Photography By Kirsten beckerman
Trevor and Elysha Carouge, lifeguards, Ocean City Beach Patrol
Trevor: “The summer of 2005 was my first year. My brother, Mason, who’s also on the OCBP, and my sister, Elysha, talked me into doing it.”
Elysha: “Last year was my second year. Mason and I were the first to try out for the Beach Patrol because my father was a member, and we always aspired to it. We were by no means the only brother and sister pair on the patrol.”
Trevor: “Try-outs were challenging, but my entire family consists of competitive swimmers. My sister and I both swam on the national level as kids. After rookie week, I lost a few pounds, that’s for sure. It’s definitely not for the weak at heart.”
Elysha: “I find that a lot of men don’t respect your authority when you’re a girl. They say things like, ‘How’s a little girl like you going to pull a guy like me out of the water?’ I think to myself, You’ll see how if you don’t swim where I say. Women have a little more respect for you because they’re more concerned about the things that you are, like their children’s safety.”
Trevor: “Last summer, I went in the water ninety-eight times and saved three people. Some guards only went in three times.”
Elysha: “I had about thirty-five rescues. It’s very hard to get someone in when they’re thrashing around and tiring themselves out. One of the hardest rescues was a police officer who was caught in a rip current about 200 yards out, which is considerably farther than most swimmers would go. From water entry to exit, the rescue felt like it took forever, but it was probably more like twelve minutes. By the time the other guard and I got to him, he was very calm and willing to help out as much as he could. I’ve done CPR, but never while working on the beach patrol.”
Trevor: “It’s a very high-anxiety job. A lot of guards party late, but if I didn’t get eight hours of sleep every night, I couldn’t perform well the next day. You have to be scanning constantly; you’re responsible for as many as a thousand people at any given time. I sat on the edge of my seat the entire summer. It was only the last two weeks of the job that I felt comfortable enough for my back to touch the back of the bench.”
Elysha: “Trevor and I requested to be on stands near each other, so most days we were side by side. We definitely watched out for each other. I knew that I could trust him implicitly, that his water was safe as long as he was watching it. It was a comfort to know he was right there.”
Trevor: “It’s a competition to get assigned your favorite stretch of beach. I like it along the end of the boardwalk, because that’s where I grew up surfing. It’s also key to be in a stand near a bathroom and a place to grab lunch. But it depends on what kind of action you want. The area near the Inlet attracts a lot of people who can’t swim, so you end up in the water a lot. Up north, there are a lot of neck and back injuries because there’s no sandbar there, and the waves crash right on the beach.”
Elysha: “The silliest question I get asked is, ‘Are there sharks out there?’ And then I ask them, ‘Well, where do sharks live?’ And they say, ‘The ocean.’ Then I say, ‘Well, all right then.’”
Trevor: “The stupidest question someone’s ever asked me is, ‘Is this the Atlantic Ocean or the Bay?’”
Elysha: “I conveniently ignore the boys who come up to talk to me. It’s very frequent to get comments by passersby, but they’re harmless comments. It’s much more common to see the male get more because a lot more girls walk the beach than guys.”
Trevor: “Girls come up to the male lifeguards all the time. It’s very unfortunate because they want to flirt, but you have to watch the water, and they think you’re being mean. My first day on the job, I got three different girls’ numbers. The crew chief I was with didn’t get any. It’s a competition among the guards.”
Elysha: “There are so few times in life when something feels great and it’s also the right thing to do. It’s so gratifying: You can definitely make a difference and stay in great shape. You get a lot of respect.” — K.B.
Tony Dale Davis, Sr., beach cleaner
“I’ve been a beach cleaner for twenty-six years. I get here about 4 or 5 a.m., based on how much trash is on the beach, and work until 10 a.m. I drive the machine that dumps the trash barrels on the beach, a sanitizer, and the rakes that smooth the beach. I’ll drive the whole beach, which is about ten-and-a-half-miles long. Up and back.
I have air conditioning inside the cab and an air bag seat, tilt steering, and a radio. I have my cell phone with me, but we don’t talk on it when we’re working. The job comes first.
The tractor holds about fifty gallons of fuel. I don’t get any mileage on this. It goes about twenty miles an hour on the beach, thirty on the road.
I’ve seen a little bit of everything out here: seals, sea turtles, dolphins. And sharks—I see them, but I don’t really want to see them.
No one has ever gotten run over since I’ve been here. In certain areas where people are sunbathing, we don’t go around them.
They’re on vacation, so we keep our distance. Actually, people keep the beach very clean. If you keep your house clean, it seems that you’d want to keep the beach clean, too. That’s the way I look at it. My wife is a neatnic and so am I.” — K.B.
Joe Moskowitz, marshal, Frontier Town
“I’ve been working here for thirteen years. When I first started off, I worked the pony rides—walked around in a circle all day. I went from that to the boats. Then I robbed the stage coach. Then I robbed the train. And then I became an outlaw. I’m mostly the marshal now.
I get one day a week to goof off—work as a deputy or an outlaw. The best part is playing the outlaw. We try to rob a bank twice a day and rob trains all day long. We have gunfights or I try to break my friends out of jail. You get to goof around and make kids laugh. You have to be serious playing the marshal.
Most of the time when I’m the outlaw, the kids will get cap guns and try to shoot me all day long. ‘Get ’em! Shoot ’em!,’ they’ll scream. A lot of time they try to shoot me in the heiney. I tell them, ‘You’re gonna blow my brains out!’
In the can-can show, I get to be drunk and chase all the women around. Then we have the ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral,’ and I get to be a bad guy in that. Every year we have a quick-draw tournament. I got second last year.
Kids ask if the guns are real. Their parents tell them they’re not just to make them feel better, but they are real. We shoot blanks.
We get hurt all time. Jumping, tripping. I’ll come home with bruised elbows and skinned knees. Sometimes during the quick draw, you’ll shoot yourself in the leg. If you go to draw and you pull the trigger when the gun’s still in the holster—it’s just black powder—but it shoots out the holster. You get a black mark on your pants. It’s a little scary.
We’ve had guys shoot themselves in the leg and their pants will catch on fire. They’re sitting there dead on the ground—they’re not supposed to move—but their pants are on fire. They’re like, ‘Um, should I move?’
It’s tons of fun. I was going to school, but now I graduated. I got a computer science degree. I have to find a real job now. Hope-fully, I can find one with summers off.”— J.S.
Russell S. Maykrantz, boardwalk information booth attendant
“I’m a people person. I enjoy giving people information. We have an obligation to people here to give them the best possible service that we can. To tell them the best possible places to go; we want them to have the most enjoyable time because without them, there is no us.
I’ve been working here about three years, just the summers. I hear everything: ‘Where’s the restroom? ‘Tell me about a ride.’ ‘Can you recommend a restaurant?’ ‘Where’s Dip ’n’ Dots?’ ‘Where’s Thrasher’s?’ ‘Where’s Fishers Popcorn?’ You pretty well have to know the lay of the land here.
I had a woman ask me about the water one time. She said, ‘I think I know what ocean that is out there.’ I said, ‘It’s the Mediterranean Sea.’ She said, ‘Oh, I thought it was.’ I said, ‘Actually, ma’am, it’s the Atlantic Ocean.’
Some people see me about medical issues. If they’ve got a cut, we have Band-Aids here for them. If they need emergency services, we can get a paramedic here in a minute. We did have a lady come up to the window who said she had chest pains. I told her to come on in and sit down, I turned the air conditioner up and called emergency services and they were here in a couple of minutes. Took her to the hospital.
Some of the things you see out here—the dress attire, the hairdos… Everybody’s doing their own thing. Folks seem to have a good time. We get a large percentage of people here from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and they have to bypass a lot of shores to get here. So this is a tribute to the town of Ocean City. I think we have the cleanest beach of anyplace I’ve ever been. More than 300,000 people walking up and down the boardwalk on a busy weekend.
I usually work 2:30 to 10:30. I have my little refrigerator here for lunch. If it’s a good day, everybody’s on the beach, so you have fewer people asking questions. But I get a lot of questions in the evening: How do the trains work? Where can I park?
You gotta love Ocean City to work here. If you don’t love Ocean City, you might as well go somewhere else.”— J.S.
Atilla Smith, pizza cook, Tony’s Pizza
“I’ve been working here for five years. During the summer, I work every day for seven, eight hours a day.
There are fourteen other pizza makers here. About eight of us work at once. I make one hundred pizzas a day. I learned how to do it here—it took me about two months to learn. It’s not very hard.
I dropped it a couple of times while I was learning. I’m from Slovakia. I only live here during the summer, and then I go back home, where I am studying economics. One of my friends worked here about ten years ago, and I heard about it that way. When I called the pizza shop, they told me to show up, and they gave me a job. There aren’t any pizza places at home. Sometimes I think about starting one.
Basically, I work with Europeans here. Two years ago we counted, and there were people from thirty to thirty-five different nations working here. Basically, it’s all Russians now.
The people who eat here are friendly. They like to make contact, and they like to know everything about you. The craziest thing I’ve ever seen on the boardwalk is when the girls walk by and flash, trying to get a free piece of pizza.
When the summer ends, I will miss this place—maybe not America—but just this place.” —K.B.
James O’Neal, roller coaster operator, Trimpers Amusements
“I was fourteen years old when I first rode this roller coaster. I was scared and rode with my eyes closed. I had to ride it maybe eight or ten times before I actually opened my eyes.
I’ve been running it now for twelve years, since I was twenty years old. I work Thursday through Tuesday, open to close, twelve o’clock to midnight. What’s made me stick with this so long is that I meet new people and it’s fun. This is the best ride at the beach.
It took me about a week to learn how to run the ride. The hardest part is the braking. When the ride is coming into the station, you’re the one who is controlling the brake; you have to slow it down.
In the winter, I tear the ride apart and fix it up and get it ready for the next season. We take the cars apart, take all the wheels off, redo the brakes, and different inspectors come out once a year and inspect the rides. But we inspect it every morning. It takes about an hour. We check for broken bolts and cracks and make sure the wheels are OK. Things do go wrong, but nobody ever gets hurt. It’s a very safe ride. I’ve ridden it more than 2,000 times. It’s starting to get old.
Sometimes people get sick, but it doesn’t happen very often—three people this year. It all depends on what you eat before you ride. It’s best not to eat before you ride. I usually get the other guys to clean it up.
Not all of the people are polite. When you have small kids, the parents get a little obnoxious, and they want their kids to ride. We’ve had to kick people off the ride for foul language to other employees, spitting on people, and jumping off before the ride comes to a complete stop.
The best part is that I get to see every sunset—I’ve got the best seat in the house. I have thought about getting jobs at some of the bigger parks, but this is home.”— K.B.
Elena Suciu, housekeeper, the Edge and The Lighthouse hotels
“I am from Romania. I’ve been working here almost two months. A friend of mine I met here told me about it. ... I was desperate to find a good job. I had a bad job at a restaurant. It was very slow.
I have two more jobs as well. I work at a pizza shop and at a laundry. I only have a half-day off per week.
A lot of students do that. I came here to work. So I work. I can make a lot more money here than in Romania. My mother earns per month $130. Here I earn almost $1,000. I start at 9 in the morning. I clean the rooms. I finish about 4 o’clock. Depends how dirty the rooms are. After that I go to my other job.
I’ve never found any strange things left behind. Americans aren’t too messy. People come to a hotel to relax, they should not be cleaning like in your home. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I have this job.
I like Ocean City. The people are so smiley. Every time I go on the bus, they are so happy and talk. You forget about your own tiredness.
I want to stay here when the summer ends. I want to apply for colleges. After that I want to go home. I want to be a doctor after college. I want to find a job to try to make my life nice.”— J.S.
