Love was flowing for Ocean City and its downtown from pajama-clad shoppers at Earlier than the Bird
OCEAN CITY – The superlatives were flowing for Ocean City and its downtown as shoppers wearing pajamas crowded the resort during the annual Earlier than the Bird promotion on Asbury Avenue Saturday morning.
Earlier than the Bird features business discounts – along with free coffee and doughnuts – for the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Many of the shoppers had on holiday-themed pajamas and spirits were running high.
“I do love small business. I get to know all the shop owners and I especially love getting all dressed up because everybody is so friendly and talking to each other about the costumes,” said Susan McDevitt of Cherry Hill and Ocean City. “I call this my Mayberry by the Sea. Ocean City is my Mayberry by the Sea.”
McDevitt was wearing pajamas and sporting a Minnie Mouse bow atop her head. She was with her friend, Jayna Garner of Marlton, who was in a full pajamas outfit looking like Angel from the cartoon movie “Lilo and Stitch.”
“My boyfriend has the Stitch outfit,” Garner said, “but he’s still in bed. We look better together.”
Garner said she “absolutely loves” the downtown and was in the resort getting ready for the holiday season and “just to enjoy the community in Ocean City.”
Moving to Ocean City, she added, “is our future someday.”
McDevitt loves to have people stay with her for the Earlier than the Bird promotion and she spends half of her time in the resort.
“You get a taste for this town and you fall in love,” McDevitt said. “It’s so family. It’s our happy place.”
Francesca Lacey, a kindergarten teacher at Ocean City Primary School, and Angel Siligrini of Northfield were wearing matching pajamas, part of a long family tradition.
“I live in Northfield, but I love Asbury Avenue,” Siligrini said. “I’ve been coming here all my life. It’s a fun street to shop, and it is a fun day for mommy and daughter to get out and enjoy the wonderful stores and look at everybody go by in their cute little jammies.”
“We do matching Christmas pajamas,” Lacey said. “We used to growing up every year.”
“Once she (Lacey) had the baby we stopped but last night we said, ‘What pajamas are we going to wear?’ We have a box of our matching pajamas and we chose these because it was going to be a little chilly today,” Siligrini said.
She added, “Her husband looked at me when I arrived and said, ‘Is this going to be an every-year thing?’”
“We also do different hats on Christmas Eve growing up so we have an assortment of hats. We always do karaoke in matching hats for Christmas,” Lacey said.
Ocean City residents Bob and Carol Marceluk had a very specific reason for shopping during Earlier than the Bird.”
“Mostly a discount at the bookstore, Sun Rose Words & Music, because we want local bookstores so we buy here instead of Amazon,” Bob Marceluk said.
Carol agreed and added, “And it’s fun. You’ve got to have fun these days. The event is positive and fun and friendly.”
Unlike many in pajamas with Christmas themes, Tana and Mike Schimpf of Little Falls were Thanksgiving-oriented. Tana had a full turkey apron and hat and Mike sported a turkey topping as well.
Where did they find the garb? “It comes from home,” Tana Schimpf said, laughing. “I love dressing up. I found them separately and purchased them. This is from a Thanksgiving past,” she said, pointing to the turkey hat on her husband’s head. “It was my kid’s and now it’s my husband’s. My friend’s husband has the other turkey hat.”
“The weather is great so it’s perfect,” Mike Schimpf said. “It’s the perfect time to be here,” Tana added. “Earlier than the Bird is great shopping, great people, we love Ocean City.”
New business owner Debbie Cappuccio got into the spirit of things, wearing sparkly antlers and reindeer pajamas at the corner of Ninth Street and Asbury Avenue, handing out fliers.
She opened 9th Street Nutrition just a few weeks earlier, a business that offers energy teas, protein shakes, protein doughnuts, protein coffee and more.
“I think it’s a great thing,” she said about Earlier than the Bird. “It’s great to support local.”
She decided to open her store at 507 Ninth St. “because I love the community down here and I think it will be a great fit because everyone is getting into health and fitness.”
Cousins Jean Kling and Phyllis Turner said they have been coming to Earlier than the Bird for years. Kling pulled out her cell phone to show a picture of the two of them.
“Ten years ago it was Nov. 19, 2011 and we’re 10 years younger,” Kling said, laughing.
Turner said when the event started the morning began at 7 a.m. rather than the current 8 a.m.
“It was less crowded then,” she pointed out, “but it was colder.”
Turner was wearing pajamas featuring Christmas trees. They were on her mind because she had to decide whether to get a live or artificial trees this season.
Kling, who said “the big thing is the discounted shopping,” was wearing pajamas covered with cardinals and she had a stuffed cardinal toy by her head. She noted she is a big fan of the bird, but not the football team.
“Tradition,” Stephanie DiBartolo said about coming to Earlier than the Bird every year. “I love the downtown. I love to support local businesses as well.
“It’s the one time I can wear pajamas in public and not be bashed by him,” she said, laughing and pointing to her husband Angelo, who works in the guidance department at Ocean City Intermediate School. Noting that he did support his wife and kids “from a distance,” Angelo laughed too. He was wearing jeans.
They were with daughter Natalie and son Mario.
Mario likes the morning because he was able to wear pajamas, get hot chocolate, see Santa Claus and check out the surf stores. As for Natalie, her priorities were obvious. She was off browsing in a store to check out the holiday specials.
Cathy and George Minner moved to Ocean City in January from Philadelphia.
And what was the lure of shopping in pajamas?
“Well, it’s comfortable and it just so happens to be a beautiful day today. So why not get out and enjoy the sunshine,” Cathy Minner said. As for her husband, who was wearing a huge red hat, “Whatever I tell him, he does,” she added, smiling.
“Did it take coaxing to dress up? “No. Not at all,” George said. He said it was fun to walk around and be dressed up for a good occasion.
Pottstown, Pa. residents Trudy McLaughlin and Sue Dudek were strolling Asbury Avenue in winter jackets and pajamas.
“We each have a place here in Ocean City. We’re lifelong friends and decided to come down and share our love for Ocean City,” McLaughlin said.
“And do a little Christmas shopping, just to be out and enjoy the day,” Dudek added. “Ocean City is so wonderful to offer all these different events throughout the year.”
“It’s one of the many things that makes Ocean City so great,” Pete Sokolowski of Ocean City said of the event. “I’ve always said it feels like a small-town community and this is just evidence of that. It almost feels like you’re living a hundred years ago and it’s a perfect place.”
“Every year I come down,” said Hetty Sokołowski. “This year my friends couldn’t join me so my husband’s joining me and we’re having the time of our life. He’s getting to experience what we experienced for the past few years.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
