By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Lily Hudacs, who was visiting Sea Isle City from her home in Glendale, Calif., clearly was disappointed with the drizzly and foggy weather that had descended on the Jersey Shore for New Year’s Eve.
It was 10-year-old Lily’s first New Year’s Eve celebration in Sea Isle, and she wanted it to be a special one.
“I’m excited for my first year. I come from where it’s sunny. But here it seems like a mixture of snow or rain. I would say it’s generally a different kind of climate,” she said while comparing California and New Jersey.
Although she didn’t like the misty weather, her mood brightened a few minutes later when Sea Isle’s thunderous fireworks display provided a boisterous welcome to the New Year.
“It was amazing. I loved how they combined all of the fireworks,” Lily exclaimed.
Video of New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Sea Isle traditionally shoots off its fireworks at 8 p.m. as part of its family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration. Hundreds of children and their families gathered to ring in 2022 at the early hour.
Lily was part of a group of nine kids and their parents from the Hudacs, Menan, Truskey and Reece families who were visiting from California and West Chester, Pa., and enjoying the fireworks.
For nearly 15 minutes, the pyrotechnics exploded in a multicolored spectacle over the beach at John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
Last year, Sea Isle canceled its fireworks display because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the return of the fireworks and other festivities this year, the New Year’s Eve celebration was decidedly more buoyant.
Teresa and Jim Kennedy, of Media, Pa., shared a celebratory toast while sitting at the bar at O’Donnell’s Pour House restaurant and pub. Looking back on 2021, they focused on the Nov. 8 birth of their grandson, Jackson Neil Reinhart.
Yet they were also saddened by the death in 2021 of Big Daddy Graham, the comedian, writer and Philadelphia radio personality who was one of their neighbors at their summer home in Sea Isle.
“That was a low moment, and the high moment was the birth of our grandson,” Teresa Kennedy said.
The Kennedys have owned their Sea Isle vacation home for 21 years. They said the summer vacation season of 2021 was an enjoyable and positive one, despite the lingering concerns about the pandemic.
Sharing dinner at the Pour House to celebrate the New Year were friends Pat Higgins, Betty Hollingsworth, Mary Broadhurst, Eileen OHare and Pat Walsh. They were also joined by Higgins’ granddaughter, Becki Geiger.
Geiger, who lives in Phoenixville, Pa., joked that it would likely be a quiet and early holiday night for their group.
“It will be dinner, fireworks and then we’ll probably watch Criminal Minds,” she said of the TV drama.
Geiger’s grandmother, Pat Higgins, and her friends have made it a tradition since 2008 to celebrate New Year’s Eve together in Sea Isle.
“We all get along very well,” Hollingsworth said.
Higgins noted that not even the pandemic was going to spoil their New Year’s Eve tradition this year.
“This was our bubble,” she said of how close the friends have remained during the pandemic.
Other spots in Sea Isle also were attracting crowds for the holiday. A steady flow of customers stopped in for champagne, wine, vodka and other spirits at the Diamonds Liquor store.
“It’s been pretty busy, because this is such a big holiday,” said Matt O’Toole, a clerk at Diamonds Liquor.
Matt Signore, a customer at Diamonds Liquor, was visiting Sea Isle for the holiday from his full-time residence in Aberdeen, N.J. He has vacation home in Sea Isle.
Signore had much to celebrate in 2021 – the birth of his first children, a son named Matthew. For New Year’s Eve, Signore was planning to spend a low-key holiday night with friends and family.
“We will ring in the New Year nice and quiet,” he said, smiling.
