Pirate Ships

Most of the characters in "Buzzkill New Jersey", are representations of one or more actual individuals that grew up in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Most of these people lived in Colts Neck, which is just a stone’s throw away from Belmar, New Jersey (where "Buzzkill NJ" takes place). In the late 90’s some of the many playgrounds located around Belmar adopted large wooden pirate ships. These things were cool.

They were built like actual boats. There would be a ladder up to the top floor, and another ladder down into the giant hulls of the ships. As one could imagine, kids love forts (being that most of them do not have their own house). Forts provide a place to hang out with privacy from passers-by or parents.

While the official reason they were taken down was homeless people were sleeping in them overnight, it was largely rumored that local kids were hooking up inside these pirate ships at night. While Jack Cuomo was rumored to have done the deed inside the ship on 8th avenue, it was actually another main character who deserves credit for this feat.

The ships were torn down, and replaced by more kid-friendly versions. One of the many reasons that the 90’s were cooler than the 2000’s.