Video and photos reveal vintage Seaside Heights, NJ in the 1960s

When I was a wee lad growing up in the '60s in Union City, every summer my mother and father would rent a house in Ortley Beach with the Provenzano family and we would spend most of our time in Seaside Heights.

My friends and I would later rent that same house when I graduated from Marlboro High School in the '70s.

The Seaside Heights of my youth has been captured in a YouTube video put together by GreenRose Media that starts with the drive on Route 37, which is where my adrenaline would start to pump as we would get there.

It starts out at the beach and a look at those bathing suits your parents or maybe grandparents wore.

You can almost hear WABC on every beach blanket playing The Beatles, Motown and all that great 60s music. I can still hear ABC disc jockey Dan Ingram telling those laying on the blankets trying to get a tan to "roll your bod."

There you see kids riding the same waves we still do now.

It then takes you to the boardwalk, which is a totally different experience when you're a kid as opposed to when you're a teenager, possibly old enough to drink, not that it would stop you from drinking ;)

But for us, the stands were where it was at. Truth be told, my mother would win most of the Christmas gifts by constantly hitting the "choice of stand" at "Sonny and Ricky's" or Lucky Leo's. I, on the other hand usually ended up with the bottom shelf where I could get a 45 of a band that I never heard of and after listening to the song would know why.

Let's not forget the great Seaside Heights nightlife back in the day. My father met my mother for the first time at the old Chatterbox on the boardwalk. Years later, I would see some great bands including Salty Dog, Bystander, Sam the Band, and even Jay and the Americas.  There were also Baby-o's and so many others.

When I was both a kid and a teenager vacationing in Seaside Heights, I had so much fun that when I saw "Jersey Shore" on MTV my reaction, like most people my age, was "Been there, done that."

Now I live it through my 15-year-old sons who will soon be doing that thinking their parents have no idea.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise only. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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