‘Rider College Memories’ on ‘Radio Once More’

On September 9th on our “Woo-Hoo Wednesday” show on ‘Radio Once More’, Helen and I were discussing “Back to School” related stories. During the show I told the story about my years at Rider College during the 1980’s and some of the great guys I lived with in the Conover “A” dormitory at Rider. Included in the story, I discussed my Thursday night ritual of performing the ‘Curly Shuffle’ and of course, the famous ‘Pat’s Cheesesteak Story’.

Every Thursday Night, “Holmsey” would dance to the “Curly Shuffle” at the Rider College Pub. Here is a photo of the 45 Record of that classic song.

       Tasty Pat’s Cheesesteaks

Below is the complete story as told on ‘Radio Once More’ about some of the best guys I had the honor and privilege to live with, and some of our crazy, college antics at ‘Rider College’, back in the 1980’s.

Holmsey…aka “The Big Man”, back during our Rider College days. This photo was in our yearbook!!!!!……..Yikes!!!!!!

Holmsey and the Conover “A” Rider College gang at a 20 year reunion in 2007.

“Weekend in Wildwood”

Recently, Helen and I celebrated Helen being 11 years cancer free!!!!! Woo-Hoo!!! This year we decided to make a weekend celebration of this joyous event and head down to Wildwood, New Jersey. While there, we walked up and down the boardwalk, played some boardwalk games, did a bit of shopping, and we rode the famous “Tram Car”……….numerous times.

We really enjoy these activities on the boardwalk, but what I enjoy the most is………….’Boardwalk Food’.   Helen and I did a little research ahead of time about some of best Boardwalk Pizza, and the three that we determined were the big three on the Wildwood Boardwalk were Sam’s, Joe’s, and Mack’s. We arrived in Wildwood on a Friday afternoon, and checked into the Nantucket Inn. After throwing on my shorts and sneakers, we crossed the street, and walked up the ramp right onto the Wildwood Boardwalk. A stroke of luck found us at Mack’s!!!! Helen and I entered and grabbed a seat and enjoyed our first slice of Pizza of the weekend. While enjoying our slice, Helen and I decided that Saturday would be our Pizza sampling day of the three Pizza titans.

On Saturday afternoon, we began our Pizza sampling mission. By the way, a few different folks told us that the other Mack’s, toward the North end of the boardwalk was the superior one. In fairness, Helen and I decided to include the other Mack’s pizza as we rate the three pizza places. Our first slice came from Joe’s Pizza, which claimed to be the biggest slice on the boardwalk. And they were not exaggerating!!!! This slice was enormous!!! It reminded us of the famous Maruca’s on the Seaside Boardwalk. Boy, I loved every bite of it, and I wanted a second giant slice, but I knew we had 2 more stops.

Holmsey with a slice from Joe’s Pizzeria

Our second slice came from Sam’s Pizza Palace. I noticed the night before, there was a long line for dinner outside waiting to get in, a good sign for any restaurant. This Pizza place was the nicest inside, loaded with movie posters and nostalgic decor. Once we received our slices, we were not disappointed. These were regular sized slices and very delicious. However, I still was leaning towards Joe’s as the better tasting slice.

Holmsey displaying his slice from Sam’s Pizza Palace

And our third pizza slice came from the northern Mack’s. They were pretty packed inside, but we did manage to grab a seat. After the slices came, I was very pleased at the generous amount of cheese used on the pizza. Helen and I loved our slices, and they were clearly better than the Mack’s slices we had at the other location Friday afternoon.

Holmsey with a slice from Mack’s Pizza

Now came the tough part, rating the three different slices when clearly they were all delicious!!! After a bit of mozzarella meditation, I gave the very slight edge of (#1) to Joe’s, and closely followed by (#2) Mack’s, and finally (#3) to Sam’s.

Of course, this wasn’t a very scientific process, but I did order a plain slice from each location so I would be comparing the same type of slice. And as I said, they were all wonderful, and you can’t go wrong with any of these locations. And who knows, on any given day, another place could be better on another day. Nonetheless, this is how I called it on that enjoyable, celebratory, Saturday. By the way, Helen also agreed with my rankings.

We also did a similar test on two soft serve ice cream places on the boardwalk. Perhaps we’ll get into that a bit in another blog entry. In the meantime, I think I need to grab a slice of pizza…..all this pizza talk has made me hungry!!!!!