Whimsical Windows - Sea Gull Motel

Vacations past seems to be a recurring theme for me, and so for Toby's meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, it is the soft sand and rolling Atlantic waves at Brigantine Beach New Jersey, and a retro look at the Sea Gull Motel, next to the old Sea Gull Cottages (long gone) in two phases - under construction in 1965, with my grandmother getting her pic shot by my namesake grandfather with his German Exa SLR.

The next is in color in its pink stucco with my grandmother, just four years later in 1969. An efficiency motel with a kitchen, it was the only way our brood of seven kids could afford a vacation by avoiding restaurants every day. More time to play on the beach :)

We stayed there for vacation getaways in 1966, Labor Day 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1972. Current reviews of the place now are generally poor - but not in my childhood memories of surf, sand and sun...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Sand, surf, siblings, shadows

Michele

Myself, Sharon

Claudia

Vicki

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 seems a place to showcase shadowy old vacations, and since I have been busy scanning the past, the New Jersey shore, five decades ago in 1961, seems to be a fitting place to secure them. Siblings at low tide on the beach in front of the Sea Gull Cottages. And since my sister Michele is going there today with grandkids in tow, this post seems quite fitting. I can almost feel the briny Atlantic breezes wafting by my computer screen...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Grand Opening in Shadow

Ready for business

Shadowy banner

My van ramp offers shadows

Nice price in CT

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 takes me back about 24 hours to a beautiful day and a grand opening of a repair facility, a new business in our town of Ansonia. Honest and affable Jim Brannigan, mechanic and musician, has rehabbed an old gas station repair facility for repairs, tires and car sales. The only press, Patti (her story), city officials and the proprietor's lovely wife, baby and mom were all on hand, with fresh coffee and donuts as a treat for all. I saw shadows all about and with my cheap Droid phone, had to capture a few, all from wheelchair height. A fine morning combination of commerce and shadow hunting :)

Shadow Shot Sunday - Sixties sandy shoreline in shadow...

Boardwalk Bike Ride, Atlantic City, 1969

Alas, due to a busy schedule this past week, blogging has been missed. Among the tasks that has is been occupying my time is a family photo archive project with my Aunt Terry, scanning many decades of history - which seems just right for a blogging return to Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Six of seven kids with dad. Brigantine Beach NJ, 1968

Early morning bicycle riding, Boardwalk, Atlantic City NJ, 1965

Today's subjects are from summer vacations in the 1960s in the New Jersey shore towns of Atlantic City, way before the glitz of today's casinos that line the Boardwalk, and Brigantine. Shadows subtly fall around the subjects and scenes upon these barrier island sandbars under the sun...Today's subjects are from summer vacations in the 1960s in the New Jersey shore towns of Atlantic City, way before the glitz of today's casinos that line the Boardwalk, and Brigantine. Although faded, hadows subtly fall around the subjects and scenes upon these barrier island sandbars under the sun...

Whimsical Windows - Happy New Year 1964

For Toby's fun meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, I offer an old view and I think that I think I know what it is. As some know, I have been scanning a lot of old photos in an effort to digitize the Villers past. My Aunt Terry has been sending me old prints I don't have and I am compiling complete sets of old pics, maybe 2000-2500 in total, to put by subject into a series of CD/DVD slideshows. 

So what is this? I believe is New Year's  Eve 1963, my grandfather upstairs overlooking Times Square in Manhattan as the ball drop commenced at Midnight - check the clock on the Bond Clothiers as the big and little hands are both neatly lined up at the number 12...

How can I be reasonably sure of this? This pic was in a sequence that included our grandparents visit for the holidays in 1963 and they always went home via NYC. The Christmas tree was in the dining room of our new home in CT...and 1963 was the only year the tree was in the dining room. If my memory remains in working order over the past five decades :)