I have one important question for you.

Are you now, or have you ever been, a Benny?

Be careful how you answer, because you may not yet know the correct answer to this question. I myself only discovered this species of homo sapiens last weekend.

My son Mike, daughter Liz and granddaughter Adeline took a trip down to Jersey last weekend to see my wonderful sister-in-law Susan, who has lived in Toms River for over thirty years. Sue is a recently retired public school teacher who taught business subjects at Toms River East High School.

She invited us to come down for one of the many fall festivals held in the pretty shore towns around her. “It's fall,” she said, “and we won't need to worry about the Bennys”.

Excuse me?

“You know, the Bennys,” she answered.

In fact we didn't know what a Benny was, but Sue explained that it meant the folks who visited the Jersey Shore in the summer. She told us how at school they would have Benny Day during Spirit Week, and everyone would dress up in Hawaiian shirts, with straw hats, shorts, flipflops, and zinc oxide on their nose to prevent sunburns. Quite a vision, I must say.

Of increasing interest to us was how Jersey Shore vacationers had gotten such a moniker. Why Benny?

Liz sprang into action, checking Wikipedia and finding, of course, the origin of the term.

But first the definition. “Benny is a pejorative term used by year-round residents of the Jersey Shore to describe the stereotypically rude, flashy, loud tourists from North Jersey and New York.”

Now on to the origins of the term. Wikipedia's first explanation is that on the railroad tickets tourists would have were listed the following stops: Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark and New York. I like that explanation.

Another thought was that back in the day, doctors would send people needing fresh air to the seashore for a “beneficial”, which was then shortened to Benny.

Yet another theory was that Benny referred to the hundred-dollar bills that tourists would flash around. You know, with Benjamin Franklin's mug on them?

At any rate, we were fascinated to learn all about this term which was new to us. Who knew?

I know that some of my readers must visit the Jersey Shore in the summer.

So please consider this carefully: Are you now, or have you ever been, a Benny?

And just to add to your confusion, you may also be called a Shoobie if you visit the Southern Jersey Shore from Long Beach Island to Cape May. This pejorative term came from the practice of packing lunches in shoeboxes for the long train ride down. Wikipedia also said it refers to the tourists who won't walk barefoot on the beaches.

I would just like to state, for the record, that I am neither a Benny nor a Shoobie, but I'm pretty sure that I am related to some.

And I think you know who you are….