Sea Isle is in Their DNA
Don and Mary Swanick bought a Sea Isle home in the mid-1960s.
The Swanicks began their decades-long affair with Sea Isle in the mid-1960s, when Don and Mary Swanick bought their first house at 125 47th St., and filled it with their seven children and a German shepherd. The house had two units, top and bottom, and they lived on the first floor. It had three bedrooms, one bathroom, and no dishwasher or clothes dryer.
“On our street, there were a million kids,” recalls John Swanick. “Right next door to us were the Jarkowskis, and on the other side were the Fitzgeralds. Because we had no clothes dryer, my mother used to hang out all her clothes to dry. Granny Fitzgerald would take them all down, fold them, and even mend any holes.
“Also on our street were the Gormans, Barretts, Mooneys, Kuttlers, Devers and Hillegasses,” he continues. “Our house was always left open, even in the winter – there was no key. There were too many kids coming and going, and we never locked the door.”
All the families are still friends today and see each other often in Sea Isle – and now their children are all friends.
As soon as school was over for the year in Upper Darby, Pa., Don and Mary gathered together their large brood – Don, Mike, John, Jimmy, Steve, Kathleen and Matt – and headed to Sea Isle.
“The first thing we did is run around town to every establishment until we got a job,” John says. “We were all very young, but we usually got a job in one day. And we made a lot of money as kids.”
Among the jobs that the Swanick children held was working for Jack Gibson’s beach chairs and umbrellas rental stand on the beach.
“We all worked for him,” John says. “We’d set everything up in the morning and put it all away once the lifeguards went home. We charged $1 and split it with Mr. Gibson, and we thought we were in heaven by making the 50 cents.”
Other jobs included working for current Mayor Leonard Desiderio’s father, Lenny, at his go-kart business next to the Acme, replacing tires and earning free rides.
“We’d ride around until Mr. Desiderio threw us off,” John says.
The Swanicks have a long relationship with working at Mary Anne’s Pastry Shoppe on 44th Street, across from the St. Joseph Church.
“Together, the Swanicks have more than 50 years of working at Mary Anne’s,” says John, adding that his sister Kathleen worked there for 10 years selling doughnuts and pastries. “Many of my family members, including my children, nephews and nieces, worked at Mary Anne’s.”
Adolph Kuttler and his son Herb were the proprietors of the bakery, which dates back to World War II, and John remembers that as an assistant baker, you had to be at work between 3 and 4am.
“Mr. Kuttler would call the house if I was late,” John says. “One time, I didn’t make it home after being out all night, and Mr. Kuttler called. My father answered the phone and filled in for me and said I had a case of the ‘Irish flu.’”
Other Sea Isle establishments where the Swanick kids worked include Diamonds Liquor, the Dolphin Bar, Springfield Inn, Creighton’s Trading Post, Kramer’s Pharmacy, Sunset Pier, the Water’s Edge Restaurant, The Pour House, and Ten Sisters Country Store. They also worked as lifeguards and hawked the Philadelphia Bulletin. They sold the Bulletin on the beach for 10 cents, John says, and made a fortune on tips.
“Those jobs taught us the value of hard work, how to hustle, and how to be nice to people,” he says. “That’s stayed with us today. We had to help pay for our college educations, and we turned some of our money over to my father, who taught us how to save. He instilled that work ethic in us.”
But it wasn’t all work and no play for the Swanicks. At times, there were even some shenanigans.
“Everybody in town knew my father because he was raising six boys who got into their share of trouble,” John says. “We were on a first-name basis with Pat La Rosa, who was the chief of police back then. Our German shepherd used to run around town with us, and the cops would lock him up in a cage under the police station steps. Then we’d go and let him out, and the cops never caught us.”
The Swanicks would play in the boys’ basketball league, whose sponsors included Vince’s Restaurant, Diamonds, Grahams, AZO Motel, La Costa, Busch’s, and the Dolphin Bar.
“One of our coaches was Vince Morrison, who is the judge in Sea Isle today,” says John.
Other memories include going to the Braca Theatre, and the Donut Bar on the boardwalk.
“At the Braca Theatre, one person would buy a ticket, then open the side door for the rest of us to sneak in,” John says. “We’d scramble to get a seat and the ushers would eventually find us and kick us out.”
The endless families and friends are what John Swanick fondly remembers about his childhood summers spent in Sea Isle City, as well as his feelings about days spent in the present-day Jersey Shore town.
As the Swanicks grew up, married and had children of their own, they never lost touch with their connection to Sea Isle. John and his wife Mary’s three children – John, Betsy and Pat – all followed in his footsteps by using the summer months as a time to work and also have fun.
While the summer jobs impressed upon the Swanick kids the importance of work ethic and loyalty leading to success, however measured, summer vacations were a time to play, create memories and put down roots. All of Don and Mary’s 24 grandchildren (Christine, Courtney, Michael, Kelly, Brian, John, Betsy, Pat, Brigid, Meg, Jim, Kevin, Dan, Kara, Steve, Kylie, Julie, Joe, Kevin, Kelsey, Sean, Maura, Matt and Liam) enjoy Sea Isle. It is the prime spot for vacations, reunions, “senior summers” and good times.
“It’s one big life cycle in Sea Isle City,” John Swanick says. “Childhood friends have become lifelong friends. My parents enjoyed spending summers in Sea Isle, and now it’s part of us and our kids.”
