Curly Blonde Girl In The Lifeguard Tower

History
Reggie Jones, 77 and the "oldest lifeguard at Jones Beach" in 2004 reflected on the beach's history and his work, "From his wooden lifeguard tower." He remembered, "when everything was closed on Sundays -- the blue laws -- and most families had one car and there were no downtown shopping malls. For 25 cents you got in the car and took the kids to the beach. This was the poor man's Riviera." He wore the "itchy" one-piece woolen lifeguard suit "instead of the Tommy Hilfiger trunks that are today's standard issue." Fashions of beachgoers also changed with "The girls are wearing dental floss" as opposed to the dresses that he remembered being worn. Jones Beach gets more visitors annually than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined with 8 million people visiting in 2003, a steep drop from the 13.3 million who visited in 1970.