Family Fun Times

Recently I attended a play at Seashore Day Camp on Broadway in Long Branch that one of my great-nephews was in. I had a terrific time, not only because I got to see one of the kids in the family display their artistic talent, but it was also a good way to check in with family as well. As I’ve gotten older, the times spent together with loved ones somehow becomes far and few between. 

Later on that night, I got to thinking about back in the day when my own kids were involved in activities similar to those that I had just witnessed a few hours earlier at Seashore. Between my daughter’s dance competitions and my son’s plays, we all spent a lot of time together, enjoying each other’s company, with my wife and me reveling in our children’s accomplishments. 

It all started when my daughter was around 5 years old and began dance lessons at Linda Jean’s Studio of Dance in West Long Branch. I can still remember the first dance recital she ever participated in. She and a bunch of other 5-year-olds stood on stage at Ocean Township High School and performed to the song “Under The Lollypop Tree”. It was truly adorable, a memory that will always be with me. 

A few years later, Linda Jean, the dance school director, approached us and asked if Anne Marie would be interested in joining the school’s competition dance team. After some careful consideration, we told her “yes”. Little did we realize the adventures that would soon follow. 

Her first competition was at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus. My wife and I held our collective breaths as she got up on stage and danced flawlessly (or so we felt) to her first-ever competitive dance routine. We were so proud of her. We both gave her a big hug after she got off-stage. 

One competition ran into another, and before we knew it, she was attending high school, dancing in competitions in New York all the way south to Florida. Even though her routine schedule would dictate our whereabouts at every competition, we always got in some family fun time together. She danced her way through some great towns. . .Ocean City, MD; Myrtle Beach, SC; Orlando, FL; Lancaster, PA to name just a few. 

But all good things come to an end. After her sophomore year, she transferred to another high school and had to decide whether to keep dancing or play softball in school, because their schedules started to conflict with one another. Softball prevailed, but that led to another set of adventures when, as a senior, her team won a state championship. 

Just like with my great-nephew, my son’s passion was acting. Although his avocation didn’t warrant as much travel as my daughter’s did, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing him up on stage performing. The first time he was ever on stage was the summer between seventh and eighth grade, when he performed in a workshop at Brookdale Community College. The first play he ever performed in was “Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” during his freshman year at Mater Dei Prep.  It was a bit role, but he got to display both his acting ability as well as his singing. 

Over the course of the next three years, the roles got bigger, the characters he portrayed were more important to each production. He was nominated for two Basie Awards during his high school tenure, an amazing accomplishment. Even today, he continues performing in his college’s theatre group at the University of Rochester. So far, we’ve travelled up there twice to see him perform while turning each trip into a mini-vacation with him. 

So now the adventures continue but with the younger generation in our family. My grown nieces and nephews whose kids will be performing or competing, either on-stage or on an athletic field, are in for a nice surprise. 

(The entire Jersey Shore Retro Blogography can be found at http://longbranch.patch.com/blogs/kevin-cieris-blog .You can also follow Kevin Cieri's blog on his Facebook page, "Jersey Shore Retro" as well as on Twitter @jsretro).