Watch the Tram Car Please

'Voice' Behind Wildwood's Tram Cars Never Expected Fame
POSTED: 5:28 pm EDT May 17, 2007
NBC Ted Greenberg

WILDWOOD, N.J. -- The tram cars are a staple of the Wildwood boardwalk, and along with them comes that famous voice.

Slideshow: Wildwood To Unveil New Tram Cars

You know the one. She tells us to "Watch the tram cars please!"

The woman who made that recording still lives here in the Wildwoods. When she made it in the early 70s, she never thought it would become a phrase so many people instantly connect with the Jersey Shore.

They are five words that first rolled off Floss Stingel's tongue 36 years ago.

"They were looking for a new recording," Stingel said. "I just spoke into a little tape recorder and that was it. Watch the tram car please. Watch the tram car please. … I became the voice of the tram car."

Stingel, now 67, made the recording in 1971 as a favor to her then-boyfriend, who worked for the company that owned the Wildwood's boardwalk tram cars.

"Didn't think much of it," Stingel said.

The boyfriend is long gone. But Stingel's voice never left the resort's wooden way.

"I think it still sounds the same except once in a while when it skips," she said. "… Sometimes it's annoying to hear it too much if I'm walking up here and hear it a lot."

But for many others, the phrase instantly transports them back to the childhoods in the Wildwoods.

"A lot of people walking will tell me hit the button," said tram car supervisor John Gigliotti. "People want to hear it."

The trams have fixtures in the wildwoods since 1949. This summer, five new passenger cars -- designed to be more comfortable -- are being built for the first time in 44 years.

"I think it's great. Anything they do to them, it's great … any improvements," Stingel said.
Stingel is now retired after working for South Jersey Gas Company for 40 years. She lives in North Wildwood, and still finds time to ride the tram cars that have carried her voice up and down the boards for more than three decades.

"It's something you expect to see. It's part of the town," Stingel said.

NBC 10's Ted Greenberg reported that Stingel was not paid a cent to make the recording, but these days she usually gets to ride the trams for free.