OC Unfiltered >> ShlOCals and others who call Ocean City home

Last Updated on Friday, 17 February 2012 15:58 Written by Cindy Nevitt Friday, 17 February 2012 00:00

Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the lOCal phenomenon. That led to my introduction to a word I’d never heard before: “Shlocal.”

Jim and Jen Cupit

A shlocal is a shoobie who becomes a local. You have to know some. Look to your left. You’re probably looking at a shlocal. After all, an Ocean City native is about as rare as a Las Vegas native or a native Floridian. Hardly anyone is born in these areas. Almost everyone who lives in these places does so because they moved there.

Jim and Jen Cupit are total shlocals. The Gazette shared some of the couple’s story earlier this week, on Monday, when Jim celebrated his 40^th birthday. All his life, he’s been a day off from Valentine’s, having been born on Feb. 13, and a letter off from sharing Cupid’s name.

Jen, of Flemington, and Jim, of Upper Darby, Pa., met in Ocean City in 1996 when they both worked for Jen’s parents’ business, the Bagel Bank. After marrying in 2000 and becoming parents to three children in a 30-month span, the couple moved to Ocean City’s south end in summer 2009, before their oldest started school.

Jim, who works for the Philadelphia school district, appreciates the opportunities Ocean City provides his children. He’s coached every recreational sport the city offers – football, baseball, basketball and street hockey – and Jen has coached their daughter in cheerleading.

“Coaching allows me to spend more quality time with my kids,” Jim says. “I’m away at work all day, so being a coach gives me a chance to do something with them when I’m home.”

Shlocals also have been described as those whose primary residence is in Ocean City, but also own a secondary, or vacation, home elsewhere. That’s the reverse scenario of Ocean City’s second homeowner, who lives elsewhere most of the year and vacations here.

Bill Quain Bill Quain, whose family has owned homes in Ocean City since 1905, has a story that differs somewhat from the typical shlocal’s tale. He remembers visiting a great uncle, a priest assigned to the shore after serving in World War II, and living at his grandmother’s cottage at 1753 West Ave. while working at Dean’s Restaurant at 13^th and Boardwalk the summer he was 16, more than 40 years ago.

While still a student at Cornell University, Quain leased and operated the now-defunct Arlington Hotel at 419 Wesley Ave. and the Surfside Restaurant on 34^th Street. After college, he moved away, but came back every summer, eventually bringing his wife and two daughters with him for vacations. In 2005, on a sabbatical leave from his college teaching job in Florida, Quain moved his family to Ocean City for a year.

“In about a month or two, we had all decided that Ocean City was the place for us to live,” he says.

However, he had to finish out his contract with Florida International University, so the family returned to Florida for 2006. In 2007, the Quains moved permanently to Ocean City, settling into a 1920s-era home in the 800 block of Fifth Street.

Quain is not sure what that makes him. What do you call a shoobie who becomes a local for a year, moves away for a year, and then becomes a local again?

“I know that Northerners who move to Florida, but then eventually move to the Carolinas are called ‘half backs’ because they moved halfway back,” he says. “Are people like me full backs?”

Quain, who teaches hospitality classes at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and is currently writing his 20^th book, is quite the wordsmith. Asked by e-mail to explain, in a phrase, his OC-to-Florida-to-OC journey, Quain cleverly wrote back, “I guess some people just bOunCe back.”

Other words he suggests for people who wander through Ocean City before settling here:

Re-baits: People who move back here to fish.

Hang 10 again: Surfers who move back here.

Re-tagged: Beach-goers who move back here.

Second waves: Those who come here for a second career.

To suggest your own hybrid words to describe the different groups that lay claim to Ocean City, type your comments in the box below.

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