Seeing so many wonderful and true things being said about the Guenthers and their 100 years of calling Highlands home in the summer brings up thoughts of Bennies.
In Highlands, and many other waterfront towns that were filled to overflowing with visitors in the summer, it was a pejorative term to describe all those folks who came to town, be it for a day, weekend, or a couple of months. They were stereotyped as rude, loud, and rarely intermingled with the ‘locals, the ‘clammers,’ the folks who worked in the restaurants or shops and did their bidding.
Depends on your age and where you came from as to the origin of Bennies. To kids in Highlands in the last half of the 20th century, Bennies were the summer visitors who came down by train from Bergen, Essex (counties) Newark and New York, ergo, BENNIES.
But there were those from Rumson, Spring Lake and other more posh towns who said it originated from the early part of the century when wealthy New Yorkers came to the salubrious air of the Jersey Shore for treatment of anemia, hemophilia and other diseases and illnesses, since the shore air was “beneficial” to the. Hence, the summertime visitors got benefits from the shore, and were therefore BENNIES.
There are a few stories that credit the $100 bill the tourists had to spend locally. Just before the 1920s, the Eagle on the hundred-dollar bill was replaced with that wise philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, lovingly known as Ben. And so it was said the visitors used their Bennies to purchase their ice cream, beer and everything else.
The least known but sometimes referenced origin of Bennies came during the 1970s, long after locals called visitors Bennies. That one said the term came from the off-shore boat racing during the 1970s sponsored by the Benihana restaurant chain. Not likely.
There were some other terms often heard for visitors that were both loved, hated, revered and reviled by locals.
Shoobie was more common further south along the shore from Long Beach Island to Atlantic City. That’s what they called the day-trippers who took the train to the shore and took advantage of the pre-packed lunches that the railroad offered for sale enroute. They were packed in shoe boxes, hence the Shoobies.
There are those who say you could always tell a Bennie without even talking to him; he’d be the guy or girl wearing sneakers, sandals or shoes on the beach…the locals were barefoot.
While the Bennies and the Locals played together and spent time on the beach together, the summer folks’ families rarely interacted with the local folks, perhaps because the locals were always working, the Bennies were on vacation. There were exceptions to that as well.
Conners Hotel was more than a hotel in its heyday and long before the swimming pool and outdoor snack stand now since replaced by the Sea Streak ferry and parking lot. There were bungalows along a dirt road there that the same families came down and rented every year. There was the hotel where Herman Black, later his sons, Bill, Duke, Jack and Bobby, worked and so they knew all the Bennies. Locals went to Conners for their huge steaks and lobsters, and hence, the Bennies and Locals did meet, greet and enjoy each other all the time. Today, many of those Bennies are the full-time residents of highlands and the Bayshore area.
The Guenther’s, with their 100 years of being summer residents, indeed made themselves a part of the town, becoming involved, improving their properties, and even visiting in off-season. Hardly the Bennies of the derogatory title.
Today, in the Bayshore, you can’t tell a Benny from a Local. Nor does it make any difference. The Bennies, for all intents and purposes, are really the Locals of the 21st century.
