Bathing down the shore in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1936

I've always had a fascination with what things are called. Yes, of course I know that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've always been a big believer than to begin learning about something, you should start with learning what it's called. So let's go bathing down the shore in Atlantic City in 1936.

Now calm down there if you're someone who likes to poke fun at how people talk, or if you like getting into the world's most boring arguments about what something should be called. You can wander over to Facebook and get into a "flame war" in some comments if you want to, I won't stop you - but I have no interest in that. I just like to learn, and explore, and there are two things in this photo from the Duke University site that I'm trying to understand, what things were called in 1936, and east coast terminology.

I'm no expert on the east coast, I've spent my adult life in Arizona and Southern California, and I grew up in Minneapolis. The closest I've ever gotten to the Atlantic Ocean is Chicago, and that's really not that close. So let's take a look at along the shore in Atlantic City in 1936.


This area, where you walk, between the buildings and the ocean, is called a "boardwalk", probably because it was made out of wooden boards. In Los Angeles, this area was always referred to as the strand, and the walkways were made of concrete.

As far as the word "bathing" is concerned, it seems like it was a term that just went out of style. I like old movies and old books and the term is used a lot, as in "Bathing Beauties" (beautiful girls on the beach). To me, an old SoCal boy, when I see the word "Surf" I think of the Beach Boys on their surfboards, but of course surf just means the edge of water. If I told someone that I planned on "surf bathing", they would probably just give me a funny look. In 1936 it made perfect sense.

I just recently learned that people on the east coast say, "Going down the shore", as opposed to what I've always heard out west, which is "Going to the beach." Hang on, I'll zoom in on the billboard that says "Shore Dinners". Here ya go:


As far as I know that term is still in common use in the eastern United States, like dungarees, and bubblers.

There's no doubt that I would have difficulty blending in to this photo with my 21st-Century words, like "cell phone" or "Wifi", and I'm sure as soon as I opened my mouth people would know that I wasn't a local. I'm aware that, in addition to my choice of words, I have a Midwestern accent, with the typical long flat "a"s that even sounded funny to me when I used to hear Henry Fonda say, "GAF" in TV commercials.


I've never seen a boat being used by a lifeguard, and I don't know if it's a regional thing, or a 1936 thing. The lifeguards that I used to see in California just sat in towers with white stuff on their noses, and they would run out to rescue people like the Baywatch TV show.


The 1936 bathing costumes (or "swimsuits" as we would say nowadays) fascinate me. The women usually wore bathing caps, and the men really didn't go shirtless much. I've never been in the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey, I wonder if the water is cold?

Thank you for going down the shore with me in 1936!

Images from the Duke University Library Digital Collections.

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Comments

  1. Cpt. CrankyAugust 21, 2021 at 9:15 PM

    I've never seen the lifeguards use the boat, but all the NJ beaches have them. I assume for the idiots that go way too far out. Usually, the lifeguards just blow their whistles and wave the bathers in. I've personally never seen a rescue in action, but that's a good thing.

    And the water can be chilly. Typically 65-75 degrees in the Summer. You don't want to bath in anything colder than that.

    And as far as surfing, there's very little of that in Jersey. The waves are very small, usually only a few feet unless there's a storm nearby.

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