Benny’s, Shoobies & Foots

Many of you who know me and have read my blogs, or have bought at least one of my books, know that I hail from that little tiny, congested, expensive eastern state of New Jersey. I now live in Colorado, but that doesn’t stop me from keeping up with my family or being interested in the goings-on in my home state. My nephew recently reminded me of the Benny’s.

Right now it’s the height of the summer season, the perfect time to spend your days off at “The Shore” as the locals call it; with the kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, and perhaps your favorite pet in tow. I have to admit, I really do miss spending a summer day at the ocean’s edge. FYI… Colorado is land locked!

Ahhhhh…yes, a day in the sand, surf, and sun. On a typical beach day, you can’t miss the smells of the salty ocean air, sun screen lotion and once in a while, a whiff of delicious foods like pizza, sausages, hot dogs and funnel cakes drifting over from the nearby boardwalk. Oh, and I can’t forget the smell of Taylor pork roll slices sizzling on the grill… yummy!

There is one thing most established Jersey beach goers will always bitch about, and that is the daily arrival of the “Benny’s, the Shoobies, and the Foots. No, these are not swarms of marauding insects, or invasive marine animals, but the people from the towns in northern Jersey and the New York metropolitan areas. They start by driving their expensive BMWs and Mercedes Benzes south to the shore on the Garden State Parkway, showing little respect for the “Keep To The Right – Unless Passing” rule that they simply ignore. Their erratic behavior behind the wheel will instinctively cause any law-abiding Jerseyite to politely extend that middle digit and utter a few of those Soprano-style adjectives that caused Mee-Maw to quickly fetch that bar of Ivory soap.

Once they arrive at their time-share cabins among the beach towns, they turn on their internal “rudeness” switch, grab their Yeti thermos bottles filled with liquid giggle juice and firewater, and rush down to the sand. Once there, their beach carnage begins. First, strip down to the barest possible dress. For the gals, this might include a bikini made from a few strands of dental floss stitched together; a rather vulgar sight to see if proper grooming wasn’t performed first. The guys will don the tiniest of swimwear fashions called racing briefs. Some of these guys who should be dressed in designer tarps, “stuff” themselves into some pretty skimpy fabrics that leave little to the imagination. Once settled in, the drinking, eating, smoking and trashing begins. There might be a trash bin just a few feet away, but they choose to leave their cigarette butts, soda cans, empty containers of snacks and suntan products strewn all over the beach with little regard for the once clean and spotless virgin sand. Sometimes people just suck!

So, just how did these people acquire the term Benny’s? There are too many theories about the origin to list here, so I’ll just give you the most common ones. The first is that the word Benny was derived from the acronym of cities and towns where most of these folks traveled from. Hence B for Bayonne, E for Elizabeth, N for Newark and NY for New York. The New York part encompassed the 5 boroughs of the city including Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx and Manhattan.

Some people say that the “northerners” came to the shore for the “benefits” such as the sun and surf which you don’t have in the northern part of the state or the 5 boroughs. Sure, there is Coney Island, the Hamptons, and Rockaway beach areas, but they are not “Ocean” beaches so they don’t count. So for the benefits, they traveled south.

Another theory about the origin comes from the Point Pleasant Beach area of New Jersey. Here, for as long as anyone could remember, they held what was known as the Benihana Offshore Grand Prix boat races. The rich folks from up north would come down to the shore and bet heavily on these races, thus acquiring the title of Benny’s.

Another not so often heard saying for them is “Be Extra Nasty to New Yorkers” I can’t say that I personally have ever heard that said, but there is a lot of stuff I still don’t know about my own home state. I sometimes have to even consult my copy of “JERSEY FOR DUMMIES”.

One last theory of the origin of Benny comes from the “Benjamin”, or the face of Benjamin Franklin on the front of the $100 bill. It was said that those rude, flashy and loud tourists from New York would descend on the Jersey Shore and spend their hundred dollar bills like they were pennies. I am guessing that the local Jersey businessmen would want to quash any negativity about those wonderful Benny’s from New Yawk and their money.

While no one can distinctively agree on where the word “Benny” came from, there is a general consensus that the word “Shoobie” originated from the more southern towns of the Jersey Shore. Shoobies were dubbed day-trippers who flocked to the ocean carrying all of their beach day sundries, including their lunches, in shoeboxes. The term goes back at least a century ago. I’m guessing that these were the less fortunate folks who lived in the small shanty towns nestled in and around the larger beach communities or others arriving by trains from the poorer towns. It was during these years that a special Sunday train ran between Philadelphia and the Jersey coast, carrying day-trippers who paid $1 for a round-trip fare, boarded the train in the morning with their lunches tucked away in shoe boxes, and then returned home from the beach en masse that evening, sunburnt, only to do it all again the following week. They’d eat their lunches down on the beach, smoke, drink, and leave a big mess behind. The reason for the derogatory title was that when these folks arrived, they spent little to no money on beach concessions, thus depriving the local business owners of much needed revenue to get through the harsher winter months.

And finally, we come to the last of our colloquial, yet derogatory, terms for “those people”, called Foots. The first letter as you can see is highlighted. You can insert the curse word yourself and end it in saying “… off outta-towners”. In essence, this phrase reflects a growing sentiment of anti-tourism or anti-visitor sentiment, driven by concerns about the impact of tourism on the quality of life, affordability, and cultural integrity of local communities. A lot of locals just DO NOT LIKE those out of towners and feel that neither their money nor their presence makes a whole lot of difference to their well being, or helps out their communities financially. Of course they are dead wrong. After superstorm Sandy ransacked most of the Jersey shore in 2012, tourism spending in both Monmouth and Ocean counties slowed to a halt and during COVID, spending dropped by over 50 percent. A lot of businesses went under. After that, the local chambers of commerce spent a ton of money on advertising just to get all these “undesirables” back.

So, as much as we hate those Foots, Shoobies and Benny’s they are the lifeblood of the hundreds of Jersey Shore business owners who depend on them for their livelihood. But remember this: not all tourists are Foots, Benny’s, or Shoobies. Some of them actually do buy those funnel cakes, sausage and pepper hoagies, and Taylor pork roll and egg sandwiches. But that doesn’t mean that they all shouldn’t show just a little bit of respect to the Jersey Shore, it’s residents, and their clean, trash-free sandy beaches.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you enjoyed this story. If you did and haven’t subscribed to my blog, please do. I love to write and I love to hear your comments just as much.

Lenny