Wildwood - About Bores and Boards
Finally, the city of Wildwood decided to pay more attention to the class of vacationers fondly referred to as shoobies. Shoobies, for those who don’t know, are vacationers, often day-trippers, who satisfy their beach curiosity by wearing shoes to the beach. This becomes troublesome in more ways than one, both for the tourists as well as some of the residents and elected officials. The end result of walking on the beach while improperly shod is an accumulation of irritating beach sand inside the shoes. Everyone knows the consequences - once you get sand in your shoes you’ll always come back, and maybe that’s not such a great idea for some visitors.
After much head scratching, the commissioners finally figured out what to do with an $80,000 county grant. They reflected on the shooby problem and decided to resolve the situation. So, someone suggested paving the beach (possibly the mayor, who owns a concrete business), but that was rejected on the basis that prospectors with metal detectors would probably create a nuisance with jackhammers.
Someone else suggested ordering a fleet of monster buses to transport shod bathers from the boardwalk to water’s edge. This was rejected when someone pointed out that monster buses don’t exist, and to have them built would greatly exceed the paltry $80K offered by the county.
After considering other conventional options, such as catapults and pneumatic cannons, they finally agreed on an innovative plan almost too obvious to miss. They would build (or at least some prisoners would build) wooden walkways, AKA future driftwood! This was first demonstrated around 1884, and continued until around the turn of the century or later. In fact, the first boardwalk in Wildwood sat directly on the sand, until an alert person pointed out that building it atop elevated pilings would help keep it from relocating to England. Or maybe just New England, but no matter, because the idea was to keep it on its native island.
NOTE TO WILDWOOD CREST: Okay, so now you know what to do with the defunct fishing pier. BUILD SOME STEPS! Duh-uh. . .
I live in North Wildwood, so I can’t vote in the Wildwood election, but let me just say that I think the incumbents are doing a great job! They built a huge new convention center, then approved a master plan that eliminated most of the motel rooms. They apparently are negotiating with various organizations that hold annual one-day conventions. They eliminated the rocket ship street signs and replaced them with attractive behemoth palm tree street signs, which complement the silly-looking street lights along Ocean Avenue. Oh, and after trying a few test patterns for Pacific Avenue, they finally settled on the present plan, which features blocks and blocks of diverse, vibrant, empty storefronts. Their plan for high-rise hotels will save the city, however, by making it more homey to visitors from Philadelphia. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great place to visit, but if you come, go ahead and get some sand in your shoes.
May 7th, 2007 at 1:38 am
Shoobies, it seems to me, as I read in by ute, and also, a few years ago, were those who came to the the shore by the trains (steam trains, they ran on railroad tracks along New Jersey Avenue in the Wildwoods), later the Budd cars carried them. They were called “shoobies” because they carried their lunches in shoe boxes (for those who are slow on the uptake), “shoo bee”.
This information is from one of the excellent Jersey folklore books ,by the late Henry Charlton Beck, who passed away at an early age, thus depriving us of more of his research into all things New Jersey that many other historians would not research.
You might hear more from me, as I have known Ron since Ocober 17th, 1946.
LJM
Note from editor: The definition of “shoobie” is something on which we disagree. I also have read many of Henry Charlton Beck’s books about forgotten towns in South Jersey. I have (as have others) believed that Mr. Beck’s definition was erroneous. Most shore residents think the definition in my article is correct, mainly because we’ve seen these people, but never saw anyone carrying a lunch in a shoebox. Many have also cited parents and grandparents who said the term applied to daytrippers who wore their shoes to the beach.