Borough Beeswax: Buzzing About the End of Summer

As the seasons turn and families get ready to send their children back to school, Borough Beeswax got the word on the street as to how Collingswooders spent their summer vacations.

“I spent my summer working here,” said Steven Kareh Sr. of , which opened in the spring.

“The summer has been a little slower than I thought, but you can’t expect too much six months in,” Kareh said.

When not on the clock, Kareh enjoyed riding his bike on the boardwalk in Ocean City, taking in the surf with a cup of coffee and a granola bar. He also managed to get away to Chincoteague Island, VA, to go crabbing with his children before the school year started up.

“Instead of Disney, they’d rather go fishing and crabbing,” Kareh said.

Russ Kasper and Zoe Maltby of Philadelphia spent four days in Ocean City, MD, where the couple learned to drive jet skis for the first time at Assateague Island.

"Neither of us had ever done it,” Kasper said, adding that Maltby was “a little afraid at first, but she took control and got on.”

The couple went riding, “Within 15 to 20 feet of the wild horses,” frolicking on the nearby shoreline, Kasper said.

Caroline David’s fondest summer memories as a child growing up in Philadelphia involved getting to visit her friend in Warminster, riding horses and spending time together.

“Her grandfather owned a roller-skating rink,” David said. “We had the whole thing to ourselves. My mom was gracious to let me share the whole summer with her.”

Sara Manna of traveled farther than most shorebound New Jerseyans, returning to visit family in Naples, where she relaxed by the beach with a couple bottles of wine.

“We ate a lot of pasta, a lot of fish,” Manna said. “It was relaxing.”

Manna, who works as an ESL teacher at Hammonton Middle School, said that at the end of the summer, she’s looking forward to getting back to work and seeing her students again.

Casper said he would always remember his first year of high school at North Penn in Lansdale, PA; just as things were getting going, he was hit with a harsh dose of reality.

“You felt like you were a big shot coming out of middle school, and of course you get there and you’re nobody,” he laughed.