The Chat Street

Gnome of

Yesteryear

You have located The Chat Street Gnome of Yesteryear!

In honor of this piercingly gnarly find, the gnome of which you have located comes with a very specific quest.

You must email your very own written, visual, or other artwork to berlinfolklore@gmail.com along with a picture of the gnome as validation that you have claimed and secured its little lore gnome body.

Your work will be featured in the subsequent phases of this living art project, further carrying on the local lore!

Greyed out along the Ocean City boardwalk during the restless energy of the late 1980s and early 1990s was a place known as Chat Street. This legend was part shop, part hangout, and part unofficial headquarters for the beach’s alternative youth culture.

Inside were racks of counterculture T-shirts, skateboards, gnarly stickers for your board, music, and odd little artifacts of the growing alternative scene.

Parents often forbade entry, and the real magic of Chat Street happened outside.

The low wall in front of the shop became a nightly gathering point where skate rats, zinesters, musicians, and curious wanderers gathered to behave and never commit any crimes ever.

Over time, like many pieces of boardwalk folklore, the shop faded away. Memories of Chat Street still drift through online forums and nostalgic conversations among those who remember Ocean City before smartphones, when the boardwalk itself was the social network.

References

Going Home Again. (2015). Ocean City memories: Chat Street and the early ’90s boardwalk scene.

City-Data Forum. (2014). ’90s Ocean City (Chat Street, et al.) discussion thread.