Like the Jersey Shore itself, Beach Badge is salty, spirited, diverse. It knows a good time when it sees one, but doesn’t punch down, never forgets where it came from. Our biggest issue yet buzzes with the salt-in-the-wires hum of East Coast boardwalk cool. Keeps its head above water amidst gentrifying lagoon life. Takes up marked-down baked goods against buffoonish authority. Finds home conspicuously absent from homecoming. A soft-drink lamentation of past, present, and future, this uncalled-for celebration of people and place captures the essence of a culture subject to time and tide.

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Table of Contents

Introduction | William Patrick Tandy
Here’s the Story: Upon Reflection | Steve Rogers
Wanting What’s at Pineview Chevy | Kathy Curto
The Caking | Tim Budder
REVIEW: The Fantastic Castle of Vineland
A Glossary of New Jersey Places | Taylor Catalana
Atlantic City Cool | Louis Greenstein
Lagoon Life | Joseph O’Sullivan
What’s in a Name? | Highlands and Atlantic Highlands | Michelle Moon
PHOTO ESSAY: Bud’s Grave | Jenn Mehm
Bridge Blocks View | Vera Vaughan Hough
Kite | Michelle Rynkewicz
Oh, Those Wildwood Days… | Jeff Cornell
Atlantic City Memory | Bill Amadeo
The Suicide Show | B. Kelly
Stop Running, the Shoo Fits | Nick Foster
PHOTO ESSAY: Trash Birds | Michael McCarthy
Rooms | Jason Weiss
Coming Home | Mona Rae
A Long Beach Island of the Mind | William Patrick Tandy
REVIEW: Eddie and the Cruisers
Wynton Marsalis at Corson’s Inlet | Ron Gaskill
About the Contributors