Ocean Grove boardwalk being ripped up at the North End. Paul Goldfinger photo © Jan. 15, 2016. Blogfinger.net Click to make the scene bigger.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
Ripping up history is the antithesis of archaeology, but here is a destructive endeavor for a good cause. Here is a happy sight, but perhaps with some nostalgia as well. It is an ambivalent sight of those old boards being ripped out after Sandy did her evil deed in October, 2012. Maybe someone will reclaim those boards and make a trendy addition to a house in the Hamptons. Asphalt will also be chopped up.
How many of you have walked on that North End boardwalk and have happy memories of it? How many of you have sat on that nearby beach writing love letters in the sand while gazing up at the families and children and visitors biking, strolling, socializing or jogging by?
But in the end we will have a new Trex boardwalk there, except for the most northern part where cheap wood will be placed in anticipation of the implementation of the North End Redevelopment Plan; that planned monstrosity which will crowd out some of the happiness over there.
However when the work on the boards is over in two months, things will pretty much be the same.
LEON REDBONE