The meaning of Going down the shore depends on from which sector of NJ you hail; that's why Darryl Hannah's backhanded comment about Wildwood in the movie Wall Street was clearly the result of an uneducated dolt: some NYC thing like her character would have instead spoke of Mannesquan or Long Branch or Asbury Park.
FWIW, the best cheesesteak I ever had was on the boardwalk in Wildwood while the best ice cream was from a shack in Asbury Park near The Stone Pony.
And for the record, I hate Springsteen.
We lived in Cherry Hill when I was a surgery intern at Cooper. IIRC when people said the were going “down to the shore” the left out “to the”. It was just down shore. “We’re going down shore, wanna come?”
LOL
I like some of his songs, have had GREAT cheese steaks on a few different boardwalks in NJ and if I was going to the Hamptons from Staten Island I would say UP to the shore :)
BTW, is that you in front of that storefront?
Asbury Park is making a pretty good comeback.
Spent a few hours at the pinball museum - $15 bucks buys a half day of free play on dozens of vintage pinball machines, shuffle bowling, target games, etc.
Each has a nice plaque over it describing the game, why it’s unique, who were the artists & manufacturers, etc.
Well worth it.
http://silverballmuseum.com/asbury-park/