Vacationing in Wildwood, NJ During Hurricane Felix

Every summer when my brothers and I were younger, our family would go away on vacation. We would rent, depending on how many people accompanied us, either a 2-bedroom cabin or a room from the Fowler Motel on Poplar Ave in Wildwood, NJ, and we would stay for at least a week. The best thing about Wildwood's free beach, besides the fact that it's free, of course, is that the ocean is so far off the boardwalk that even when it rains, most of the shops and games on the boardwalk stay open. It was because of that fact that the following episode was able to occur in the summer of 1995 when, in spite of not having made landfall, Hurricane Felix was pounding the East Coast...

The sky was a dull grey when we left Fowler Motel's Cabin 8 with our vacation troop, aka me, my 3 brothers, our mother, my aunt, her son, and her two daughters. Outnumbered by us kids, our adults had agreed to take us to Gateway 26, the largest arcade on Wildwood's boardwalk. We decided to stop at Dairy Queen for a quick snack before heading into the arcade to "gamble" the day away. The wind, courtesy of Hurricane Felix, was quite fierce, but we were determined to get our hot dogs and our ice cream. In spite of the strong winds, the seagulls were still out scavenging in full force. Like us, they would not be deterred from getting their food.

The Dairy Queen on Wildwood's boardwalk, like most Dairy Queens, does not offer the option of dining in, so we were instructed ahead of time that once we got our food, we were to cross to the boardwalk to eat on the benches that were immediately across from the Dairy Queen stand. My little brother Kevin ordered his hot dog and crossed the boardwalk to eat it. Shortly after, my cousin Jessie and I ordered dipped cones - hers in strawberry and mine in chocolate - and upon receipt, turned to follow Kevin. Almost simultaneously, all three of us lost our treats. As Hurricane Felix roared in and blew the candy coatings and some ice cream drippings off our cones and onto the beach, two particularly clever seagulls dove at Kevin's hotdog, which he had left beside him as he turned to get a ketchup packet. By the time he turned around, his hotdog was gone, and when we looked up, we saw the two triumphant birds fighting to keep their prizes - one had the hotdog and the other had the bun - despite the wind's attempts to relieve them of their burdens. Since there was nothing else we could do and since our adults were already laughing at us, we all burst out laughing. Our laughter grew when, a few minutes later, another seagull dropped a nice, disgusting present that skimmed Kevin's hair and dripped down his shoulder. It was apparently just not his day.

To this day, stories of our vacations in Wildwood are some of my family's favorites to tell. Hurricane Felix killed 8 people in New Jersey that year, and we are relieved that in addition to not having lost anyone in our party, we able to come out with some wonderful memories.