The concrete ramp going up to the boardwalk is still there but the little foot wash fountain is gone.  Everything is overgrown and there was a lot of trash just lying about.  The boardwalk itself is in splinters.  In fact there was a link fence "roping off" a section where they appear to be replacing the wood and I got a picture of the work in progress.  I took several photos facing all directions.  The beach sand is still white--but the crabgrass and weeds appear to be reclaiming the beach.  There are large pockets of "sand dunes" where the beach is reverting back to its natural condition.  I looked for the rock jetty that had been in place for over 50 years, but I could not see it.  The beach, always wide in this area, appeared to be even wider.  Atlantic Beach, across the water, seemed to be very much closer than it had appeared to me when I was a child.  The Good Humor Ice Cream "shack" which had been on the beach-side on about Beach 25th Street was long gone.  The tubular metal railings appeared to be the same, and the wooden benches were all still in place--but in poor condition.  I "shot" almost a whole roll of film in this area and if the weather had been better, I probably would have walked west on the boardwalk to that area on Beach 25th Street where that "first group" of concessions had stood--Jerry's Knishes, Jack & Lenny Klein's Skee-Ball, the hot dog shop and a small intimate bar.

 

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