DEVELOPING BONDS THAT UNITE GENERATIONS

Seeing a familiar favorite through the eyes of a child can restore the awestruck wonder that routine sometimes dampens, while also underscoring how a passed-down tradition can be a transformative experience for a parent.

- MADELEINE JOHNSON MACCAR

For Gina Holden, the Jersey Shore’s salty air and summertime sunshine plays a vital part in her family’s story. From her mother’s youth spent selling fudge in Wildwood to her own childhood summers in Ocean City to bringing her daughters to their maternal grandparents’ Brigantine home almost every weekend once the summer season begins in earnest, seaside gatherings have been a family tradition that generations have joyfully passed down like a cherished heirloom.

“It was my mother’s lifelong dream to one day have the Shore house, so it did all stem from her,” the longtime Evesham Township resident said. “I’ve been taking my girls to the beach literally since they were babies in the Pack ’n Play. I grew up going to the beach and renting a house in Ocean City for a week every summer. We all lived for that week — it was the best week of the year. After all of us kids graduated college, my mom got her own Shore house for the whole family, like she always wanted.”

From her childhood in Eastern Pennsylvania to her young-adult years spent in Philadelphia to starting her own family in the South Jersey region her husband has always called home, her grandmother’s and parents’ Ocean City Shore house has been a comforting constant and familiar getaway that Jacqui Kinney doesn’t hesitate to describe as “her happy place.”