Blogfinger

A Grover says, “This makes a prison yard hospitable.”  Blogfinger photo. ©

A picture when freedom temporarily rang at the bell a couple of weeks ago. Paul Goldfinger photo. Click to enlarge. From April 2021.. Note that this photo was not a set-up. They were in there when I approached and asked them to look at the camera. Someone had left the center unlocked for a few days.  Others went in including kids on bikes and adults sitting on the benches.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net

I was bringing the recycling pails in.  We live opposite Firemen’s Park at the OG North End.

I had just finished reading a comment from a Grover who lives across from Boswell Park on the OG South Side.

This is what she said, “My husband and I have lived across this park for over 20 years. It’s like our front yard. I love seeing the trees flower in spring and change color in fall. Our cats take walks with us there and sit on the benches late at night in the summer after the crowds have gone. Kids play football there and dogs play fetch. Someone even put up a zip line this past summer and kids had fun with that. Sometimes I see people having picnics there. It is a peaceful oasis.”

I was reflecting on what she described about Boswell Park, vis a vis how our visitors feel about Firemen’s Park, when a woman strolled by with her dog.

She was smiling and we struck up a conversation. She is from Shark River Hills. She said that she loves to visit the Grove, just to walk around. She especially enjoys Firemen’s Park with her dog, BUT…

Then she volunteered, unsolicited,  an opinion which is paraphrased, “How can you Grovers put up with the meanness and ugliness of the chained-in fence surrounding the bell in Firemen’s Park?     It would be wonderful if visitors could wander into the middle and have a seat. I bet it would be beautiful and inspiring.”

I told her that my blog had often complained about that awful centerpiece across the street.

An eyewitness told me that a young boy lost his ball in the center, and he “nearly killed himself” trying to climb that fence with the iron spikes which he likened to something from “medieval  times.” Certainly there is a risk of being impaled.

He also cited the pyracantha bushes with those awful long needles that run parallel to the iron fence—he said that it is all a prime example of concentration camp decor.

He  had chased his dog’s toy into those shrubs and his arms were  bleeding from the needles.  His face turned red as he told his story.

Of course our friend from SRH is correct. I told her that I visited a number of firemen’s bells in this area including Asbury Park and Bradley Beach.  Their bells were open without any fences, and they looked fine. Kids could approach and touch them, but not ours.

This is the Firemen’s bell in Bradley Beach’s Riley Park in the most visible place in that town short of the ocean. Paul Goldfinger photo.

The Grover bell is symbolic of a cold, indifferent, and miserable attitude on the part of certain groups in OG, and we are especially embarrassed for the gallant OG firemen whose name is attached to that middle mess.

And ironically Jesus himself will soon spend some time there, and maybe the creche should be placed elsewhere so as not to locate  a symbol of kindness, hope, and peace next to that harsh and threatening ugliness.

Here’s a related link from 2020. Click on the bold print or where it says, “Continue reading.”..

https://wp.me/pqmj2-Hob

JEWELL   This song, “Simple Gifts,”  antedates Ocean Grove. The simple message  arises from the Shakers of 1848.  Maybe The Camp Meeting will recall such “simple gifts” when it comes to changing its mind about the first park we see when we come into the Grove.

“It’s a gift to be simple, It’s a gift to be free,
It’s the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
Will be in the valley of love and delight.”