We grew up a short car ride from the beach. We are now looking through some pictures of ourselves on those same beaches as a child. {Narrator now puts on extra blanket, and his teeth in, to begin tales from yesteryear....} Back in the good old days, Ocean City was a true family resort. The 'resort' pretty much ended with the end of the boardwalk-many of the northern areas were still secluded, or at least undeveloped. The arcades were safe {pinball and Skeeball were kings}, the rides adequate and the restaurants often served acceptable food for a reasonable price. We stopped going to Ocean City over ten years ago, even when we still lived nearby. Our thoughts being that there was no privacy, inadequate parking, inefficient {or worse} seasonal police would take you to jail for a noise violation but not arrest the real criminals, roving gangs that took over the boardwalk and side streets after midnight, and blight increased due to the combination of factors above.Several years ago we moved across the bridge, and have witnessed the pilgrimage of horror that is now beginning on route 50 east towards the beach. Yes, traffic is awful already as people try to get "an early start." Given the gas prices, the soon-to-be-higher tolls and the maddening back-ups that make a 2-3 hour drive take 5 hours or more, what is it that brings people here?? Maybe we just aren't a beach person. We love the water, but hate the sand, and the wall-to-wall bodies {especially the 300 pound woman who has fashioned a ground tarp into a Moo-MooKini, and throws french fries to seagulls while dumping her cigarette butts in the sand}. It also doesn't help that we have traveled quite a bit in the last decade, and seen much better beaches in the Carolinas and Caribbean. We will be honest, we don't know what to write this weekend-there is too much tragedy going on. But if any Marylanders have a counter-point, or agree with us, please just help us understand. We just don't need to catch skin cancer that badly, we guess.