Manchester, NJ

SUMMER JOB AT SEASIDE BOARDWALK MEANS SUN AND FUN By Keith Hagarty --Photos By Keith Hagarty (above) With an eye on the prize, friends Deanna Batelli, 18, and Michelle Morehouse, 16, of Toms River, take aim as game operator Ashley Merk, 17, looks on at Stu's Squirt Guns in Seaside Heights. (right) With an ever-present bright smile and upbeat attitude despite the scorching heat, Katie Baxter, 16, works at the Playboy Stands spin wheel game, ready to find new homes for hundreds of fuzzy Webkinz. Summer jobs are a rite of passage for American teens, brief flashes of employment that are inevitably filled with memories that last a lifetime. Memories that can help build a future. Few places offer as many unique summer jobs as the Jersey Shore. In this, the third of a four-part series, we'll look at what it's like to be a game vendor on the Seaside Heights boardwalk. As a surfer and avid beach and boating lover, 16-year-old Katie Baxter jumped at the chance to work somewhere where she could smell the sea salt air. Working the spin wheel with furry, cute "Webkinz" piled high, waiting for some lucky winners, Baxter said she's having a great time in her first summer as a game vendor at Seaside Heights. "I thought it would be a lot of fun," she said. "I like sharing game stands like this, because I see people working over here so we can kind of talk and stuff, but there's other stands where you're just by yourself the whole time. That's not always as fun." One of the more isolated game stands was the ping pong game, where even though she felt a little lonely all on her own, Baxter got a kick out of watching overly confident players try to win the challenging game. "It was funny because everyone who walked by would be like, 'oh, it's just like beer pong,'" she joked, "and then they'd lose." Being a student at Toms River High School East, getting to see other high school and college kids from all across the region and even the world, not just her hometown, is one of the best parts of Baxter's job. "I really like getting to talk with all the different kinds of people you meet here," she said. "It's relaxing too. You don't have to work too hard. You really just stand here and take people's money, and you get to watch people play games. I like that." Immersed in a candy land game of chance, Nick Ernst, 15, of Seaside Park watches as Victoria Finnegan, of Caldwell, tries her luck on the Seaside Heights boardwalk. When asked about her favorite type of customers, Baxter beamed with a huge smile. "I really like the little kids because they get so excited when they win," she said. However, being a young teenage girl always has its occasional drawback in any field. "Some of the guys can be a little annoying," she said. "Especially the guys who think they're so cool when they walk over. I don't like that." Aside from wishing her breaks were a little longer, Baxter enjoys some of the traditional boardwalk snacks as she grabs a bite to eat and strolls the shore. "I love pizza and French fries," she said. "Actually, I think that's the only thing I eat on the boardwalk." Good People Skills A Must As manager of 12 game booths on the boardwalk for the past few years, 22-year-old Sean Cohen has a good eye for what kind of employees excel. "You've got to have a lot of personality to work up here," said Cohen, of Toms River. "You've got to be talkative, you can't be shy and you have to be able to have a conversation with anyone." However, even for the more timid personalities, sometimes just a little more time on the job is usually all that's needed to see their outgoing, personable nature come out, according to Cohen. "Usually, you can tell right away," he said. "Some people who've been working here a couple of years, maybe in their first year, they're a little shy, but then a couple years in, they want to come back every year, and they're all into it." Working for co-owners James Brown and Paul Schneider, of Seaside Amusement and Playboy Stands, Cohen spends much of his day overseeing his 30 employees working the games, all the while trying to catch his breath as he runs from booth to booth, all along the length of the boardwalk. "During the day, I basically watch over everyone, make sure no one's fooling around and spending all their time talking to their friends, and doing what they're supposed to do," said Cohen. "At nights, I usually just work at the basketball stand." Starting out as game booth vendor since he was a teen, Cohen has been drawn back to Seaside Heights each summer since. "I just never left, I have so much fun up here," he said. "I'll talk to anyone. It's a nice summer job. It's fun. You're outside. You're not all cramped inside somewhere." While the ultimate goal of any game vendor is to get customers lined up to play, there's a right way and wrong way to do it, according to Cohen. "Whatever game you're in, you're just trying to get people's attention as they walk by," he said. "The key part is when you get them to come by, you got to be friendly. People like friendly people. If you're not friendly, they're not going to want to come by and play at all." This year's hot, sunny weather has been a goldmine for tourists and beachgoers, but hasn't exactly been a windfall for the boardwalk vendors, who ironically enough are at the mercy of their own game of chance when it comes to the weather. "The problem is with the really nice weather, a day like this, no one's up here (on the boardwalk), they're all at the beach," said Cohen. "Sometimes, a nice little rain isn't the worst thing, but just a little rain, not too much to scare people off." The Good, The Bad And The Intoxicated Coming from Egypt, Sam Helmy, 25, has been working the game booths at Seaside Heights for four years, and keeps himself busy and his wallet full by working doubleshifts as much as he can. For teens thinking of applying for a job as a boardwalk game vendor, Helmy said it's a good decision to make, especially if you like the beach and meeting people. "You get a lot of experience," he said. "You get to talk to a lot of people, learn a little about business and deal with a lot of different personalities. I'd recommend it. At least do it once in your lifetime, even if just to try it." Probably the most tedious part of the job for Helmy is standing in the same place for hours on end and hearing the same questions over and over. "You do the same thing everyday, talk to a lot of the same people and basically, you get people asking you the same questions and telling you the same jokes about your game," he said. Being polite and considerate is appreciated in any job, and working on the boardwalk is no different. "The best customers are the ones who simply say, 'thank you,'" said Helmy. Standing below dozens of bicycles ready to be won, Helmy said the worst customers are the sore losers. "The worst customers are the ones who tell you that your games are a rip-off," he said. "It happens a lot too in my game (the ring toss) because we give out very big prizes and therefore get very few winners. People do win every once in a while, not as often as the darts game, but it's still possible." One of the quirkiest parts of the job for Helmy is working at night and luring the feeling-no-pain bar patrons over to test their luck. In those situations, Helmy hears a familiar order from those customers- even it's often a little slurred. "Give me two more buckets! Give me three more buckets!" he said laughing. For those wondering why some people seem to win more than others, Helmy offers the following observation. "I've seen little kids do it, and I've seen really old people do it," he said. "It's all just luck." Girls, Friends And Good Times Working at the pan game, Tommy Brutofski, 15, of Toms River, didn't even pause for a second when asked what his favorite part of his job is. "All the hot girls on the boardwalk," Brutofski said matter-of-factly. The worst part of his job is just waiting for customers to come and play. "I just work days, and sometimes it can be pretty boring when everyone's on the beach," he said. "The heat can get to you too, and there's not much to do when it's slow." While he enjoys the lively boardwalk atmosphere of Seaside Heights, when his shift is over for the day, Brutofski is ready to put it in his rearview mirror. "On my days off, I try to stay as far away from here as possible," he said. Seeking refuge from the hot summer sun, 17- year-old best friends Debbie Hossa and Jessica Swidell sipped their iced tea and freshly squeezed lemonade, reflecting on their jobs last summer when they both worked a multitude of game booths in Wildwood. "It was a blast. I love being at the beach, even if it's for work," said Hossa, of Berkeley. "Before my family moved up here, I used to live down around there, and it was like most of the teens would work somewhere on the boardwalk doing whatever. I miss that." Now that Seaside Heights is a lot closer to her new residence, Hossa brought Swidell up to Ocean County's primo summer spot to show her around. "It's a lot bigger here than I thought it would be," Swidell said she looked across the boardwalk. "It's fun, but I think I still like Wildwood better, but that's where I'm from so I'm used to it, I guess." The two girls met working the famous boardwalk classic booth: the water gun clown game. "I remember being really quiet when I first started," said Swidell. "I didn't know what I was doing at all. I was always giving people better prizes than they were supposed to get, and got in trouble." Dealing with eager customers looking to test their luck was probably the best and worst part of working any boardwalk game booth, according to Hossa. "It can be both, good and bad," she said. "Like, whenever we got the little kids, they were a trip, especially when they were too small to barely even see over the counter. That was the cutest. I'd go and get this little box stand thing we had and they felt like such grown ups when they got up and shot their water guns- adorable."