The Great Escape

Jim McSherry was always our leader when we were young. We were mostly bored out of our minds desperate to find something to do. There was no technology, smart phones or video games as you have heard from us old timers ad nauseam on social media. We did do a lot of interesting things but in between those adventures mostly I remember walking to the Shopping Center to get a coke or a snack to start the day. Along the way we met with other members of the gang that lived along this route. So totally boring and mindless it seemed to me that I would spend the rest of my life walking to Carteret Shopping Center with this crew.

I thought I always had a plan in the back of my mind but it seemed too selfish and stupid to share to anybody. It was my secret.
My first love in life was the New Jersey Shore. I was carried there as a toddler by my parents, and was taken there in my early years by aunts, uncles, sisters and their boyfriends. Something magical happened to me when I sat in from of those endless rolling waves. It was mesmerizing inner peace and freedom. It attacked all of my senses, the salt air, the hot sun, the sand between my toes. This was always my heaven on earth.

As our fearless leader Jim McSherry was the one that started the football team (he was quarterback), he was the one that initiated side street baseball. He told us where to go. He told us what to do. If you didn’t listen or do what he said you were shunned mentally from the “gang” He was also much stronger than us and apparently a good fighter. (later on he did join a boxing gym and fought in the Golden Gloves).

One day James Vincent McSherry began our daily routine walk to the shopping center with a plan. We listened intently as he explained what his old brother had recently done, we would now follow. The plan was to walk to the Woodbridge train station and take a south bound NJ transit train as far south as it would go which was Bay Head. From there we would hitchhike a few miles north on route 35 to Belmar. Belmar was a quaint little shore down. This was the McSherry beach of choice. You see each family in New Jersey had adopted a favorite beach to visit. I know for the Hartmans it was Point Plesant and the Gitter enjoyed Bradley (Bagel) Beach. Stuff’s family went to Seaside Park. Jim McSherry was our leader and Belmar was “his” beach so Belmar it was.

Belmar was unique in a way that they had huge wooden lifeguard boats that they turned over at night. We could tunnel underneath them at night to create a place to sleep. A couple times when we did this adventure we actually rented a room. Today I still wonder where all the adults were. Our parents for one thing, allowing us to travel by train 50 miles south, hitchhike and rent a room to stay over night. Also, what kind of responsible mature adult rents out a room to a group of teenagers all obviously under the age of 18?

So what stuck in my mind was that this great adventure and rebellious plan actually worked. This beach escape became a permanent fixture in the back of my mind. As the gang went on to different high schools and some of us to college we separated. It happened swiftly and without warning like life usually does things. I don’t really remember saying goodbye to anybody. Life just happened. If I would have known that our very last walk down to Carteret Shopping Center was our final, I would have done things so much differently. I would have a taken camera and lined us all up in front of Krausers holding our cokes and snacks in a cheer. I would ask one of the passing adults to snap our photo. Then I would individually hug each and every one of the gang and wish them well in life. “Bless your journey, whatever it may be.” I would say with tear filled eyes.

I struggled greatly in an all boy High School dominated by geniuses and talented sport playing fellow students. They had trophies with their names on them in the huge glass case out in the reception area of the school. The administration had a flawless reputation to keep. We are the best and nothing else. They hung up newspaper clippings on a board by the trophy case demonstrating that greatness. I was just barely getting by with my grades and at home it was now 5 years since the death of my father and almost pure chaos had kicked in. It was also around this time I started to drink. I drank to get drunk. This was a fine escape.

I was delivering the Star Ledger in the early morning my first three years of high school and I adored getting up early to do this. There was something magical and QUIET about being the first one up in a house loaded with 12 children. (at this point Barb had moved out and three step brothers had moved in). I loved the complete stillness of the early morning when I walked my route. Sometimes I would see stuff in neighbors garbage that I took. I found a cool wooden box hand engraved which I still have today filled with concert tickets. One time I found a box filled with National Geographic magazines and I picked up and took it home.

It was in these magazines I discovered the world. How huge and beautiful it is. There was something bigger, more important and much more beautiful out side of Carteret New Jersey.

I had concocted a plan and it was to run away from everything. I would save enough money for a one way ticket to Hawaii, pack nothing, fly there and then spend the rest of my life there. Since Jim McSherry had taught me that you can sleep on the beach that was my plan. I would stay on the warm beaches of Hawaaii until I could find a small job, maybe washing dishes and then just work my up. I told myself I wouldn’t tell anybody where I was. I would have just vanished with a new life.

With no internet checking flight prices and departure times was done with a phone and at times my vision of living on a beach in the Pacific ocean seemed unrealistic. But I was determined and several times I had saved a couple hundred dollars in the bank for my plane ticket but then “something always came up.” I don’t know whatever happened to this plan to escape. It got lost in the rough and tough tumbles of life. It was still always there, though, whenever I got frustarted or lost a job or fell behind on my bills.

It was only in writing this now and remembering that I realize a very influential friend has been gone in my life since I turned 20. It was one hot day in the Summer that Jim McSherry knocked on my door and said, “I’m leaving now. We’re moving to Arizona” His father had asthma so bad that the doctor told him that moving to Arizona would be the only left to save him. So Jim McSherry moved away and started a new life. He came back to visit a few times and I went there once to visit him in Arizona State University but it was never the same. He was on the other side of the country and so was his imagination, his laughter, his impersonations, his animated story telling and all the magic that he brought to any friendship.
Now he is slowly dying from congestive heart failure and I ask that anybody who reads this to say a prayer for him and his family. He is a great man.

About George C. Hartman

Redesiging design, coloring outside the lines, rolling down hills, figuring out strange people, dreaming in black and white, photographing in black and white, juggling, body surfing, fantasy football, painting, design, digital art and photo manipulation, green oceans, blue oceans, museums, discovering small towns, biking, beach, relationships that tear my heart out, bad poetry, movie making and BLOGGING
This entry was posted in friends, the beginning and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

12,119 Responses to The Great Escape

  1. Vanessa says:

    Will I have to work shifts? kashiv pharma llc linkedin “Credit rating downgrades, particularly of sovereigns deemed to be relatively safe, have been of scant significance to investors for quite some time… However, if there's one country in which a downgrade ought to be a wake-up call for politicians to step up the pace of fiscal and structural reforms, it's France,” Nicholas Spiro, head of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, said. France holds a bond auction at 13:50 p.m. London time where it plans to sell up to 7.5 billion euros in short-term paper.

  2. Dwight says:

    I work for myself betamethasone injection dosage for pregnancy “All countries have a common interest in finding ways todisconnect reserve accumulation from exchange-rate management,”Landau said. “The need for national reserves could be reduced ifcredible mechanisms exist to provide for the supply of officialliquidity on a multilateral basis.”

  3. Charlie says:

    Do you play any instruments? buy lamisil no prescription A. For the most part, no. Some, however, do appear to crossthe line. While BillGuard came up with the term “gray charges,”state and federal officials have been battling these sort ofmarketing tactics for years.

  4. Bradly says:

    Can I take your number? generic cialis viagra “They see a change in leadership as carrying a risk,” he said. “The argument from them is, ‘Look, the institutions Kagame is trying to build are still fragile.’ I think the people who hold that opinion hold it genuinely.”

  5. Leigh says:

    I’m at Liverpool University ondansetron odt “It will create a stunning oasis of tranquillity in the heart of our city and boost our plans to encourage walking in the city.”

  6. Ernest says:

    I’d like to pay this cheque in, please metoprolol tartrate side effects In a major policy speech, Erdogan said parliament would debate whether to reduce the threshold for a political party to enter parliament to 5 percent of the national vote, or even eliminate the barrier completely, and introduce a “narrowing” of the current constituency system.

  7. Nestor says:

    Do you know the address? avapro coupon program One of the biggest problems is waste from overproduction. More than 80 billion garments are produced every year — enough for every single person on the planet to have a brand-new wardrobe. In the future, there won’t be “vintage” clothes from this decade — they’re so low-quality, they just won’t last that long.

  8. Christopher says:

    Is it convenient to talk at the moment? clomid usa Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, 22, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was charged with shooting at the White House on November 11, 2011 with a semi-automatic weapon. At least eight rounds hit the building and two bullets were recovered, the Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

  9. Riley says:

    I enjoy travelling where to buy genuine cytotec in cebu “This exhibition features Velázquez’ workshop. We can see a whole series of paintings produced in his latter years, artworks that were intended primarily for the court’s diplomatic functions,” says the museum’s director Miguel Zugaza.

  10. Moises says:

    Can I use your phone? why would viagra not work Ms O’Grady added: “It cannot be right that people living in a wealthy area can receive tens of thousands of pounds more in state pension than someone living in a less well off part of the country, particularly as richer people are likely to have earned more during the career and have a bigger private pension too.

  11. Christian says:

    Have you got any qualifications? xength x1 canada China’s investment rate is the world’s highest at almost 50pc of GDP, an effect largely caused by the structure of the state behemoths that gobble up credit. This has led to massive over-capacity and wastage.

  12. Bobby says:

    Photography if you&#39re allergic to aspirin can you take ibuprofen Longoria, who spent a beautiful day at the beach getting a foot massage and catching up with friends, was enjoying a quick Brazilian retreat before her upcoming reality dating show “Ready for Love” debuts on NBC later in March.

  13. Rodrigo says:

    What do you do? handbook of nonprescription drugs 16th edition Blessed with the large hands and the breakaway speed of a No. 1 receiver, Nicks, who will earn $2.725 million in 2013, has never played all 16 games in any of his first four seasons. He is expected to test the open market as an unrestricted free agent in March.

  14. Malcolm says:

    I like it a lot how to sell generic drugs Exactly how much data the NSA will be able to store there is classified. Engineers on the project believe the capacity is bigger than Google’s largest data center. Estimates are in a range difficult to imagine but outside experts believe it will keep exabytes or zettabytes of data. An exabyte is roughly 100,000 times the size of the printed material in the Library of Congress; a zettabyte is 1,000 times larger.

  15. Michael says:

    Have you seen any good films recently? cialis medicine online order rx viagra “The ‘Kids Act’ is just childish games by House Republicans,” said César Vargas, 28, a Mexican-born Dreamer who graduated from the City University of New York School of Law and is the director of a coalition that advocates for young immigrants. “It pits Dreamers against our families.”

  16. Jamel says:

    I don’t know what I want to do after university nuclear renal scan lasix results Because of the development in trade finance, the bank is increasingly resorting to short-term (ST) debt. However, liquidity remains solid, as the bank maintains adequate liquid assets and unused credit lines, representing 94% and 106% of ST debt at end-June 2013 respectively. As with other African sub-regional MDBs, the credit quality of investment is low and operational risk may increase as a result of expansion in countries exposed to a poor business environment, such as Zimbabwe. PTA Bank’s other risk management policies are in line with that of other sub-regional MDBs.

  17. Harry says:

    Could you ask him to call me? micardis hct price Google shares, up 1.9 percent at $904.22, and Apple, up 0.9 percent at $456.67, were among companies givingthe S&P 500 its biggest boost, along with financials. JPMorganChase shares gained 1.5 percent to $56.54 while Bank ofAmerica was up 2.4 percent at $14.95.

  18. Lenard says:

    Can you hear me OK? detoxing off luvox “I think you’ll find out that what is promised in the (Secure Choice plan) is not possible to deliver,” lobbyist Marc Burgat contends. “If you could deliver guaranteed returns with less than one percent costs, no employer liability, no government liability — that’s a fantasy.”

  19. Joshua says:

    Could I make an appointment to see ? phenergan 1 mg/ml Researchers found that only a minority of universities make lower “upfront” offers to teenagers from deprived backgrounds in advance, instead choosing to “reassess” these students if they fall short of entry grades after A-level results are published.

  20. Brooklyn says:

    Not available at the moment tretinoin cream 0.025 acne org “The housing market’s improving, consumer balance sheets are being repaired and corporate balance sheets are strong,” noted Goldman. “But there are still negative overhangs—Europe’s still not fixed, there’s been bad news from China and there are geopolitical risks everywhere. We think while the market’s had a nice run, we’ll see increased volatility for the rest of the year.”

  21. Graham says:

    Do you know what extension he’s on? peut on prendre du viagra a 18 ans Eric Hodgson, 43, of Elk Grove pleaded guilty Thursday in Sacramento County Court to seven of 22 counts of grand theft. Under a plea deal, he will forfeit two homes, two cars, retirement savings and his $10,000 Star Wars collection as part of his restitution.

  22. Stephanie says:

    i’m fine good work esomeprazole zentiva “This caught any professional I've spoken to in the last month – this caught us all on the wrong side of the trade,” Benedict P. Willis III, managing director at Albert Fried & Company, told the BBC from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

  23. Alexander says:

    The United States valtrex generic ordering online “The feeling of everybody, swimmers and coaches and technical committee, is that this is a very interesting event with a lot of tactics involved,” FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told Reuters after the move was ratified at a technical congress in Barcelona.

  24. Camila says:

    I’m sorry, he’s jennifer t alli reading order
    There were no tangible signs of progress on Wednesday,although some members of both parties floated the possibility ofa short-term increase in the debt limit to allow time forbroader negotiations on the budget.

  25. Jamie says:

    I’m training to be an engineer buy propecia defense After the state and foreign operations subcommittees of the House and Senate appropriations committees debate and vote on their versions of the bill, the measures will be voted on by the full committees before being sent for a vote by the full House and Senate.

  26. Prince says:

    Who do you work for? non generic viagra online pharmacy Morgan Stanley’s focus on wealthy families and individuals and its use of bonus and incentive plans for its brokers alsobore fruit. Assets of clients with $10 million or more increased20 percent from a year ago and 4 percent from the second quarterto $631 billion, or 35 percent of total assets.

  27. Lavern says:

    Gloomy tales cost adcirca Pran also received several other prestigious awards, including Filmfare magazine’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 1997 and the ‘Villain of the Millennium’ by Stardust magazine three years later.

  28. Gilberto says:

    I don’t like pubs static caravans for sale north wales on site With the tunnels shut, prices for consumer items have risen in the enclave. Cheap Egyptian fuel is in short supply, with hours-long lines each day at Gaza petrol stations. Israeli fuel is available – at double the price of the Egyptian product.

  29. Samantha says:

    I’m on holiday bupropion wellbutrin buy The experiment worked like this: Hundreds of mosquitoes buzzed inside a mesh cage in the laboratory. A researcher, Daniel Bakabulindi, approached the cage with a device called an aspirator, made from a rubber tube connected to a thin glass pipe. He introduced the end of the glass pipe into the cage with the mosquitoes.

  30. Alberto says:

    I can’t get through at the moment how often should i take acyclovir 400 mg The investigation also found that prison guards falsified logs documenting their observation of Castro, and no checks were done on eight different occasions during the afternoon and evening before he died.

  31. Lorenzo says:

    In tens, please (ten pound notes) buy cheap cialis discount online
    Passengers admitted to the pre-check are usually allowed to go through separate security lines where they don’t have to take off their shoes, remove their belts or take their laptops and iPads out of their bags.

  32. Willis says:

    I saw your advert in the paper diamox sales The biggest single-winner Powerball jackpot, of $590.5 million, was claimed in June by an 84-year-old Florida woman who opted for a lump-sum payment of nearly $371 million rather than the 30-year option.

  33. Terence says:

    What’s your number? dapoxetine et tramadol Quinn and his team are out matched while investigating the tailor’s workshop. They are caught completely off guard when men with assault rifles and riot gear charge into the shop. After taking a large trunk from a hidden compartment in the wall, they leave all the agents for dead. The stunning scene closes with Quinn wounded and possibly dead and Carrie determined to find out if Brody had a hand in the ambush.

  34. Rodolfo says:

    I’m unemployed augmentin price without insurance Even as analysts said that AT&T would be paying a high pricefor Leap, they have been holding out hope for a rival bid forLeap from a company such as T-Mobile US, Dish Network or Verizon Communications.

  35. Arianna says:

    I’m a trainee methylprednisolone dose pack online “My advice to those who keep comparing themselves to other women? Go and do something with your time that gives you a greater sense of self. Pick up a hobby, learn a language, enrich your life,” Sweet suggests. Maybe I will, after all, speaking French might give me an edge on the competition, right?

  36. Nicky says:

    I’d like to cancel a cheque blastocystis hominis flagyl dosage “Longer-term investors will take heart from the improvedpotential for structural reform in Japan and from China’sabolition of minimum bank lending rates,” said Ric Spooner,chief market analyst at CMC Markets in a note.

  37. Leonel says:

    What do you do? diflucan dosage for thrush in infants And while Twitter has evolved as a service, adding ‘verified’ accounts for individuals, incorporating news and inventing the hashtag to easily identify specific themes, fundamentally it is the same clean, largely advertising-free service that was popular in 2007. The logo may have changed, but only slightly.

  38. Dirtbill says:

    Could you tell me the dialing code for ? vegetology omega 3
    Surface has now become an incredibly important effort for Microsoft, and its licensing business will now be under increased pressure from all sides. As Caesar was reported to have said, “the die has been cast” and the next few years will determine whether it can make the transition as its competitors have.

  39. Toney says:

    Which team do you support? dapsone topical reviews The White House said Obama would not meet with Netanyahu because of the election timing.

  40. Louis says:

    I’ve only just arrived viagra buy contest “He said that he let one slip early in his career, and he said he would never let that happen again. He would just be tough and want it so badly. And sometimes maybe that has to happen for you to realise that,” Scott said.

  41. Walter says:

    I enjoy travelling can you get high on lexapro 10mg Nevertheless, it is tempting to think that Tremadog and the Llyn were influential in the development of the young boy, the area where the future Lawrence of Arabia first became enthralled by wild countryside and remote places.

  42. Lavern says:

    How many would you like? metaxalone webmd Barclays announced the fundraising alongside news that itwould take another 2 billion pounds charge for mis-sellingproducts and said it was also pushing back its target to delivera key profitability goal.

  43. Rodolfo says:

    One moment, please augmentine plus precio “Traveling from one star to another would be a lot easier in M60-UCD1 than it is in our galaxy,” Strader said. “Since the stars are so much closer in this galaxy, it would take just a fraction of the time.”

  44. Homer says:

    I’d like , please celebrex interaction with detrol la The Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox and Nationals are possible landing spots for Scherzer, but Jon Lester getting $155 million and five years from the Cubs makes Scherzer’s demands out of whack

  45. Boris says:

    Hello good day zantac 150 mg reviews Stress fractues are always biomechanical. Are your orthotics worn and need an adjustment? See the person who made them and chect it out. Also have them check your running shoes to see if they are too worn, causing a biomechanical flaw translated to your tibia. You may need a new pair of running shoes. It is not too late to break them in.

  46. Booker says:

    Thanks funny site where can i buy estradiol cream Braugher admits that he has never been a big consumer of television in general, the medium in which he has won the most acclaim, and hasn’t been a sitcom watcher specifically. “So it’s hard for me to point out a comedy that I think has that kind of feeling,” he says.

  47. Lonnie says:

    I’d like to cancel a cheque buy permethrin lotion The senior Western diplomat said Sellstrom and Kane wereexpected to accept the invitation and travel to Damascus soon todiscuss ways of breaking the deadlock. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Vicki Allen andCynthia Osterman)

  48. Joaquin says:

    I’m not sure cost of atarax at walmart The folks at the viral video site NowThis News gathered two House Democrats and two House Republicans for a “bipartisan pub crawl” segment last month, but Whispers was tipped off to it post-shutdown.

  49. Danial says:

    Withdraw cash shine natural medicine reviews
    — Hong Kong jewellers are expected to benefit fromBeijing’s possible easing of limits on gold imports that wouldallow mainlanders to bring more of the precious metal across theborder without paying levy. Only those carrying more than 200grams of gold each time will be taxed after clearingimmigration, according to a People’s Bank of China draft rulewhich is under consultation. The current import limit is 50grams. ()

  50. Frances says:

    I’m unemployed catapres tts 3 When a person is rendered sterile as the result of a disease against which vaccine was available but refused by the parents, those parents should be sued by the child for every penny they have, and pursued by the attorney general of the state for gross criminal negligence

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *