[MUSIC PLAYING] Can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

All right.

Tell us your name and where you're from.

My name is Tysha.

I'm Dr. Peter James Smith.

My name is John.

I'm from East Brunswick.

My name is Stanley Myers, from Sayreville, New Jersey.

My name is Willow Brown, and I'm from Red Bank, New Jersey.

There's no state more vocal about how it thinks, feels, remembers, loves, or lives like New Jersey.

New Jersey, you see, is a place for people with plain spoken, often profound, and always point blank points of view.

How would you describe yourself?

An average guy.

A bit quirky.

Artistic.

Sensitive person.

I'm a hick.

I like playing in the mud.

OK. Wow.

This is Here's the Story, "The Voices of the People."

Honestly, we moved from the Bronx when I was five to Central Jersey, and this was our go-to.

There was no great adventure.

There was no Six Flags.

There were amusements along the boardwalk here.

So we thought this was the best thing ever.

We would come to Asbury Park and go on the rides and then go to the beach.

So for years, when I was young, this was our go-to.

It was outside.

I remember drinking from the hose outside with my best friend.

This is my best friend.

And we were outside pretty much every day, all day, until it got to the point where we were either thirsty or hungry.

And my mom was like, you know, well, once you're inside, you're in.

So, you know, out there until like maybe 6 o'clock.

That was late for me as a kid.

I spent most of my youth at summer camp, sleepaway summer camp, and had some of the best experiences in my life then.

Can you talk about them?

Like, what was so great about them?

Well, I had my first kiss with Renny Altman.

That was very exciting to me.

I saw the Aurora Borealis in Pennsylvania, believe it or not.

One year, we had a major, major rainstorm.

And the front quad, which was on this kind of a slope, became so muddy that we all wound up doing these mudslides down.

And this is back, of course, in the '60s.

So there was great music blaring out of the quad.

And everybody was like sliding down, getting all muddy and stuff.

It was-- you know, when you're a little kid, that was like the top of the world.

What's your favorite summer memory?

Summer memory, hmm.

Definitely the first time, when I first got my car, me and my friends drove down to the beach.

And we just had so much fun.

And it was freezing.

But awesome.

How long ago was that?

That had to be like a month ago.

Oh, a month ago.

OK. That's awesome.

That's like years ago.

Describe what summer was like when you were very young.

Oh, please.

Riding bicycles in our neighborhood, playing under my tree with Matchbox cars.

And the big fun pictures-- we were washing our bicycles in the garage to take them out on a spin.

Favorite memory of summer?

I'd say the camping trips we did when we were young.

They were always better than the vacations.

I used to go up to a lake house in Michigan with my family every year in the summer.

So we'd go on the boat and sit by the dock, do a campfire.

So probably that.

Very wholesome.

What's your favorite summer memory?

Oh, probably eighth grade year, like this.

Because I'm getting more freedom now.

And I'm a lot of hanging out with my friends more and stuff.

My dad and I used to have a place down in Tuckerton.

We knew a great clamming spot, which is going to be a secret.

We'd get dozens of clams when we'd go down there.

What would you do with them?

Cook them.

Sometimes we made stuffed clams.

Sometimes we made clam chowder.

Wow.

Yeah, sometimes we just ate them.

That's cool.

Oh, so we lived in Kearney.

So we actually used to drive all the way down here.

So with my parents, I used to do a little road trip.

We'd get snacks.

And we would drive down here to the Jersey Shore.

Oh, without a doubt.

Beach Haven with my mom, my dad, and my sister Helen.

And we shared the same shore house for three years in the '70s.

And the first part of business was renting the TV.

Yes, we actually rented a TV from the local Acme.

I used to go in the camp.

I used to get in scuffles with other kids.

You know, a lot chillier than it was now.

It was a good time.

But I like going to shows like this now, you know.

So it's all right.

Why do you think that when you were a kid, you were amazing?

What do you think you were?

That's a great question.

I think I hated that the world seemed outside of my control.

You know?

Yeah, let's see, your mom would go do this.

Your dad would go here, go where.

Teachers, I just always wanted to do my own thing, you know.

I guess that's what it was at the end of the day.

I just never really got along with people telling me what to do.

Exactly.

It's a beautiful thing.

Yeah.

I get it.

When I was 18, I hitchhiked to California with a friend out of high school.

And there were just a lot of things that happened in those six months that were very memorable.

I'm a big Jack Kerouac fan, so that's sort of living the life of being on the road.

The problem is there were no cell phones back then.

I have no record of it.

And I was a pretty healthy doer of bad decisions.

So I did a lot of drugs and drank a lot.

So I-- So you had a good time.

Yeah.

We used to go to dead shows and people would say, how was the show?

And I used to say, if you remember the show, you weren't there.

So that's kind of what that trip was like.

I know I took the trip.

I don't have a lot of memories of it.

It's probably the summer right after I got adopted.

My dad took me to Jenkinson's for the first time.

And it was my first time at an amusement park.

And to this day, he still has a picture on me on the thing with the horses.

And I remember screaming out loud, like, this is the best day of my life.

And he still has that picture up in our living room.

And he shows it to everyone.

What's your favorite summer memory?

We're sitting here at the sunset on Long Beach Island.

And like I said before the interview began, this is about as summer as it gets.

What's your favorite summer memory?

I think about one time being right at the end of the island where you make a left into Barnegat Lake.

You can get into the dune right there.

There's an access.

And we were all just sitting around there.

And it was after the bar.

We were all just laughing.

And it was one of those nights of really hearty, hearty belly laughs.

And my buddy goes, look at the moon.

It's just mooning us up there.

And then he picked up his sandals.

And a bunch of sand fell off.

And he goes, I guess that's why they call them sandals.

And we laughed so hard, you know?

And I think that sums up like a quintessential summer night, just lost in laughter.

The other thing about feeling free in the summer is that the fleeting feeling of that freedom is always in the back of your mind.

And it grows throughout the summer, doesn't it?

Yeah.

That's a wild part of it, you know?

Like you're enjoying it, but you know that it's going away.

It's like youth.

[PIANO MUSIC]