“Tents at Nighttime.” A lovely painting by Theresa Troise Heidel, New Jersey water-colorist. Re-post from spring 2018.By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net. Re-post from spring 2018.
Theresa Troise Heidel is a New Jersey water color artist who has done many paintings at the Jersey Shore, including Asbury Park and Ocean Grove. As a youngster, she got to stay for awhile at a family friend’s tent. Her parents “sang in the Great Auditorium.”
She was enchanted by the tents. She said, “There was something magical about the way the rain sounded pattering the canvas above me, not to mention the aroma of fresh coffee being perked—-such atmosphere.”
About the painting of the tents at night, she said, “I invented the night life look.”
The Jersey Shore article featured a well-done story about several of the OG tent interiors which the writer got to visit.
But in this magazine, in its index section, where brief profiles of Jersey Shore towns are posted, we find that once again the media got it wrong about Ocean Grove. They portray the Grove as a summer religious enclave where the main aspects consist of the Camp Meeting Association, the Tent Village, and the Great Auditorium.
The article extols the Hope-Jones organ; “spiritual birth, growth and renewal;” “worship;” “praise events,” “the world’s greatest preachers on Sunday, ” and “God’s Square Mile.”
And again, there is little recognition that our town is a diverse place where a wide variety of people live, play and enjoy life.
Is it too much to hope for that the media might actually open their eyes and look beyond the religious trappings and stereotypes and recognize a town with many secular and historic aspects as well as evolving demographics?
Certainly the religious underpinnings of OG are real and admirable, but other dimensions need to be recognized.
The last writer to successfully address these aspects was Ted David in his 2002 book “The Other Side of Ocean Grove.”*
At Blogfinger we make it one of our main themes to portray our town and its lifestyles as they really are.
The song below performed by Beverly Kenny captures the feel of this town.
BEVERLY KENNY:
*Ted David has an updated version of this book coming out this year.