“Rehoboth is my happy place; my home away from home”

August 6, 2026

After the previous Lines in the Sand article about a family tradition of vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, we received this email from Nancy Ross:

“When I read the article about the Jones Family, I was so excited!…

Rehoboth is my happy place; my home away from home.

That’s because every August, starting about 1965, my family (my parents, 2 brothers; my mom’s sister and husband and their 3 kids, and me) would rent a 4 BR home – also on New Castle Street! (#8) from then owner Mrs. Gaigen (if I remember correctly. She owned more than 1 home on New Castle. Smart woman). We lived in Bethesda, MD. My mom’s sister’s family drove in from Baltimore. 

The same families would rent the homes next to us year after year – so we not only had our family, but friends we hadn’t seen since the previous year.

There was no air conditioning. There was one bedroom with a window unit and my aunt Rita and uncle Mike slept in that room. Upstairs, my cousin Hillary and I shared a bedroom with a Jack and Jill bathroom connected to our older brothers, Mark and Jeff. My oldest brother had asthma, so he got to sleep on the upstairs porch. The other oldest cousin, Chuck, had to sleep on the couch in the open room upstairs (we recently thought to ask – why didn’t HE get to sleep on that big porch too?)

If it was too hot for my cousin and me to sleep (we wore what was then called “baby doll” pajamas) my mom would make it into an adventure, and we’d take outdoor showers by the moonlight to cool us down.

My mom was the “cook” for at least 10 of us (sometimes her brother’s family would rent the home behind us so there’d be 14). We’d all sit down to dinner together (I have visited 8 New Castle St as an adult. I have no idea how we fit a table into that space, much less 10 of us around that table). My aunt was in charge of the laundry. Each of us had a daily chore (made up yearly on a fun chore chart. The one I remember the best was the Jaws chart. Each of us had a “leg” that rotated to point to our chore).  Sweeping, setting the table, clearing the table, etc. Thank the cook (#4!); thank the laundress (#7!). My least favorite chore was getting the laundry from the clothesline in the back – too many daddy longlegs!

We would spend all day on the beach. We could use the rafts and the skimming boards that my brother Mark made only on weekends. I learned to dive the waves and the only suntan lotion I remember is Ban de Soleil (and that commercial with the bronze skinned woman whose legs went on forever) and now I’ve paid for that. I’ve had skin cancer 9 times on my face and twice on my body. We have old movies of me playing barbies on the sand; clearing the sand so I could do cartwheels; the 4 boys riding the waves; the moms huddling under their hats and huge sunglasses; the dads supervising the kids on the shore. After showers and dinner, we’d have a singalong on our porch. The moms made up songbooks so we’d each have the lyrics. My oldest brother Howard played the guitar (memory: puka beads and an afro. We ALL had puka bead necklaces). Mamas and the Papas. John Denver. CSN&Y. Kris Kristofferson.  James Taylor. Simon and Garfunkel.  Harry Nilsson. Cat Stevens. Depended on the decade. If we had friends visiting, my mom would insist (to their dismay and embarrassment if they couldn’t carry a tune) that they literally had to sing for their supper. 

After dinner while it was still light out, Hillary and I would jump off the boardwalk into the sand (there were no dunes built up then) or off the lifeguard stand, over and over and over. Later we would head to Funland (all on our own!) to play pinball (my brother Mark and cousin Jeff were the pinball wizards! – 3 games, with 5 balls, for a quarter; such a favorite memory in his life that he has a Lady Luck pinball machine in his basement!), crash on the bumper cars, and my favorite – try to break our record on the flying cages. I was not great at pinball, even with my hip bumps, but I loved the pitch and swing baseball machine! Williams All Star had little mechanical players that circled the bases depending on how many runs you hit. Hillary and I would make spin art at Blaine’s boardwalk stand (no longer there; funny how we knew the employee’s names and they knew ours. I believe Blaine went on to Hershey medical school). Our brothers would win stuffed animals at the horse race game (still there!). On the way back we’d always get a fudgesicle at the ice cream shop (alas, no longer there). I don’t remember having a curfew or locking doors. 

A special treat was lunch at Dayton’s (which I still dream about to this day. YUM) – 2 fried chicken wings and a soft Parker House roll for 25 cents. Just Howard and me. On his birthday at the end of August, we’d pack into 2 station wagons and drive to Ocean City for dinner at Phillip’s seafood, then go to Jolly Roger Amusement Park (still operating!). One of the cousins would invariably throw up on the ride home to Rehoboth. Usually Chuck as I remember.

Every weekend, the dads would play tennis early then bring back freshly made donuts from Garrison’s (“I want a jelly! I want a glazed!” I want powdered!”…no longer there).  The dads would rent bikes with Hillary and me at Bob’s bikes and take us to Henlopen Acres. I thought they were magicians – we could turn on any street and lead the way – and they would find our way home.

At the end of our stay, we had a tradition – each of us would run out the front door of our rental and “pose” – my mom with a ladle and pot; my aunt with Tide and a laundry basket: Howard with his guitar or a football; the dads with a tennis racquet- I just remember Hillary and I would be in matching Danskin outfits and make a silly face – then run to the side door of the house, and back out the front again for our next turn. My brother Mark has the videos now to blackmail us. 

To this day, my cousins are like my siblings. My aunts and uncles were another set of parents. I feel like I had the happiest times of my childhood in Rehoboth. Still do as an adult. 

Back in the mid 1970’s my aunt and uncle bought a place at Edgewater House on the boardwalk. My parents and the other aunt and uncle bought another apartment a block away. So no more crowded relatives in one house. We still vacation in Rehoboth -with our kids and grandkids now. They seem to love Rehoboth as much as we did. There’s nothing like the feeling of watching your grandchild discover the waves and the sand and Funland and the penny candy store (which actually DID cost a penny when I was young. But at least Snyder’s is still there!). It may be 60 years since the tradition started, but watching the little ones makes us feel young again. 

Nancy Ross

Last month, 12 of us met in Rehoboth – 3 generations, coming in from Arizona and Atlanta, Georgia, and Philadelphia and the Poconos in Pennsylvania. 

Thank you, Nancy, and family members, for sharing your stories and photos with us! See below for family photos throughout several decades – long time Rehoboth Beach visitors, you’ll probably recognize quite a bit! And share your story to be featured in Lines in the Sand: bthaler@rehobothbeachde.gov