Ocean Grove is an extremely dog-friendly town, but the Township and the CMA cannot find it in their hearts to provide a dog park or an after (or before) hours dog beach. Such places are as much for the owners as they are for the animals. It’s a quality of life issue.
Want to smoke on the OG beach? Well, you cannot; read the sign. Oh, you can smoke on the Boardwalk. Blogfinger photo.
The NJ Governor just signed a law forbidding smoking on public beaches. The price of a ticket is $250.00.
OGCMA banned smoking on our beaches some time ago, but would the OG beach be considered a “public beach” making such OG puffers eligible for that fine? And what about those vapor puffers?
And is it OK to smoke in Auditorium Square Park? There’s a big fire risk building over there.
It’s 50 years since the walk on the moon, so here’s a re-post. We were living in Manhattan then, while I was a medical resident at Mt. Sinai. I photographed the TV. P.G. Click on word Blogfinger below this sentence.
A breeze plays the blinds.
The notes it finds.
The melody is pleasing my brain.
The comfort, the air:
That’s all I can care.
The ocean I can reach by train.
It’s only fair
Away from despair
I walk be it sunshine or rain.
Get easily tired
But here inspired.
Can stand for the longest. No strain.
It’s Garden of Eden
From others’ eyes hidden.
The purity is its only grain.
SARAH BRIGHTMAN “Stranger in Paradise.” Melody adapted from Russian composer Borodin.
* This poem is from a collection called: “Ocean Betrayal —-A poet’s Guide to Paradise at the Jersey Shore.” Under the pseudonym Eric Timm.
“Ocean Betrayal” references an incident where the ocean turned on the poet suddenly, as a rip tide in Ocean Grove, 2017. He and his son were rescued by lifeguards.
SOUNDTRACK: We don’t know what this young musician from the Tanglewood School of Music was playing at this morning recital, but below is Alexander Markov with a gorgeous violin solo: Jules Massenet’s “Meditation” from Thais.
This solo was performed in the Great Auditorium on August 2, 2012 by Byung Kook Kwak on violin. —–PG
Igor Timkovsky is a Jewish immigrant from Russia. He believes his family was part of the great Diaspora of the Jewish people (as was my family) which brought them to western Europe, probably Italy, perhaps 2,000 years ago. Their lives were difficult through the Middle Ages.
They were forced eastward in the 15th to 16th centuries and settled in the country of Belarus, east of Poland. When Hitler invaded Russia, many peoples scattered, especially the Jews. Igor’s family escaped into the Ural Mountains for safety from the Nazis. There were some places that the Wehrmacht failed to reach. During WWII many of his male relatives were lost in the war as soldiers, and some relatives were swept up by the Holocaust.
After the war, small numbers survived, and some then migrated to Israel or the US. Igor was born in Belarus in 1962.
In 1992, thanks to a family reunion program for immigrants sponsored by two US Senators, Igor, his wife, daughter and parents escaped Communism and emigrated to NYC, Washington Heights, where they live now.
He had been an engineer in Russia, but here he got a masters degree and became a social worker. His son Aaron was born in 2006 and will be entering public high school. He is a bright young man, personable, bilingual, and with a strong and obvious attachment to his Dad.
Igor discovered Ocean Grove a few years ago and “fell in love” with this “amazing town.” To see the Grove through the eyes of an immigrant is very special. He enjoys walking on the boardwalk at night. He loves the “friendly, polite, and cultured people.” He says that Ocean Grove feels “safe and comfortable” for his family. Aaron, age 13, told me during our interview at the OG Bake Shoppe that he” loves” the way that they get here so easily: bus, train and the walk over. They are currently vacationing, staying in a hotel near the beach.
But during a July, 2017, afternoon, something happened to cement their feelings for the Grove. Igor and Aaron were swimming in the ocean. They were seemingly fine, but “suddenly” they were apart and had drifted farther out than they thought. Igor quickly discovered that he could not touch bottom and he managed to join up with Aaron. It seems they were caught in a rip tide. They had one boogie board to share.
Before they had a chance to panic, two OG lifeguards were at their side. One said to Igor, “Would you like to join me on a trip to the shore?” The other one gave Aaron a forceful shove with his board, and he quickly found himself on the shore.
Igor was overwhelmed with gratitude for the way the OG guards saved him and his son. He wrote letters of profound appreciation to the life guards at bench 3 and 4–OG Beach Patrol and he even wrote a book of poems (2018) dedicated to those guards, expressing how he feels about what happened and about his love of this town. Even now, two years later, he cannot stop talking about it.
Igor is a Blogfinger fan, so he contacted me about his book Ocean Betrayal.
His book has 24 pages and 8 original and charming poems, punctuated by drawings and photographs. It is especially remarkable because English is Igor’s second language. We will post one of his poems soon.
If anyone is interested in contacting Igor about his book, just email Blogfinger and we will forward it.
Photo by Eileen Goldfinger. Ocean Grove, NJ. August, 2013
By Eileen Goldfinger, Food and Garden Editor @Blogfinger Re-post.
2 cups seeded watermelon, 1 inch cubed (I used half red and half yellow watermelon)
1 large beefsteak tomato, 1 inch cubes
1 small red onion cut in half and sliced thinly on an angle from the side
3 ounces of baby arugula
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground garlic (dry not fresh)
2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
4-5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Place watermelon, tomatoes, onion and arugula in a large bowl and stir.
Add salt, pepper and garlic to the salad. Drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive
oil on salad and stir all ingredients together. Sprinkle feta cheese over the salad and serve.
Serves 2
Editors note: This salad was inspired in 2013 by Laurie Price at Laurie’s Farm Market **on Atkins Avenue in Neptune Township.
I purchased the yellow watermelon, tomatoes and arugula from her. All other ingredients were from Wegmans with the exception of the traditional barrel aged Italian balsamic vinegar which was purchased at Carter & Cavero in Sea Girt*.
* Carter and Cavero are at 2100 Rt. 35 in Sea Girt. They also have a store in Red Bank.
** Lauri’s Farm Market is no longer in business
GERRY MULLIGAN “Home (When Shadows Fall’) from his album Dream a Little Dream
Who doesn’t like to reminisce once in a while? We last posted this tribute to fine music in 2015. Long enough for most of the original readers to lose their memories or die. We did joke around a lot, but we mostly loved the music. We had a “fake book” to help us out; it had about a thousand songs in it, so if you requested “Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long” we could take a shot. Click on Blogfinger below.
Lavallette, New Jersey c.1962. Charlie Francesconi on left (bass player) and Paul Goldfinger (ie Gary) on right. In front of the Red Rail Restaurant. Last posted 2013.
Bunny, I, Charlie (bass) and Frank (drums) warming up in Frank’s basement in Rutherford. We were college kids. Bunny and I were from FDU while Frank went to Seton Hall. Charlie was a precocious high school senior whose girlfriend was our groupie. Bunny rarely sang, but when she did, it was “Willow Weep for Me.” (We weeped for her singing.) Bunny was so slim that she could play between the white keys. Wallpaper compliments of Frank’s Mom. There are no recordings of our group.
The Paul Gary quartet performed at college parties, bar mitzvahs, dances, bars and even a boat ride. We specialized in dance music. I played alto sax in the FDU jazz band, but it was a tenor in the photo above. …
The gorgeous Catherine Deneuve starred in this movie. There was more making out in this trailer than at the Rt. 3 Drive-In near the Meadowlands, where the Rutherford High crowd went to see serious cinema.
But after you hear the music with Jack’s painting, you can now see a bit of the rest of the story.
In the July 18, 2019 issue of the Qoaster, there is this “news” item on the front page:
“Officials are cracking down in Ocean Grove on those who try to save parking spaces by placing orange cones in front of their homes. Although there is not an ordinance regulating cones, there is a policy in place prohibiting obstruction of parking spaces.”
Blogfinger has checked with a high ranking Neptune PD official who tells us that police are enforcing their rules on this in the same way that they always have—there is no “crackdown.”
Also the rule is enforced even if the violation is not in front of one’s house.
The rule says that no objects may be left at the curb other than a parked vehicle. If someone does try to save a parking space with a cone, a garbage pail, or anything else, a passing police officer will issue a ticket.
A garbage pail may be left at the curb only on the day of garbage pickup. In a marginal case, the officer will decide.
As with Bridgegate, the Qoaster has decided to act as if this is a unique news story, but in both instances, Blogfinger has covered these matters on quite a few occasion over the years.
In July 2017, we posted a piece on this very subject. It gives quite a bit of information:
Within that top 2017 post, there is a 2013 link, and that post had 35 comments! So saving spaces is a hot (intermittently) topic.
Recently I spoke to two neighbors about the common practice of arranging cars creatively so that a space could materialize when a friend, relative, spouse shows up.
In both cases, these Grovers think that is unethical.
But I have consistently believed that the Township should do something (permit parking) to give the residents a leg up in the quest for parking spaces. In the absence of such legislation, then I see nothing wrong for residents to give themselves a slight edge in the parking wars.
Shouldn’t a resident have a better chance for a space than some out-of-towner who is coming to take pictures of our houses or visiting the shlock-market on the Pathway while parking for free and adding to the congestion?
But, to be clear, I don’t usually do it, but if a neighbor offers to move his car to make room for mine, I will accept.
Lavallette, New Jersey c.1962. Charlie Francesconi on left (bass player) and Paul Goldfinger (ie Gary) on right. In front of the Red Rail Restaurant. Last posted 2013. 
