July 2, 2011

Memories of the Jones Beach pool and Mello-Rolls. It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago.

Click on photo to enlarge

By FRANK BARNING

Many early Levittowners have fond memories, some 50 or more years later, of fun times spent at nearby Jones Beach. The picture of four-year old Marilyn Monsrud Frese triggers remembrances for the 1963 Division Avenue High School graduate.

"The photo of me in the Jones Beach chair (note the sea horse JB logo), eating one of those ice cream cones they used to sell with the ice cream roll wrapped in paper, was after a little mishap I had in the Jones Beach pool," she said. "I knew how to swim thanks to the Levittown pools, so my parents decided to enter me in a swimming race at the Jones Beach pool."

Marilyn got into the water, as the race began, and discovered that she could reach the bottom with her little feet. "So I decided I would walk my way across the pool. Being I wasn't a fast swimmer, I figured that would be a better way to get to the other side quicker. What I didn't know was that the pool got deeper in the middle."

So away Marilyn walked with all the parents cheering their kids on. "As my head went under, I remember thinking, okay I'll come up again soon. So I kept right on walking and walking and walking until my dad jumped in and pulled me out. I guess the lifeguards didn't notice I was missing. Then mom and dad bought me that ice cream because I was crying that they didn't let me finish the race."

That picture was snapped about 60 years ago. "Funny how I can remember stuff like that, but can't remember half of my graduating class," she said. Bob Seger summed it up when he wrote and sang, "It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago".

MORE ABOUT MELLO-ROLLS

Our next blog post will provide some Mello-Roll history and its tie-in to the hit 1970s TV sitcom, "Welcome Back, Kotter" which starred Gabe Kaplan.

1 comment:

Bill said...

Mello Roll ice cream cones brings back some memories. for some reason, Mom thought you would stay neater with one than having an ice cream cone. I remember, all I had to do do to get one was to agree and tell her how smart that was of her knowing that fact! Worked every time!