Ocean Grove Record

Inside the Ocean Grove Youth Temple Saturday, April 9th.

OCEAN GROVE NEWS

Ephemera (!) in the Grove

by Paul Goldfinger
Special to the Record

The 3rd Annual Spring Invitational Antique Postcard, Book and Paper Show, sponsored by the Historical Society of Ocean Grove, was held this past Saturday at the Youth Temple. Jim Lindemuth, director, gazed proudly at the 25 dealers who had set up their tables and who were greeting the nearly 200 collectors from near and far. Jim supplied us with the correct title for the event, because he wanted to be sure that everyone was aware that this was no ordinary old postcard show.

He pointed out that here was the place to find “ephemera”. The dictionary says that ephemera are things that last a very short time, such as pleasures. Of course Ocean Grove has not been known for short-lived pleasures, so Jim made sure that we knew that today’s ephemera were paper items that were originally to be discarded but were saved and had become collectible, such as calendars, tickets and posters.

One could find all sorts of antique items at the show including greeting cards, photographs, books, maps, signs, lithographs, and, of course, thousands of postcards. There was excitement in the air, with everyone looking for that great find. This was the Ocean Grove equivalent of a rock concert.

Kevin Chambers, the President of the Historical Society, was offering expert opinions and observations to anyone who was interested. When we caught up with him he was shmoozing with Ms. Tina Ventimiglia from the “Country by the Sea” Antique emporium in Avon (above). He told us that he also likes to browse in his unending search for Ocean Grove artifacts to put into the Society’s Museum.

We met the tag team dealers Autumn Kent-Hower and her mom Laura Kent-Hower who were representing the Plum Cottage in Red Bank. They posed for us in front of their “Gone With the Wind” poster and discussed their big collection of gum machine charms. Evidently, years ago, one could get a charm along with a piece of gum and then save the charms to make a charm bracelet. In an exclusive interview, we asked Autumn, age 17, if she would have two hyphens in her last name when she got married. No, she said, she would keep the one hyphen that her mom gave her and let her future husband keep his own name. Obviously, this youthful antique dealer has one foot in the past and one in the future.

Lorraine Lukowski of Sayreville (above) was set up on the stage with her vast collection of sheet music. We got her picture holding the Chordettes version of “Mr. Sandman” You may recall that song about a 1950’s girl wishing for her dream guy and about endless cascading chords. Jim Lindemuth (below) brought his collection of presidential campaign buttons including one for Wendell Willkie who, in 1940, ran unsuccessfully against FDR and whose running mate was a guy named McNary (of whom there is nary a memory, except on Jim’s table).

We also met Susan and Steve Marill who came from Hawthorne and who spend their weekends looking for postcards of Glen Rock andCliffside Park, as well as aerial photos of open shopping malls before they became covered (go figure!). Bob Speck, a dealer from (?where else) Deal, described himself as a “reformed stamp collector”. He said that the first postcards were approved for use in this country through an act of Congress in 1898. So if anyone bought an earlier US postcard today, go see Jim.

It was a wonderful sunny but chilly day in “the Grove”, but the first serious Spring Saturday crowd was in town, and one could even hop a shuttle bus and go over to the Film Festival in Asbury. And if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, you could shop or eat. Or you could log onto your computer and go to www.ephemerasociety.org for a big thrill.

-Posted 4/12/05