Wildwood, hardest hit when the drinking age was raised to 21 in 1983, is making a major effort to leave its "Childwood" rep behind. Because of the crackdown on clubs serving minors, Kiddie City has become Card'em City.
But where the law taketh, it also giveth.
The casinos have caused a tremendous influx of energetic workers, with lots of disposable income, who love to hit the bars after the last card hits the table. Many clubs cater to this year-round trade, which has meant an increase in off-season and late-night options at the shore.
Appropriately, the change has been most evident in Atlantic City. No longer just an expressway to your dreams of easy money, Atlantic City boasts the largest variety of live music of any shore town. Jazzmen. Irish balladeers. Power rockers. High-energy dance bands. Folkies. Hash-it-out-we-gotta-get- that-chord-right-sometime cover bands. But the biggest draw for many at Las Vegas East is the 24-hour liquor licenses. That's right, the taprooms in Atlantic City just . . . don't . . . close.
Then there's Margate. Gone are the days when the outside of the Nickelodeon looked like a bikers convention. Gone, in fact, is the Nickelodeon. Gone also is the kind of watering hole Margate made famous: So ill-lighted and dingy that walking inside was like donning a pair of the world's darkest sunglasses.
Now you might actually need a pair of shades to shield your eyes from all the glitz. Discos? In Margate?
All along the coastline, renovation, relocation and outright extinction have been changing the faces of places you thought would always remain the same. But before the red-eyed become the teary-eyed, why not first tip a glass to some of this year's sand bars . . . .
BRIGANTINE BOPS
