All Things LBI: Faves, History, Legends, Lore

by Ray and Ganss Fisk, Leslee Ganss

Overview

What is the authentic Long Beach Island? If you were to list all that you love about this 18-mile-long New Jersey sandbar -- favorite things, its rich history and lore, family attachments that may go back generations, beach, ocean and bay activities, lost youth and carefree summers, spiritual sunrises and spectacular sunsets -- would that distill LBI to its essence?

There is so much that is timeless and true about this Island. Although the experiences and feelings are different for everyone, one fact can not be denied: the emotional connection to LBI is real and deep and as permanent as a tattoo. It is a bond.

All Things LBI: Faves - History - Legends - Lore celebrates this bond with observations, moments past and present, cultural vignettes, memories and delights -- and with 480 photographs and images.

Breezily organized into sections including: ''The Beach and All That Makes It So,'' ''All Things Bayside,'' ''Weather, Storms, and Shipwrecks,'' the book also includes natural history, town legends and landmarks, remember-when nostalgia, and the special quality of the off-season. Long-time locals will recognize much; new visitors will be clued-in; young and old will relate. Charming, evocative and cleverly written, inclusive not exclusive (because no one really wants to keep it to themselves), this chunky gift book captures the real Long Beach Island.

All-encompassing, the 183-page hardcover also includes blank note pages at the end for readers to record their own favorite LBI things

As the book observes: ''Those three letters.... They're loaded with meaning, longing, and emotion. They represent more than just a physical place. More than an identity. They are attached to your soul. ...Wherever you are in the world, if you know what those letters mean, they will transport and connect you.''

All Things LBI is written and curated by the founder and editors of Down The Shore Publishing, who sifted through decades of collected research material, archives, experiences and knowledge from the authors and work they have published. Since 1985 the venerable regional publisher has explored and documented Long Beach Island and the entire Jersey Shore with nearly 100 essential titles and dozens of authors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593221065
Publisher:	Down The Shore Publishing
Publication date:	06/30/2016
Pages:	183
Sales rank:	1,104,073
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Y FISK was one of the first editors and photographers on Long Beach Island's young alternative weekly, The SandPaper, joining college friends on the small staff with issue #7, in 1977 — before the paper even had an office. He planned to stay on the Island only through that summer but never left. (LBI does that to people.) Based on the Island, he then worked in the New Jersey and Shore region for over decade and a half as a full-time photojournalist for The New York Times and United Press International, as well as other major publications. He founded Down The Shore Publishing from his home in a land-locked houseboat in Harvey Cedars, and has published over 100 titles with nearly three-dozen authors.

LESLEE GANSS, an artist and graphic designer, spent her youthful summers in Harvey Cedars on LBI until moving to the Island year-round. After graduating from the University of the Arts (then called Philadelphia College of Art) in 1980, she was hired for a “summer” job at the young weekly, The SandPaper, and stayed on for 18 years as Art Director. She designs books and publications, and continues to create a weekly editorial cartoon — The SandPaper's “Artoon,” now approaching its 30th year. As an artist and craftsperson she paints, repurposes and up-cycles found objects, helps diamondback terrapins cross roads during nesting season, and has held a baby osprey. She has published two collections of her Artoons. Her family's home is in Harvey Cedars and she lives across the bay surrounded by tidal creeks and salt marsh in the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Read an Excerpt

PREFACE

“All” is an exaggeration. There can never be a complete “all things Long Beach Island” because it's an idea that's always being conceived in new ways, always being added to, always freshly discovered. (And re-discovered.) “All” is impossible. There is no limit. Infinite Things LBI would have been a more accurate title. Yet while this book may not include everything LBI, all things here truly are LBI.

So many different things to so many people, Long Beach Island is both a collective experience and a very personal one. It's more than just a physical place. It's a spiritual home and it's unique to each of us.

The LBI you perceive is different from the LBI in anyone else's mind. It's imaginative, too: The Island is often what people want it to be regardless of the reality. Is it the “Hamptons, south,” as some would have you believe, an exclusive enclave of the 1%? Or is it the laid-back summer hang-out for generations of families who return to the same cedar-shake Cape Cod with that funky outside shower and sand in the sheets? Is it a quaint fishing community? Is it the anti-boardwalk resort? Is it a retirement community, or a youthful, music-filled, nightclub experience? Or is it all the above, but still about the simple things — fishing, sailing, surfing, lying on the beach? There are groupings — summer/off-season, tourists/residents, young, old, families; there are neighborhoods; there is the north end and the south end; bayside and oceanside.

We all possess LBI, we lay claim to it. And LBI claims us.

You summered here, you grew up here, you moved away — but you keep coming back. In body or in spirit you always return. It's “things,” yes, but LBI is saturated with emotions and feelings. (It's memories of a girl or a boy you met that one summer. It's your salty, sun-drenched childhood.) It's filled with dreams and visions and they won't ever let go.

In the 1960s and '70s, the Chamber of Commerce ran an unabashedly sexist beauty pageant called “Miss Magic Long Beach Island” (there was a spoof of this by The Beachcomber in the late '70s, called “Mr. Magic LBI”), but the chamber was on to something — magic.

Magic-- LBI has that quality.

The magic, holistic LBI is impossible to fully capture, but in this book we've tried to find common touchstones for our fragile but resilient Jersey Shore sandbar. Well, in our case, perhaps not touchstones — more like beautiful pieces of sea glass or the perfect spiral shell.

Here are shared favorite places, moments, fun facts, and Island legends. We've thrown in some history. You'll find those emotions and feelings here too. And other things that are simply timeless, like the amazing LBI sunsets and sunrises (and moonrises, and clouds, and… ).

Partly a list of favorites, part LBI Urban Dictionary, part remember-this nostalgia and history, part dreamlike thoughts and memories, we hope you find your LBI here. Because the best LBI is the one that is inclusive, not exclusive.

We've had to leave some things out and overlooked others. What would you add? What do you love about LBI? At the end of this book, we've included blank pages for your own favorites. Because we know! we know! this list is incomplete. It's unfinished. And, most likely, yours will be too.

Table of Contents

Preface
LBI 101 - Come on Over!
“Ol' Barney”
The Beach and All that Makes it So
All Things Bayside
Towns, Legends, andLandmarks
Not Just for Kids!
Catch-of-the-Day
Weather, Storms and Shipwrecks
Back in the Day
The Main Land
Locals, Would-Be Locals, and Shoobies
Forever LBI
History, Naturally
“What Do You Do Here all Winter?”
All Your Things LBI
Acknowledgments
Select Bibliography