Melinda: Today is October 24th, 2024. I'm Melinda Allen-Grote, and I'm in the home of Mary Lou Browning in Manasquan. We're here to talk a little bit about her history in Ocean Grove, for the Ocean Grove Historical Society's oral history project. So thank you so much for agreeing to participate.

Mary Lou: Thank you.

Melinda: So tell me a little bit about your history in Ocean Grove.

Mary Lou:
Well, Well, my mother grew up in Ocean Grove. My grandfather worked for the New York Times, and he decided he wanted his own newspaper, and he wanted to be independent. So the Ocean Grove Times was up for sale. So he bought it, and they moved to Ocean Grove.

Melinda: What year was that? Just estimate.

Mary Lou: I don't know. I don't know. Let's see. I would say in the late '20s.

Melinda: Okay, what was your father's name?

Mary Lou: It was my grandfather, Homer Kresge.

Melinda: Okay. So he bought the newspaper. Right.

Mary Lou: And so they settled in Ocean Grove. So my mom grew up in Ocean Grove. There were five children. Where did she live growing up? On Webb Avenue.

Melinda: Okay.

Mary Lou: Near the church there. My grandmother wanted to be to walk to church on Sundays. And they all went to high school in Neptune. And as a small child, then I grew up in Ocean Grove. We had a house on the ocean front. First, we lived back further near the school, and then my father bought 16 Ocean Avenue. And my memories of Ocean Grove are really there because there were no other families there. There was one other family, the Hoppers, and they lived on the oceanfront also. But the place was dead during the wintertime.

Melinda: So Describe what that was like. So you were born in 1942, and you had a house on Ocean Avenue. And were there other houses on Ocean?

Mary Lou:
Oh, yes. It was fully developed, but they were summer people. The hotels were closed. And when we walked to school, I remember walking to school, and there was really nobody around until you got to Central Avenue. And then that was really more of the town. It was a very different town back then. Everybody went to the same school, smaller classes. It started to get crowded as the soldiers had come back from the war, and they were producing more and more children. So then the school system did get... Like they'd be more than one grade. But it was a wonderful time in Ocean Grove. Completely different than what it is now.

Melinda: So tell me about some of your fondest memories of growing up in Ocean Grove.

Mary Lou: I think a lot of them are go around the spiritual things. As a child, I went to Thornley Chapel. And then as I got older, I played the organ in Thornley Chapel and taught the little children up through college. And I also taught swimming in the pool with Anna Nichols, who was a famous person in Ocean Grove back then. She was a professor, and then in the summertime, she taught. So we had a swim team. It was just a different... Of course, everybody's childhood is different. But those are my favorite memories of Ocean Grove.

Melinda: Where was the pool?

Mary Lou: The pool was at the North End, behind the North End Hotel. You could still see remnants of it. And of course, that's what everybody's arguing about now in building. But you could not wear your bathing suit to the beach. You had a bath house. You changed there to put your suit on, and then you either went under the tunnel to the beach or you went to the pool. And then as things got changed a little bit, they made bigger bathhouses. But the summer for most of the kids in Ocean So it revolved around. Thornley Chapel, the Youth Temple. Then when you're finished that, you went for your swimming lessons. You went to the beach for the rest of the day. And there were a lot of activities, too, for kids.

Melinda: What was it like in the winter?

Mary Lou:
Horrible. I can remember walking home from this. My best friend was the other family that lived on the Windermere. Do you know where the Windermere is? So that was their house.

Melinda: What was their name?

Mary Lou: The Hoppers.

Melinda: Okay. The Hoppers.

Mary Lou: And Marilyn Shotwell. Do you know Marilyn Shotwell? She was a Hopper. [M:Oh, okay]. But her sister, Carol, was my friend. And I can remember we were playing together and walking home with that wind off the ocean. It was bitter, not so much that it was the dampness and the wind. So it was cold and desolate. Desolate. Because there weren't a lot of people in that area.

Melinda: So what did you do during the winter?

Mary Lou: I don't... Play, with my friends, I guess, with my friend. And my parents were always very welcoming of others.

Melinda: And did you have siblings?

Mary Lou: I had two younger brothers. And I will tell you this story. Everybody complains about the parking in Ocean Grove. And it was really bad even 77 years ago. My mom was pregnant. I was so excited. My father was taking me to the fireworks, and my mother went into labor. And so we had a two car garage on Olin Street, and he went out to get out, and the place was packed, and they had covered our driveway, so we couldn't get out. So I always tell that story. We always had problems in Ocean Grove with parking, even back that many years ago.

Melinda: So that was the late '40s?

Mary Lou: That was '42. He's five years old. He's 47.

Melinda: So did he eventually get out?

Mary Lou: Actually, no, he didn't. I think the ambulance came and took them. Oh, my goodness. But I do tell that because it's just... And it was true because there's so many people came to Asbury for or things like that, that they parked in Ocean Grove. And just like we did on Sunday, parked in other people's places.

Melinda: So when you were growing up, your grandparents were still there?

Mary Lou: Oh, yes. Yeah.

Melinda: And so tell me, do you have a sense of what happened to the Ocean Grove times?

Mary Lou: Yes. My uncle, Bill Kresge, when he got back from the war and I finished college, he started working with my grandfather. He took it over. And then when it was time for him to retire, he wanted to retire, they did sell it to a... I forgot his name now, a man and his son. And unfortunately, the son had some problems and it just disintegrated, really, hit to no Ocean Grove times. But it had been for years back into the... I know they have copies of it way back in the early In the late 1800s.

Melinda: And was your grandfather still alive when it fell apart?

Mary Lou: No, no, no. It's just a shame. This man had a problem, and they sold it to somebody else, a woman and her daughter, I think. And in fact, the Ocean Grove Times office is the dental office. That was their office.

Melinda: Oh, on Main? Yeah.

Mary Lou: That was In fact, I have a picture someplace of that. And then Dr. Wilden bought it from my uncle and made it into the dental office.

Melinda: So when did 16 Ocean? When did that get sold and transition? Okay.

Mary Lou: My father wanted more space for my brothers, and so he bought a house in a Neptune across from the golf course. And so that's when we moved and we sold it to the... Oh, dear. I can't think. Marilyn. The ones that... Actually, the wife of the daughter-in-law of the original owners. In other words, it stayed in that family until it was just sold this year. Right.

Melinda: What was it like for you to move out of Ocean Grove? How old were you at the time?

Mary Lou: I was 10. It was exciting in some respects. We had a lot of property, and that's what my father wanted for my brothers. But because my grandmother was still there, I was in Ocean Grove all the time.

Melinda: Do you know what originally brought your grandparents to Ocean Grove?

Mary Lou: Yeah. The newspaper.

Melinda: Okay. And they were living where before?

Mary Lou: They were living in Cranford. But he was working. I think he was in charge of some section of the New York Times. But he was a graduate. They met in Bucknell when.. and he got involved in that work and wanted to have his own independence. And they didn't just have a newspaper. They did a lot of legal stuff, printing regular printing and things like that.

Melinda: So tell me when the tent became a part of your family.

Mary Lou: Well, it was only me that became a part of it. That was my desire. And here I am playing the organ. And when they were 13, the children went to Thornley Chapel from the time, like 3-13 [years old]. And then when you were 13, you went to the youth temple. But I was always there as a teenager playing the organ and teaching the little kids. So I couldn't go to the Youth Temple. And I used to beg my father to please get a tent because all the cool kids were in the tents. They were all the popular kids, et cetera, et cetera. And my father's not leaving his air conditioning to go move in the tent. Anyhow, so I've always wanted one, and I put my name in Dr. This is bad when you get this old, you forget people's names, but a couple of the trustees, Dr. I can't think of his name. But anyhow, he was a friend, and I took care of his wife in our facility. We had a nursing facility. And And Dr. Wilden, I just asked them. And so I put my application in. And my husband, very graciously, moved into the tent with me.

Melinda: When was that?

Mary Lou: It was 2011. Oh, not that long ago? No, not that long ago. So I became a cool kid in my '60s.

Melinda: There's time for everything. Right.

Mary Lou: And it's been a wonderful... Because Ocean Grove is my heart, really. We've lived here since '85, or actually '84. But Ocean Grove is really what I love. And talking about the... I don't know whether anybody has told you about the Ocean Grove Times and the BeachComber that they used to have in the Times. Well, they had this in the summertime. I don't think they did it in the winter. I can't remember that. But they had what they call the Beach Comber, which was someone wrote it, but nobody knew who it was. It was a gossip thing for teenagers. They could never do that now. They'd be sued. Terrible, terrible, terrible. But different adults and some older kids each year would write this. And they would say, this one is what I saw Susan with Eric, and she's supposed to be dating Larry. And of course, every Thursday, you open your to see if you made the Beachcomber, because if you made the Beachcomber, you were really cool.

Melinda: Do you know who wrote it?

Mary Lou: I know a lot of people did. Anna Nichols, who was the coach and the My uncle, I think, did it a couple of times. Just different people. Somebody else told me somebody, and I was shocked that they did it, but it was always very secretive.

Melinda: And was it just during the summer?

Mary Lou: I think so.

Melinda: And was it an insert?

Mary Lou: No, it was part of the paper. It was a column. And what was nice about the times, it was you would hear about who... There was little articles in there, who had a birthday party and who came to the birthday party. And I remember a bunch of my friends, we earned money for... I forgot what it was. We had a magic thing, and people came to our magic show, and And that would be in the Ocean Grove Times. So there was some news, but mostly Monmouth County news. It was just a really homey, nice newspaper. Everybody was sad when it disappeared.

Melinda: Oh, I'll bet. It really tied the whole community together.

Mary Lou: It did. Definitely.

Melinda: It let people stay in touch that might not otherwise have been in touch.

Mary Lou: Yeah. And then this one is in college, and he made the Dean’s List. And because when we were growing up, after my grandfather left, my uncle would put all stuff about us when we were in college.

Melinda: So now you pack up every Memorial Day?

Mary Lou:
Yeah. Actually, my daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter live with me now, so they're here in this, over time. But my husband and I used to just leave the house, and he used to come back one night a week and stay here. But I like to stay at the tent. And that was my enjoyment.

Melinda: Well, that was home for you.

Mary Lou: Yes. Really, it was. It still is. It's still very much.

Melinda: Anything else that's out there that you'd like to mention? Not that I can think of.

Mary Lou: Anything different. I think I pretty much said it all.

Melinda: Well, thank you so very much. I really appreciate it. What lovely memories.