I'd been going to Ocean Grove to visit Tom and Audrey for years on summer weekends when I wasn't in the Pines, and once at Christmas too, but I don't think I ever really saw it until I got a digital camera. Audrey mugged for the camera on the beach.
They lived close to the Great Auditorium of the United Methodist Church built shortly before the turn of the 19th century.
Look at the size of the organ.
Straw baskets made it easy to take up Sunday collections in the same wooden seats where the public paid to hear concerts during summer evenings.
Congregants summered nearby in quaint "tents" that had to be reserved years in advance.
Bikes offered a convenient and colorful way to get to the beach or Day's Ice Cream. Ocean Grove is dry and very wholesome.
In any other community, this street probably would have been named "Hell." On Sunday, the beach remained closed until 11 a.m. so that families would not be tempted away from religious services. Protests ended that tradition in 2024, after 155 years.
Rock jetties that once had inhibited my open-water swimming became fascinating through a camera lens.
Some homeowners really leaned in to their Victorian color schemes.
Residents also take Independence Day very seriously, with a parade that recalled small-town America better than any I've ever attended.
More Ocean Grove:
Girls Weekend (2016)
Jersey Shore (2017)
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