For Shore, We’ll Never Forget Sandy

I still really can’t believe what happened last week.

Sandy. Ugh…Sandy.

Over the past few days, there have been utility crews from allover the US driving up and down my county’s major artery, working long hours to restore power to homes, schools and businesses.

There are trees down everywhere: on houses, cars, bridges, etc.

There are families who lost EVERYTHING.

There are neighbors and friends without heat and lights for a week or more (I was one of them!)

There are those who still don’t know the fate of their properties on the Jersey Shore.

{Sigh} The Jersey Shore.  Our beloved Jersey Shore.

The eternal optimist in me knows that it will be rebuilt, and will be better than ever.

But the realist in me acknowledges that it will likely never be the same. And that’s the hardest, and the saddest part for me, and for many others I know whom either grew up spending their summers at the Shore, are current property owners/renters, or just plain love it whenever they go.

Because there are some things that just can’t be replaced.  Like the smells. The griddle grease from boardwalk sausage and peppers and funnel cakes.  That hybrid smell of oil and saltwater in the air that billows around the amusement rides.

There’s that pine tree in front of my in-law’s shore home that they watched grow as their sons grew over the years.

And those beautiful hand-painted carousel horses that have been there on Funtown Pier for years and years and years.

I do realize there are many parts of New York and New Jersey aside from the Shore that were heavily hit by the Superstorm. We have a few family members that were directly affected by the storm’s wrath, displacing them and destroying their possessions.  And my heart goes out to any families who lost their homes and are now adjusting to a new normal.

It’s just that my mind keeps taking me back to the Shore – and how such a place of peace, relaxation and family memories is now a gnarled, smoking, sandy, hazardous mess.  And as my friend Jude understands, the “Italian” in me feels guilty because of those one-too-many good summer days and nights at the Jersey Shore this summer. Too many picture-perfect, cloudless skies, gorgeous moons.  And way, way, too many slices of Maruca’s pizza and Kohr’s ice cream cones.

And now it’s gone.

Wait – let me rephrase that: it’s gone for now.

The Shore will be back and God willing, we’ll be there with it upon its glorious return.

The families affected by this horrific natural disaster named Sandy will slowly piece their lives back together, and figure out their “new normal” and way of living.

And we’ll all do this together, right? From the utility workers in Indiana working in Ramsey, New Jersey to the Facebook Mom’s group collecting #Sandy donations to the moments of silence to the prayers offered before bedtime. We didn’t create the mess, but we’ll sure as hell help to fix it and make things whole again.

It’s the Jersey way.  I’m Shore of it.

To be reminded of the Jersey Shore that once was, and its full meaning to me, kindly click here to read “The Sea: Best Gift-Giver Ever” that was posted from the Lavallette area in August 2012.

oxox

-mom a la mode

{I was not compensated in any way for this post. The opinions expressed are solely mine.}