Every summer, the day after Labor Day, the town of Ocean Grove, as we have known it all summer long, suddenly disappears, and another version takes its place. It’s magic like the story of Brigadoon.
Here are Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy with “The Heather on the Hill.” –Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Paul Goldfinger photo. Pearl Harbor Day 2011. OG Pier pre-Sandy. Click to enlarge.
Each year on Pearl Harbor Day in Ocean Grove, there is a ceremony at the pier, and a small boat, tossing around in the waves, drops a wreath into the ocean. It is very moving. December 7, 2011. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Neptune Police Chief Robert Adams piloted his small boat for these ceremonies. He loved this photograph and he had it hanging in his Neptune office.
By Israeli singer LLANIT. The title means Next Year.
When we first moved here part-time in 1998, we became acquainted with the Live Nativity event. I never saw anything like it before.
I recall standing out in the cold waiting for the children and animals to appear. There was a procession, and this star bearer came by. She seemed as if she had appeared out of the mists of time as in Brigadoon. For a moment I felt I had experienced time travel.
Preserving the past is usually expressed in this town by the architecture. But other things occur which add life to the history, as you see in the photograph.
It’s important to continue those traditions whenever possible. The live nativity is now indoors, but it seemed more authentic when we were breathing vapor out our nostrils while waiting in the cold for the two-humped camel, the wise men, the sheep and some shepherds to arrive.
SOUNDTRACK: As a teenage musician I often took part in Christmas celebrations and concerts. We went caroling in the snow , and people tossed dollar bills out the windows of the garden apartments where we lived.
In school, Christmas music was a big deal, and I always have associated this holiday with beautiful music, both classical and popular.
But this photograph seems to require something especially heart-felt and different from the usual carols, so here, although it is not actually a Christmas selection, it does seem to go with the photo. It’s Puccini.—Paul Goldfinger