Millers’ time to relax

Curtis and Sandra Miller are spending less time in Wildwood lately. The couple have worked for more than two decades serving the needy here. Now they are hoping to officially begin their retirement in Sumter, S.C., before Christmas.

By MAUREEN L. CAWLEY
Staff Writer
WILDWOOD – In the Air Force, they call it a PCS – a Permanent Change of Station. And that’s what Curtis and Sandra Miller are calling their move to Sumter, S.C. after two decades of service in Cape May County.
“It’s the longest time we’ve stayed in one place,” Sandra said. “It’s time for a change.”
Their partnership began 31 years ago in California, where they met on an Air Force base, where Curtis was stationed and Sandra worked as a civilian employee.
Curtis, a Wildwood native, joined the Air Force in 1956 on what he calls the grandmother plan.
“I quit school and (my grandmother) signed me up,” he said.
“It didn’t hurt him one bit,” his wife says.
While enlisted, Curtis got his GED and became a jet engine mechanic. He was later certified in defense race relations and worked as a human relations instructor, focusing on drug and alcohol education.
“I think the military offers people who don’t have means a chance,” he said.
You can get an education and get out and still have a second career, he said. “I got out at 37.”
When Curtis retired from Air Force, Sandra moved to Wildwood with him.
And since then both Millers have worked tirelessly at providing services to low-income residents of Wildwood and Cape May County.
Curtis’s military experience and knowledge of the region made him ideally qualified to head up Cape Human Resources (CHR), an organization dedicated to assisting the county’s low-income residents.
As head of that agency, he’s helped provide food and heating assistance to countless local residents. He served on Wildwood’s council for 10 years, and over the years he’s worked with numerous organizations, whose goals aligned with those of CHR. These included: the Salvation Army, The American Cancer Society, South Jersey Health Systems, Atlantic County Community College’s Minority Affairs Committee and the Civil Air Patrol.
But Curtis is quick to say he hasn’t done it alone.
“I’ve been his Girl Friday,” Sandra teases.
Curtis says his wife helped out whenever she was needed. Much of the work they’ve done has depended on the commitment of other volunteers, Curtis said. His approach to getting help is a simple one, modeled after the military recruiters he’s seen in action. You assume consent, he says.
He demonstrates by nodding like a bobblehead doll and saying, “You want to sign up, don’t you?”
“We’ve always gotten help when we needed it,” he said.
“My job has mostly been to support him,” Sandra said, but she has followed her own path as well, working as a social worker for the county and on Wildwood’s school board for seven years.
“That was an education for me,” she said. “I will miss it.”
Sandra said she believes the current administration is making strides toward improving the education system here, but added, “There’s always room for improvement.”
The Miller’s work in the community has allowed them to see the best and the worst in people, they say.
“People make bad choices,” Curtis said, “and create a need for themselves sometimes.”
That part of the job is discouraging, but the work can be rewarding as well.
“Once in while, you open a letter (that says you’ve helped),” Curtis said.
He keeps a box of “thank you” notes on a shelf.
“One thank you can overcome 500 of the other type,” he said.
The community has changed a lot since Curtis was young, he said.
“This was a great place to grow up,” he said, remembering the train that pulled in on Andrews Avenue and the famous African American entertainers who performed in local clubs. He lists two dozen of them including: The Red Caps, Lionel Hampton, The Treniers, Freddy Bell and The Bellboys, and The Platters.
“Have you heard of Dizzy Gillespie?” he asks. “I saw him once, here. I was standing on my bicycle, looking through the window of the Club Esquire watching him play.”
A placard from the former Club Esquire sits by the door to his office. Miller said he will donate it to the Wildwood Historical Society before he leaves.
“Everybody looked out for everybody then,” Curtis said.
There wasn’t day care, but he and his friends were directed by their parents to check in with the black lifeguards on Garfield Avenue.
“They looked after us all day,” he said. “The same families lived here. The same families visited. People worked two jobs and sat on the porch at night and talked.”
In recent years the price of housing has forced many residents out.
“If you are low income, you better be on your way out,” Curtis said, “because you can’t afford the rents.”
The Millers say that their decision to leave Wildwood was only partially financial. They own two homes in Wildwood, which are currently up for sale.
“I could afford to stay. I don’t want to afford it,” he said. “I don’t want to pay the taxes.”
Curtis said a highlight of their years in Wildwood was raising their family, attending Little League football games, soccer games and high school basketball games.
“It was the wildest ride,” he said.
Their four oldest children are spread out across the United States from California to Pennsylvania, but their youngest daughter, Marie, a graduate of Wildwood High, attends college near Sumter, so they expect to see more of her there. They are planning on spending Thanksgiving together, and they are hoping to be permanently settled in their new home by Christmas.
Many of the Millers’ new neighbors in South Carolina are old military friends, Curtis said. So the move is in many ways a homecoming.
“(Wildwood) is a non-military community, so sometimes it seems we have little in common with a whole lot of folks here,” Sandra said.
Curtis added, “If you live here and you are poor, you have a problem. In the military, we take care of everything and everybody. Maybe that’s what made us good at the jobs we did here. Maybe it made us compassionate enough to want to help.”
Sandra agreed, and added, “I’ve come to know a lot of good people county-wide. I’ll miss them.”
Curtis said his replacement at CHR, Felicia Smith, was going to do a fine job continuing his work.
“She’ll be an excellent replacement,” he said. “It’s time for other people to take over and to give back to the community.”
Curtis said there are many here that he will miss.
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” he said.