MANASQUAN, N.J. (AP) - The weather is gorgeous. The crowds are gone, and it’s easy to park near the beach.
It’s quiet, the humidity has vanished and it’s still warm enough for a dip in the ocean.
Welcome to “Locals’ Summer,” those precious few weeks at the Jersey shore after Labor Day that enchant local residents and savvy visitors alike. And - at least this year - the period is helping merchants make up for weeks of poor weather earlier in the season that caused economic losses.
“I always say this is the best time of the entire year,” said Erin Duffy, who was at the Manasquan beach on a buttery 77-degree day with her parents and her 4-year-old son, Shawn. “You can sit anywhere you want; there’s plenty of room.”
“Many of the people you see now are locals, and you know each other, if not by name, from seeing each other on the beach,” her mother, Patti Duffy, added. “It’s so peaceful and quiet.”
“And the water is still beautiful,” her husband, Bob, said.
Water temperatures are hovering in the low 70s, which is plenty comfortable for bathing. But doing so now carries its own risks - most shore towns no longer have lifeguards on duty, and strong waves pounded the shoreline this week. Island Beach State Park will have lifeguards this weekend, then not again until next year.
Susan Steinberger recently retired after what she said was “a million years” working for a pharmaceutical company and was reading a book at the beach in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River. She and her husband, Mark, had nearly the whole beach to themselves.
“It’s great. No people, the sun is still out every day but it’s not hot,” she said. “You can get into a restaurant without a wait. I just love this.”
The other day, the couple saw a school of at least 30 dolphins slowly swimming southward, not far from the beach.
In Belmar, a scattering of families was enjoying the latest in an unbroken string of sunny days with warm but not-too-warm temperatures. Many of the oceanfront businesses that do well during the summer have remained open during Locals’ Summer, including pizza stands and ice cream parlors.
Mike Parziale has kept the Riverside Cafe open on the Manasquan Inlet just off the beach, and enough people stop by for lunch each day to make it worthwhile, he said.
“It’s been steady,” he said. “We could actually use some help. A lot of our workers were students who have gone back to school.”
He said the September business is helping make up for the start of a summer season he called the worst in over 50 years, with repeated rainy weather.
“This is helping make up for some of the losses we had,” he said. “I’d like to stay open until the first snowflake or the first hurricane hits.”
There are plenty of places to stay, too. Listings for Jersey shore rentals have plenty available right now, and at prices noticeably less than what they’d go for during the summer.
“You could feel it change the day after Labor Day,” said Jan McLachlan, of Point Pleasant Beach, enjoying the sun on a late weekday afternoon in her hometown. “It’s a little cooler, less active.”
“It really is relaxing,” said Wendy Halliwell, who lives in next door Point Pleasant borough. “You can feel in the air that something is changing.”
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