Legend has it that in the spring of 1971, a spark of friendship ignited among several teenagers from different towns around Long Island, NY. A cohesive and diverse group started to form, and daily gatherings at Jones Beach began.

Word spread about this friendly, fun-loving and openhearted group of teenagers. By the end of that joyous summer, the group had grown by leaps and bounds, and by unanimous proclamation came to be known as the “Jones Beach Bums” - the Bums, for short.

The Bums did not allow summer's end to interfere with their intense desire to see each other. Although separating into at least a dozen different high schools around Nassau and Suffolk County, the large and continuing-to-grow group managed to maintain contact not only all year, but all through high school, growing and growing. Thanks to the well-known address book of one of our original members, the final number of individuals who hung around with the Beach Bums for some (or all) of their adolescence totaled 211!

The memories of the Jones Beach Bums are long ago. We are a group no more; we have our own families, different friends, careers, and many of us moved. But adolescence is a unique period in every person's life.

So this website is dedicated to remembering the heady time of the Jones Beach Bums. And it is dedicated to helping us to reconnect once more, even if we are far apart.

Why? Because, as in the words of a popular song at that time - "Long ago I reached for you, and there you stood..."