When he walks into his bar in fall, winter, and spring, he knows just about every patron, Gregory said. By midsummer, he is surrounded by strangers.
"Locals don't like to come out in the summer and fight for a seat at the bar, or wait in line for a table, or sit in traffic," he said. "They wait until Labor Day is over, then they get back to their normal routines."
For decades, that has included Gregory's "Adios Turista" party at the end of September. The bash attracts a lively crowd of regulars who dress in "shoobie" wear: loud plaid shorts, oversize straw hats, dark socks with sandals. The shoobiest shoobie wins a prize.
Most Shore residents and business owners admit they're relieved to see visitors return in the spring. Their presence breathes life into the economy and means a long, cold winter is finally over.
"Honestly, I think by mid-August every year, we're a little sick of them, and they're probably a little sick of us," said Lindsey Marco, 26, a waitress at the Beach Bar at the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City.
"I know my livelihood depends on catering to tourists," she said, "but it's been a hot summer here and a lot of hard work, so I'm ready for the fall and to take some time off for myself."
Come Tuesday, locals said, they'll reclaim places they haven't been in months - the boardwalk so clogged with humanity they couldn't get in a decent jog, shopping centers so packed with cars there were no spaces. They'll be able to get a spur-of-the-moment spa appointment and not have to wait to use an elliptical machine at the gym.
"We think of it as 'Super September,' " said Barbara Steele, director of public affairs and tourism for Ocean County, who is touting a long list of fall festivals.
