Nature Done Wright

By Jack Garrett

      I think it is safe to say that my father would have been extremely gratified with the concept of a Garrett Family Preserve. The motivation for buying the shell of an unfinished building that would become our summer home was my father's love of the Victorian architecture that set Cape May apart from other Jersey shore locations. 

    He loved the detail of the gingerbread that was the defining characteristic of that architecture, as well as the varied color schemes that decorated houses of that style. Much of that architecture is gone now, though enough remains that the flavor is still there. 

   Jim Garrett was employed, throughout his career, by almost all of the newspapers in Philadelphia, but my recollection has him at The Philadelphia Inquirer in my lifetime.

    He and my mother died in 1971, three weeks apart, both aged 69. He had retired from the Inquirer several years before that, but I am unable to recall the date. He was not a well person in those days. 

   The house that became our summer home was purchased in 1944. I was the middle son of three. We were Jimmy, age 14 at the time; Jackie, 8, and Bobby, 6. 

    To say that our summers in Cape May were a mind-expanding experience is certainly an understatement. There's a saying that says it best: "Once you get Cape May sand in your shoes, you never get it out."