The wisdom of the Jersey Shore awning guy

Back in the day, says Bernie Soto Jr., 69, the family awning business started by his late father was doing 700 houses every season. Houses had porches. People talked to their neighbors. There was a little space between houses. Air flowed. Shade mattered.

Now, the Atlantic City-based Soto company is down to 400 houses where the awnings go up every summer. The new homes aren’t built for it, never mind the impact of central air on things like awnings, transoms, and ceiling fans, devaluing the very concept of the ocean breeze.

We spoke with Soto recentlyabout the changes.

Soto: More people are kind of going for indoor areas rather than outdoor. Years ago, everybody would be on their front porch, they communicated with their neighbors. Nowadays, a majority of them are indoors.

When they’re rebuilding their houses, they’re not putting porches on them. They are more on the inside of the house rather than outside. People just aren’t getting awnings.

It’s a different kind of look. In Ocean City, everything’s straight up. There’s no aesthetic look to it. Nothing looks nice like the old houses. They have front lawns, setbacks from the curb. They have room around each house, around 20 feet.

Nowadays, everything is about as close as you get to that neighbor. Then they get shades. They don’t go for awnings as much.

People are on the inside rather than the outside. They had big lots and subdivided them. So there’s two houses on one lot. We have a few customers, it’s like 339a and 339b, they had to give new addresses.

They don’t have them in mind. A lot of them can’t even accept awnings the way the houses are made. They don’t put trim around the windows a lot of time. Windows are built in the opening.

He started the business in 1962. He had worked with his boss, who rumor had it was the original awning guy in the area. My father started to work with him after World War II. He had the courage to open up his own business. He went to a bank. Didn’t have collateral. The bank took a chance on him, told him he had a silver spoon, as far as all the customers who would go with you. They always liked his work and they liked him.

I go up step ladders. Hopefully I have enough sense not to go up extension ladders.

No. My father’s boss was the same way. No kids. That’s how my father took over. I’ll work till I can’t do it anymore.

Right now, the last five or six years, they seem to be blue patterns. Solid blues. Striped patterns with blue. That’s the trend. Years ago, 15, 20 years ago, greens were very popular.