No matter your favorite beach or town, the Jersey Shore has always had a lot to offer.
According to nj.gov, New Jersey boasts some 141 miles of oceanfront from Sandy Hook to Cape May Point -- that's a lot of "down the shore."
Methinks some liberties were taken back in the day for the sake of tourism .... "Down the Shore," as defined by urbandictionary.com, is "what people here in New Jersey call going to the beach. What some people don't get, however, is that this is more the term used to describe the trip taken while going 'down the Shore' from your home in an inland county or town. The drive to whichever beach town you are going to be spending time in is going down the shore, but once you're there you simply go to the beach."
Growing up, my family went "down the Shore" to Ocean City to swim and to Atlantic City for boardwalk activities. Some random thoughts from those good old days:
* We had an Army blanket that we brought to spread on the sand. My parents still have that blanket, which was called into service every summer in the 1960s and still gets used today, and it has nary a hole or tear in it.
* We also had a round, bulbous Thermos that carried lemonade. The lemonade was served with bologna sandwiches. Like the blanket, my parents still have that Thermos and it still keeps lemonade cold.
* Yes, we brought bologna sandwiches to the beach. And, yes, we ate them whether or not they were sandy.
MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey
* Driving home in our 1960 Pontiac Catalina was possibly the worst part of the trip. In short, the sandy bathing suit and the plastic-covered seats that had been simmering for hours did not make for a comfortable car ride.
* There were penny arcades in AC when I was a boy. But even back then one cent wasn't worth much down the shore. About the only thing a kid could do with a penny on the boardwalk in those days was insert it into a machine and have it crushed into an oval.
* One weekend we went to the Steel Pier and we happened upon a Gary Lewis and the Playboys concert. It was a fun thing to stumble upon. The band had some good songs in the '60s: "This Diamond Ring," "Count Me In."
If you're from New Jersey, you almost certainly have memories of going down the shore. Here's a gallery of some vintage photos showing some of the good ol' days at the Jersey Shore. Be sure captions are enabled to read all about these classic photos.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.