Memorial tributes on benches and urns: Ocean Grove Boardwalk. June 2015. Blogfinger photograph. ©
To The Editor:
I must tell the truth: I do not like the boardwalk urns. It doesn’t matter if the flowers are amazing or crummy. Those urns depress me. They should be carted off to the ash bins of history.
There could only be four reasons for the urns:
- They serve as memorials or shrines for the dead.
- They add beauty to the boardwalk.
- They are a tradition.
- They raise money for the CMA which puts memorial plaques on urns, light poles and benches.
My response is that the only beauty people really want to see on the boardwalk consists of the ocean, the beach, the sky, and happy people enjoying our beachfront. The urns add nothing to the existing scenery but clutter, and they bring back memories of what else besides the dead? Even the flowers, stuck in urns, are reminiscent of funerals and cemeteries.
If you want to have a shrine for a loved one, place it in your garden or your living room. Do not place it on the OG boardwalk which is a public thoroughfare on the beach. Even FEMA, using public funds, agreed that the boardwalk in Ocean Grove is a public place, and private memorial sentiments don’t belong there.
What kind of tradition is that anyhow? I have never seen mention of urns in OG history books. As a tradition, how many in OG feel nostalgic about the urns? Perhaps the CMA should remember to consider public sentiment, since this town is now largely secular in its culture.
It’s time for the urns to go. And while they are at it, they should remove all memorial plaques from benches, parks and light poles in town.
Jack B. Nimble.
Ocean Grove, NJ
June 22, 2015
THE EMBERS (suggested by Jack to represent happy thoughts on the boardwalk.)
Just to add another perspective… While walking on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant today, just a block north of the Jenkinson’s amusements, we noticed these benches. So Ocean Grove is not the only town with nods to its residents. But, in my opinion, ours are a bit more subdued than these. I’m on the side of keeping the urns and benches. They serve a purpose, both practical and pleasing to the eye for random visitors, but more poignant and reflective for those who remember their loved ones. I can only hope that someday, a long time from now, my own children may be able to sit on “my” bench and remember being with me in my favorite place in this world.
Doubting Thomas, To equate my desire to have the planters remain on the boardwalk to mean that I want nothing to change is simply false. How you can even compare support for flower planters to also mean support for derelict buildings, broken sidewalks, uncared for trees, etc. is convoluted thinking at best.
I am also a great supporter of free speech and Jack B. Nimble is certainly free to express his opinion. He claims that he knows “the beauty that people want to see..” However, judging from the responses, perhaps he might not have spoken to enough people.
And, I will never move away unless the Grove changes so much that it becomes like every other shore town and then there would be no point in staying
I love the urns and the idea of memorializing a loved one. But I would question who’s idea it was to place those tacky plastic plaques on them. They are really so tasteless.
I miss the old planters! For you newbies in town, they were wooden whiskey half-barrels that lasted for decades. We can thank their removal, and their not-as-appealing replacement ‘urns’ on a previous OGCMA Administration – The resin urns were their idea.
These were the same administrators that thought it was a good idea to plant $20k worth of sod on the east side of Ocean Avenue. The sod survived a few months until a autumn Nor’Easter blasted it with a thick layer of sand from which the grass never recovered.
Really? Did nobody bother to read the last sentence of the letter?
Wisher: You can say, “They should not be seen as sad.” But the word “should” here is misplaced because how someone feels about something emanates from his heart, and his alone. But thank you for the John Donne poem. —Paul
Urns!
I always loved this piece of poetry because the author didn’t muddy his/her experience with mind-projections.
The old pond.
A frog jumps in.
Plop!
-Author unknown to me.
Lee
Oh, simply said that makes me happy!
I think Ocean Grove is simply a beautiful
beach. I’ve been coming to the Grove
for the last 30 years.
I also owned a home.there and I love that it’s not like any other
beach at the Jersey Shore!
That is the beauty of Ocean Grove..
These are not distracting roadside memorials. They are more of respectful tributes. They should not be seen as sad, but rather as joys of people past. I feel a sense of connection with past OG admirers.
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
-John Donne
vacmom: How many people have moved here even though they would like to see some changes? I bet some of them are your neighbors and friends. For example they may dislike derelict houses, broken sidewalks, uncared for trees, parking issues,dirty lakes, Sunday morning beach closings, destroyed boardwalk, etc etc.
Would you have advised any of those people to “look at another town?” Or maybe it’s just the Boardwalk memorial issue that would compel you to say that.
Do you respect free speech? It doesn’t sound like you do. Maybe you should move away, because most Grovers have something they want to change.
I am not a volunteer, I’m a resident who has lived in OG for many years. I have never once associated the garden containers with something depressing. The plaques are just a way of honoring human beings that were once here among us (and still are).
Wow……….so many postings on this subject.
As far as this article we are all going to die some day and yet we constantly need to be reminded when walking on the boards? An urn is where you place a cremated person so best to call them flower pots. Still those plaques need to be removed.
What has to go are the crumbling sidewalks and streets of the Grove!
I don’t understand why people choose to move here and then want to change things. It’s not as if there aren’t other towns along the shore that might better meet their needs.
I have friends who wouldn’t want to live here because they want to go to the beach on Sunday mornings. They’re looking elsewhere, and that’s fine. Better to do your research and if there are many things you would want to change in a town, best to look at another town.
I think the beautification committee does a wonderful job, it is a lot of work doing all the planting and keeping up with all the flowers including the urns. I suggest you join the committee and bring all your enthusiasm and ideas. Be a part of a solution. The memorial plaques are a lovely tribute. I do not find them depressing. I find negativity depressing so I hope your post was in jest.
If people want to remember departed individuals, they should go to the cemetery and pay their respects.
The Ocean Grove boardwalk is just fine the way it is – beautiful flowers and enough benches for all to find a place to sit and view the beauty of the ocean and feel those wonderful ocean breezes.
I love the flowers as well as the urns. If one is offended by the term urn, refer to them as planters. Do the anti urn folk find the restored urns in Founders park depressing? They are a wonderful tribute to those who have enjoyed Ocean Grove. In Kure Beach, just outside of Wilmington, NC they rout out sections of the boardwalk and imbed a fish shaped memory. Novel and a nice tribute.
I’m really hoping that this is all a feeble attempt (very feeble) at dark humor on Nimble’s part. In case it’s not, well, I’m a relative newcomer, but I love the urns, the memorial benches and all the rest. People care – I find that comforting, not depressing. Thank you to all the volunteers!!!
The Nimble man is spot on. OG needs to get hip to the twentieth century. The boardwalk should be like Belmar’s. No railings, really, is OG afraid that one of the centenarians out for a stroll will keel over into the sand or those flower beds if not guarded by the boardwalk equivalent of a highway guardrail? And all of those benches! Belmar has a couple, but not one every 5 feet. If you are so feeble as to have to sit on the boardwalk, get off and let our youth trod more freely, maybe skate board everywhere. While you’re at it, paint some bike lanes on the boards and allow 24 hour cycling, set the trend, hey GRAMMA GET OUTA THE WAY. Oh, and yes, we need wi-fi walking lanes so that we can keep checking Facebook without getting hit by some old guy ambling aimlessly. Yes, it’s SO depressing seeing the history of the once living in plaques, who cares, what is this a cemetery? Get with what’s happening, man.
I think any combination of the four reasons listed in the letter to the editor would support the presence of the urns on the boardwalk. Personally, I think the urns and the various plantings/flowers enhance the appearance of the boardwalk.
In addition, many people use a wide variety of urns as planters. I am sure most use them without any thought of creating a memorial or making a religious reference; they are simply more attractive than a simple pot in my opinion (I have several at my home).
I see the planters and benches as lasting celebrations of lives of those who loved Ocean Grove, its beaches and boardwalk not as funerary memorials.
Sounds like a curmudgeon to me- he should find something better to do than complain about our wonderful boardwalk.
I like them! I love the flowers. I like reading the names on the benches and flower pots and being reminded of the many people who enjoyed this beach and board walk before my time. I think its a sign of health in our contemporary culture to remember those long gone — for a brief moment it takes us away from our constant focus on self.
I also wish we had enlarged OG postcards along our boardwalk the way Bradley Beach does. I don’t see this at all as something OGCMA does for money, but a sense of history and what has come before is part of why we love Ocean Grove.
Joyce, you put that so simply and eloquently. Well said. And knowing that they mean so much to some people makes me even more OK with them. The Ocean Grove boardwalk is perfect just the way it is.
Removing the plaques from benches takes things a little too far. That has been an OG tradition for many decades and most people probably would disagree that they should go. Can they be depressing? Yeah. I feel sad every time I read the names and can’t help but think of my own grandmother who adored Ocean Grove more than anything. I would love to be able to have her name on one of the benches. But they all seem to be full and are a bit cost prohibitive.
I can only imagine the pain these families would feel if their loved ones plaques were removed because of a few insensitive people who want them gone because they feel depressed by them. Get over it.
I suggest you move to a place where there are no beautiful urns with flowers planted by the hard-working volunteers of the beautification committee.
Blessings, Joyce Dawson