Local Life

Retro Rumson Cool Boys’ Dock & Chill

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Rumson dock days of the ’70s at Pauel’s Boats
Photo/courtesy of Mark Wellner

It’s summertime. And there’s nothing like taking a long walk off a short … dock — especially if you’re a Rumson kid in the ’70s trying to stay cool.

Let’s face it, most Rumson kids on a summer boating mission started out being cool. Boat or no boat, the river dunk just took the temperature down a little more to add to their inherent chilled-out factor.

And back in the day, kids like little Mark Wellner (front, center and soaked with river water), who ended up being Rumson’s DPW superintendent for 40 years, had the docked chill factor down pat. Isn’t it obvious in this snapshot he shared? The year was 1971 down on the Pauel’s Boats dock the summertime livin’ was pretty easy, friend of the crew, Bill Brown, said on social media.

“I’m guessing this picture is from ’71, because the outboards are Johnsons,” he said. “I know that Pauels switched over to Mercuries in the summer of ’72. I had a part-time job, summer after 8th grade, at Harry’s in Sea Bright to buy a Merc 110 (the (9.9hp), perfect for my old Pauels wooden row boat. That old boat and engine took me up the Navesink to the Molly Pitcher, to the Shrewsbury.

“Ahh, we had an amazing youth on that river.”

Yes, they did. Just about any Rumson-Fair Haven area kid would attest to those amazing river times.

Arms folded and, apparently, assessing the river time situation, was Andy Hoyt, the son of Fair Haven oral surgeon Dr. Hoyt, who was known to ride his bike all over town and ended up being an honorary member of Rumson’s Oceanic Hook & Ladder Fire Company and the borough First Aid squad. He passed about six years ago.

And way in the background of this back-in-the-day dock shot is Rumsonite William Reagan.

And so goes a little tale of starting out cool by standing on the dock of the river in Rumson, soaked or not. Dock on!

** Thanks to Mark Wellner for sharing this gem of a photo from back in the Rumson day! **

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