Growing Up Somewhere

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a presence on a couple of social media sites. The information that I get from these sites comes quickly and steadily from many sources and angles. I’m beginning to think that I get my everyday news more so from these online sites than I do from the mainstream media – radio, TV, and the newspaper.

One of my most recent blogs that I wrote about in the Patch was about my Uncle Tony who lived in Eatontown and owned the Pine Tree. The response to that blog from local Eatontown residents was very positive and pretty overwhelming. People had a lot of fond memories of the place, just like I did growing up as a kid. Some folks even had a few pictures that they shared with me on the blog.

One of that particular blog’s commenters hooked me up with a Facebook page “Growing Up Eatontown”, a group of former and current Eatontown residents reminiscing about their time in the borough, recalling things that happened in town while they lived there back in the day (I just love that phrase!).

I started a string on the page a few weeks ago about how my two favorite restaurants at the Monmouth Mall were the Ground Round and Bun ’N’ Burger. The comments and “likes” to that post came fast and furious. They continue to trickle in, even after some time has passed.

I’m just amazed at how much reminiscing is going on by people, especially over the Internet. There are several Facebook pages similar to the one for Eatontown that are dedicated to bringing back the good ol’ days for a quite a few area towns. I’m sure there are similar pages on other social media sites as well. The trouble is that a person can only check out so many of them.

Long Branch has several Facebook pages, too. One is more historical in nature, and a few are more free-style, with contributors from all different age groups, recalling life growing up on certain city streets, or enjoying the high times at places like the Long Branch boardwalk.

I especially like contributing to these pages when the other people who write on them are respectful and don’t trash one another. Sometimes the rhetoric gets personal, and I don't need that in my life.

It’s nice seeing people think about when times were simpler. But after all the advances we’ve made in technology and in getting information out to people, the question is -- do we really want the times to be simpler now? Can we ever go back to the way things were?

(You can also follow Kevin Cieri’s blog on his Facebook page, “Jersey Shore Retro” as well as on Twitter at @jsretro).