Marlboro/Morganville NJ- Why It's A Horrible Place To Live (Union: cliquey, homes)

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by Diane Giam

The kids always thought they were better than her. They bragged about how rich theu were but many were phonies. They could not even afford to furnish the big homes they bought.

i hardly think you can blame the kids for not furnishing the homes.

[STrapani1105]

Originally Posted by Ninjahedge

You guys are responding to the Flamestarter?

Aside from the fact that tis was bumped, a few things come to my attention.

1. "My town sucks". Seems to be a common feeling of most High Schoolers. It would explain why so many want a college far away from Mom and Dad. Just remember, the grass is only greener where they spread the most poop.

Yup, I can vouch for that. I'm the exact same age as the OP, I just graduated high school back in June, and I too hated the town I grew up in. I grew up in Mendham, and I too went as far as to create an obnoxious thread bashing the town. Actually, when I did it, I went as far as to bash all of Morris County... but let's just say that after some (deserved) harsh responses to my obnoxious thread, I learned my lesson. Every teenager in the past, in the present, and in the future has hated and will hate the place where they grew up. Nowadays I share what I dislike about where I grew up, but I try to say it more positively than negatively in order to help people who are interested in moving into the area.

The funny thing though is that when I was applying to colleges, I didn't want to go far away. In fact, my first choice was Seton Hall which is only about half an hour from my house. I got admitted to Seton Hall but I ended up not going there. I decided that it would smarter to seize the opportunity to go live somewhere outside of the state. Not only am I out-of-state, but I'm living in Brooklyn and attending Brooklyn College. Even though it's less than an hour away from where I've lived my whole life, it really is a world apart. I look forward to discovering the city and experience what it's like living in a city.

Oh, and in regards to the thread topic. Marlboro/Morganville seems like a fine area. I knew kids from there in high school through sports and they were actually pretty nice. I also drive through the area a lot when I head down the shore (I take back roads) and it seems like a really nice area. I'm sure Captain NJ would agree.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by STrapani1105

Oh, and in regards to the thread topic. Marlboro/Morganville seems like a fine area. I knew kids from there in high school through sports and they were actually pretty nice. I also drive through the area a lot when I head down the shore (I take back roads) and it seems like a really nice area. I'm sure Captain NJ would agree.

i do agree. its a great town. also, people in general are nice. its very easy to get along with people and the last thing people need to worry about is wealthy people berating them for not having a lot of money.

[Whoelsebutcharles]

I am trying to reply to the person who has started this thread and know exactly what he/she is talking about. I lived in Manalapan April 1994-May 2009 (excluding college years) - how it has changed, for the worse - and have finally left home, vowing never to return to a place of this quality ever again.

I cannot really speak for Marlboro since my impressions of it are solely from part time jobs I'd had during high school/early college years, but from what I have seen you can expect the unexpected. I have heard various sources say its level of "snobbery" is worse than that of Manalapan, but have not really witnessed it first-hand.

Coming from a hard-woring lower-middle-class family on the outskirts of a present-day slum-hole known as Staten Island (no offense to anyone who lives there), I had gone through public schools in NYC until the end of fourth grade and life there as a student was horrible, I had gotten into fights everyday and teachers, year after year, had reportedly informed my parents that I was the only one of the pack to come from a normal family - all the others had parents either in jail or drug addicts. Finally by 1994 my family had had enough, with enough family in NJ already (Cherry Hill area) we decided to make that move, to Manalapan, which in 1994 was nothing like it is now - it wasn't at all what you'd call a snobby or high-class yuppy area - it was more or less boondocks. Little did we know we were just the beginning of that huge influx - we'd bought an "older" house built in 1977 located on a semi-main road not too far away from the Old Bridge/Monroe borders, quite spacious, but now impossible to maintain in my parents' reclining years and my father's worsening mental and physical health. In 15 years, I'd seen dirt roads turn to pavement, uncurbed road pavement/grass lines turn to sidewalks, farms and woodlands turn to atrocious "McMansion" developments, schools build annexes etc and all along we kept saying they're building everywhere. The schools were certainly better than those in SI and I've had quite a few amazing teachers in the 1990's, one of who stands out to me to this day. As time went on more and more of that "snottyness" seemed to creep on the area like an epidemic. I'd graduated high school being the only senior without a brand new luxury car handed to me on my 17th birthday. I was ridiculed in high school by everyone who did and have been looked down on by them to this day - for other reasons as well which I won't go into - and since finishing HS want nothing to do with them whatsoever, the rudest pack of people any outsider has ever seen - when my parents were there they were appalled. There was a large amount of drugs present in Manalapan High School, I've heard rumors of heroin being delt - don't quote me on this, just that I've heard rumors about it - among this one major clique in my grade who all ended up at Brookdale the next year, some of whom where in a few of my classes there and I always said you could pick them right out. By the time my now 18 y/o sister finished HS, we could see teens her age at the bowling alley out on rt 33 dressed like thugs kicking the glass doors by the entrance with the whole "it's OK my Mommy and Daddy will pay for it" attitude - a real-life Viva La Bam.

I want to point out that there are a handfull of people who do not fall - and have never fallen - into this category, most of who have lived in the town for more than 25 years and by now hate it as much as I do. I am now embarassed to say that I grew up in this area and try to keep that unknown as much as possible. I wish mom & dad would get out of there, I really do, no one lives home anymore they have no reason to stay - I now actually live closer to where my father works now he does, and my mother wants to be near her family in Cherry Hill/Voorhees area.

I also can honestly say I am not a fan of Mon(ey)mouth County at all, I wouldn't live anywhere around there even if I had the money. Aside from a few beach areas like Belmar, Redbank (not beach but close enough) and a few other interesting landmarks worth visiting like the Twin Lights in the Atlantic Highlands area - which is quite beautiful - the county is otherwise a pretentious, desolate, suburban wasteland full of high class yuppies or wannabes who live on credit. Traffic is the worst I have ever seen for such a low-density population area - stand-stills and stop-and-go's on roadways that are functionally obsolete - the drive to Brookdale for 2 1/2 years was a nightmare on Newman Springs Rd (CR 520), backed up for miles behind that entrance to the school at 8:30am (I'd make it there in 25 minutes if I left before 7, but after, it'd take me over an hour - maybe more, depending if there was a day I'd be stuck in a line of cars behind a landscaper, or someone else cutting me off on a side street then slamming on the brakes and do 20 under in an attempt to collect insurance no doubt). Sometime later having lived away at school after getting my associates, I went back to Brookdale for some copies of my transcripts, that light is now gone - Guess What!?! THEY MADE IT INTO A TRAFFIC CIRCLE!

I got out of there 4 months ago and don't regret it at all. I make a visit to my mother's house - at least once a week, maybe more - I get sick everytime, just seeing the people, my mother complains about her low-life coworkers behaving like animals etc (and this is a nursery school she works at). And this is something that isn't addressed much so I thought I'd jump in on it. As it is Monmouth County is continuously ranked the #1 most desirable place to live in the whole country - general area speaking, you see that all the time - people are just going to keep coming. Stores with reasonable priced products - as you have said - are dwinding, Raceway Mall is slowly turning into Short Hills Mall. I'll give the area another 15-20 years or so (the recession I think has helped slow it down a little :-)) and watch its income level outdo places like Millburn, Montville, Upper Saddle River, Bedminster and all those other well-to-do areas in Bergen, Essex, Morris and Somerset Counties which are among the highest income places to live in the state. And as far as beach areas go (in terms of desirability) I'm not completely sure if they rank the Jersey Shore superior to Long Island, but I think they do, and if that's the case it'll even outdo the Hamptons without question!

I also want to say too, for anyone in college about to graduate, please for your own sake, when you do graduate, make it so that you don't have to return home. Once independent, stay independent, it's a good sense of self-worth and dignity. Get a job, get a place with your friends, anything, just don't go home.

[Ninjahedge]

Strangely enough, it isn't usually money that makes people behave this way, but NEW monety (or the perception thereof) that make people want to tell everyone else that they have it now....

Going to Northern Highlands, a VERY affluent area in Allendale/Upper Saddle River, some kids did show snootiness, but all in all, there was just a general acceptance for what was considered to be a very high "status quo".

I was never criticized or made fun of for driving my Hand-Me-Down Ares K station wagon when others drove everythnig from a beat up old wood paneled Ford station wagon, all the way up through Porche's....


Sad to hear that some areas have suffered through the last boom, and always sad to hear when development outpaces actual healthy growth and is spurred by something that is unsustainable.....

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by Whoelsebutcharles

Manalapan, which in 1994 was nothing like it is now

i lived in manalapan until 1991 and moved to morganville. back in 1994, manalapan had the same reputation as it seems to have to today. complainers just like to always believe that things were better back in the days.

[Whoelsebutcharles]

Originally Posted by Ninjahedge

Strangely enough, it isn't usually money that makes people behave this way, but NEW monety (or the perception thereof) that make people want to tell everyone else that they have it now....

Going to Northern Highlands, a VERY affluent area in Allendale/Upper Saddle River, some kids did show snootiness, but all in all, there was just a general acceptance for what was considered to be a very high "status quo".

I was never criticized or made fun of for driving my Hand-Me-Down Ares K station wagon when others drove everythnig from a beat up old wood paneled Ford station wagon, all the way up through Porche's....


Sad to hear that some areas have suffered through the last boom, and always sad to hear when development outpaces actual healthy growth and is spurred by something that is unsustainable.....

I do agree with what you say about NEW money, which is almost exclusively the case in Manalapan and most of Monmouth County. My mother grew up in Cherry Hill in the 1970's at a time when that area was just coming up too - and she went through the same thing. Now that area's matured though and everyone there has gotten used to having the money they have. Same goes for places like East Brunswick, it's the previous generation they've gotten used to having money so they don't feel the need to constantly show it off.

[Whoelsebutcharles]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

i lived in manalapan until 1991 and moved to morganville. back in 1994, manalapan had the same reputation as it seems to have to today. complainers just like to always believe that things were better back in the days.

Perhaps, I didn't live there in 1991 but I remember it seemed alot more friendly and the snootyness was more easily avoidable maybe than it is now. I remember the first family gathering we'd had in that house just after moving, I went with my father to the liquor store in Yorktowne shopping center, I was 9 years old, the clerk says to me "would you like some tootsie rolls?" There isnt any of that anymore.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by Whoelsebutcharles

Perhaps, I didn't live there in 1991 but I remember it seemed alot more friendly and the snootyness was more easily avoidable maybe than it is now. I remember the first family gathering we'd had in that house just after moving, I went with my father to the liquor store in Yorktowne shopping center, I was 9 years old, the clerk says to me "would you like some tootsie rolls?" There isnt any of that anymore.

its just your perception. as you have grown up, you have taken on a different role, gone to different places, had different types of encounters. i have never noticed any snootyness (but lots of anti-rich people sentiments) so i cant really say in which situations you would expect to see "snootyness."

maybe if you were still 9 years old you would still be offered a tootsie roll.

[Ninjahedge]

Wholesale, maybe it was because of the Serial Tootsie-Roll Robberies!!!!