Speaker A
and vacation over as we headed home to our regular beds our daily lives as school and homework and ordinary things [Music] maybe my little brother maybe i would wake up and look out the window at the night sky
Anthony Bourdain explores New Jersey's beaches, diners, Atlantic City's boardwalk history, and Asbury Park's revival, reflecting on nostalgia and the state's cultural identity.
Key Takeaways
- New Jersey's cultural identity is shaped by its beaches, food traditions, and working- and middle-class shore culture.
- Atlantic City embodies both America's democratic leisure dream and its deep-rooted corruption and changing fortunes.
- Coastal towns like Asbury Park show that revitalization is possible but complicated, often requiring patient, community-driven effort.
- Nostalgia is a central theme: memories of place are powerful, but the past cannot be fully recovered.
What the video covers
- Bourdain opens with fond memories of childhood summers and the Jersey Shore, celebrating the state's beaches, farmland, and industrial beauty.
- He visits Hiram's, a longtime Jersey hot dog stand open since 1932, reflecting on family tradition and comfort food.
- The episode revisits 'going down the shore' trips to Long Beach Island, recalling family road trips, Barnegat Light, and teenage freedom.
- Atlantic City is profiled as America's early dream vacation destination, with its boardwalk, the Knife and Fork restaurant, and a history of glamour and corruption.
- Vicki Gold Levy shares memories of growing up with her photographer father and the carnival atmosphere of the boardwalk in the 1960s.
- Segments feature local residents and figures, including a vegan conversation, horse culture in New Jersey, and community work by an educator with students.
- A visit to a local cheesesteak-style and regional sandwich spot showcases everyday Jersey food culture.
- Local legend of the Jersey Devil is discussed, adding folklore to the portrait of the state.
- Asbury Park is presented as a seaside town that rebuilt itself after decline, linked to musical history including Springsteen and Bon Jovi.
- The episode closes with reflections on nostalgia, the impossibility of returning to the past, and the tension between decline and renewal.
Chapters
- 00:00Childhood Memories and Opening Reflections
- 01:00Celebrating New Jersey and Hiram's Hot Dogs
- 04:00Going Down the Shore: Long Beach Island Summers
- 06:30Atlantic City's Boardwalk and Early History
- 11:00Local Stories, Veganism, and Community Life
- 20:00Regional Food and the Jersey Devil Legend
- 32:00Asbury Park's Music History and Revival
- 38:00Closing Reflections on Nostalgia and Change
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
and suddenly it would fill with stars and golden mist and we'd pretend for a second we were somehow deep inside the milky way the million winking lights but we knew where we really were we were almost [Music] felt home cool rain on my shoulders
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[Music] [Applause] shy [Music] oh enchanted land of my childhood a cultural petri dish from which regularly issues forth greatness new jersey in case you didn't know it has got beaches beautiful beaches and they're not all crawling with roy raging trolls with
Speaker A
reality shows i grew up summering on those beaches and they are awesome jerseys got farmland beautiful bedroom communities where that woman from real housewives who looks like dr zeus does not live nor anyone like her even the refineries
Speaker A
the endless clover leaves of turnpikes and expressways twisting and unknowable patterns over the wetlands are to me somehow beautiful to know jersey is to love her [Music] fortly you may have heard of it some of governor christie's minions
Speaker A
allegedly conspired to jam up traffic for a few days it's a town with a jokey history of corruption it's also where my beloved hiram's is open since 1932 and pretty much unchanged ever since my dad started bringing me and my
Speaker A
younger brother chris here in the 50s and they still honor tradition it's my happy place sometimes i just need that old-time flavor here [Applause] it is a great point of pride and personal satisfaction i've convinced my daughter that these are the finest hot
Speaker A
dogs in the land he gets very excited to come out here which makes me very happy thank you oh thank you now this is cheap these toothpicks just like 1958 some things just shouldn't change my dad used to look pick lily red relish
Speaker A
i love this stuff look at that beauty [Music] oh yeah like i'm here to feed my soul the cultural well spring that is new jersey it's the antidote to every other place this place is perfect the dogs are
Speaker A
amazing [Music] they're not a lot of people in this world like courageous enough to not [Music] [Applause] change down the shore yeah we actually talked like that it was what we did go down the shore not just our family from bergen county
Speaker A
near the bridge but middle class and working class families from philly and all over who pack up the kids in the station wagon for the seemingly interminable trip to long beach island just getting out of the driveway was a big deal once it
Speaker A
always took three extra hours just to load the damn cars there was always drama strapping crap to the roof of the car where once we were over the manahawkin bridge the excitement would ratchet up ship bottom then surf city harvey cedars
Speaker A
love ladies ticking off the town names until finally finally barnegat light it's new these are all new i mean look that's original yeah definitely in fact i think i know who lived there at one point and that's definitely uh old school but
Speaker A
look let's face it it's been how many years i mean there's a 400 i think in jesus world and the lighthouse definitely remember going to that lighthouse a lot of times oh the good old days i want some fried clam strips absolutely
Speaker A
well our options are limited shall we say but uh holy crap this place is filling up i think it's because it's the only place but still who lives out here year round we're about to see every single one of
Speaker A
them [Music] let's be honest when we come here in the summers i was the bad one yes that's your recollection is correct i was up to every variety of criminal anti-social behavior down here i didn't smoke dope for the first time
Speaker A
here i was looking for dope but as a 12 year old it was hard to come by i think i vaguely remember you walking off with some kind of cute girl first kiss that was an important passage that was good this is good i realize
Speaker A
now that i hitchhiked regularly yeah mom dad you know i want to go down to ship bottom tonight with some friends how are you getting there well hitchhiked out okay have fun that was cool all the kids were itching here that's how you got
Speaker A
places here summertime you know that sound just out of the water ears pressed up against the beach blanket the squeak of bare feet on sand nearby classics illustrated comics waiting for me back at the house i play with my little plastic army man
Speaker A
in the dunes if there's a smell of beech grass in the dunes you know can you remember it i still crave it i love it and on special occasions clams and drawn butter no matter where i find them now
Speaker A
they always bring me back here i remember this place with nothing but fondness i mean i i can't remember a single bad memory here it was great people you knew from last year were here you'd roll out onto the street your
Speaker A
parents didn't need to be with you have a campfire on the beach at night you'd set up firecrackers all this stuff they wouldn't let you do at home the beach would look different for a couple of days the whole beach would be
Speaker A
like this weird foamy surf like this giant like frothy bubbles oh yeah here now we're talking about thank you yeah or there would be the jellyfish delivery sometimes where there'd be like millions infestation of jellyfish right i tried to block that out that wonderful
Speaker A
feeling like you know you were with other ten-year-olds alone at night you know on the beach it was great love clam stretch these are great this is awesome so far so great i'm happy properly battered piece of fish and some
Speaker A
good tartar sauce what were your favorite activities building fire in the beans right overturning the lifeguard sand yes i had to go they were representatives of the man firecrackers on the bench i have some firecrackers in your car by
Speaker A
the way just saying set them off in the elevator at the [Music] casino it was paradise america's first dream vacation the beach as far as america was concerned meaning bathing suits and swimming in the surf was pretty much
Speaker A
invented here atlantic city rich or working class it was here for you back then you dressed up to walk the boardwalk it was capitalism at its purest and most assertive it was a democratic dream designed from the beginning
Speaker A
for everybody flashy utilitarian upright deeply unapologetically corrupt the knife and fork in was right there through it all in many ways its story a perfect reflection of changing times established in 1912 as a so-called gentleman's dining and drinking club
Speaker A
the second floor originally had curtained alcoves and a separate ladies lounge private rooms on the third and fourth floor were set aside for games of chance and perhaps other activities vicki gold levy's dad was the chief photographer for atlantic city from the 1930s
Speaker A
through the 1960s he saw it all and by extension so did vicky what was it like here as a kid it was fantastic walking down the boardwalk in the summer time was like walking in a carnival in a
Speaker A
midway the cacophony of noises there were still remnants of the 20s yeah that sensibility that look handlebar mustaches victorian graphic design and illustration a weird stuck in time feel was still very much in evidence even in my time here in the early 60s
Speaker A
the boardwalk was over six miles of amusements entertainments parades and pageants a never-ending carnival every place you went down the boardwalk was something else to see and all the stores were like mom and pop stores they're all very unique
Speaker A
yes i love them the world famous steel pier amusement arcades barkers novelties saltwater taffy i love the joke shops the joke shop it was a wonderland of juvenile delinquency because i had to inspire you know plastic dog crap and vomit and
Speaker A
smoke powder and it was just something very sinister and forbidden and you know my parents indulged me when i was here the menu has changed somewhat since the original for me a very tasty pretzel-crusted swordfish over lump crab meat
Speaker A
for vicky pan seared scallops my memories of atlantic city are largely built around the time before gambling times were not good i mean the marlboro blenheim i remember it well it was largely empty but it was a magnificent structure
Speaker A
i mean you and i like the nostalgia and people who like coney island like it but i don't know about the young people beautiful buildings are beautiful buildings you know a beautiful view is beautiful view forever yes there's no place with this kind of
Speaker A
history and legitimacy this place has deep romantic allure i agree with you i believe in the transition that's coming i really really do with all my heart the kinds of businesses you talk about that used to be here
Speaker A
it's not a matter of fuji would be really great if that kind of thing happened again it is inevitable that that will happen again and it's worth fixing atlanta city could be chic easily because the bones the skeletons of the
Speaker A
city are beautiful we're glad you feel that way there is even in very young people particularly now beautiful old things a beautiful old restaurant with really great food for us eating in right now is much more interesting than a glass box
Speaker A
with good food the names of atlantic city streets were imprinted on generations of americans who grew up playing monopoly drive down ventnore avenue today and you see history the ebb and flow of america's hopes and dreams played out in the buildings and
Speaker A
homes you see as you pass by magnificent mansions mixed in with inexpensive two family houses cheap takeout the footprints of a lost world the riviera of the northeast still there if you look between with jet travel in miami and an expanded
Speaker A
highway system things decline as they do but a few visionary geniuses presented a solution a cure that would overnight make everybody well make atlantic city shiny and new and prosperous again men like donald trump i think it's going to
Speaker A
be really very beneficial to everybody we look forward to operating the taj mahal successfully for many years to come vast new xanadu's would be constructed and would be kublai khan's rush to atlantic city eager to tap into what was assured would be a never-ending
Speaker A
gusher of prosperity casino gambling when casino gambling was sold to state of new jersey to atlantic city as the cure-all who's going to bring it back to its glory days did that ever happen when you drove around today did you think this place is
Speaker A
better than it was do you think do you think it helped no i don't new jersey native brian donahue is a reporter with 20 years experience focusing on south jersey doc's oyster house an establishment that survived prohibition the great depression two world wars
Speaker A
numerous declines and rebirths still here still great a symbol of what atlantic city was and should be again could be again to bring a city back afterwards to climb is a really complicated hard process and they wanted easy answers and casino
Speaker A
gambling was seen as an easy answer yeah it sure sounded like a good idea they were gonna put this plan infect 12 casinos here and bring everybody up from the from the top down it hasn't worked now you're left with just 12 casinos
Speaker A
and if you're looking for an example of lemming like lurch towards a shiny new cliff face from which to tumble look no further than this 2.4 billion dollar goat rodeo the revel it opened in 2012 and closed less than two years later the most
Speaker A
expensive casino in new jersey history they was forced to head into the hubris was incredible what were they thinking short-term money and at a time when all these other casinos are opening all over the entire east coast which is not it's an economics 101.
Speaker A
casinos of course by design neglect the city's existing assets salt air a walk by the glorious north atlantic the greatest of all the earth's bodies of water the classic attractions the restaurants this is what it's going to take for atlantic city to come back
Speaker A
it's going to be on places like this celebrate the ghosts you know some nice crab cakes at docks a big freaking lobster stuffed with crab imperial pum souffle those things are bad for business the business of taking your money
Speaker A
thank you so much lovely that'll work [Music] that's good i don't want to sound like i'm down on atlantic city because i see it as an incredibly almost ludicrously hopeful place so whatever left of it should be to my mind
Speaker A
hung onto because they're going to come [Music] around there's nothing funny about losing all your money yet casinos are steady employers of that most hard-working species of entertainer comedians rich voss and bonnie mcfarlane are two of the hardest
Speaker A
working people around married to each other and new jersey it's so much money to live here i drove three exits on the jersey turnpike it was seven dollars so if you drive the whole new jersey turnpike when you get to the end you have to give
Speaker A
them your car i want to tell you guys something that i don't generally tell people right away i'm a vegan i'm very passionate about it it's all about eating a cruelty free lifestyle no animal animal byproduct of any kind i
Speaker A
do cheat a little i eat veal so good so tender how do they get it like that i'm very sentimental about jersey italian particularly spaghetti and meatballs that's what i was gonna go for i've been here at least
Speaker A
five to ten times and i've never had a bad meal ever okay i'm i know what exactly i wouldn't get the meatballs [Laughter] proud long-time residents of new jersey no i've lived here nine years but only been proud maybe the last two
Speaker A
it took me a long time to sort of get up to speed yeah born and bred yes my whole life he won't leave i had to make peace with him when's the first time he played atlantic city there was a
Speaker A
club at the sands many times i would get paid on thursday and i would lose it all and then i have to work for free there's no big worse feeling oh i know that really it's a nightmare you ever watched a couple in atlantic
Speaker A
city okay dear hold this money don't give it back to me no matter what i tell you i don't care what i say an hour later give me my goddamn money no i'm not fooling around you're lucky even brought you here you better
Speaker A
give my money you're the reason i'm losing touching my arm when i'm shooting craps is there a specifically jersey sense of humor yes you've noticed i love jersey audiences now so much because i've never one time ever said anything
Speaker A
where people in the audience have gone oh they never get offended we all have our words you know that we don't like the ones that affect us the most i have my trigger words as a white woman the word i don't like is no
Speaker A
i don't hear it that often but when i do here's the deal with jersey people land at newark and they drive up the turnpike they don't turn off and go up into the middle you see the refineries they think that's new jersey
Speaker A
how sick is it that i think it's beautiful more horses per capita than any other state northern new jersey is the embroidery capital of the world yeah apparently i don't know where that's happening my ex-wife worked for an embroidery company
Speaker A
no i swear to god i'll call her right now this is a taste of my youth for all of the marvelous things about new jersey will people ever come across the bridge and the tunnel the other in the other direction
Speaker A
no okay i did not have to think about that let's go out to club in jersey no no but you know what it's all relative a 25 year old guy or girl is going we're not going to jersey
Speaker A
a 60 year old person is going i'm getting out of the city i live in new jersey there's your answer you know what where does hitness stop at what age hypnosis is overrated yeah it is overrated you know what i love living here i love
Speaker A
it pine valley the best golf course in the country trump has beautiful courses trump i am not a fan who is [Music] every minute that he walks the earth demands a certain complicity to not shout out we look at that ridiculous
Speaker A
looking head it's like if you have a disfigurement that sort of tacit agreement that i'm just not going to bring it up that's too much to ask of me in trump's case i want to scream you know why he puts his names on the
Speaker A
building so the banks know which ones to take back okay at least he's a humble guy jesus there are few american cities places where things have gone as disastrously wrong as camden new jersey it's like the poster child
Speaker A
for everything a city could screw up once a manufacturing powerhouse home to the new york shipbuilding corporation the campbell's soup company and rca victor records a company town about 80 000 people live here today that's the same number of people who were employed
Speaker A
during its heyday nearly 40 percent of the city's high school students don't graduate the entire police force replaced by the state more than one-third of city residents live below the poverty line voter turnout not good if there's any place one could be
Speaker A
forgiven for just throwing your hands up in the air and giving up it's here but no cities with serious problems need extraordinary people and tawanda jones is clearly an extraordinary person when you give especially to someone who is really in need
Speaker A
you know i feel it makes me feel complete her late grandfather walter green jr was a former military man an employee of rca and a bodyguard for the great boxer jersey joe walcott he was just like the protector
Speaker A
you know if you need anything you go to mr dynamite that was his nickname he was also a man who believed in being part of the community when tawanda was 15 she was asked to lead a local drill
Speaker A
team unfortunately it soon lost its funding walter purchased 80 uniforms and three drums to give them a [Music] today css the camden sophisticated sisters drill team which includes the distinguished brothers and taps the almighty percussion sound have over 320 participants
Speaker A
good job babies good job clap it up we meet at neighborhood stalwart tony and ruth stakes still doing what they do it doesn't get any better than this what was camden like back in the good old days oh my god
Speaker A
it was so different coming up when i was younger i didn't have to worry about you know my life being threatened coming outside you know the neighborhood everyone knew everybody that sense of community was strong back then you're talking about
Speaker A
your your childhood as if it was a real long time ago it's not that long ago all right except what the hell went wrong people can blame it on the politics but i think that's just too easy many have failed our children but it's
Speaker A
up to the parents to really start getting more involved in a kid's education you know know what your child is doing so you're putting it principally on a balance absolutely this is tasty those are delicious so the conventional wisdom seemed to be it's
Speaker A
time to get out of camera why are you still here because the need is in camden if every decent person in camden leaves camden then we never have a chance in order to be a part of the program
Speaker A
they have to maintain a c average or better right it's all about their academics it's all about nurturing these kids what's right what's wrong you know the drill team does that they have different sands that they go by
Speaker A
every day it's a start without a finish it is possible and they believe this you know they say it so much until it's embedded tawanda has helped css support itself with financial assistance from fellow parents and some fundraising temporary help and
Speaker A
donations from small businesses but surprisingly for a group with a national profile no lasting support from official organizations or national institutions public or private yet she perseveres a lot of your practices are done outdoors right all-weather type of the situation yes
Speaker A
we've been under bridges everything over 28 years we've been outside their safety is the most important to me you know but it's been a blessing and occurs because you'll have the corner boys come up to you and ask you miss why
Speaker A
why are you having practice outside today and i'll say yeah and i'm like today's not a good day and i'm i'm like okay all right thank you very much that's nice right you know what i appreciate it trust me how do you keep these kids off
Speaker A
the corner i'm quite aware that times are hard but i just tried to show them an alternative route saying that there's so much more out there than this some of them call me major pain but it's all out of love you know they need that
Speaker A
structural discipline in life period to go to work they go to school [Music] you're doing it because it's fun right [Music] but it's hard you're asking people to do a hard thing and they're doing it yeah and i gotta ask i'm gonna guess
Speaker A
that in the years that you've been doing this you had had your heart broken many times you had to have seen kids who you really believed in fall by the wayside i'm guessing a lot how do you go on
Speaker A
we we do have a lot of sad stories but we have more good our good outweighs the bad you know and i keep going just for that reason you know um before i was a little hard on myself and um
Speaker A
i used to actually think that i could save all the kids i know that's not the case you know um i just do the best that i can do and i'm just praying that the next kid doesn't you know fall by the wayside
Speaker A
how do you not become cynical do you harden your heart or you just no actually i have to replenish myself or i'm not gonna be any good to them or my my own family these kids are like precious cargo to me
Speaker A
some have pretty tough lives some of them have the responsibility of a 30-something year old they're holding down their homes and they're only kids no kids shouldn't have to go through that 25 years down the road what do you think camden's gonna be like
Speaker A
wow i'm praying that it turns into the camden that i remember and i know that i'm helping our future leaders to become a part of that change i'm very hopeful and there's no doubt in my mind that there is gonna
Speaker A
be a positive camden no doubt you're going to stay i'm not going anywhere my pop-up didn't leave i'm not leaving [Music] yeah i know philadelphia is right over there right across the ben franklin bridge the center of the cheesesteak universe
Speaker A
but what if it isn't [Music] they're better than that they're bigger than that and the best cheesesteak in the area might well come from new jersey donkeys opened by leon lucas 71 years ago a heavyweight contender in the 1928
Speaker A
summer olympics in boxing he was known during his time in the cavalry as the donkey they said he had a punch at the kick of a mule until somebody came to handle dunky and he kept it his son robert runs the
Speaker A
joint now and this is what they do here behold the jersey cheesesteak pleasure to meet you so this is the place the best uh cheesesteak in south jersey unless i'm mistaken new jersey in new jersey period yeah is
Speaker A
there a difference between jersey style and philadelphia style yeah we do ours on a round poppy seed kaiser roll really i'll have one of those what's the way to go i mean anything i need to know or just no a
Speaker A
regular cheese and onions beautiful thing i need one paulie it's round it's got steak spices brown onions real american cheese such as it is and a poppy seed roll fantastic thank you sir and it is sublime relish what do you think that's hot pepper yeah
Speaker A
a little bit more a little bit oh man i drove a long way for this and i'm thinking about it the whole way good man just be like a national landmark right away this sandwich is unbelievably good thanks really a thing of beauty that's
Speaker A
good to hear we're driving across the state in a blizzard for well we get a lot of people from philly no way philly oh yes for sure wow that's freezing do they like change the plates on their car
Speaker A
and like where are we disguised i mean it's different the poppy seeds help yeah i like this roll it's awesome just delicious well i think we've learned something here today jersey cheesesteaks i'm not saying they're better than philadelphia yeah i am actually
Speaker A
so there it was just great glad you enjoyed it [Music] the forest and empty spaces of new jersey are vast and often empty of everything but legend you live here if you like a quieter life of not being messed with
Speaker A
1.2 million acres of atlantic cedar swampland forests it goes on and on seemingly at times forever it's easy to get lost in the back water marshall where the cranberries grow when i was a kid as we pass through the pine barrens
Speaker A
on the way to the shore we joke nervously about pinies the strange possibly inbred tribes of people who actually lived out there somewhere between the trees that was what we believed anyway paul evans peterson jeweler musician author and proud pine barren
Speaker A
we meet at the disconcertingly friendly loose seals in warren grove for a delicious breakfast the legend of the jersey devil was mother leeds had 12 kids found herself pregnant with the 13th and say may this child be a devil
Speaker A
there's many legends that are told about it that legend says that when the jersey devil was born it morphed into this creature flew up the chimney and was going into the night other legends say it killed everybody in the room
Speaker A
it's supposed to have the head of a horse wings of a bat hoofs but you have people that say they've seen horns on it it breathes fire it's got a real long tail with a triangle on it i mean it
Speaker A
sounds like my little pony with with it with a fork tail it doesn't sound frightening to me it's supposed to have big red eyes and some people say the head of a goat it's a big part go go it's a little scarier the folks
Speaker A
that live in the barren they have a story they tell about that old age woman and her child from hell [Music] the night he's born he took wings off and flew out into the night see still hearing screams man
Speaker A
when the conditions are right yeah i swear it's true what's out there who are pineys do they roam the forest at night searching for souls to capture pioneers are people that live in the pine barrens and there was a time years ago that if
Speaker A
you would have called somebody like that at piney you'd have got shot really but now people embrace it people like to to be thought of as living off the land they have bumper stickers now you know piney power how do you make your living
Speaker A
it's good to farm blueberries and cranberries it's a lot of fish and a lot of clamming hopefully the oystering is coming back in the delaware bay the bay supported a lot of jobs the pine barrels have been settled for a
Speaker A
long time a long time some of the first people that came here were the glassmakers and saw this incredible sand that we have out here called sugar sand pure white and it's perfect for making glass to the point that it didn't have
Speaker A
to be washed or processed in any other way there was hundreds of glass works they're just ruins now [Music] [Applause] thank you all right thank you so it's not like the rest of jersey here oh no and i hope it stays like
Speaker A
it's like a jersey unto itself out here like you saw had a long drive to get anywhere that's good by the way that's really good yeah [Music] you want to talk mythic epic storied anthemic that sort of thing welcome
Speaker A
to asbury park wellspring of american music of a certain kind home to yes the boss and the jersey national anthem born to run springsteen bon jovi little stephen but before them there was this man south side johnny who with his ashbury jukes pretty much
Speaker A
created the template for the jersey sound a place and really it could have only been this place that changed music and lyrics forever it's had a reputation as being a happy hunting ground for musicians because what a lot of bars a lot of bars
Speaker A
it just was a tradition of bands playing here which is funny because the town was started not to have alcohol and not that kind of music but after a while the pressure just was too much for entertainment for
Speaker A
people to come here and it morphed into an r b and rock and roll most bars don't hire musicians they don't hire bands they have too much trouble sure though i mean jersey sure means people want entertainment it's not just
Speaker A
hard drinking people there's people here on vacation in the summer atlantic city didn't have that reputation well we're not atlantic city as i always like to say good is good forever great music great songs and a classic jersey sandwich
Speaker A
and at frank's they honor that jersey tradition of assertive layers of sliced ham salami pepperoni provolone with some tomato onions shredded lettuce you got your roasted peppers in there and most important your oil and vinegar which soaks into that soft
Speaker A
fresh baked bread and marries it all together into a soggy glorious delivery vehicle for deliciousness here we go thank you oh it's such a beautiful thing that they shred the lettuce and everything you used to come here as a kid yes my
Speaker A
father he would order like a pastrami sandwich yeah and i'd eat like a third of it and he'd eat the rest of it then my brother would eat eggs and bacon so we had to order what he liked but
Speaker A
he was a real trenchman he could really eat [Applause] [Music] asbury park like its close cousin atlantic city with whom it had so much in common suffered from much the same problems fourteen years ago last time i came it
Speaker A
was a shell of itself dying the beach is empty a sad and forlorn place unlike atlantic city though asbury park fought to fix itself to become again the kind of place that anybody would want to live in they didn't look for a magic bullet like
Speaker A
casino gambling and to a great extent they succeeded by keeping alive what made asbury park special they hung on to what was important like this place where any overgrown child still wants to play this spent youth thank god
Speaker A
what tilt all no way that's delicate come on baby ah man that's right this is important for children i think so you know your first exposure to racy images of women are all set in some sort of 20s
Speaker A
fetishistic alternate universe also it teaches you shame and teaches you humility when you lose at exactly the limits of how much you can break the rules before it tilts you know i think they should have tilt for all sorts of things i think so too
Speaker A
you step over the line in a bar talking to a young lady tilt that way you know you got to start again oh i tested it already i barely touched it what are you talking about that's what they all say wait a minute
Speaker A
oh my god oh god see here i got a nut let me play [Music] as i like to say good is good forever the atlantic ocean will always be magnificent looking at it always a humbling even educational experience
Speaker A
it teaches us that men come and go but no matter how foolish or outsized their dreams how badly they screw up what we do here at the ocean's edge the sea will outlast us will always draw us to her edges when
Speaker A
necessary it will crush us we look at the taj this is completely oblivious to everything going on around here yeah and that has got to be the most butt ugly building ever i noticed last night that some of
Speaker A
the lights on the sign on the building are out yeah it's like trump so something like that yeah or dump a rump i mean it's sort of perfect actually if you think of trump this sort of carnival barker his operations is
Speaker A
designed to attract roofs and empty you've got sort of a perfect metaphor here [Music] i hate sweets but i'm a sucker for nostalgia you can't go back i can't go back hell i wouldn't even if i could i sure don't want to
Speaker A
ever have to be a teenager again but those tastes and smells of childhood they work still now you're telling me you were not a big saltwater taffy fan i just remember it was hard to chew you had braces remember so this was
Speaker A
probably problematic before that i don't know i can't remember how i braces at that point i don't like candy generally but these have a mystical hold on me man even the color of the wrapper has this weird you know like there should be weird
Speaker A
music playing in the background molasses i totally remember that getting a bunch of those i don't know why certain flavors really resonate the peanut i know exactly what that tastes like [Music] i remember the vanilla really powerfully i'm not even a vanilla guy really more
Speaker A
of a chocolate guy i think i remember pink ones so they must have had strawberry wintergreen i remember licorice sounds good peppermints we keep these in the car cookies and cream does it melt oh it's a lot of time yeah
Speaker A
yeah this stuff isn't fattening by the way need as much as you want is it gluten free it's all natural that's what i thought [Music] atlantic city will never die good is indeed good forever [Music] and atlantic city will be great again
Speaker A
asbury park camden all of my home state i'm convinced when the tide has come and washed all the greed heads away will once again be magic [Music] i hope i'm there to see [Music] [Music] you
Topics:Anthony BourdainParts UnknownNew JerseyAtlantic CityAsbury ParkJersey ShoreHiram's hot dogstravel documentaryfood travelJersey Devil
