Boardwalk

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. - They're the places where generations of families savored fast-melting ice cream cones and chowed down on garlicky slices of pizza, where teens scoped out potential dates, where a tipsy Snooki tottered unsteadily, and under which the Drifters sang about falling in love. For all their nostalgia, boardwalks are still a major economic engine for Shore communities. Tourists and residents alike spend their money on food and drinks there, or on games of skee ball or balloon darts to win a stuffed animal.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. - The remains of a roller coaster that was knocked off an amusement pier during Hurricane Sandy and partially submerged in the Atlantic Ocean might be left there as a tourist attraction. Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers told WNBC-TV in New York officials had not decided whether to tear down the ride. But he said he was working with the U.S. Coast Guard to see whether the roller coaster was stable enough to leave alone, because he believes it would make "a great tourist attraction.

On most summer evenings, in the afterglow of a sinking Cape May sun, Vincent Panzano headed for the Cove, the beach at the end of the promenade. There, he took his post at a flagpole that stood for everything he believed in. He switched on a tape player, amped up the sound, and as Kate Smith's "God Bless America" soared, lowered the Stars and Stripes. On hand was an ever-changing passel of children whom he taught to properly fold the flag. The half-hour rite finished, he got into his Ford van with the "JUNE644" tags and drove home to Emerald Avenue, leaving behind an indelible Cape May tableau.

WILDWOOD, N.J. - The last time that Shaun Murray, now 31, was in Wildwood was after his Toms River High School North senior prom, when he and Elise Giordano spent the night in some motel on the boardwalk. That time, unlike last week, he did not cry on the ride down. Flooded out of his home in Seaside Park, his job as a hairstylist literally washed away, dressed in a donated Phillies sweatshirt and Phillies flip-flops, Murray stood among the frondless plastic palm trees at the offseason Blue Palms motel Friday, smoked a cigarette, and tried to make the best of it. Room 125 was not so bad, a block from the boardwalk, in the shadow of Splash Zone.

ATLANTIC CITY - Activity returned Friday to this resort - considered an economic engine of the Shore region - as most of its dozen casinos reopened. And not a day too soon for Carol Piza, 60, of Middlesex County, who booked two comped nights for Friday and Saturday at the Borgata while she waited for electricity and heat to return to her home after Hurricane Sandy. "I'm just thankful my whole family is safe. We can live through this minor inconvenience," Piza said as she waited in line at 3:30 p.m., one of about 75 people ready to enter the Borgata.

WILDWOOD - Sandy had come churning up the coast, crashing into New Jersey as if she'd swerved off some dead-man's curve out in the Atlantic. Tuesday morning, those who stayed behind on the coast awoke to the storm's wreckage and wasted no time picking up the pieces in the blustery cold. Some parts of the Jersey Shore were left with sand and debris on the roadways and soggy carpets on the first floor. Others were devastated, losing key tourist attractions that define why they're so unique.

All day, I have to admit, I heard Gov. Christie's words in my ears. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. " And I know some of my friends and neighbors in Ventnor and Margate felt the same way, as some of them changed course and left town as the day went on. But many did not, holed up in powerless homes that were already flooded out by mid morning. In 17 years living at the shore, I'd heard over and over about the Nor'easter of 1962, the hurricane of 1944 that took out the boardwalk, rearranged the shore.

WILDWOOD - Bob Hurley called it "one of our worst days" in the history of St. Anthony of Jersey City basketball. "They put a whuppin' on us," Hurley said of a 1978 game that his St. Anthony team played at Camden High School. Hurley said St. Anthony "balanced the scales" with a win over Camden the next year, setting the tone for a "healthy rivalry" between programs that, for a time, represented the North Jersey and South Jersey capitals of high school basketball. Camden and St. Anthony will renew a long-dormant rivalry with a Sunday night game Dec. 30 in the Boardwalk Basketball Classic in the Wildwoods Convention Center.

Camden will face national power St. Anthony of Jersey City in the Boardwalk Basketball Classic on Dec. 30 at the Convention Center in Wildwood, N.J. St. Anthony, which has won 65 games in a row in fashioning consecutive undefeated seasons, will play in the 15-year-old tournament for the first time and face Camden in a bracket that will be named for Friars coach Bob Hurley. "It's great exposure for the squad, for the program," Camden coach Cetshwayo Byrd said Tuesday. "It's great for our kids.

HBO's Boardwalk Empire , which returns for its third season on Sunday, is a classic mobster story about men with big egos and bigger guns facing off - in ways bloody and brutal - against other men with big guns and bigger egos. The Prohibition drama, starring Steve Buscemi as Atlantic City political boss and bootleg booze-trader Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, has more than its share of male aggression, gun-and-switchblade-generated gore, and late-night grue, but it doesn't pretend its characters live in a vacuum.