The Mid-Atlantic Tiki ohana is alive and well and was spotted in Wildwood NJ over the weekend of May 15-17, 2015. Mod Betty of Retro Roadmap, with a little help from The Thrifty Discount DJs and yours truly from A. Panda’s Tiki Lounge, held the first annual Wildwood Vintage Tiki Weekend at the Caribbean Motel. We had a great time here at the Doo-Wop capital of the world!
So what is Doo-Wop? I myself didn’t know, until Beth Lennon a/k/a Mod Betty approached me with her idea for this weekend, after we both attended The Hukilau in June of 2014. Doo-Wop describes a lifestyle from the 1950s and early 1960s in the USA, centered around architecture, music, and entertainment. Other parts of the world refer to this style as Googie, another word I had to go look up in Wikipedia. Whatever you call it, The Wildwoods in NJ have it in spades, and are working hard to preserve it. And Mod Betty seized the opportunity to combine two of her passions, retro and Tiki, into one event. Brilliant!
Friday night began with a cocktail reception and music provided by A. Panda’s Tiki Lounge, featuring my own Mai-Tai recipe. It seemed to be well-received. After nightfall, we all boarded buses for a guided tour of North Wildwood, Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest, hosted by the Doo-Wop Preservation League. We saw many amazing motels, restaurants, and bars, culminating in a stop at the Cool Scoops Ice Cream Parlor, a 1950s memorabilia lover’s dream!
Saturday day morning and early afternoon allowed me some free time with the family. We spent it on the Boardwalk in Wildwood, browsing through gift shops, playing games in a vintage arcade, and scarfing down some Mack’s Pizza. I grew up eating this pizza as a young kid, and now my son Ryan is addicted to it as well! 
Once 3pm rolled around, it was time for the main events of the weekend to begin. These included a room crawl/swap meet, limbo contest, fashion show, and wonderful dinner of pig roast, barbecue chicken, and all of the trimmings. And there was more rum. Lots of rum! Thanks to Mod Betty, Cliff Hillis, and the many guests who served drinks in their rooms during the crawl, we didn’t run out of rum until well into the night!
The Thrifty Discount DJs spun cool lounge and exotica tunes all afternoon and evening, and as the sun went down, the vintage Tiki revelers kept up the merriment with dancing, drinking, and socializing. At one point I asked the DJ if he had the theme from Hawaii Five-0, which of course he managed to dig up and play right away. I grabbed the nearest, able-bodied men I could find and we proceeded to get on the floor and paddle the outrigger from the show’s closing credits. We were cheered on by the beautiful dancing ladies in their retro dresses. Good times!
As Sunday morning dawned, some of us took off early to head home or grab some breakfast, while others stuck around to take some last pictures and say their goodbyes…for now. Everybody had a great time at this first Vintage Tiki weekend, and we look forward to doing it again next year. A big mahalo goes out to Mod Betty of Retro Roadmap for organizing this wonderful event! To all of the Tiki ohana who made it this year, and to those of you who couldn’t make it but will be here next year, I say the same thing: Aloha.
A. Panda's Tiki Lounge 