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I grew up in Southern Monmouth/Northern Ocean and I never knew anyone from Mercer, Monmouth, Northern Ocean, or Middlesex who said "I live in North Jersey". If it was said about someone it was usually meant as an insult.
Ha, so funny cause that was also the same deal in Bergen County where I grew up. Saying someone was from South Jersey was like calling their mother a mule. We didn't even acknowledge Central Jersey as being a real thing, anything south of the Driscoll Bridge "might as well be Delaware..."
Now I can't wait to move out of North Jersey for Monmouth Co goodness.
Ha, so funny cause that was also the same deal in Bergen County where I grew up. Saying someone was from South Jersey was like calling their mother a mule. We didn't even acknowledge Central Jersey as being a real thing, anything south of the Driscoll Bridge "might as well be Delaware..."
Now I can't wait to move out of North Jersey for Monmouth Co goodness.
C'mon down, brokenaperature.
I lived in Bergen County in the town where I was a fifth-generation resident for most of my life, with a nine-year-stint in West Paterson (Passaic County) and a few years in Fair Lawn.
I watched northwest Bergen County morph from a quiet, semi-rural, significantly blue-collar area to a place where every tree was mowed down to squeeze in a big house or strip mall and the keep-up-with-the Joneses mentality took a firm hold. I mean, we used to play in the woods at the end of our street, and if you followed the path, you came to a swamp where there were bullfrogs and snapping turtles. Not only did they cut the trees down--THEY FILLED IN THE FRIGGIN' SWAMP, KILLED ALL THE WILDLIFE, AND PUT BIG CARDBOARD HOUSES ON TOP OF IT!!!! Do you folks realize that up to 20-25 years ago there were still horse farms in Ridgewood and Allendale and Wyckoff? No one wanted to stop the cancer of development--they just let it build and build and now Bergen County is stuck with crowded roads that were never built for the masses of humanity that moved in to the area in the past couple of decades, and people snarling at one another and flipping the bird from behind the wheels of Beamers and oversized/overpriced SUVs is the order of the day.
I stayed in town, though, because schools were good and I worked in the city, and my mother was available for my daughter's care and safety, but as soon as she graduated from high school, I bailed out.
People who are long-termers in Monmouth County complain about its development just as I do about NW Bergen, but it's a) affordable, b) still commutable to NYC, c) has this lovely feature called the Atlantic Ocean when I travel 15 minutes east from my home, d) has these lovely features called horse farms and orchards when I travel 10 minutes west from my home, and even more if I KEEP traveling west/southwest.
There's extra traffic in the summer, what with people heading for the shore points, but when you live there, you know to go to beaches where the locals go and where the tourists won't go because they don't have the amenities they need for kids. You learn how to take back roads to avoid the traffic. Monmouth County has magnificent county parks and historic sites and the drive to them is pleasant, not a fight for road space through overbuilt suburbs. History (which I love in any place) is different--The English and the Quakers as opposed to Bergen's Dutch, but it's just as interesting and many sites are preserved.
But, growing up, I didn't even know this place existed, let alone think of it as New Jersey!
People who are long-termers in Monmouth County complain about its development just as I do about NW Bergen,
When people who go back in Monmouth Co. several generations complain about how much it's changed it's usually lamenting the cultural change.
I mean, the fact that half the orchards and horse farms in the county have disappeared to make way for tasteless McMansions is sad . . . but it's not the laid back, affordable place it was when I was a kid. You've brought your aggressiveness, tacky houses, flashy cars and terrible accents with you.
I lived in Bergen County in the town where I was a fifth-generation resident for most of my life, with a nine-year-stint in West Paterson (Passaic County) and a few years in Fair Lawn.
I watched northwest Bergen County morph from a quiet, semi-rural, significantly blue-collar area to a place where every tree was mowed down to squeeze in a big house or strip mall and the keep-up-with-the Joneses mentality took a firm hold. I mean, we used to play in the woods at the end of our street, and if you followed the path, you came to a swamp where there were bullfrogs and snapping turtles. Not only did they cut the trees down--THEY FILLED IN THE FRIGGIN' SWAMP, KILLED ALL THE WILDLIFE, AND PUT BIG CARDBOARD HOUSES ON TOP OF IT!!!! Do you folks realize that up to 20-25 years ago there were still horse farms in Ridgewood and Allendale and Wyckoff? No one wanted to stop the cancer of development--they just let it build and build and now Bergen County is stuck with crowded roads that were never built for the masses of humanity that moved in to the area in the past couple of decades, and people snarling at one another and flipping the bird from behind the wheels of Beamers and oversized/overpriced SUVs is the order of the day.
I stayed in town, though, because schools were good and I worked in the city, and my mother was available for my daughter's care and safety, but as soon as she graduated from high school, I bailed out.
People who are long-termers in Monmouth County complain about its development just as I do about NW Bergen, but it's a) affordable, b) still commutable to NYC, c) has this lovely feature called the Atlantic Ocean when I travel 15 minutes east from my home, d) has these lovely features called horse farms and orchards when I travel 10 minutes west from my home, and even more if I KEEP traveling west/southwest.
There's extra traffic in the summer, what with people heading for the shore points, but when you live there, you know to go to beaches where the locals go and where the tourists won't go because they don't have the amenities they need for kids. You learn how to take back roads to avoid the traffic. Monmouth County has magnificent county parks and historic sites and the drive to them is pleasant, not a fight for road space through overbuilt suburbs. History (which I love in any place) is different--The English and the Quakers as opposed to Bergen's Dutch, but it's just as interesting and many sites are preserved.
But, growing up, I didn't even know this place existed, let alone think of it as New Jersey!
I watched northwest Bergen County morph from a quiet, semi-rural, significantly blue-collar area to a place where every tree was mowed down to squeeze in a big house or strip mall and the keep-up-with-the Joneses mentality took a firm hold. I mean, we used to play in the woods at the end of our street, and if you followed the path, you came to a swamp where there were bullfrogs and snapping turtles. Not only did they cut the trees down--THEY FILLED IN THE FRIGGIN' SWAMP, KILLED ALL THE WILDLIFE, AND PUT BIG CARDBOARD HOUSES ON TOP OF IT!!!! Do you folks realize that up to 20-25 years ago there were still horse farms in Ridgewood and Allendale and Wyckoff? No one wanted to stop the cancer of development--they just let it build and build and now Bergen County is stuck with crowded roads that were never built for the masses of humanity that moved in to the area in the past couple of decades, and people snarling at one another and flipping the bird from behind the wheels of Beamers and oversized/overpriced SUVs is the order of the day.
Trust me, I want nothing more than that. I've had it with Bergen County to be fully honest. I grew up here and appreciate that I was lucky to grow up here. But I cannot take the congestion anymore, nor that the entire area closes on Sunday.
My girlfriend grew up in Shrewsbury, and until we met I had never really experienced much on Monmouth outside drives to the shore in high school or my bands playing the occasional gig in Red Bank. Once I was there more regularly (and older), I quickly feel in love with the area. It was such a beautiful and refreshing break from where I was living in Brooklyn at the time. Now that we've moved back to NJ, we're awaiting the day we can move out of Bergen County. Not so easy right now though, with my job being in Edgewater, hers in Manhattan and her grad school in Caldwell. Not sure I could even find something in my field out of this area. We can dream though!
I found this board by just googling names, so I have not read all the posts. I grew up in Monmouth County in the 50's when it was a world much different from what it has become today. I moved away when I went to college and have lived in Virginia ever since. Although I have lived here for close to 40 years, I am still and will forever be a "come here". So, I suspect that the "old timers" in NJ feel the same way. However, right now it is quite fashionable to be from NJ.....and as much as I love where I live, mention of NJ still peaks my interest. So, I guess once from Nj, always from NJ. I would consider myself a native even tho I left at age 18.
I found this board by just googling names, so I have not read all the posts. I grew up in Monmouth County in the 50's when it was a world much different from what it has become today. I moved away when I went to college and have lived in Virginia ever since. Although I have lived here for close to 40 years, I am still and will forever be a "come here". So, I suspect that the "old timers" in NJ feel the same way. However, right now it is quite fashionable to be from NJ.....and as much as I love where I live, mention of NJ still peaks my interest. So, I guess once from Nj, always from NJ. I would consider myself a native even tho I left at age 18.
I came to the states when I was 5, and settled in northern NJ. I left NJ in my mid 20's for north east Pa. Here, it is NOT fashionable to be from NJ. They do NOT like us, but like I tell them all the time, I am, and always will be a from Jersey. My kids miss it too, even my husband, who was most fed up with NJ. I guess it took living somewhere else to realize just how awesome NJ is, and how great it is to be from there.
You are "from" NJ if born here...
You could be "from" anywhere on the planet but grew up, raised here
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