By Sarah Fertsch
Staff Writer
On her 10th studio album Midnights, Taylor Swift describes snow on the beach as ‘weird but f—-ing beautiful.’ She got her inspiration from the Jersey Shore.
In case you weren’t aware, Swift grew up outside Reading, Pennsylvania on a Christmas tree farm. Like many families in the Philadelphia area, the Swift family summered down the shore.
In fact, Taylor revealed to the Philadelphia Inquirer that her family owned a beach house on Stone Harbor for seven years. She spent her teenage years singing karaoke at Henny’s and played acoustic guitar at Coffee Talk Cafe. She has publicly described the Jersey Shore as ‘magical.’
In her music video for the song seven, which was released in 2020 on Folklore, Swift is shown wearing a Sea Isle City sweatshirt. The song is themed around a longing for childhood memories, specifically playing in the woods and pretending to be pirates. Maybe she felt nostalgic for summers down the shore?
Swift’s love of the Jersey Shore isn’t new. In 2008, when the young artist released her second album Fearless, she filmed the music video for the song Best Day Ever on the beaches of Sea Isle City! Perhaps because her best days were on that beach? Probably.
Since her rise to fame, Swift has been spotted at a variety of South Jersey businesses. She and her family have dined at the Lobster House in Cape May, Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Avalon, and the Fudge Kitchen in Stone Harbor. She smiled and signed autographs for all of her fans.
This is what she had to say about her childhood summers:
It was really cool living on the bay, and we have so many stories about it. We used to all gather together on the dock when the boat parades would go by on July 4 and we’d shoot water balloons at them.
I made a clubhouse in the room above my garage and made a filing system of members of the club. Everyone had a profile that I would write on tiles I found. I painted the whole room different colors and used to spend all day in there just doing nothing but sitting in my little club. Because it was mine.
We lived across from the bird sanctuary and I had a pair of binoculars, and some days I’d just stare at the window, looking for birds. Or the boy who lived next door to me, whom I swore I would marry someday. One summer when I was 11, I wrote a novel. I was allowed to be kind of weird and quirky and imaginative as a kid, and that was my favorite part of living at the Shore.
For all of these reasons, we believe that shore locals should will enjoy Swift’s highly-anticipated Eras Tour, happening this weekend at Lincoln Financial Field in May 2023.
