STONE HARBOR, N.J. — I give credit to those in New Jersey who took the “What Exit?” joke and decided to take it back and embrace it with buy selling it as merchandise. Down the Shore, stickers, t-shirts and more celebrate the Garden State Parkway exit number for that particular beach town.

When I first saw this hat, I wondered why there was a North Carolina route marker on it. Then it dawned on me that it was probably an attempt to say “EXIT 10” which is Stone Harbor Blvd. My theory is that the shop saw something for NC 12, the main highway in North Carolina’s Outer Banks and tried to adopt it for the Jersey Shore. For me, well-versed in things like state highway markers, it falls short.