If there is a "Central Jersey" . . .

While traveling around ALL corners of the state - the most consistent counties labled "Central" by residents were:  Mercer and Monmouth.  But . . . 

There are many things different in these two counties.  For example, in Monmouth - "The City" is New York.  In Mercer it is debatable.

I got thinking about all this as the beach season approaches.   It reminded me of my high school days in Mercer.  The funniest thing to me, growing up in that county, is how we never went to the Monmouth county beaches.  The shortest commute was right across I-195 to Belmar and its surrounding communities.  But did we go there?  Rarely.  

Even in the early 1990s, it was always assumed that these towns were "ceded" to people from the farther north counties.  Instead, we would drive a longer distance to Seaside Heights or LBI. 

We'd possibly trek to Point Pleasant, but that was mostly considered a "Northern Beach" even though geographically, that didn't make much sense.

Even in these "centrally located towns" away from the beach, we always made it complicated on ourselves.  

Do you have any correlating or conflicting stories related to these theories about "Central" or why Mercer's beach choices seem odd . . . especially when gas is so expensive?  Please email or post a comment.

A Day at the Beach

We were at Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant and Lakewood yesterday.

Ocean Gate is perhaps my new favorite town at the Beach. Hidden and beautiful . . . and best of all: friendly people.

Peter Smith was a very gracious tour guide to Seaside Heights and he has a lot of pride and knowledge on the history of the town.

Then we met with the guys at: Benny Go Home. Their mission has a lot more to it than I could have imagined. We talked to them for so long, I got my 7th parking ticket this month. I can't wait for August to end. Anyway, check out their website.

Finally, we were allowed to film at a Lakewood Blue Claws' game.

The Shore (or beach, whatever you want to call it) is truly one of New Jersey's jewels. Here is our video of highlights:

Click To Play

And here are rules that the guys at Benny Go Home feel like visitors to the beach should follow:

Click To Play

Also, check out our two "theory maps" below:

Ocean County abuzz

First of all, if you are from an organization that has been contacted for permission to film, you can click here to get an overview of the project.

In latest news, by far the abundance of our responses has come from Ocean County.

We have over 10 mayors from the towns in this county scheduled to interview and had very interesting thoughts shared by a County Executive as well. We will also be filming at a Lakewood BlueClaws' game on August 25th.

If you see this post about our theories, Ocean County gets really interesting.

1) It seems to be where the term Benny and Shoobie collide.

2) Sports' loyalties are divided: The North Part - toward Point Pleasant all NJ/ NY fans, except if you go west into Plumsted Twp. . . . many Philly fans there. LBI territory is divided as well, but if you go further south to Little Egg Harbor Twp. it is all Philly.

3) Cable TV gets murky there. The New York and Philadelphia affiliates are shared by most.

There is much more, and I have a feeling that we will be spending a majority of our time there. . . at least in the East part of the state . . . but one thing is for sure:

This line is not straight and it is not clear . . . but a focus is coming.