The Bike Ride to the Chatterbox

The Bike Ride to the Chatterbox

The summers when I was 14 and 15 were spent in Ocean City. My mom was working in Philly during those summers so my sister and her little boy, Kevin, spent the summers at my parent’s house with me. She was my “babysitter” during the week and my parents came down every weekend. They were fun summers, spending the days at the beach and just hanging out. The summer I was 14, I became friends with Diane Euler. She was from Baltimore, MD, and her parents owned a house on Central Ave. right across the street from the 57th Street beach. She was 16, and yes, she had access to her parents car so at least once a week we would drive to the boardwalk and just hang out at night. There’s definitely a really good story about the boardwalk, licorice, and Summers Point in there somewhere…maybe later! :-)

One afternoon, and I’m not sure if it was when I was 14 or 15, we decided to ride our bikes to the Chatterbox. (Not sure if I told my sister or not or if she even knew about it)It was a looong bike ride! We started at 57th Street and the Chatterbox is located at 9th Street and Central Ave. That’s a lot of blocks. Did we think about how far it was? NO! Did we really prepare? NO! We were in our two-piece swim suits, on bikes with about 50 cents between us. Were we thirsty? YES! Did we really care? NO! Did we get honked at? YES!

We made it to the Chatterbox and had about enough money for each of us to buy a Coke. Thank goodness we had some money. Not sure where we kept the money, we must have had a basket on the front of one of the bikes. It’s such a fun memory. We only did this one time.

I don’t know what happened to Diane. The last time I saw her was actually at the Chatterbox. It was the summer of ’67. She had a job as a waitress at the Chatterbox and was living in an apartment provided by the restaurant for the waitresses. She was tucking a flask in her pocket and was off to meet some lifeguards. Never saw her again.

The Chatterbox is still up and running last I heard. Have not eaten there in years. I did end up working for the owner of the Chatterbox the summer of ’68 at a restaurant on the boardwalk, Case’s Pork Roll. Yes, Pork Roll…Another story for another time…