From California to NJ (Waldwick, Midland Park: sales, houses, high schools)

[keith15]

My wife and I are moving to New Jersey from the LA Metro. She is from Bergen County (Midland Park), but hasn't been back to live in 10+ years. We have he family back there and are very excited.
Culture shock is coming, right?

[66nexus]

I don't know if you're both from NJ but if you're not from here then culture shock doesn't even scratch the surface

I've heard the West has more of a laid-back lifestyle while in the East we thrive on coffee and fast. lol hope you like

[tahiti]

i'd say weather shock more than anything they're both crowded expensive places so that part shouldn't surprise you. welcome to NJ - are you moving to bergen cnty?

[Gerania]

I've never lived in your area. A stay in central CA for a few months is the only thing that I have for comparison, which is none. What I've heard from others is that people from this region are interested in background, place of birth, ethnicity, far more than people in LA.

You'll probably think that the traffic is not too bad, at least not worse than it is where you are now.

You're going to be cold. Though I grew up in NE PA, I lived in NC for 10 years. When I returned to the NE I was cold for 3 years. I used to sit on the brick steps in front of my house mid-afternoon in August so that I could feel too warm once again. No one else was outside because it was too hot.

[Obrero]

You are one of the few that might think houses are cheap here! Property taxes will be the big sticker shock.

[Nancy-NJ-NY-ME?]

Your wife is from Midland Park. Nice town. I grew up in the next town - Waldwick. At the time, the high schools were rivals in football. I have fond memories of the Thanksgiving morning football game tradition of Waldwick playing Midland Park (no matter the weather!).

These days, I'm not sure that the schools are in the same athletic league. And I really sure it's been a loooong time since a football game was played on Thanksgiving morning.

It is different here that CA. As another poster mentioned, people are interested in heritage, etc. Perhaps that habit of such curiosity is because this is a very old area of the country, deep in heritage of the European immigrants and the country's founding. Midland Park, for example, use to been known for it's Dutch heritage.

Come to NJ there's a lot to like. Read JennyOnTheMove's post (or advertisement ). One of the great things here is that you can drive and hour or two in a variety of directions and have anything you desire -- mountains, lakes, coastline, urban, rural.... everything.

And three added bonuses (which Jenny didn't mention):
1) The highways (particularly Rt 17 & 4) are empty in Bergen County on Sundays as the shopping centers are closed. [Google: Blue Laws NJ] So lovely to take a nice Sunday drive. (Other counties are a short drive if you really n-e-e-d to get to a mall on a Sunday.)
2) No sales tax on clothing.
3) No self-service gas stations. No gas smell on your hands. No pumping in the bad weather. Sometimes the attendant even cleans the windshield!
3a) And the price is less than in neighboring NY due to less fuel tax.