By Mark Neumann. Special to Blogfinger.
Sue Gioulis cartoon. Special to Blogfinger. 2017.©
By Paul Goldfinger, MD Editor Blogfinger.net. Re-post. from Feb. 2017.
In 2017, the CMA announced that it was cutting back on secular programs in the Great Auditorium on Saturday nights. Eventually they stopped all such events in favor of more religious programming.
This was a disappointment to many in town and to many of the tourists who loved to come to Ocean Grove for those events.
We heard from one:
“This is sad. We live in Highlands and enjoyed driving down to Ocean Grove for the concerts.
We’d come early to eat, probably Nagles, set up on the lawn and get an ice cream from Day’s during the concert.
I know that residents didn’t appreciate the parking worries on those evenings. Still, this is so sad.”
This Highlander’s remark is of interest because a summer Saturday night in Ocean Grove is not merely a chance to hear Kenny Vance or Neil Sedaka; it is an experience that reflects the lifestyles in our small historic town. It is a nostalgic throwback that makes you feel as if you are in 1950’s America, notwithstanding the Victorian style homes.
You walk around perhaps on the way to the Great Auditorium. You see children chasing a ball, teenagers holding hands, adults on porches with a Martini and few laughs. You hear music, perhaps someone practicing a bagpipe—or stroking a few chords on a guitar; or maybe it’s a chorus of wind-chimes from porches as you pass.
And you feel a sense of calm, of family, of safety and even of happiness. The “ancient” music emanating from the GA is only part of the mosaic.
Also, the summer Saturday nights would provide a setting for having company We would have a Doo Wop party for friends and family. Starting with dinner and chatting on the porch. Then we would all walk over together to the GA for the best in Doo Wops. And walk back home through those wonderful Grovarian streets and have dessert. We all still miss it.
And this sort of feeling is not confined to residents of the Grove, as we see from the comment above.
Hopefully the Great Auditorium management understood the concept of an “Ocean Grove vibe” when it made its decision. I guess they were clueless to that.
BELOVED MUSIC REFLECTING AN ERA—used to be in the Great Auditorium:
FRANK SINATRA:
BEACH BOYS:
There were multiple factors which resulted in the decision to cancel the Saturday programming. The CMA does not reveal its inner workings.
Following a two-year study, a Neptune Township committee voted in 1987 to ban parking within 25 feet of an intersection. The consequence of this would be the removal of an estimated 2,000 spaces in Ocean Grove. According to the Ocean Grove Times of 13 Aug. 1987, there was actually a brief consideration of turning Ocean Pathway into a parking lot.
I believe, if the Public/Private partnership between the Township and the CMA continues on the present course, “The Great Lawn” will become the parking lot for “The Auditorium Condominiums”
I hope I am wrong.