Retro Sea Bright Beach Clubbing

Image August 16, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

Sometimes ya just have to go clubbing … in Sea Bright … before the age of 10.

After all, what good Rumson kid didn’t? Not many, if any. And back in the summer of ’69, little Claire Hurd was one who went clubbing … to Sea Bright Beach Club, of course, with the best of them. It was just the way Rumsonites rolled in the summer. Still do.

And when you’re a Rumson or Fair Haven kid beached and clubbing it, the living in summertime is easier than you ever realized. In little Claire’s case, this was a birthday jaunt to the beach club on Aug. 6 of that summer of ’69. Sea Bright Beach Club has always been a mainstay of beach clubs on the Ocean Avenue strip.

It looks a lot different in this era, but, as we recall, the standard stark white building with that classic club look near the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge end of the borough sticks in the memory as a classic.

Peninsula House was the iconic club close by that was there at the time, but has no longer been for decades. One or the other was considered a club classic — not that there’s anything wrong with the myriad other beach clubs and public beach, of course.

But, when you’re a birthday girl clubbing it before the double-digit age, all that matters is toes in the warm sand, the surf, maybe the pool, a towel, sand and all, and definitely the company of kid clubbers and some birthday bashing in the most simple of ways — beaching it.

Where’s the beach party, birthday girl? Maybe they were setting up inside as you soaked up some rays and solitude. Everyone in the … clubhouse?

Cheers to solo birthday beach basking and bashes!