Moving from greater Philly area suburb to Northern NJ

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

Ohh so you are rich! Jkjk lol

But beautiful areas for sure

Ahem, I grew up in Northwest Bergen County in the 1960s when the only "rich" towns were Ridgewood, HoHoKus, maybe Upper Saddle and Saddle Rivers even then. We had chickens in the backyard for pets, and the streets only got sidewalks and a sewer system when I was around 12 or 13 years old. All the towns had vast wooded areas and at least a few farms.

The biggest business on Main Street in Wyckoff was the feed and grain. The lovely James McFaul Environmental Center on Crescent Avenue was an abandoned pig farm. We could walk to it. Then the state bought it and it became the first Green Acres project in New Jersey.

My older sister got a few horses in the 1970s and kept them at a horse farm in Allendale. That spot is townhouses now. Allendale was a small, blue-collar hick town. My cousin lived in Mahwah with a farm across the street that stunk every spring when they turned the soil and added pig manure. Her mail went "RFD No. 1". Townhouses there now, too.

Around 1975, Ridgewood gave HoHoKus high school kids the boot, and they came to our high school, their fees paying for an addition to the building. I was the last class to graduate without any HHK kids. The Bergen Record was there the first day, and the article in the paper the next day red "Blue Blood Meets Blue Collar". It p.o.'d a lot of Midland Park people, as if they were looking down on us. But everybody got along.

We weren't rich. In fact, I thought we were poor. I was one of seven kids and didn't have my own room until my second-oldest sister got married when I was 13. I wore hand-me-downs, and our family went on vacation to upstate New York and the Poconos, not Europe or other places on airplanes like my wealthier friend (whose mailing address was Ridgewood but the house was actually on the Midland Park side of the line so she went to my school.) My parents always bought used cars. My mother took us shopping in Paterson because it was cheaper and that's where she had gone when she was young. My friends went to the Garden State Plaza and the Bergen Mall, but my mother said those places were too expensive. Plus we had the Sears and Montgomery Ward Catalogues.

Then I went to work in the city and the woman who sat next to me grew up in Newark, and after hearing her childhood stories, I realized I was never even remotely poor. But we weren't rich!

In the 1980s, the developers started buying up the old farms and the wooded areas and there was building everywhere you looked. Young married people from crumbling parts of Jersey City and Bayonne bought up the houses and moved out in droves, the traffic increased, traffic lights appeared everywhere, Route 208 went from a speedy road to a parking lot in the mornings, and the whole area took on the wealthier vibe that it has now.

[ilovemycomputer90]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

Ahem, I grew up in Northwest Bergen County in the 1960s when the only "rich" towns were Ridgewood, HoHoKus, maybe Upper Saddle and Saddle Rivers even then. We had chickens in the backyard for pets, and the streets only got sidewalks and a sewer system when I was around 12 or 13 years old. All the towns had vast wooded areas and at least a few farms.

The biggest business on Main Street in Wyckoff was the feed and grain. The lovely James McFaul Environmental Center on Crescent Avenue was an abandoned pig farm. We could walk to it. Then the state bought it and it became the first Green Acres project in New Jersey.

My older sister got a few horses in the 1970s and kept them at a horse farm in Allendale. That spot is townhouses now. Allendale was a small, blue-collar hick town. My cousin lived in Mahwah with a farm across the street that stunk every spring when they turned the soil and added pig manure. Her mail went "RFD No. 1". Townhouses there now, too.

Around 1975, Ridgewood gave HoHoKus high school kids the boot, and they came to our high school, their fees paying for an addition to the building. I was the last class to graduate without any HHK kids. The Bergen Record was there the first day, and the article in the paper the next day red "Blue Blood Meets Blue Collar". It p.o.'d a lot of Midland Park people, as if they were looking down on us. But everybody got along.

We weren't rich. In fact, I thought we were poor. I was one of seven kids and didn't have my own room until my second-oldest sister got married when I was 13. I wore hand-me-downs, and our family went on vacation to upstate New York and the Poconos, not Europe or other places on airplanes like my wealthier friend (whose mailing address was Ridgewood but the house was actually on the Midland Park side of the line so she went to my school.) My parents always bought used cars. My mother took us shopping in Paterson because it was cheaper and that's where she had gone when she was young. My friends went to the Garden State Plaza and the Bergen Mall, but my mother said those places were too expensive. Plus we had the Sears and Montgomery Ward Catalogues.

Then I went to work in the city and the woman who sat next to me grew up in Newark, and after hearing her childhood stories, I realized I was never even remotely poor. But we weren't rich!

In the 1980s, the developers started buying up the old farms and the wooded areas and there was building everywhere you looked. Young married people from crumbling parts of Jersey City and Bayonne bought up the houses and moved out in droves, the traffic increased, traffic lights appeared everywhere, Route 208 went from a speedy road to a parking lot in the mornings, and the whole area took on the wealthier vibe that it has now.

I have an uncle who grew up in Wyckoff in the 60s and 70s and he's talked about how rural it was. He's shocked at what the area has become since that time. Going back even further, my grandfather talked about the farms in Paramus and the race track in Ho-Ho-Kus. Different times for sure!

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by ilovemycomputer90

I have an uncle who grew up in Wyckoff in the 60s and 70s and he's talked about how rural it was. He's shocked at what the area has become since that time. Going back even further, my grandfather talked about the farms in Paramus and the race track in Ho-Ho-Kus. Different times for sure!

Yup, my Dad remembered those things, too!