Knight at the Museum: Stone Harbor’s Citizen of the Year Brings the Past to Life
The Stone Harbor Property Owners Association named a unique Citizen of the Year for 2023.
The honoree is not a SHPOA member, liaison for the organization, or a local representative tracking Stone Harbor development … or even a resident these days.
He’s an ambassador, for the entire borough.
A rare high profile now greets Jim Talone, who joins a list of Stone Harbor movers and shakers sharing this distinction. The tireless volunteer, retired teacher, Vietnam veteran, and fixture at the Stone Harbor Museum joins a list of well-known borough pioneers to win this award.
That group includes Clinton Bunting, who revived the mall and movie theater on 96th Street, and the tandem of Ed Breen and John Sprandio, who launched The Reeds at Shelter Haven.
Unlike them, Talone did not offer Stone Harbor a business vision. He produced a bridge to its past.
“One of the things I love about the museum is that for many visitors, this is their happy place,” Talone says. “They may come down for only a couple of weeks each year, but when you are in Stone Harbor, all your troubles seem to fade away.
“There have been so many neat people who love this place, it’s a real pleasure to work with them,” he adds. “I didn’t know all the history of Stone Harbor when I started. One of the joys of my life has been volunteering at the museum.
“This is a wonderful honor.”
The museum, opened in 1999, is a treasure trove of artifacts, videos, and pictures.
The first deed to Stone Harbor in the 1700s can be found there. So can pictures of Stone Harbor when it had a boardwalk, old railroads, the effects of storms, and a rich overall sense of history. There are vintage houses, individual stories, and thousands of photos.
At times, the museum has boasted more than 40 volunteers.
Talone, a former museum president, has produced more than 65 Museum Minute videos detailing interesting historical notes. One outlines a free bridge in southern Stone Harbor, built during the Great Depression, and employing 500 local people.
The borough jewel links generations by bringing the past alive.
“When we look at the Citizen of the Year, we want to select someone who has made significant contributions to Stone Harbor,” says Richard Fuchs, president of the SHPOA.
“We think the museum is an excellent place. Jim has been one of the drivers of what the museum is doing now. He is more than just somebody who is involved. Between the reading programs and all the other activities, this is somebody who clearly has invested a lot of time and his talent in making Stone Harbor a better place. Jim is somebody who makes a difference.”
Fuchs says his son, Sam, who has served on the Stone Harbor Beach Patrol, loved seeing pictures of the lifeguard saving station.
Acknowledging the museum’s importance, SHPOA sponsored a fall 5K run and donated the more than $4,000 in proceeds to the organization.
The museum brings Talone’s love affair with Stone Harbor full circle.
Like many others, his began with a summer vacation. Talone’s family came here every year from Ardmore, Pa., and the thrill never ebbed.
“I have wonderful memories of Stone Harbor as a kid,” he recalls. “It was great coming down here, spending our days on the beach, being in the water, and enjoying the simple life. There was no telephone, no TV. We played board games, we talked, we entertained ourselves. As time passed, this is the place my family came to consider our summer home.”
His adult vision grew more nostalgic. Talone recalls the film “Atlantic City” in which Burt Lancaster looks out over the water and says, “You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days.”
Lancaster could have just as easily been standing in Stone Harbor.
When he retired from a 40-year teaching career in Pennsylvania, Jim and his wife Pamela purchased a place on 83rd Street. They later sold it and moved to a larger offshore home in Cape May Court House. The couple have two children and celebrated their 50th anniversary this year.
Along the way, Talone became more immersed in the museum. He made several endearing contacts, including one with Bill Dougherty, a World War II veteran who had been coming to Stone Harbor since the 1930s. Dougherty died at age 95 in 2020. Talone knew him for five years.
In his museum role, Talone has gone the extra mile by applying his teaching and film credentials. Producing a movie on Stone Harbor for its 100th anniversary in 2014, he realized part of the story could not be told correctly. There were no direct ties to local African American history.
Seven years and about 600 hours of his time later came “Miracle on 81st Street,” commemorating Stone Harbor’s African American community. Talone had laboriously tracked down descendants, conducted interviews, and performed edits, etc.
Many of the participants, now in their 70s, lived in Cape May Court House. One woman was based in Philadelphia. He drove there to conduct the interviews and then painstakingly put it together.
There is nothing more tedious than editing hours of video. This was a true labor of love.
“I wanted the story to be told through the Black voices, so, one by one, the interviews happened,” he says. “One person would lead you to the next and that person would lead you to the next, etc. I enjoyed doing it. One of the artistic highlights of my life was showing the movie to the people who were in it. Every editorial decision that had been made was responded to.
“One gentleman started laughing at what seemed like the right times and it broke the whole house up. People don’t get too many opportunities to talk about themselves to someone who wants to listen.”
Talone has told the same thing to students over the years and produced some interesting projects himself. One is a group he works with called the Stone Harbor Writers. Another was his memoir, “There It Is,” describing his service as a Marine infantry platoon commander in Vietnam. He was awarded a Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action.
Roughly five decades after serving, Talone downplays his bravery in leading his troops to safety amid heavy enemy fire. He emphasizes a major life lesson gleaned from the experience.
“I appreciate being alive,” says Talone, now 79. “It’s hard to feel sorry for myself. You learn to appreciate everything you have.”
So much so that in Vietnam he felt comfortable staying in a man-made bunker that was 3 feet high, 8 feet long, and 4 feet wide. Sandbags over the top became the “roof” of his “home.”
“We laughed in there, we told jokes, everything,” Talone recalls. “You were happy that you had visitors. When you go through that, you realize you can live through anything. That has helped me get through things that might stop other people sometimes.”
That philosophy became a metaphor for his life. Operate in any space available. Persevere. Grind out tasks one at a time, regardless of who notices. If some people do, that’s a bonus.
In this case, some prominent people did.
