the boardwalk

This is the Jersey Shore as I knew it. A far cry from the MTV reality show.

It's where my brothers, cousins and I spent all summer building sandcastles, chasing seagulls, and riding waves on our boogie boards. 

It's where we had to wash every last grain of sand off our bodies before we could set foot in my grandmother's beach house. 

And it's where—if we were very well behaved all week—we'd be rewarded with a night at The Boardwalk. 



Picture all the magnificence of a state fair. Picture a giant pier looming over the dark Atlantic on a warm summer night. Then imagine the two of these things together and you have the Seaside Heights Boardwalk, home of my childhood dreams. 

It's a place where your teeth feel fuzzy from pink cotton candy, and the carousel twirls like a life-size music box, and the lights live incandescent in your memory until well into adulthood.

Seaside Heights Boardwalk, 2008. Photos by my brother, Trey Pasquariello

Dawn, my favorite carousel horse since 1984.

photo credit: BrickPatch

Last week, I saw the above image on the news. The Boardwalk was another victim of Hurricane Sandy. 

So grateful that my relatives in the Jersey/New York area weren't harmed, but this does make my heart ache.

More photos of the hurricane recovery efforts in Seaside Heights and beyond are here.