A BENNY IN SHOOBIE LAND
For most of my life I have lived in the Garden
State and for all my years I’ve been a “Benny”. That’s the derogatory term for
a tourist to the northern part of the Jersey Shore. Bennies come from the North
Jersey/NYC area and are usually loud, crass and doling out $100 bills like they
were singles.
I can attest that I lived up to the description,
except for the, ahem, large bill part. I doled out singles like they were gold
bricks.
Janet is a “Shoobie”. They are tourists to the
southern portion of the New Jersey coast; from Long Beach Island to Cape May. The
derogatory name supposedly comes from the late 1800’s when tourists from the Philadelphia
area traveled by train to the New Jersey beaches, usually with a lunch packed
in a shoebox that was bought onboard. 
NECESSARY EVILS
Despite the name-calling, and whatever the meaning behind the names, tourism is an important industry in
New Jersey. Bennies and Shoobies are a mixed blessing to the beach town
communities from Sandy Hook in the north to Cape May in the south. All the
towns rely on tourism dollars in a short season of just over three months, and
from Memorial Day to Labor Day these communities swell with vacationers,
clogging traffic, clogging the boardwalks, transforming the serenity of the seaside
into a bustling money-making churn and not without the notice of year-round residents
who spit venom with their derisive comments at this necessary onslaught of
commerce.
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| Belmar beach tags |
Despite my advanced years I have never spent
more than two days in a row at the New Jersey shore. Now, these overnight trips
could never be considered a vacation to the normal traveler. Instead, calling
it a cheapskate’s “survival course” would be more appropriate with me sleeping
on couches, or in cars, or getting a cheap room in a stifling dingy, rooming house
for the night.
Mostly they were day trips to the beach for me. Countless
day trips, fighting the traffic each way, arriving home from Sandy Hook, or
Asbury Park, or Belmar, or Seaside Heights sunburnt and encrusted with sand.
CHEAP FUN
As a young man traveling to the Jersey shore was
a calculated flurry of stealth tactics trying to avoid paying for the beach
tags nearly every shore town forces you to pay to get on the beach. Sometimes I
would get to the beach very early, before the guards would man their posts and
dashing quickly into the ocean as the cops who patrolled the sands looking for
those requisite tags strolled by. Or, sometimes when staying overnight at a
colleague’s place one of us would walk up to the boardwalk to see what color
badge they were using that day and grabbing one from the collected cache at the
garret they rented. Sometimes, I would spend the money for a tag, only to share
the cost by handing it over to a friend waiting on the boardwalk. It was a
constant dance of cheap, but harried fun. Admittedly it was never easy. 
Janet had similar experiences in her youth in
dodging the gatekeepers to the beach. Her weekends also involved late nights at
area dive bars, cheap breakfasts and cheap dingy rooms.
Many of her tactics will
remain a secret with me, but it is no wonder we are a perfect couple.
WILDWOOD DAYS
Over the past two years my NJ beach experiences
have changed, for the better. Janet rented us a one-bedroom condo a block from
the beach in Wildwood three or four days each time.
Each year it was the week after Labor Day when things were winding down towards the off-season
Prices are lower, but the weather is still wonderful and the ocean still warm and inviting.
It was nice to just casually stroll onto the beach each day and then have a place to rinse off afterwards, and, although Wildwood beaches are always free, after so many years of dodging the system, it felt like we were getting away with something!
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| WILDWOOD NJ |
IRISH RIVIERA v CAPE MAY
Wildwood though is the outlier for the southern towns. The 130 miles of New Jersey coastline are decorated by several very beautiful towns. In the north there are places like Deal and Mantoloking or anywhere along the Irish Riviera which includes the breathtaking mansions along Ocean Avenue in Spring Lake, or the neat, quiet tree-lined streets of Avon-by-the-Sea or Sea Girt to name just a few. In the south though, apart from Wildwood, there is a long string of beautiful towns.
Wildwood though is the outlier for the southern towns. The 130 miles of New Jersey coastline are decorated by several very beautiful towns. In the north there are places like Deal and Mantoloking or anywhere along the Irish Riviera which includes the breathtaking mansions along Ocean Avenue in Spring Lake, or the neat, quiet tree-lined streets of Avon-by-the-Sea or Sea Girt to name just a few. In the south though, apart from Wildwood, there is a long string of beautiful towns.
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| BREAKERS HOTEL SPRING LAKE NJ |
Starting with the painted ladies of Cape May
and followed by the very expensive real estate of the barrier island towns of Stone
Harbor, Avalon, Sea Isle City and Ocean City, and anything on the 18-mile
stretch of Long Beach Island, the Shoobie world has, for me, a completely
different vibe. Don’t worry, tourists are disliked everywhere you go.
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| PAINTED LADIES CAPE MAY NJ |
PARADISE AT A PRICE
This year we upped our game and rented a whole house in Sea Isle City, with Janet’s siblings and their families, her daughters and their families, and my son and grandson in a four-story edifice that had seven bedrooms, a few of those with bunk beds, and ample parking underneath for all of our cars. Everyone was comfortable and every day was spent at the beach, a short 5 block walk from the house.
This year we upped our game and rented a whole house in Sea Isle City, with Janet’s siblings and their families, her daughters and their families, and my son and grandson in a four-story edifice that had seven bedrooms, a few of those with bunk beds, and ample parking underneath for all of our cars. Everyone was comfortable and every day was spent at the beach, a short 5 block walk from the house.
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| $10k FOR THE LEFT SIDE |
The best part was there were enough beach tags
for everyone, as part of the rental package.
The bad part was the house cost $10,000
for the week!!!
I almost fainted when I heard the cost, but it was
split three ways and we made most of our meals in the massive well-equipped
kitchen on the top floor.
I had never experienced the New Jersey beaches
like this and if not for the high costs, I could get used to it. Each day was
the same.
After lingering over donuts in the morning, we’d then parade en masse
to the beach with all of our sand toys and boogie boards in tow. The little
kids and teenagers frolicked most of the day in the water or dug holes in the
sand while the adults chatted the day away, beers and hard seltzers in hand
with the occasional cooling dip in the Atlantic. The beaches are wide in south
Jersey and the sand is super fine!
After dinner it was a card game on one of the two
outdoor decks and cigars and bourbon on the other. For this long-time cheap
Benny this whole trip was relaxed and easy, and the week went by too quickly.
Wish I had done this sooner!
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