Our family has vacationed in Ocean City, NJ my entire life. My grandparents lived on the bay in Avalon, and every summer my parents, my sister, and I would pack up our big brown Oldsmobile station wagon and head “down the shore” for a week or two. I have so many great memories of crabbing and fishing on their dock, swimming in the bay, boating, and of course driving up the coast a bit to the magical Ocean City Boardwalk. As we got older and starting having our own families we continued the tradition of vacationing at the Jersey Shore with our own families. Eventually, our family of four turned into a family of 11 with kids and grandkids and sometimes more when friends would come to visit! While other families book cruises or head to exotic islands with palm trees and white sanded beaches with clear, blue water, our family continues to love the family friendly beach towns of the Jersey Shore.
Growing up, I had no idea the locals had a derogatory name for people like us – people who lived in Philly, around PA, or even other states who vacationed in Ocean City. They call us “Shoobies”!
“A Shoobie is a New Jersey slang term for a tourist who visits the seashore for a day (a daytripper) or summer-only residents. The term “shoobie” originated in the late 1800s, and it derives from daytrippers taking the train to the New Jersey beach, with their ticket price including a boxed lunch packed in a shoe box. Later it was used to refer to anyone who brought a picnic lunch to the beach resorts. Either way, these daytrippers deprived local businesses of the revenue the tourists would have spent on food.”
Locals have a love-hate relationship with Shoobies. They love them for boosting the economy and supporting their local businesses, but they hate them for taking over the town. In case you were wondering, we are now considered a “Shocal”. We’re not a Shoobie anymore, but we’ve also not lived here long enough to earn the “local” label.
Learn more about “America’s Greatest Family Resort” here: www.ocnj.us
