Summer of '89

Bridge avenue and the Beach, Bay Head, New Jersey. A Summer evening at "The Bridge Avenue House" or "The Castle" as some locals called this clapboard and turreted monstrosity. This Beach House was rented by a group of late 20's Manhattan money guys and some girls. This joint had countless bedrooms and always bunked a plethora of North-East maniacs.Several were from my cadre of Lehigh beer swilling pals and so I was often invited for a weekend to sit on the beach all day and pound cocktails all night. We drank at the Bluffs...(now sadly ripped down and replaced by ostentatious beach Mc-Mansions.) We ate at Spike's Sea Food, we fished from boat and beach and we slummed at Martell's Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant.
This photo dates to July 1989 and one of the huge evening post beach parties we threw. Single guys scoured the beach all day to invite affable vixens and more Lehigh ne'er-do-wells and sports showed up from all over. The Supremes and Smokey, Stones and Dead mixed with the crash of waves and the banter of Frat boy flirting and liquor fueled good natured insults and invective.
I am pictured wearing a vintage madras sport coat and standing alongside my particular friend Wighty. He is sporting a subdued striped number harkening back to Henley coats. The kegs had just been tapped and the crowd was trickling in...one of the girlfriends of one of the guys grabbed us for this photo.
Wight and I met at a Lehigh Pi Lam party when he was a Sophmore and I was a lowly Freshman....been buddies ever since that moment. He was a groomsmen at my wedding and my kids call him "Uncle Wighty." He is the guy who turned me on to white bucks...Dexters..."Touch, the girls love 'em...screw what guys say." We have bet pitch by pitch at a Phillies Pennant game,discussed Hemingway,skiied Aspen,shot birds and cheered at the Indy 500. He is one of the best.
Note the ubiquitous 9 oz. plastic cups grasped in our greedy hands....Mount Gay & Tonic if memory serves...and memory was tattered with a fusilade of drink and other diversions that night.
Bay Head town ordinance closed these gigs down by 10 p.m. But damn, around 7 to 8:30 we had at least 300 party guests comprised of tanned lovelies and sport-coated guys and 3 kegs of beer, and open bar with cheap A-Treat mixers and maybe one bag of pretzels. The buzz was delicious and the girls had no last names.