Every time I see the word “Jersey” in a headline on Salon I cringe and await the clichéd depiction of the state as a toxic wasteland filled with power plants and litter that is sure to follow. “Destination: New Jersey” did not disappoint in this regard and went right for the jugular with its featured image.

As someone who was raised in Monmouth County on the beautiful Shrewsbury River (which our family swam and fished in regularly), a short bike ride away from the beaches in Belmar, Long Branch and Sandy Hook, I can tell you that no one in New Jersey is “blissfully shocked by the real estate boom”. Homes at the Jersey Shore (and indeed the entire state) have been increasing in value for decades for a variety of reasons – the beauty of the area and the reasonable commuting distance from New York City being just a few of them. I'm not sure what "unremarkable beach beauty and seedy boardwalks" you have spent time on, but they certainly weren't the ones I grew up with.

I particularly enjoyed your description of the locals (who to my knowledge have never referred to themselves as Clamdiggers):

Oddly isolated and easily charmed natives? [The area’s young people] may or may not ever leave home?

We sound like we belong on the short bus.

Congratulations for finding out what we called visitors from North Jersey and New York – but they are the only ones who refer to the area as “The Shore. The rest of us just called it “the beach”.

It’s really a shame New Jersey can’t seem to climb out of the abyss of its stereotypes and be known for what it really is. A deeper shame awaits Salon for continually perpetuating them.

Allow me to weigh in on Bennies. My grandfather died in 1955, leaving a 3-bedroom bungalow in Manasquan to his six children in equal shares. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, Manasquan was the only summer vacation I ever knew. We would frequently share occupancy of the house with uncles, aunts and cousins, all the better to squeeze more than our allotted two weeks out of the summer, and other times would rent another nearby house for several weeks while other family members occupied the bungalow.

We never considered ourselves Bennies. Bennies were the pasty-skinned folks who showed up in shorts, black socks and sandals at what we called the "boardwalk" - a strip of sole-scorching asphalt running the entire length of the beach - and paid their two or three dollars to change and shower in the one bathhouse in the row of arcades, food stands and souvenir shops on either side of the Main Street beach. Bennies were the weekenders who stayed in the boarding houses which lined Main Street or the motels out on Route 35 in Wall.

The awful truth - that in fact the year-round residents viewed us as full-fledged members of Benny Nation - was driven home once a year on Labor Day, when the locals would unfurl their white bedsheets with "Bennies Go Home" spray-painted in black, over the side of boats running up and down along the beach, and on the Parkway North overpasses.

As for the origin of the term, about 20 years ago my wife and I stayed in a Cape May bed and breakfast run by an emigre couple from Manasquan, 100 miles up the coast. They told us that "benny" was short for "beneficiary," as in beneficiaries of the largess of the local taxpayers who supposedly footed the bill for our summer idylls. (Never mind the money that Bennies pump into the local economy.)

I don't know for sure, but it sounds as plausible as any other explanation I've ever heard.

Anyway, I've read both Ford books, and thanks much for the recommendation on Reiken.

Ugh! I got a little excited to read about familiar places and the 1st thing I and everyone else sees is the nuclear plant in the background.

I knew I wouldn't be the only nit-picker. Good work Amy on your correction of the spelling of Benny. Though the abreviation story is the best one I've heard, its really only speculative, the true answer to the Benny's origins (besides, "up north") is unknown.

As mentioned the writer can be forgiven for any errors being from Wall which is most certainly not the Shore; though it should be mentioned neither are Freehold nor Sayreville (Springsteen's and Bon Jovi's hometowns) for that matter, they just wish they were.

Good work though in identifying the existence of two Jersey Shores, you've just got the border a little off:

"which includes Asbury, Belmar, Spring Lake, perhaps Point Pleasant"

No. Definately Point Pleasant. And Bay Head, Mantoloking, Lavallette, and Seaside (both Heights and Park).

Island Beach State Park is something of a demilitarized zone, though it certainly belongs to my Shore, which ends probably at Keyport to the north (certainly no further than Cheesequake).

The other shore starts at LBI and continues to Cape May, only there does the Parkway cease to be the western border.

As for the literary recomendations, thank you. "Bad Haircut" ( while a bit of a stretch) is the only one I've read, I will try the others. I only wish there were more.

Thank you for pointing this out Amy, we will make the change accordingly

Even though we stopped clamdigging back in like 72 when the waters became way too polluted to do it (and nowadays i see newbies to the area clamdigging in sandy hook, and i'm like, hey now, don't do that, it's gonna be bad for you)... the term BENNY isn't BENNIE and it isn't that outdated.

BENNY, which is what I shouted at the people cruising Ocean Avenue in my teens, and I also shouted, "Parkway North" because they came in ruining our town, and my family worked for the state so our nonexistent private business didn't benefit from the BENNYs...

So BENNY stands for:

Bayonne Elizabeth Newark New York

And it is NOT BENNIE, and if you really grew up in Wall, well, I guess I can forgive you...