With the Summer of 2108 nearing a close, we return to our love for the ocean. It’s our favorite place in the world. As soon as we have the  time we go there. We feel a mysterious longing for the sea as some kind of secret to our own identity, as if our blood had salt water in it. Symbolically, I, the surfer, am—myself. The body with which I surf in the sea symbolizes the soul, with which I “surf” in God. The sea is God. The beach is the approach to God. Surfing is the experience of God, or the spiritual life.

“It’s perfectly logical to me that surfing is the spiritual aesthetic style of the liberated self.” — Dr. Timothy Leary

It has been that way.

Beginning when I was kid of six or so, my family would take us to the beach, whether Kill Devil Hills or Nags Head or Kitty Hawk, usually in mid to late August to, as my dad would say, recharge. Growing up in Great Bridge, back in the day, we were always only an hour and a half or so away from the Outer Banks. In High School, Friday evenings we would strap the boards to the roof and drive 168 south with a few bucks and maybe a blanket to sleep on…not that we slept much. It was a monastic journey, aided by illegal plants from the good, green earth. It was a work, to work towards our desire for the sea, and that desire had to be deep…a sensual practice, it constitutes its sacred center, and the corresponding experiences are constructed in a way that leads to a belief in nature as powerful, transformative, healing, and sacred. In a deeper sense, it is an understanding that everything is part of God even though God is more than everything added together.

The key was to live well below our means, stripped down, just the essentials. Over the years, we put together a loose list of things we jokingly called ‘Surfer Rules’. Hardly rules at all, but more like a set of things to think about, ideas to live by. We’ve added some, taken some away, but every once in a while, usually after coming back from recharging, we like to revisit them, for old time’s sake if nothing else….

1. Always take the beach road. Even when there is a modern highway right next door, where you can drive 55 or 60, pull off onto the beach road, turn off the AC, and roll down the windows. Take the beach road.
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While researching for another article, I came across a term I had never heard before–Generation Jones. If you were born between 1955 and 1965, you were more likely to have grown up watching The Brady Bunch rather than Leave It to Beaver. If you remember President Kennedy’s funeral at all, you mostly remember your parents’ reaction to the loss, rather than feeling a loss yourself. You were too young to protest the Vietnam War. You are part of what is being called Generation Jones.

It’s the club for misfits–those who are neither hippy Baby Boomer nor techie Generation X.

The term itself comes from the word Jonesing, to have a strong need, desire, or craving for something. Really, it was about needing drugs or alcohol. The term originated with heroin users–they used it to describe their withdrawal symptoms.

Jonathan Pontell, who coined the term for this 53 million-member-strong generational segment, describes this generation as stuck “between Woodstock and Lollapalooza.” They didn’t buy into or were too young to understand the Baby Boomer tantrums, yet they were a tad too old to join the Gen-Xers in the mosh pits.

Note: Pontell is way off here.  Real Jonesers invented the mosh pit and were active in the Grunge wave created by Nirvana, Sound Garden, The Melvins and Alice in Chains. We still go to see Nine Inch Nails during the work week.

Pontell describes their heritage:

So who are we? We are practical idealists, forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part. The name “Generation Jones” derives from a number of sources, including our historical anonymity, the ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ competition of our populous birth years, and sensibilities coupling the mainstream with ironic cool. But above all, the name borrows from the slang term ‘jonesin” that we as teens popularized to broadly convey any intense craving.”

Any generation is defined by shared experiences of historical events and cultural influences during the developmental and formative years, and that generations generally span 10 to 12 years. The classification of Baby Boomers as a “generation” based solely on annual birth rates, from 1946 to 1964, was actually a misclassification. The emergence of so-called “late Boomers” as a subgroup of Baby Boomers was a start in correcting the error, and then Pontell’s research further revealed that the second half of the Boomers were different enough from the first half to break away from the classification altogether.

According to Pontell, Boomers and Jonesers share some traits, such as idealism, but they behave differently. Members of Gen Jones tend to be more practical and rational in their approach to change. Their childhood years were inspired by the positive social change brought on by the Baby Boomers, but then sobering events of the 1970s—including Vietnam death tolls on the evening news, Watergate, the oil embargo, rising inflation, and unemployment—forced them to be pragmatic as they entered adulthood.

By the time they became young adults, the Vietnam war had ended and Watergate had started. Unlike their older siblings, they had to look for work during times of high unemployment and rising inflation. The idealist folk music they grew up listening to had been replaced by thumping disco music encouraging escapism from the real world into the world of partying all the time. The film Saturday Night Fever captures this lost, metallic taste in the mouths of kids growing up in the 70s. The television shows they watched as kids did not reflect the Ozzie and Harriet family structure. Instead, The Brady Bunch showed the rising blended family structure. Julia showed how a professional, black, single mother can raise a well-adjusted child.

Of course, this is a gross over-characterization. In many ways, so many Gen Jonesers have more in common with Boomers. Real Generation Jones is an even a smaller, niche sub-category.

Punk and Hip Hop

While Disco is part of the narrative, real Jonesers, such as the full-scale rejection soaked into the film Repo Man, were the first to reject mainstream rock. They hate the Beatles, (as well as Disco), and took this hate and anger to the streets with punk bands like The Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Misfits, and The Dead Boys.

Stiv Bators and The Dead Boys perform at Club CBGB, 1977 (unknown photo)

Punk is obvious, but what is less talked about is the birth of Rap and Hip Hop in the 1970’s. Generation Jones is the first to accept Joseph Saddler, or Grandmaster Flash, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, scratching and mixing. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first hip-hop act to be honored. In the mid-1970s, he formed Grandmaster Flash & the 3 MCs with Cowboy, Melle Mel, and The Kidd Creole. Cowboy created the term hip-hop while teasing a friend who had just joined the U.S. Army, by scat singing the words “hip/hop/hip/hop” in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of soldiers marching. Cowboy later worked the “hip hop” cadence into a part of his stage performance. (source Wikipedia).

Ed Bluestone came into the office and he said, “You are going to get a dog and you are going to put a pistol to his head and you are going to say: If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog.” I said, “Ed, that’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever heard. – Henry Beard

A Futile and Stupid Gesture – There’s no line we won’t cross

National Lampoon sums up Gen Jones–its sensibility and approach to comedy were so different from the previous generation’s. While they liked and appreciated Mad Magazine, it was the Lampoon that they really wanted–mainly because it had lots of tits.

Guys like Doug Kenney, P.J. O’Rourke, Michael O’Donoghue ignored the past, the boomers, and wrote for their generation. They wrote about sex and drugs, and they didn’t care if their parents didn’t get it. They especially didn’t care who they offended.

“You start out with Mad magazine, and you go right through the sort of black humor of Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley, Mort Sahl, Paul Krassner… If you put Lenny together with Mad magazine and run it through the brain of a college student, you get National Lampoon.” — P. J. O’Rourke. Or as O’Donoghue would say to anyone still listening, “Making people laugh is the lowest form of comedy.”

Like punk, Joneser comedy was a rejection of the older, “Dad” comedy. You know, the kind of jokes your witless uncle, the one that wears white socks to the beach would tell. Instead of Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis or even Johnny Carson, they listened to vinyl or 8-track recordings of Richard Pryor, George Carlin or Cheech and Chong (although, there was always a soft spot for Rodney Dangerfield).

Animal House, a raucous tale of a disenfranchised college fraternity that memorably features the late John Belushi imitating a zit, is practically a metaphor for Generation Jones. Dean Wormer, ROTC Niedermeyer, and preppy Greg Marmalard against the Jonesers at Delta House.

“Animal House is fucking funny, and white people are crazy,”- note sent by Richard Pryor to Director John Landis after he had seen a screening, and heard the studio wanted them to cut the roadside bar scene. “It was like a papal blessing,” Landis said.

The original cast of Saturday Night Live, with Bill Murray, speaks for itself.

On Doug Kenney’s suicide/death off a cliff in Hawaii, Harold Ramis, his screenwriting partner on Animal House commented, “Doug probably fell while he was looking for a place to jump.”

Satire and General Disdain…about Everything and for Everyone

Growing up knee deep in their father’s and older brother’s Vietnam blood, no real prospects and with the Sex Pistols lyric “No future for you!” ringing in their ears, real Gen Jonesers are full of satire and dripping with disdain for everything–political parties, voting, and people in general:

The Boss: You know, your satire is not going to get you anywhere in life.

Joneser: Oh, yeah? Well, last year I got a free trip to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the International Satire Competition.

The Boss: Really?

Jonser: No.

Although there is disagreement about exactly when Generation Jones begins and ends (Pontell says 1954 to 1965, while others argue it goes up to 1967), the point is that there was a generation between the Baby Boomers and Generation X that has been lost between the cracks. That’s kind of how they like it though. Cracks…that’s funny.

VDOT officials will be at the Cape Charles Civic Center, 500 Tazewell Avenue on July 24th from 4 to 6 pm to show plans for the intersection of Route 13 and 184 (Stone Road). Given the dangerous nature of this stretch of road which includes the crossover at the Food Lion parking lot, this is a valuable opportunity for citizens to see just what is planned, and to voice concerns to VDOT. The concern for many is that the proposed plans offer mild improvements, but they do not address the real safety problems that exist at this intersection.

“Right now, you know this, the town is moving in the right direction, and it’s happening right before our eyes. So, I’m not a big fan of the ships.” – Councilman Andy Buchholz, in a conversation with the Mirror.

The U.S. Coast Guard has proposed a pentagonal parcel of water deep enough for the cargo ships that wait to pick up their coal in port. It’s farther offshore than ships have been anchoring in the past few years – 3 nautical miles from where the town of Cape Charles runs into the beachfront, and 5 nautical miles from beaches at Kiptopeke and Butlers Bluff. The anchorage could hold as many as 30 ships.

In the last few years, the Cape Charles economy has become more and more dependent on tourism. Buchholz’s concern is that these large vessels could jeopardize the town’s livelihood. We are uniquely located on the Eastern Shore and are blessed with one of the very best sunsets in the world. In fact, our sunsets are what we are becoming known for. Now, as you gaze west, the horizon is dotted with collier vessels, either quarantined or waiting to enter port to gather coal. Not something you would put on a postcard.

Proposed anchorages off Cape Charles. Click to view larger image (USCG image)

Understandably, complaining about your view is a first world problem, however, the contamination of our waters is a real concern. Our local economy is highly dependent on having a clean, healthy beach. This season, we have had several closing due to waterborne disease. We understand that the closing is more related to heavy rains and runoff, yet anecdotal evidence and opinions are that the water does not seem as clean. Testing for disease is a way to be sure no one gets sick from swimming in the water, but what about the general quality–is it clear, is it free of debris and unknown flotsam and jetsam?

While these vessels are anchored offshore, how can we be sure they are not releasing contaminants into the water?

Ballast water discharges by large ships can have a negative impact on the marine environment.

Bulk cargo carriers use a huge amount of ballast water, which is often taken on in the coastal waters in one region after ships discharge wastewater or unload cargo, and discharged at the next port of call, wherever more cargo is loaded. Ballast water discharge typically contains a variety of biological materials, including plants, animals, viruses, and bacteria. These materials often include non-native, nuisance, invasive, exotic species that can cause extensive ecological and economic damage to aquatic ecosystems along with serious human health problems.

Pollution from large ships is also generated by diesel engines that burn high sulfur content fuel oil, also known as bunker oil, producing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate, in addition to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. Diesel exhaust has been classified by EPA as a likely human carcinogen. EPA recognizes that these emissions from marine diesel engines contribute to ozone and carbon monoxide nonattainment (i.e., failure to meet air quality standards), as well as adverse health effects associated with ambient concentrations of particulate matter and visibility, haze, acid deposition, and eutrophication and nitrification of water. EPA estimates that large marine diesel engines accounted for about 1.6 percent of mobile source nitrogen oxide emissions and 2.8 percent of mobile source particulate emissions in the United States in 2000 (source Wikipedia).

In 2016 the IMO has made new sulfur regulations which must be implemented by larger ships by 2020.

Many of these vessels are being quarantined until they are cleared to enter a US Port.

In recent years, the quarantine and isolation regulations have made it easier for the CDC to require a ship clearing or departing a foreign port bound for the United States to obtain a bill of health from the US consular officer for that port setting forth the sanitary history of the vessel.  The CDC can also suspend, in whole or in part, entries and imports from designated foreign countries or places.  This would be done when the CDC Director determines that the risk of introduction of a disease into the United States is increased by the introduction of persons or property from such foreign countries or places.  Operators of ships on international voyages are required to report deaths or illnesses prior to arrival.  Operators are required to report not just persons on board with a designated communicable disease, but persons defined as ill, meaning a person who: (1) has a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater accompanied by one or more of the following: rash, swelling of lymph nodes or glands, headache with neck stiffness or changes in level of consciousness or cognitive function; (2) has a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater that has persisted for at least 48 hours; (3) has more than common diarrhea; (4) has severe bleeding, jaundice or severe persistent cough accompanied by bloody sputum, respiratory distress or a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or greater; or (5) displays other symptoms or factors that are suggestive of communicable disease.

Ships arriving in a US port with a serious disease on board are required to provide advance notification.  The ship may be required to undertake certain sanitary measures and to exercise various controls over all persons on board to prevent them from serving as disease vectors potentially infecting the local populace.  The closest we have come recently to a general quarantine affecting the maritime industry was during the 2002 SARS epidemic, which heavily impacted southeast Asia.  A future pandemic, whether the result of avian flu or otherwise, may see widespread implementation of quarantine measures and fly of the quarantine flag.

In the past few years, the number of whales stranded in or around the mouth of the bay due to impact with large vessels has been on the rise. Marine mammals, such as whales risk being struck by ships, causing injury and death. For example, if a ship is traveling at a speed of only 15 knots, there is a 79 percent chance of a collision being lethal to a whale.

One notable example of the impact of ship collisions is the endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which 400 or less remain. The greatest danger to the North Atlantic right whale is an injury sustained from ship strikes. Between 1970 and 1999, 35.5 percent of recorded deaths were attributed to collisions. During 1999 to 2003, incidents of mortality and serious injury attributed to ship strikes averaged one per year. In 2004 to 2006, that number increased to 2.6. Deaths from collisions have become an extinction threat. The United States’ National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) introduced vessel speed restrictions to reduce ship collisions with North Atlantic right whales in 2008.

Large vessels dot the horizon of Cape Charles beach (Mirror Photo)

The anchorage proposed by Coast Guard, even as they move it further away, still poses a threat to our health and well-being.

On Tuesday, July 10 the Coast Guard will hold two public meetings on the status of proposed anchorages off the coast of Cape Charles. The first session runs from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, with the second session beginning at 6:00 pm. Both sessions will be in the Cape Charles Civic Center, located at 500 Tazewell Avenue. In the spring of 2016 a similar proposal was presented for public review and comment. The Coast Guard hosted a public meeting at the Civic Center that August. Numerous comments were received during that process. From those comments, the Coast Guard reviewed and revised the original proposal and developed a new one, which is now under public review and comment. There are many important matters to consider as part of this anchorage proposal review. The Coast Guard has prepared a summary document webpage and includes a link to leave a public comment. Public comments and any related material must be submitted by July 17. Please become familiar with the issues and participate in the public review and comment process.

If you cannot make the meetings, please Comment Here Now. Public comments and any related material must be submitted by July 17. It is important that the USCG receives public input on this matter. 

On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress receives and votes on the draft Declaration of Independence, produced over the last 17 days by the “Committee of Five” who were tasked to explain clearly and completely the rationale for the thirteen English colonies’ formal and irrevocable break with the mother country. The committee consisted of John Adams (MA), Benjamin Franklin (PA), Thomas Jefferson (VA), Robert Livingston (NY), and Roger Sherman(CT). Jefferson, as we all know, provided the bulk of the draft, including the stirring preamble and the intellectual underpinnings describing a free people creating a self-governing society. The vote on this day was 12 in favor and one abstention (NY- the government of which was nominally opposed to independence, but allowed for its delegation to abstain pending lack of instructions from Albany). The political maneuvering and deal-making had been going on since early June when Virginian Richard Henry “Light Horse” Lee submitted the first- very terse– resolution of independence, from which the Committee of Five based much of their work. The Congress spent the next two days modifying the text of the Declaration, including removing a significant section on the British imposition of slavery, which bothered Jefferson greatly. The final version was approved and sent to the printers on the 4th. John Adams believed that July 2nd would be a day celebrated throughout history as our national birthday; he was mistaken. Below is the text of the great document:

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Cape Charles Schedule of Events for the Fourth of July in Cape Charles

8 am – Vendors set-up on Bay Avenue
8:30 am to 12 noon – Trash to Treasures at 100 Block of Mason Avenue
9 am – 9:30 am – Parade Line-Up on Washington Avenue
10 am Parade – Bay Avenue to Mason Avenue –
Presentation of Colors -Cape Charles Coast Guard – National Anthem
10 am to 5 pm – Craft and Artisan Vendors on Bay Avenue
10 am to Dark – Food Vendors on Bay Avenue
10:30 am to 11:30 am – Registration for all activities on Bay Avenue by the Fishing Pier
11 am – Announcement of Parade Winners
11 am – Registration for Guppie Challenge
11:30 am to 1:30 pm – Music – RFC
12:30 pm to 2 pm – Guppie Challenge at the Fishing Pier
1 pm to 12 Noon – Beach Volley Ball Tournament, $25 per team
1 pm – Corn Hole Tournament, $20 per team
2 pm – Beautiful Baby Competition
2:15 pm – Guppie Challenge Awards
7 pm to 9 pm – Live Music: Grassafra
After Dark – Fireworks at the beach and the harbor. Rain date for fireworks is Wednesday, July 5.