Special Event Driven By Cars, Games And Nostalgia

LAKEHURST – Food, fun, bingo and classic cars proved a popular combination for the recently held Beacon of Life Classic Showcase held within their parking lot and inside their facility.

Beacon of Life is a daily senior care facility but it recently served as the location for the first Golden Wheels Showcase that featured a variety of classic cars, free hamburgers, hot dogs and beverages, as well as musical entertainment and games of bingo at their 800 Route 70 location.

One of the most popular cars in the show was a replica of the 1969 Dodge Charger “The General Lee” that was used in the CBS comedy adventure series “The Dukes of Hazzard” that ran from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985, with a total of seven seasons consisting of 147 episodes. It was consistently among the top-rated television series in the late 1970s and early 1980s (at one point, ranking second only to Dallas, which immediately followed the show on the network’s Friday night schedule).

The car was also used in the 2005 big screen movie remake of the series. The car was also featured as part of two reunion movies of the original series and a prequel movie and featured in two seasons of a cartoon series simply called the “The Dukes.”

The Duke boys raced around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger stock car and for Toms River resident Mike Adessi, purchasing a replica of it “was a childhood dream. I got the car back in 2006. The people who built this actually built 10 cars for the movie. A lot of the cars were automatic. This one is a four speed and in real life and in the show, you never had any four speeds but I always wanted a 4 speed and a General Lee and that is how it became over the years.”

As to whether he met any of the show’s cast members at special events, he responded, “I have an autograph of Tom Wopat and John Schneider (Luke and Bo Duke). John is down in Virgina at Cooter’s Place (a museum that honors the TV show run by actor and former congressman Ben Jones who played Cooter the mechanic friend of the Duke boys) right now.”

Adessi said, “I met Ben Jones about 20 years ago when he was at the Ocean County Fair. I have a picture of him with my wife and my daughter. He has a grass roots band and he has his own General Lee there so we took a picture next to it. We are planning on going down there. It is an all-day thing.”

Beacon of Operations Director Gregory Pulley had his own favorite vehicle – Beacon of Life’s Indianapolis 500 Mercury Comet Cyclone GT PACE Car. The car is a play on words at Beacon of Life which is “part of Golden Age which is our parent company with the same concept in every county you are part of the PACE program.” Beacon of Life Lakehurst covers clients primarily in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

He explained that Beacon of Life’s mission is to provide the newest healthcare and social service choices for elders and that the facility was established to deliver PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) services.

Pulley said a new facility “will soon be opening in Middlesex, nursing home level of care and we are doing very well here.” He noted that the Beacon of Life which will soon celebrate its second year of operation in Lakehurst has had seen some modifications of space designed to add comfort to their clients.