This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

IBSP MEMORIES

There’s a new Facebook Community Page in town by the name of We love IBSP.  The link to the page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-love-IBSP/679228582095764

It is mean to be a page for families, friends and fans of Island Beach State Park and it was founded by me - a former newspaper reporter, a current member of Friends of Island Beach State Park (formerly on the executive board), and someone who loves nature, the beach, and all it has to offer. I am currently a volunteer at the park.

The goal of the new page is to share information about events and volunteer opportunities at the park and to show people just how beautiful and special this nearly 10-mile-long barrier island park smack in the middle of the Ocean County is and why you should consider spending some time here. I also hope to tell the stories of the many groups that put their time, effort, and dollars into making Island Beach State Park a better place and the countless volunteers who are working to take care of the park to preserve what is there.

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How did I discover Island Beach – often referred to as a jewel in the crown of the state park system? I was born and raised in Middlesex County and summer vacations always included trips to the nearby Jersey Shore. One aunt loved the beach at Manasquan. My mother liked the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. But another aunt and uncle rented a bungalow at Midway Beach in the South Seaside Park section of Berkeley Township each summer. And it was there that I became enamored with Island Beach State Park. I was often invited to visit for a few days, a week, or however long they would let me. Midway Beach is just north of Island Beach State Park, which is officially located in Berkeley Township. I often made my way over to the park, on foot or bicycle. There was nothing like it – I was hooked.

In high school, as soon as I could drive, I headed down to Island Beach. A number of my classmates from the South River High School Class of 1973 and earlier had summer jobs at Island Beach in the maintenance department or as lifeguards or summer naturalists. The principal at my elementary school, Mr. Z (the late Chester A. Zdrodowski) was perpetually tanned from his 24-year summer job as the early morning crew supervisor at Island Beach.

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During college, my girlfriends and I rented one of the tiny bungalows across from Midway Beach (right behind the trailer rentals) and spent lots of lazy days on the white sand beaches of Island Beach State Park.

After college, Island Beach State Park became a part of my life again as I had the opportunity to spend time at one of leased shacks in the park on the Barnegat Bay. Fishing, crabbing, clamming, sleeping in the bunks in the bare bones shack, getting up early to go surf fishing, getting bit by greenhead flies and eaten alive by mosquitoes are all part of my memories.

My first, and only brand new vehicle, was a 1985 Chevy S-10 Blazer – four-wheel-drive, no air conditioning, stick shift. It allowed me to enjoy another special aspect of Island Beach. My husband-to-be and I got all the gear necessary and bought a mobile sport fishing vehicle permit so we could drive up and down the beach looking for stripers and following the birds to find the bait that led to the bluefish blitzes. I spent many nights sitting in my beach chair, wrapped in a blanket, with a flashlight in hand, watching a surf pole stuck in the sand to see if my pole got a hit and bent over.

Those were glorious days watching sunrises and sunsets, grilling snapper filets doused in olive oil and butter and layered with onion slices in foil on our cast iron hibachi. We often headed out of the park to pick up lobster tails or some shrimp from Berkeley Seafood and a steak and bring it back with us for a gourmet dinner. Steak and tails, sunset at the Barnegat Inlet jetty….perfection.

After we got married and had our son and daughter, in 1988 and 1990, we often spent long summer days at Island Beach, packing the Blazer with baby gear, coolers, blankets, towels, an umbrella, sand toys, and a blow-up kiddie pool.

My daughter would nap on a blanket with her stuffed Minnie Mouse under her arm. She lost her first Barbie doll to a wave just north of the jetty. They built mountains of sand and then rolled down them, laughing. My son learned to fish at Island Beach and would walk with his father from the jetty to the bay carrying poles and a bucket of bait. Besides catching snappers in the bay, my kids got to view wildlife up close, especially when one particularly bold red fox eyed up their bucket of bait and decided to follow them from the bay to the ocean. My husband and son emptied the bucket for the fox and got out of there – quickly!

I was also fortunate that my job took me back to Island Beach many times. As a reporter for the Asbury Park Press, I covered breaking news (when bales of hashish washed up on the beach or a plane crashed on the sand) and feature stories about the wonderful interpretive programs offered to the public, most for free. I’ve been seining with naturalists and kids, taken nature hikes, been beach plum picking with the Friends of Island Beach, helped clean up the beach, kayaked, watched osprey nesting boxes being built and installed, and covered the annual special beach days for children with disabilities that took place in front of the Governor’s summer house.  I have enjoyed meeting and writing about so many wonderful people who have worked at the park or volunteered at the park, like Pete McLain, who helped save the ospreys and peregrine falcons; Bill Vibbert, a park superintendent who lived at IBSP; Ferd Klebold, expert beach plum picker, historian, author, and dedicated volunteer; Diane Bennett-Chase, a former naturalist; Jim Merritt, a longtime Island Beach fan who works at the Sedge House; John Wnek and the MATES students and Project Terrapin; the late Bill DeCamp, and his son Willie DeCamp, who are responsible for the creation of Janet’s Garden and the Emily decamp Herbarium in the Interpretive Center, and many, many more.

So, if you have special memories of Island Beach and feel like sharing, please visit the Facebook Page We love IBSP and share a photo or a memory of what makes Island Beach special to you. Please let me know if I can use your photos and/or comments for a future blog. Cheers! Here’s to IBSP!
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