SOUTH JERSEY

Watch me drive the tram car, please

Carly Q. Romalino
@CarlyQRomalino
Courier-Post reporter Carly Q. Romalino is given the opportunity to drive a Wildwood tram car while working on a story about John "Gig" Gigliotti of West Deptford who has been driving Wildwood's iconic Sightseer tram car for decades and is a staple of the Wildwood boardwalk.

WILDWOOD – Dodging the Wildwoods' Sighteer tram car on a crowded Boardwalk is as much a staple Jersey Shore event as the century-old island-hosted National Marbles Tournament.

I've pulled my younger brother off the tram's path. Embarrassingly, I've been the cause for "watch the tram car, please" to ring out, warning it's about to barrel through at 5 mph.

On any given summer Saturday night, I've jumped out of the tram car's way, thinking "how do the driver's do it?

Last week I answered that question.

What if boardwalkers don't watch the tram car – please?

John "Gig" Gigliotti, Sightseer's longtime driver and supervisor, put me behind the wheel of the battery-powered engine on a Friday afternoon.

Gig fell in love with the tram car company more than 20 years ago in his first year of retirement as a Conrail conductor.

Behind the wheel of the yellow-and-blue sightseeing beast, it didn't take me long to fall in love, too.

Despite the dented hood and crunched bumper of my 2007 Hyundai, the 79-year-old West Deptford man had faith I wouldn't take down any municipal trash cans, strollers or leashed dogs.

Yet, I was nervous.

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Courier-Post reporter Carly Q. Romalino with long-time tram car operator John "Gigi" Gigliotti, of West Deptford in Wildwood.

I've seen how dense the boards get on a Friday. I've seen how the tram's front headlights and resounding "w-w-w-w-watch the tram car, please" part the sea of boardwalkers.

I also know my track record with motorized vehicles.

Since the great bumper-car fail of late 1990s — stuck in an embarrassing circle in Morey's Piers Super Scooters track while my brother whizzed by — my behind-the-wheel time on the boards has been limited.

"I'll be sitting right behind you," Gig assured me.

I climbed into the metal engine, bumping my head on its ceiling. Good start.

Gig pointed to two foot pedals – right accelerates, left stops.

A small switch on the right panel of the car puts it in gear.

Another switch to the left plays the famous "watch the tram car, please" warning.

Slowly lower the accelerator, Gig instructed.

The car moved forward, inching over the boards.

"You can go faster. Put the pedal all the way down," Gig said.

And like that, we were rolling at full throttle – a 5 mile-per-hour cruising speed. Fast by Boardwalk-authorized vehicle standards.

My hair blew back. The damp 65-degree sea air hit my face. We were off — heading north from the Wildwood Convention Center toward Cedar Avenue at Harry's Corner, an area of the boards my mom calls "the turn."

I was a one-woman parade, waving — with perhaps too much excitement — to t-shirt shopkeepers, to too-cool teens on skateboards and senior citizens shaking their fists at the "watch the tram car, please" warning I refused to turn off.

Then, ignoring my repetitive warning, a teenage boy pushed two teenage girls in my path.

"MOVE IT. YOU'RE TAKING YOUR LIVES INTO YOUR HANDS," I yelled.

My instinct was to hit the brakes.

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On a stopped tram car, Courier-Post reporter Carly Q. Romalino snaps a photo of her self and long-time tram car operator John "Gigi" Gigliotti in the tram's mirror.

Gig and his crew of 42 fellow drivers face that anxiety every day.

While some operators flip on the recording every time they're cutting through a particularly crowded section of Boardwalk, he plays it safe, keeping the refrain sounding for most of the two-mile ride from the convention center to the North Wildwood.

"You have to keep focused," he told me.

Especially on Saturday nights.

Tram drivers stop for two reasons: To let a passenger on and to let a passenger off.

"Play the recording and keep going," Gig said.

"That's our only defense."

Carly Q. Romalino; (856) 486-2476; cromalino@courierpostonline.com