By Tim Kelly
Consider, if you will, the Ocean City Beach Patrol’s lifeguard stand. Never has such a well-known O.C. symbol been so little understood. The white wooden stands with the distinctive blue trim and red lettering are unique to South Jersey’s beach communities, and functionally more useful to the professional men and women who patrol the resort’s 40 guarded beaches. More than that, they are some of the most photographed and romanticized symbols of Ocean City. By day, people snap photos of the stands, which are numbered or named with the corresponding street designation, often with an OCBP boat visible in the background. After the guards move the stands beyond high tide’s reach and leave their posts in late afternoon, kids play on them and sometimes get into routine mischief. Couples snuggle in them. At daybreak, people sit in them to watch the sunrise. Images of the lifeguard stands are even depicted on Christmas ornaments. Search the internet and you won’t find much documented history about the lifeguard stands, despite being an O.C. tradition for 99 summers now. What you will find are items for sale, including replicas of all sizes, tree ornaments, refrigerator magnets, beach towels, coffee mugs, post cards, art prints, calendars and all other manner of OCBP lifeguard stand kitsch. We’re told that tiny wooden depictions of the stands even dangle from women’s earrings, although that one hasn’t yet been confirmed. So what’s the big deal about some wooden lifeguard stands? “Jack Jernee, Beach Patrol captain from 1920 to 1942, designed them,” local historian Fred Miller said. “Here was a man who was clearly ahead of his time.” Jernee was a World War I (Coast Guard) and World War II (Navy) veteran who changed the name of the former Ocean City Lifeguards to the Beach Patrol. Wanting his guards to have all the best equipment, he was responsible for many other innovations still in use today. George Becker Sr., in a possibly staged photo, demonstrates leaping into action from a lifeguard stand around 1925. (Photo courtesy of Bob’s Oceanfront Restaurant) Jernee thought outside the box of the open lifeguard chair with attached umbrella, which remains the standard guard station in most area beach communities. Instead, he created his own box of sorts, a wooden design about 10 feet high and four feet wide. He attached a “roof” to the structure, which gave the stands several advantages over the old chair design. The roof tilts down at a slight angle to the back side to facilitate water drainage. For a time there was a rail along the back side to prevent beach chairs from sliding off. When a few falls resulted anyway, guards were told no more beach chairs up top. “The roof was really all about sun protection. At that time, people didn’t think much about sun protection, but (Jernee) did,” said Miller, an OCBP alum, longtime lieutenant, Beach Patrol historian and author. “He encouraged the guards to use suntan lotion (sunscreens and SPF ratings were still a half century in the future) and to protect themselves from the sun as much as possible.” “Very little was known about the dangers of long-term exposure to the sun, but Jack seemed to have a sense of it,” Miller added. The roof also enabled the guards to stand atop their perch for a better view of their surroundings. “Put that stand at the water’s edge and stand up on that roof and you can really see a lot, especially on a crowded beach day,” Miller said. The innovative design allows lifeguards to stand on top of the roof for a clear view of swimmers. Jernee is credited with designing the distinctive color scheme of the stands, as well as the OCBP’s uniforms. “He was one of the most patriotic people in town, at a very patriotic time in this country,” Miller said. “That’s why he painted the stands red, white and blue, and why he dressed the guards in those colors.”