parties with a fire every weekend. That was our evening fun.
Someone’s parents would walk by to make sure things were right. Most of the time you didn’t know they walked by. As teens, we never left the Point. I could go on and on about how it was. Maybe another time.
Huckleberries and beach plums are gone. Alexander Avenue is all homes now. The circle is a showpiece. The water tap is gone. Just a few water bottles laying around now.
The flies and mosquitoes are still here, but under control. No more sticky paper or gulf spray. Lake Lily is a picture of a dream that you can’t touch. A showpiece. Water lilies? Still there, but unpicked. Corner store for candy, where? Beach parties, I understand, have many restrictions now. The magnesite plant is gone, and nature is coming back slowly.
So, what do you folks think? Progress or not? Are we moving forward, as Webster explains it, or are we on a controlled backward slide?
One unmistakable clue is the nervousness of the folks now. Listen at night, instead of nature sounds you hear cars racing down Alexander Avenue or Cape Avenue, tires squealing and engines racing. Notice the speed of cars running around town and riding your bumper if you stay within the speed limits. You tell me what my old paradise is now.
We have to progress, I guess. The Point still has trees everywhere that make it different than any other resort town nearby. Wildlife still runs around the streets. Not as many as years ago.
The town characters have died off. The winter months are the same. The post office has changed from the old-fashioned wooden boxes. The fishing has declined to almost nothing. We have lifeguards where, years’ past, your mother was the lifeguard, and you did not have to be an Olympic swimmer to swim now. So, I guess it is not too bad.
One last thing, when you turn off Sunset Boulevard onto Cape Avenue, please leave your frustrations and go and settle down to a slow-paced lifestyle and enjoy my paradise.
