Positively New Jersey: 96-year-old WWII veteran talks about his life and legacy
Jules Resnick, 96, entered basic training a week after his graduation in Trenton High School.
More Stories
News 12’s Brian Donohue met up with beloved WWII veteran Jules Resnick at the Jersey Shore.
Resnick, 96, entered basic training a week after his graduation in Trenton High School.
“To go to hit Japan. As cannon fodder. That’s really what it was. We were young kids,” he said.
Resnick went on to serve in the Philippines until returning home in 1946.
After the war, he operated businesses on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, including the Planters nuts stand, an ice cream and waffle shop and the Maxwell House coffee stand from 1957 to 1987.
Resnick was there through Asbury’s glory years and its eventual economic decline. He shut his stand for the last time on a hot July day in 1987.
“I pulled the windows down. locked the doors and threw the key in the ocean,” he said.
He then worked as an electrician and for a funeral home for the next 30 years.
Resnick has become a beloved fixture on the Ocean Grove boardwalk, where he spends many summer days.
Resnick says he is proud looking back on his life.
“I have no fear for tomorrow. If I'm not here, I've lived a good life,” he said.
