Nice one:In My Mind, I'm Going to New Jersey.
'Where the Bruce is loud, and the Rolling Rocks are cold.
Let’s go down the shore. Grab the Coppertone and the beach towels, I’ll fill the cooler with Rolling Rock and some hoagies and a bag of Herr’s Barbecue Flavored potato chips. Did I forget anything? The Kadima paddles? My black bikini? A novel by Agatha Christie? A cheesesteak wit wiz?
Oh wait, I know what I forgot — that between the pandemic and the sheer distance, the only Jersey Shore I can visit now is the one in my imagination.
Fortunately, coming from Philly, I have a lot of Jersey in my memories.
My friend Kenny’s parents had a house in Ventnor, where I lived the summer I worked at Lenny’s Hot Dogs. Years later, after his father Mickey died, the family put a plaque up on a boardwalk bench, capturing a thing that Mickey once said as he gazed out at the crashing waves.
“You know,” he said, “this beach is a good idea.”'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/opinion/summer-jersey-shore.html?
My daughter + grands live there, not I, but I like the sentiments. (From NY, in MD now.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't know if they are still made.
Anyways, early '60's. First one at the house would go to the beer store and load up the trunk and seats with about $150 worth of Green Grenades. These would last most of the weekend. This was at the time when a beer at the bar was .10
Party would be at Barnegat Boulevard. Look for the pink house ("No reflection on the character of the guys inside."
and then the stories... which one do you want to hear? Denny cracking up his brand new car? Crashing the line at the Osprey? Bruce, getting pulled over by the cop and not having his license? Pat, explaining to a cop about why our rental was legal? Pat getting plastered and us, invading his room and him thinking he was dead? Or Paul, who wouldn't get it on with the hottest babe you ever saw... ?
--- and on and on.
By the way, in N.J., they are subs, not hoagies.
...I was poor. Couldn't afford RRock. Five of us from college drove to the beer distributor (it's a PA thing.) The beer we could afford was $4.75 a case for pony cans. It was called Fox Head 400. To pay for this we all pooled coins and searched the seats of my '66 Caprice. (Sorry planet Earth, 6-9 mpg city.)
Drove to my then girlfriend's mother's place in Brigantine to following weekend. I had a paycheck that Friday from part time work which was around $65. Went to beach, proposed a year later at the beach, got married a year after that at a church with a really long aisle. We now avoid Brigantine like its Covid since the mother-in-law still lives there. 
Maybe Asbury Park would be better. 
I LOVE LENNY'S HOT DOGS. We frequented the location in NE Philly.
Ocean City boardwalk was amazing as well as Wildwood. 
OT: Best crab cakes were at a place in Elkton, MD. 
To quote a line from movie character played by John Houseman, "I miss that kind of clarity." 
Thanks for this. 
