fudgie wudgie guys

[thelastresort]

are most of those guys gone? I only see maybe one or two with the big carts trolling the beach, if any. maybe because we usually go in June and Sept and they are not really out yet or all done for the season?

And one of them told me once just a few years ago that there was a requirement that to be a fudgie-wudgie guy, you had to be a combat veteran (not just a veteran) who participated in a beach landing. Is this true?

and some of those guys in the 60's-80's were big time vets, landed at omaha beach, tarowa, okinawa, iwo jima, etc. amazing.

[homer]

thelastresort said:

And one of them told me once just a few years ago that there was a requirement that to be a fudgie-wudgie guy, you had to be a combat veteran (not just a veteran) who participated in a beach landing. Is this true?

No. One of the fudgy wudgy guys I know is a submarine vet...I hope they didn't do any beach landings!

[thelastresort]

homer said:

thelastresort said:

And one of them told me once just a few years ago that there was a requirement that to be a fudgie-wudgie guy, you had to be a combat veteran (not just a veteran) who participated in a beach landing. Is this true?

No. One of the fudgy wudgy guys I know is a submarine vet...I hope they didn't do any beach landings!

interesting, thanks. maybe they just need to be a combat veteran. but this does seem somewhat consistent with what I was told in that the guy is a veteran.

[wildre]

I've also heard/read that all the guys need to be veterans, not sure about the combat part. As far as only a few still working, I can only speak to NW, and there are more than 2 on our beach at 15th.

re

[JerseyDigger29]

thelastresort said:

are most of those guys gone? I only see maybe one or two with the big carts trolling the beach, if any. maybe because we usually go in June and Sept and they are not really out yet or all done for the season?

And one of them told me once just a few years ago that there was a requirement that to be a fudgie-wudgie guy, you had to be a combat veteran (not just a veteran) who participated in a beach landing. Is this true?

and some of those guys in the 60's-80's were big time vets, landed at omaha beach, tarowa, okinawa, iwo jima, etc. amazing.

Just to clear up your confusion.

I was one of them for 18 years. I sold fudgy wudgies beginning in 1984 but eventually had to stop because 18 years of pushing all that ice cream through the sand ruined my knees.

I'm a Navy veteran (1970 to 1979) Although only my first four years were served "during" the war, I am considered a Vietnam Era vet but not a Vietnam vet.

Any veteran of any branch of the armed forces can get an ice cream vendor's license, no combat required. Wildwood only has ten licenses at last count. North Wildwood has 15, I believe, and Wildwood Crest has zero.

To get a license, you must wait for one of the current guys to give up his. I got the license of a World War II vet who passed away in 1984.

Even women can get one. Government is not permitted to discriminate, and besides women also served proudly, many of them in combat in Vietnam (nurses) and the Gulf Wars. One lady had a license a few years ago but didn't use it. In general, you only see guys out there because they're the ones crazy enough to push 400 pounds of ice cream through that sand.

You were right about some of the older guys who fought in all those famous battles. One of my I.C buddies actually stormed the beach at Iwo Jima and lived to come back to us in Wildwood. (Trivia: Clint Eastwood is putting out a new blockbuster film this fall, I believe called IWO. I can't wait.)

Hope this helps - Thom

[wildre]

Thanks Thom, I had forgeotten you had mention you were once part of that elite group.
I guess WC still doean't allow vedors on the beaches there? Recall hearing they were considering it recently?

re

[Doowopper]

Hmm, Iv'e never seen an Ice Cream man on any beach in Wildwood, but I'm normally in the Crest so that probably explains it. The Fudgy Wudgy (or however you spell it) truck does go down the small roads leading to the beach entrances, I remember a couple years ago I saw it every day when we were staying at the Bal Harbour. I think they have an alligator or somthing painted on their trucks?

[wildwood4life]

Does anyone remember when the Fudgie Wudgie Man used to carry the cooler over their shoulders before the wheeled coolers? I remember being on the beach in North Wildwood around 2nd Street and seeing this as a kid and thinking they were the heaviest thing in the world and then one summer they were all on wheels

[FlyinGN]

I remember. Thats when they really earned their pay

[wildwanderer]

I remember the old days when they carried over the shoulder. Ouch...

[JerseyDigger29]

wildwanderer said:

I remember the old days when they carried over the shoulder. Ouch...

You're right. They carried them over the shoulder for decades, including the first few years I worked out there. They did so because Wildwood and North Wildwood had ordinances against wheels, motors, engines, bells and whistles, etc for a very long time. But eventually, sometime in the early nineties a couple of the guys left over from WW II went to city hall and created a big fuss, saying they couldn't carry them any more and the city needed to modernize its laws.

So I guess they changed them in order not to have any age discrimation suits or something. The effect of the change allowed everyone to double and triple their daily income with half the effort.
Even so, you still had to trudge through all that hot sand.

We had a saying: "A bad day at the beach (income wise) is a lot better than a good day at a real job."

Wildwood Crest tried again last year to allow ice cream vendors on the beach but the vote in the election was an exact tie. The reason Wildwood Crest doesn't allow vendors is because all those hotels with their restaurants along the edge of the beach for many many years didn't want the competition and b***hed and moaned to the politicians - A LOT!

Thom

[wildre]

I certainly do remember the FW Guys carrying their coolers across the beach. Also remember many of them with the white zinc oxide on there lips and noses. Don't see zinc oxide much these days.
I guess these guys do well, or they wouldn't do it. It is a grueling job.

Thom I knew there was some recent move for beach service again in WC. Had forgotten how it ended up, with no change in beach service. Thanks!
It is a long walk to those beachfront Motels for a bottle of water, or a water ice.

[thelastresort]

Thanks Thom, for the detailed explanation, it was very helpful.

We stay not too far down the crest, but that explains why I haven't been seeing any, except the occasional that might swing down past the fishing pier.

[homer]

thelastresort said:

...except the occasional that might swing down past the fishing pier.

Whoa! Renegade fudgy wudgy man! He's not allowed past Cresse Ave! Have him arrested! (sarcasm all...what a silly law)

The hot dog vendors (along JFK Blvd. in NW) are also all vets. My dream "retirement job" is going to be running a "grill on wheels" at one of the prime locations down there. But I understand I better get on the waiting list now. (I can retire from the electric co. in ~25 years.)

Interestingly, I am also a Navy vet, Thom...a bubblehead--were you "target fleet?" (ha ha--Sorry for the military lingo folks.)

[JerseyDigger29]

homer said:

thelastresort said:

...except the occasional that might swing down past the fishing pier.

Whoa! Renegade fudgy wudgy man! He's not allowed past Cresse Ave! Have him arrested! (sarcasm all...what a silly law)

The hot dog vendors (along JFK Blvd. in NW) are also all vets. My dream "retirement job" is going to be running a "grill on wheels" at one of the prime locations down there. But I understand I better get on the waiting list now. (I can retire from the electric co. in ~25 years.)

Interestingly, I am also a Navy vet, Thom...a bubblehead--were you "target fleet?" (ha ha--Sorry for the military lingo folks.)

If you're a "bubblehead," more power to ya.' Better you than me.

Thom

P.S. Want to know the difference between the Navy and the Coast Guard?

In the Coast Guard, if your ship sinks, you can walk back to shore! ;D