{"id":20191,"date":"2025-10-25T15:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/?p=20191"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:51:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:51:57","slug":"valhalla-i-have-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/25\/valhalla-i-have-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"valhalla, i have arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">cleaning out my photos and found this lil bit from reggie jones&#8217;s obituary, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/14\/nyregion\/reggie-jones-dead.html\">&#8220;Reggie Jones, Jones Beach\u2019s Longest-Serving Lifeguard, Dies at 93&#8221;<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Albert Reginald Jones was born in Manhattan on April 8, 1927, to Mary Kate and Adam Jones, Irish immigrants, and grew up on Long Island. As a wrestler at Baldwin High School, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/sports\/high-school\/wrestling\/long-island-wrestling-champions-1.1277165\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he won a Long Island championship in 1944.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That same year, his son said, he began lifeguarding at Jones Beach to escape working at his father\u2019s gas station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe never had a formal swimming lesson, but he was so strong he could have passed any test,\u201d the younger Mr. Jones said. \u201cOnce he got the job, he said, \u2018Valhalla, I have arrived.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"695\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo-695x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20193\" style=\"width:455px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo-695x1024.webp 695w, https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo-203x300.webp 203w, https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo-768x1132.webp 768w, https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo-1042x1536.webp 1042w, https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/merlin_183510312_2b88e657-899b-4168-be53-8dc80261366b-superJumbo.webp 1389w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 695px) 100vw, 695px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Mr. Jones at Robert Moses State Park on May 27, 1993, preparing to begin his 50th summer as a lifeguard. Credit&#8230;Vic DeLucia\/The New York Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>cleaning out my photos and found this lil bit from reggie jones&#8217;s obituary, &#8220;Reggie Jones, Jones Beach\u2019s Longest-Serving Lifeguard, Dies at 93&#8221;: Albert Reginald Jones was born in Manhattan on April 8, 1927, to Mary Kate and Adam Jones, Irish immigrants, and grew up on Long Island. As a wrestler at Baldwin High School, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1],"class_list":["post-20191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20191"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20223,"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20191\/revisions\/20223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbinderlocal455.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}