Howard and Betty Height are not the governor, but they have a house on Island Beach State Park.

So do five other families.

But while Gov. Chris Christie and his family tanned, the other families burned -- with anger.

The other Island Beach residents were ordered out of the homes Friday night under the threat of arrest. They packed up and drove off, right past the governor's summer retreat, its lights ablaze with activity.

The other Island Beach residents pre-date Christie by a half-century. They were grandfathered-in back in 1953 when the state bought the island to make it a park.

There were about 100 such beach shacks back then and the state reached a lifetime lease agreement for the owners and their descendants.

Sixty-four years later only six remain.

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They are strictly seasonal, getaway bungalows tucked behind dunes and hidden in the forest of dwarf cedars and pines, and thickets of bayberry, beach palms, and, yes, crazy amounts of poison ivy.

They pay $1,900 a year but get no services or utilities. Electricity comes from gas generators or solar panels or propane. They carry in their own drinking water. They do their own spraying for the uncontrollable mosquitoes and green and black flies.

It's roughing it, for sure, but it's home for the summer - at least for vacations.

So Howard and Betty Height were surprised when park police knocked on the door Friday night and told them they had to scoot.

"They're good guys," Howard Height said. "They were just doing their job. But they said if we weren't gone by midnight, we'd be arrested."

On Friday, the Heights and other families had received calls saying the park might close but lease holders could come in, limited to two people per house.

The Heights packed up and brought in enough food for four days, including the horseradish for Betty's clam fritters. Howard rakes them out of the bay and they're on the table in less than an hour.

Howard Height's family dates back to the Island for more than 70 years. Their home got washed away during the Hurricane of 1944.

Another family, the Herberts, who were also kicked off, have been coming at least 60 years.

"It's terrible," Howard said. "I feel sorry for the people who rented houses or motel rooms near the park."

The park was closed once before during a state budget mess. That was during the Jon Corzine administration.

"But he had the sense to keep the park open until July 5, after the holiday," Height said.

No such luck - or sense - this year.

This governor didn't even have the sense, in his words, "to get the hell off the beach" after the park was closed.

So, in true Nero-fiddling-while-Rome-burns fashion, there was Gov. Chris Christie lounging in a beach chair Sunday with his wife and son nearby. The photo, captured from the air by a New Jersey Advance Media photographer Andy Mills, went viral.

Still, Christie said he didn't get any sun before he helicoptered back to Trenton. The explanation? He was wearing a hat.

The Heights went back home to Manasquan, waiting for the budget mess to clear.

The six beach shacks - and one that is just a shell called "The Judge's Cottage" -- have survived Sandy, Irene and all the other great Atlantic storms.

They were built during the time when the land was owned by philanthropist Henry Phipps, a partner of Andrew Carnegie as well as a Florida real estate mogul. He developed Miami's famed Biscayne Boulevard and owned a third of Palm Beach.

He saw Island Beach as a potential Palm Beach of the north and Phipps built his mansion on the Atlantic.

It never materialized. The Depression came and people who had to eat started building camps on the island to fish and clam. Phipps let them stay.

Today Phipp's home is the governor's mansion, which is still open while the rest of the park is closed. Christie is vacationing while the taxpayers who bought it and maintain his shore house it were turned away at the gate.

At a press conference yesterday, Christie bristled when asked about his vacation stay.

"Run for governor and you can have a residence there," is how he answered reporters.

But the Heights, the Herberts and the other families that aren't governors got run out of the homes they built and paid for.

"We're angry," Height said. "Shouldn't we be?"

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.