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nature & man

A Midsummer-Night’s Dream

The calendar says autumn doesn't arrive until September 23, but for all practical purposes the seasons will change here in Cape May County sometinte between 6 n.m.'on Monday and 6 the following morning.» Monday, of course, is Labor Day;a holiday inaugurated as a tribute to the workingman by ■ the Knights of Labor in 1082 and made a national celebration by act of Congress in 1894. In Npw Jersey's southernmost county, Labpr Day has other significance, too. It means the end of the summer vacation season, the return to Warren Harding's “normalcy’' when visitors go back to their homes and yearround tosidents,, retrieve their streets and stores It means beautiful September on uncrowded beaches, and nights that are usually quiet, cool and crisp. THE CHANGE OK THE SEASONS should also be a time for'reflection and for planning. Once again members of the governing bodies should give serious thought and take appropriate action about how to improve tourism, especially how to alleviate the traffic mess thal occurs in July and August Chambers'of Coiffmerce should meditate on how to attract more visitors in the off season an idea that certainly will bring protests from traditionalist who believe Cape May County should be an oasis for permanent residents, once the changing of the guard ■ lakes place for Cape May County to continue to flourish as New Jersey's most unique vacation area, innovation and prudent planning are needed. Let us enjoy the county now as it is returned to the people who make it happen. But let us ' not forget that without the visitors, the future of Cape May County would be-dismal. The State We're In

by R. Leslie (’hri*mer It is possible that *Wiiliam Shakespeare's A Midnummer-Night'a Dream will outlive all his Other plays. Even Hamlet and King Lear. f Not to be facetious, but the trials which t|eset tl^ose two tormented souls could be corrected in a sane society and by better interpersonal relations. In some brave new world, in some indefinite future, all of Us may be so • psychologically mature as to make the problems of such unfortunate people seem unimportant because unnecessary. But a Midsummer-Night's Dream is different. It is a fairy tale and fairy tales live forever. Legends never die. Egyptian. Hebrew. Greek, Roman. Norse. African, Chinese. Japanese - all the ethnic myths have instructed and entertained humankind ever since it became relatively human Homer's Iliad and Odyssey still fascinate readers in or out of classrooms. Richard Wagner's operatic tetralogy Th? Ring of the Nibelungs, based on. Teutonic and Icelandic folkfore. still fills opera houses four nights in a row When Scheherazade wanted to escape the grim consequences of her Sultans boredom, she told him fairy tales. And the Arabian Nights' Entertainments continue to rescue the rest of us from the ordinary humdrum of existence. AS A CANDIDATE FOR IMMORTALITY. A Midsummer-Night's Dream has a superior advantage over all other fairy tales by being the sweetest one ever told No murderers, sadist, ogres, or witches. No hatred, horror, barbarity, or persecution. Just a humorous, charming and salutary tale of how foolish all of us can become, especially if we get a little encouragement, such is the magic potion Oberson uses oq Titania’s eyes and has Puch use on the eyes of four assorted lovers. After engaging in that mischief it seems somewhat gratuitous for Puch to observe. "Lord, what fools we mortals be!" They were already lovesick before he added to their affliction. Whht did he expect after compounding their trouj)!^?

FOR EXAMPLE. WHEN OBERON. the King of the Fairies, wishes to outwit his Queen, he sets off with the magic potion that is Titania’s undoing, in a short and lovely speech which mentions six English plants: / know a bank whrr* the mfld thyme blowi. Where oxlipt and the nodding violet grow$. Qyite over camrpled with luih woodbine. With iweet mufk roiet and with Eglantine ( There iletpi Titanla tome time of th* night, Lull'd In thete. flowelt with daneei and delight Everyone of those flowers has its duplicate, or relative, in our country. Patches of wild thyme can be found over much of it. Oxlips are a natural hybrid between the cowslip and the primrose, the latter being a feature in many American gardens. Violets grow all over the land (of the more than 300 species in the worlc^ more than a hundred grqw in our country). Wobdbihe is one of our names for the Virginia creeper whose leaves are part of our brillant fall foliage display. The muskrose is a rambler with sweet-smelling white flowers. And Eglantine is another name for our Sweetbrier wild rose, whose leaflet as well as dainty pink.flowefs are very fragrant. Somebody once compiled a list of "the most delicious scents." and selected sixteen of them. Sweetbrier or eglantine was at the top.

Shakespeare is.the most articulate playrfwtt of all time — George Bernard Shaw is his only rival -Ifcmd was the most knowledgable one of his day Someone has counted over 400 wildflowers mentioned in his olavs.

Nature’s Beaches Can’t Be Governed

li\ Dmlri F. MoonA bench is a narrow strip of sand which separates the . land from the sea It is higffly regarded as a place for recreation, especially in the summertime. But it is the root of a variety of problems for 12 months out of any year I will merely address the matter of recreation There's a festering dispute in New Jersey, and elsewhere, about >whether a beach should be open to one and all. or just to those approved by its owner How you feel about that will t>e dictated by whether you live ih the town where the lieach is. or belong to the organization which claims ow nership . . ' * -' ‘ It 's been well established that anybody can use any New Jersey beach below the surfline, but access to the "wet beach" is closed by some owners of the "dry lieach" aim'd the tidal mark .IN NEW JERSEY THE RESULT is that along about 125 relies of coastline, only a relatively few mile* of lieach ' 'such as in Cape May Point) are publicly owned Places like .Island Beach State Park draw many thousands of visitors, and overcrowding and'chaos would result if wise . regulators didn't keep the crowd down to manageable levels Tips private vs public rights issue has been coming to a boil in Bay Head, along the shore in southern Monmouth ’ ('ounty U-gal action began in 1!I74 when Bay Head was sued for use of its lieach by the Borough of Point Pleasant, narrow Iv separated from the ocean by Bay Head, and a woman who had moved there from Bay Head and thus lost her beach rights

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Co-defendent with Bay Head was the Bay Head Improvement Assoc, which actually controls use. of the beach Subsequently. Point Pleasant abandoned the case 1 due to costly legal fees, and the court removed Bay Head as a defendent. leaving the former resident vs. the Improvement Assoc By this lime the state Public Advocate was pursuing the case on behalf of the open beach Concept THINGS DRAGGED ON. with the court ruling that approximately 70 owners of beachfront property in Bay Head should be brought into the case That took a lot of time to achieve, just from the standpoint of detail work By removing Bay Head itself from the case, the court has limited arguments henceforth to the rights of private owners, bypassing any questions of governmental beach discrimination. Finally, in 1981. the court decreed that there is no general right of public access to privately owned beach. The Appellate Division of Superior Court upheld that decision this year. Now the matter is headed for the state • Supreme Court, on appeal by the Public Advocate. Thanks to the nature of the Appellate decision, the Supreme Court will be considering fairly narrow arguments The whole thing will boil down to'arguments about specifics of the case which appear pretty much limited to Bay Head. So. no matter what happens in the Bay Head case, we can look forward to future legal arguments about beach access IF THERE'S GOING TO BE greater freedom for. New Jersey's millions to enjoy beaches in this state we're in, I'll wager-that it will be an ultimate side effect of the growing realization, in and out of government, that when we re dealing with the ungovernable forces of nature, we had better be content with dunes and beaches and simple recreation, rather than ongoing beachfront development. Severe coastal storms in 1944 and again in 1982 did a lot to clear the barrier islands of man’s artifacts, such as tmardwalks and buildirwrUtlt^ince then there has been a lot of development whpi is in line for tragic washouts during this or some futun* hurricane season. Living on barrier islands is great VJnit onll^ relatively safe unless you're prepared to move when me ocean does. —David Moore is executive director of the NVJ. Conservation Foundation (201) 539-7540.

the SOVEREIGN STATE of

WHY DOES OUR FOREIGN POLICY SFEM TO BE* SO CONFl/SED’

AFFAIR^

reader's forum With Enjoyment, Responsibility by Dorothy Ashton We read with interest the letter from the lady in Avalon concerned over the cruelty to the seagull. We rescued one like this by gently throwing a beach towel over it and taking it to the Wetjifnds Institute. They arc indeed beautiful birds. / God has given us much toyfcnjoy, but also a responsibility to care for these biros and animals. It breaks our hearts in spring to seethe dozens of turtles run over, particularly on Storte Harbor Blvd. The worse part is. 9 out of ( 10 are on the shoulder of the road and you know it hap to be deliberate. How sad we live with such selfish people. NOW IT IS NEARING summer's end and next will be the many abandoned cats and dogs, left with no food and no shelter after they have had some care all summer. Many of them slowly starve, some are cared for by people with hearts who already have more than they need to look after, some are killed on the roads. I would appeal to you not to leave your animals behind. If you no longer want them, either ha*e them painlessly put to sleep or contact the Animal Welfare Society. If people would only have their animals newtered we would not have the thousands of unwanted left to die. We do have a responsibility to them. Dorothy Ashton is a Goshen resident. DAVID BOYD