Why Everyone Sunday Funday in Sea Isle City at Least Once

During my college years Sunday Funday was a regular part of my vocabulary and something that occurred on the regular.  Nowadays (especially during the school year), it’s become something of a novelty that seems to primarily happen on three day weekends, which in essence, defeats the purpose of a “Sunday Funday.” A proper Sunday Funday, for those of you living under a rock/who’ve been deprived this grand tradition is exactly what it sounds like: you extend your weekend to Sunday and indulge in several (or many) adult beverages.  Sunday Fundays have always appealed to me for a variety of reasons.  I grew up Catholic, meaning that Sundays were early morning mass, big brunch, and then lazy afternoons with cereal for dinner, an early movie, and early bed to get ready for the week.  There’s something appealing in a juvenile-rebel-against-order way about trading in catechism for Coors light.  I also like Sundays for the same reason I’m such a big fan of day drinking: you don’t get the crowd who feels compelled to go out or goes out to be seen like you might on a Friday or Saturday night.  You typically just get the crowd that legitimately likes to kick back and have fun.  While I have had Sunday Funday’s that have escalated out of control, most of the time, because people have to work/go to class early on Monday they start early and end early and are all around more relaxed. As I got older, these days of rest became days of work: I spend Sundays currently grading papers, lesson planning, and often traveling back from wherever I went for the weekend so I was excited when planning my annual Sea Island City pilgrimage, to have nothing going on that prevented me from staying till Monday. I’ve covered the basics of Sea Isle several times before so if you want the full lowdown check it out here or here.  This post is exclusively devoted to the time honored SIC tradition of Sunday Jam.  This was my first time. Sunday Jam is held every Sunday at The Ocean Drive (OD) starting at 4PM.  Secret Service (who I’ve also chronicled previously) plays till 10 and from 4-6 there’s 2 dollar domestic bottles and a “lemonade,” basically lemonade & vodka, that runs the entire time.

Long-time SIC revelers have their own cups they bring and fill up but you could purchase one there if it’s your first time. We decided to start the festivities a little early with lunch and drinks at The Commodore Club and a few rounds of beanbags back at my friends’ beach house.  We moved the festivities inside for a bit to sufficiently lubricate up and save some cash and got to the bar just after six, missing the beer deals, but an impressively early time for the group I was with as they tend to make pregames go forever.

If you’ve never seen Secret Service, you’re missing out.  They’re the best and their setlists areperfection from “Mr Bright Side”, to “Jackie Wilson Said,” to “Run Around Sue” to their classic “Boy Band Medley” and the “OD Shuffle,” a song and accompanying dance they wrote specifically for Sunday Jam.  They also pull out randoms like “THe Fresh Prince of Bel Aire Theme Song”, an accapella version of “Holly Jolly Christmas” (in preparation for their Christmas in July party that occurred yesterday) and always do a rousing version of “Proud to be An American.”

What made the day embody exactly what I love about a good Sunday Funday is just the attitude of, pardon my French, hanging out with a great group of friends and generally not giving a rat’s ass about what anyone around you thinks.  At the OD, most of the clientele adopt this attitude.  Secret Service is all about crowd participation so in general everyone is singing along, shouting out requests and dancing like assholes.  I’m sure I embarrassed myself at least ten times (one I can think of involves posing for a picture in a self-crafted crop top that will never see the light of day) but in the moment (and really after) you just don’t care.  There’s also a fun tradition of smacking your hands along to the music on the support pillars and ceiling that only fuels this sense of abandonment.

Happiness might really be screaming along with “Secret Service” as they play Africa while smacking your hand on the ceiling so hard that it bleeds.  If that makes me Jersey shore trash, then you know, I’m ok with it.

Secret Service ended their set at 10 and was followed by Go Go Gadget, another Philly area cover band that apparently plays at State College a lot as the PSU grads in our group were pumped to see them.  While Secret Service is what you think of at a beach bar, Go Go Gadget (pictured above) resembled a straight up concert with flashing lights, ear busting speakers, and I guess what I’d call a sleeker set list.  True to Sunday Funday form, we only stayed till about one visited Wawa and called it a night well before last call, but unfortunately not before a round or two of ill-advised jello shooters and a shot of Fireball.  Suffice to say, it’s lucky I wasn’t working.

I was actually depressed yesterday on my drive home, which is always proof of a great weekend.  Go to Sea Isle for Sunday Jam.  It’s fun, it’s stupid,  it’s the epitome of carefree summertime and it’s absolutely worth the sick day you’ll have to take on Monday.