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Down the Ocean: Postcards from Maryland and Delaware Beaches
In this companion to his book Greetings from Baltimore, Bert Smith takes us on a tour of summers past in Ocean City, Maryland, and the nearby Delaware beaches, where vacationers have been going for more than a century to find sun, surf, and souvenirs. Down the Ocean offers a wonderful selection of charming postcard scenes of the early days of these resort towns, when visitors held tight to safety lines and bravely entered the water dressed in heavy woolen bathing suits. It also takes us through the decades that followed, when automobiles and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge made jaunts to the ocean more convenient and brought changes that transformed the mid-Atlantic coast. Accompanied by Bert Smith's engaging account of local history and lore, the images assembled here document not just the appearance of beach towns but also the feel of beach life from years gone by. Some postcards from the first half of the twentieth century were individually hand colored, and many display photographic tricks, illustrated embellishments, humorous cartoons, or unique design elements -- making them far more evocative than mere snapshots. These postcards capture views of Ocean City's grand hotels of the past, such as the Atlantic, the Plimhimmon, the Stephen Decatur, and the Commander, as well as smaller cottages, motels, and boardwalk businesses. Many of these structures have been destroyed by fires, storms, or the ravages of time; others have been altered beyond recognition or replaced by condominiums. Whether you seek saltwater taffy, a carousel ride, a moonlight stroll on the boardwalk, or a quiet view of a historic lighthouse, you'll find it all, then as now, "down the ocean." "Some of the happiest postcards are those saved or sent from our summer vacations at the ocean. With bright or faded images of the beach and sun and short messages like 'the weather's hot,' 'the water's cold,' and 'the fish are biting,' these colorful souvenirs can instantly take us back to warm breezes, hot sand between our toes, and the smell of french fries and fresh saltwater taffy... You can almost hear the ragtime pianos of the pre-World War I years as you turn over a softly colored card of the old Atlantic Hotel and read the greeting put down in an elegant, flourishing hand, in real ink that flowed from a fountain pen in 1910, or imagine crowds jitterbugging to the joyful jive and swing of the big bands in the 1940s when you see a glowing technicolor linen-textured card of Rehoboth Avenue, with its wartime message hurriedly scribbled in pencil." -- from the Introduction
96 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 1999
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August 11, 2021
“Down the ocean” is classic “Baltimorese” – an example of regional dialect through which residents of Maryland’s largest city would discuss their plans for driving down from Baltimore to the resort town of Ocean City, on the Maryland portion of the Delmarva Peninsula’s Atlantic coast. “Yeah, I’m goin’ down the ocean, hon.”
One of the customary rituals of Delmarva vacation beachgoing, for many years, was sending postcards to family and friends back home; and Bert Smith looks at these postcards, and at what they say about American beachgoing rituals, in his 1999 book Down the Ocean: Postcards from Maryland and Delaware Beaches. Smith, a graphic designer and University of Baltimore instructor, uses the postcards to provide an engaging informal history of the Delmarva beach resorts.
From the perspective of aesthetic observation, the reader may first be impressed by the splashy pastel colors of those glossy, colorfully tinted Photochrome postcards that were printed from the 1900’s to the 1950’s, in what might be called the “classic” era for postcards. The colors – sometimes still bright, more often somewhat faded – reminded me of early Technicolor cinema. It made me reflect that perhaps those postcards resembled Technicolor in offering their prospective audiences a brighter, more vivid, more colorful reality.
The postcards provide a history of growth and change in Ocean City: Smith writes, for example, that great change came to O.C. when, “In the summer of 1939, the long-awaited Ocean Highway (now known as Coastal Highway) opened, connecting Ocean City and the Delaware beaches….In town, a new ‘million-dollar bridge’ opened in 1943” (p. 28). It can be easy to forget, from our contemporary perspective, what a big change that old bridge brought; suddenly, one could drive across Sinepuxent Bay, from the Delmarva mainland to the barrier island on which Ocean City is situated. All of these changes are reflected in postcards that Smith includes in his book.
Smith chronicles, through these postcards, all sorts of Ocean City rituals: going to the beach, strolling along the boardwalk, enjoying beach food like salt water taffy and Thrasher’s Fries (I do wish he had mentioned Dough Roller’s Pizza). When he brings up the O.C. boardwalk’s amusement arcades and rides, I’m sure many area residents of a certain age will appreciate the mention of the Tilt-A-Whirl. Smith also looks at the Ocean City Pier – a much more elaborate affair back in the day than it is now – and at Frontier Town, a Western-themed amusement park.
And Down the Ocean's comments on the development of North Ocean City as a community distinct from “Old” Ocean City make me think of how different the north and south ends of town are. If you don’t mind 20-story, Miami-style condominiums that cut off the sun after about 2:30 pm, then North O.C. may be just the place for you. For my part, I’ll stick to the south end of town, right around where U.S. Route 50 - after a 3,017-mile journey from West Sacramento, California - comes to its oceanside eastern terminus.
Smith also includes the other side of the postcards – what people wrote. It is quite a thing to see the 1-cent stamps with heroic images of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, to glance at the early 20th-century postmarks that say “Ocean City, Md.”, or “Rehoboth Beach, Del.”, and to read the messages.
My favorite of these postcard messages is one that was sent to one Miss Jane Watson of Baltimore, in August of 1938. In a clear, vigorous cursive hand, the author of the postcard writes, without introductory salutation, “The air is fine, ocean swell. I wish you were all here. Love to my Daddy. Love, Mommie” (p. 50). It is heartening to imagine the glow of comfort, the sense of connection, that this postcard no doubt brought when it arrived at 1201 Roundhill Road in Baltimore.
There are also some “humorous postcards” from the 1930’s and 1940’s, many of which are actually quite sexist by contemporary standards – a lot of men ogling women in swimsuits while saying tasteless or demeaning things. More to my taste was Smith’s treatment of topics like the history of life-saving, boating, and fishing in Ocean City. Smith places appropriate emphasis on the massive 1933 storm that opened an inlet connecting the Atlantic Ocean with Sinepuxent Bay – making possible the fishing industry of O.C. today, and facilitating the town’s emergence as the “White Marlin Capital of the World.”
The Delaware resorts north of Ocean City also get their share of attention. Going north from O.C., one stops in Fenwick Island, Bethany Beach, and Rehoboth Beach. Smith offers a helpful focus on Rehoboth’s status as a former Methodist campground – a place that offered a noticeably more sedate resort experience than O.C. – and on Rehoboth’s emergence as “The Nation’s Summer Capital,” a resort town that became particularly popular with vacationers from the Washington, D.C., area.
Rehoboth visitors have always enjoyed the town’s boardwalk. “First built in 1905, the boardwalk, complete with a sturdy handrail, stretched a full mile down the beach. In the evening, gas lamps lighted its entire length, encouraging couples and groups to enjoy an after-dinner stroll” (p. 76). A postcard, helpfully juxtaposed right next to this section of text, shows a much quieter boardwalk than the Rehoboth boardwalk of today; the Henlopen Hotel sits all by itself at the north end, with just a couple of cottages around it, while three people stroll casually along the boardwalk, enjoying the peaceful isolation. No Grotto Pizza, no Gus ‘n’ Gus fries with vinegar, no Playland amusement park with spinwheel paint stations. How times have changed.
Indeed, much has changed in the 20 years since this book was written. With the proliferation of social media technology, many people of today are much more likely to post to Facebook or Twitter or Instagram as a way of sharing their vacation experiences. One still sees postcard stands at boardwalk shops in Ocean City or Rehoboth or Bethany Beach; but these days, the stands often seem to go unvisited by tourists.
Yet Smith’s Down the Ocean, one of the many fine Chesapeake-regional works published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore, does well at placing the reader back in the time when postcards were an important way of connecting the vacationing beachgoer with his or her family back home. If these beach towns were part of your life in those earlier times, then you may enjoy opening up this book and, in imagination and memory, making your way “down the ocean” once again.
One of the customary rituals of Delmarva vacation beachgoing, for many years, was sending postcards to family and friends back home; and Bert Smith looks at these postcards, and at what they say about American beachgoing rituals, in his 1999 book Down the Ocean: Postcards from Maryland and Delaware Beaches. Smith, a graphic designer and University of Baltimore instructor, uses the postcards to provide an engaging informal history of the Delmarva beach resorts.
From the perspective of aesthetic observation, the reader may first be impressed by the splashy pastel colors of those glossy, colorfully tinted Photochrome postcards that were printed from the 1900’s to the 1950’s, in what might be called the “classic” era for postcards. The colors – sometimes still bright, more often somewhat faded – reminded me of early Technicolor cinema. It made me reflect that perhaps those postcards resembled Technicolor in offering their prospective audiences a brighter, more vivid, more colorful reality.
The postcards provide a history of growth and change in Ocean City: Smith writes, for example, that great change came to O.C. when, “In the summer of 1939, the long-awaited Ocean Highway (now known as Coastal Highway) opened, connecting Ocean City and the Delaware beaches….In town, a new ‘million-dollar bridge’ opened in 1943” (p. 28). It can be easy to forget, from our contemporary perspective, what a big change that old bridge brought; suddenly, one could drive across Sinepuxent Bay, from the Delmarva mainland to the barrier island on which Ocean City is situated. All of these changes are reflected in postcards that Smith includes in his book.
Smith chronicles, through these postcards, all sorts of Ocean City rituals: going to the beach, strolling along the boardwalk, enjoying beach food like salt water taffy and Thrasher’s Fries (I do wish he had mentioned Dough Roller’s Pizza). When he brings up the O.C. boardwalk’s amusement arcades and rides, I’m sure many area residents of a certain age will appreciate the mention of the Tilt-A-Whirl. Smith also looks at the Ocean City Pier – a much more elaborate affair back in the day than it is now – and at Frontier Town, a Western-themed amusement park.
And Down the Ocean's comments on the development of North Ocean City as a community distinct from “Old” Ocean City make me think of how different the north and south ends of town are. If you don’t mind 20-story, Miami-style condominiums that cut off the sun after about 2:30 pm, then North O.C. may be just the place for you. For my part, I’ll stick to the south end of town, right around where U.S. Route 50 - after a 3,017-mile journey from West Sacramento, California - comes to its oceanside eastern terminus.
Smith also includes the other side of the postcards – what people wrote. It is quite a thing to see the 1-cent stamps with heroic images of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, to glance at the early 20th-century postmarks that say “Ocean City, Md.”, or “Rehoboth Beach, Del.”, and to read the messages.
My favorite of these postcard messages is one that was sent to one Miss Jane Watson of Baltimore, in August of 1938. In a clear, vigorous cursive hand, the author of the postcard writes, without introductory salutation, “The air is fine, ocean swell. I wish you were all here. Love to my Daddy. Love, Mommie” (p. 50). It is heartening to imagine the glow of comfort, the sense of connection, that this postcard no doubt brought when it arrived at 1201 Roundhill Road in Baltimore.
There are also some “humorous postcards” from the 1930’s and 1940’s, many of which are actually quite sexist by contemporary standards – a lot of men ogling women in swimsuits while saying tasteless or demeaning things. More to my taste was Smith’s treatment of topics like the history of life-saving, boating, and fishing in Ocean City. Smith places appropriate emphasis on the massive 1933 storm that opened an inlet connecting the Atlantic Ocean with Sinepuxent Bay – making possible the fishing industry of O.C. today, and facilitating the town’s emergence as the “White Marlin Capital of the World.”
The Delaware resorts north of Ocean City also get their share of attention. Going north from O.C., one stops in Fenwick Island, Bethany Beach, and Rehoboth Beach. Smith offers a helpful focus on Rehoboth’s status as a former Methodist campground – a place that offered a noticeably more sedate resort experience than O.C. – and on Rehoboth’s emergence as “The Nation’s Summer Capital,” a resort town that became particularly popular with vacationers from the Washington, D.C., area.
Rehoboth visitors have always enjoyed the town’s boardwalk. “First built in 1905, the boardwalk, complete with a sturdy handrail, stretched a full mile down the beach. In the evening, gas lamps lighted its entire length, encouraging couples and groups to enjoy an after-dinner stroll” (p. 76). A postcard, helpfully juxtaposed right next to this section of text, shows a much quieter boardwalk than the Rehoboth boardwalk of today; the Henlopen Hotel sits all by itself at the north end, with just a couple of cottages around it, while three people stroll casually along the boardwalk, enjoying the peaceful isolation. No Grotto Pizza, no Gus ‘n’ Gus fries with vinegar, no Playland amusement park with spinwheel paint stations. How times have changed.
Indeed, much has changed in the 20 years since this book was written. With the proliferation of social media technology, many people of today are much more likely to post to Facebook or Twitter or Instagram as a way of sharing their vacation experiences. One still sees postcard stands at boardwalk shops in Ocean City or Rehoboth or Bethany Beach; but these days, the stands often seem to go unvisited by tourists.
Yet Smith’s Down the Ocean, one of the many fine Chesapeake-regional works published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore, does well at placing the reader back in the time when postcards were an important way of connecting the vacationing beachgoer with his or her family back home. If these beach towns were part of your life in those earlier times, then you may enjoy opening up this book and, in imagination and memory, making your way “down the ocean” once again.
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