In the mid 1950s, we would vacation at the "Jersey Shore." My grandparents, Nan & Pop, would rent a bungalow down at Seaside. My family would travel from southern Virginia and go to this fabulous world which was unlike anything we could ever experience at home.

The Boardwalk to any child was just a fabulous place. Back then you could take a roll of pennies and a roll of nickels and play pin-ball and some of the other games for hours and hours. The Boardwalk had everything - a carnival, a fair, a circus, an arcade all rolled in to one.

Not too far away was an outdoor restaurant called Barney's Pancakes. The windows were covered with huge plywood sheets and when they opened they just tilted the sheets up on the inside and they would hook to the ceiling. The customers would sit around the perimeter and the wait staff & cooks were inside. They would cook right in front of you.

Now this was many years before Happy Meals or any other type of hook that restaurants would use to lure kids in to eat. My brother Cliff andI wouldbe so excited when the stack of pancakes came out and there was an American flag on a toothpick that was stuck right in the middle. We would remove the flag, eat the cakes and take the flags home with us. It seemed like such a treat.

BARNEY CIPRIANI

Was one of the best High Divers the world has ever known. Barney would come to the Jersey Shore during the summer and put on exhibitions at local pools. He would climb up a 90' - 110' tower and do a full flip into a tank or pool below. What a Daredevil! He was our hero when my brother and I were kids. 

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