D'Jais, Belmar New Jersey Thirty Years later

A Dance Down Memory Lane:

During the summers of 1974, 1975,1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979 (not quite sure when it ended...I think 1979 perhaps was the last summer) I split my summers between Belmar and Seaside Heights. It all depended on the mood and majority rule. But anyway, the times at Belmar always meant D'Jais on Friday and Saturday night (unless we were at Mary Husband's Pub, the Royal Manor, the Osprey in Manasquan, or The Chatterbox in Seaside Heights)

But D'jais was always my favorite. For those that have never been there it is a HUGE bar (ok, there are maybe 4 bar stations inside, and dining tables in a separate room, and then tables on the front porch)....and then a huge stage. Back in those days, the house band was named "Holme" and they more or less covered songs of other bands.....most notable, "Rosalita" by, yes, you guess it, my man Bruce Springsteen. They also had their own original song "Garden Start Parkway Boogie". Anyway, I was young, tan, FLAT TUMMY, and yes, I ACTUALLY WORE HIGH HEELS!!!!

Holme appears every Monday night now during the summers at D'Jais. My sisters thought it would be fun to go. They've been going once a year for the past few years, and I never had the desire to go. Something drew me there last night...so there I was driving (alone) down Route 18, and got there about an hour and a half before my sisters arrived I walked in alone....walked right past the bouncers. OK, do you really think the bouncers were going to proof me?

Well, I get in there, and although it is dark, there are hundreds of people milling about. I almost felt like I was 17 or 18 again, the same bars, the same floors, the same sounds, the same smells, the same EVERYTHING.....even the same people. Yes, the same people.

The people there last night were the same people I partied with 30 some years ago. Except, something was different. They were old. They looked old...it was almost like a movie. All these people were hanging around singing and laughing and drinking and having a good time. But the main had gained a few pounds and the women a few wrinkles. They didn't look like the hot young bodies that used to dance the night away back in the late 1970s. It was a very strange feeling.

What was it with these people? If I ran into them individually say in Shop Rite or Home Depot, would they still look old? Or was it because they were in a place of my youth, a place so firmly etched in my memory that they looked so out of place. Would it have been different if I walked into the same bar, but the crowd was in their early 20's? It probably would have looked natural had that been the case.

But these people didn't belong here. It was almost as if they were violating my memories of long ago. And for those of you who attend Bruce Springsteen concerts, or whatever....it is NOT the same. You see with Bruce, we all have been going to see him over the years......maybe there are two or five years between concerts, but it has been consistent, non-the-less. That's why this was different. There was no line of connection over the 30 years. It was there 30 years ago, then gone, and then POOF.....all of a sudden it was all front and center to me in an instant.

Anyway, I had a drink or two, and after awhile, my sisters arrived. I turned to the only "young" person in the establishment and said, "This is what will happen to you 30 years from now. You and all of your friends will be dancing to the music that you dance to now." He just laughed. I guess it is hard to imagine what life will be like at 51 years old when you finally just celebrated your 21st birthday.

Oh well. I had fun, I had a good time, but, it was very weird. Very hard to explain.