Eye On Short Beach Comes To Life

As they say farewell to summer, Gail Oberg, her daughter Nicole, Nicole’s friend Maria and Maria’s Mom, Lori Mack are still reminiscing about Short Beach Days when they worked together to create a sculpture they called ​“Eye On Short Beach.” 

They decided to enter the sand sculpture contest, an event of the annual ​“Short Beach Days,” which is held over Labor Day weekend. This year marked the 68th anniversary of ​“Short Beach Days.” Little did they know that ​“Eye on Short Beach” would win in the category of ​“funniest.” 

The group began working on their idea a few days before the event.

Oberg recalled for the Eagle that it began, as so many projects do, with a conversation. ​“Lori and I were talking. What should we do, we asked each other. Then I saw the eyeball, an art piece I have on the piano. Why don’t we do any eye?” I asked. Oberg asked her friend Linda Dugree to join them. Soon they were on a mission. 

“How about using the brown seaweed for the eyebrow? And the sea grass for the eyelashes,” Lori asked. Linda dug up a picture of an eye on her I- pad. How about the whites of the eye? Well, she thought, ​“what about clam shells?”

What should they call this eyepiece? It needed a name. They mulled on that for a couple of days until they came up with ​“Eye On Short Beach.”

Then they made a list: seaweed, sea grass and clam shells along with various shovels. 

Now they had to create it. Oberg’s house is directly across from Johnson’s beach so her group had a really short walk. They assembled on the beach at noon.

First they got down into the sand.

Next came the ridge of the eye.

“It was creative, and done so spontaneously,” said Oberg, who has summered in Short Beach for the last eight years.

Maria and Nicole, now 13, grew up together. They met when they were 4.

Forty-five minutes after they began, Peggy Carpenter, the overseer of the contest, blew her whistle, signaling the end of sculpture creativity.

The judges had inspected each sculpture, discussed each one and then made their selections. The beach was packed with families and friends. Here’s the scene. 

The Eye group now cast their cool eyes on their creation. They approved. Their smiles told the story. (See top photo.)

They later learned they were voted the funniest.

The best in show sculpture was awarded to Neptune, a Ward Family creation.

Pig Roast was a big hit, too. Francesca Bickel and Rachel Dunn won the award for most original. 

The creativity was amazing, Mack said later. When she looked around at the competition, she said she was in awe. After the sculptures were created, folks walked back and forth, taking in the art that emerged in so short a time. Its life is short, too, only until the next high tide. Then the sand sculptures are swept back into the sea. 

Between the sand sculpture and the Monday parade on Short Beach Road, there were many activities for kids. One was the three-legged sack race, which was held for various age groups. 

The Parade Gets Underway

On Labor Day, the Short Beach parade got underway at 11 a.m. Folks lined the streets. 

At the corner of Short Beach Road and Court Street, singing Chef Neil Fuentes and Victor Figueroa, who recently opened the Venezuelan restaurant, Jojoto, greeted their new neighbors.

The Johnson family’s float, the ​“Short Beach Farmer’s Market,” was a big hit. Here’s the family assembling at Orchard House before the parade began.

And here is the star rooster of the show, smiling for the occasion.

A Little History

Short Beach Days began in 1946, the year after World War II ended; the weekend was a farewell to summer. Back in those days, summer houses at Short Beach were, well, summer houses. They were not equipped with heat. So when summer began to wind down, the summer crowd said farewell. The idea, then, as now, was to foster family and community spirit.

Saturday night was the LipSync contest at Pardee Park. Kate Marsland, who oversees the Lip Sync contest, told us it was wonderful fun.
Sunday there were many activities at Pardee Park, including a softball game, a duck race, the sack race and free trolley rides from Short Beach to East Haven.

Putting on Short Beach Days takes months. Some volunteers have done it for the last 20 years. Credit goes to the coordinator of the event, Sean Kelly and his family, especially in preparing Pardee Park, Warren Gould, another coordinator, and Ginger Charlotte, an ​“unofficial” coordinator, who also works on getting the annual program out. In that venture, she is joined by Ann Murray, Michele Murray and Darce Osler. Gould and Lori Ann Mack oversee the parade and Mike Kelly oversees the Park. Kate Marsland is in charge of the popular Lip Sync contest. Liz Gallagher orders and organizes all the prizes. George Norden does the Concessions, and Peggy Carpenter oversees the Sand Sculpture. Short Beach Hose, Hook & Ladder Co. 4 organizes the athletic events on Saturday, and the Riverside Fire Department in East Haven oversees Sunday Family Day. Webmaster is Robin Comey. Judge Judy Dube and a committee of many other judges presided over the contests. 

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