My Garden State

Oh, New Jersey.

Deep in the heart of the state, past the North Jersey exits that act as feeders into Manhattan, beyond the Citgo oil tanks lining the NJ Turnpike - the ones made famous in The Soprano's opening credit sequence - past the Newark Airport, the Turnpike rest stops the high numbered exits, and the throngs and throngs of cars, things begin to slowly change. I promise you they do.  It takes a while to get to and it is nowhere near a highway, for it's a well-kept secret, this beautiful, quiet part of New Jersey I know;  a little gem in the Garden State. 

If you were to visit my hometown, and then, by chance, you found yourself with a sudden desire to get to the Jersey Shore, you'd need to know this.  Stay straight.  No, really.  That's about all there is to it.  You keep driving along the two land road that runs straight through my town, passing through that sleepy little 4-way stop.  Continue on past the family-owned General Store, and then...just keep driving.  It's a straight shot really, provided of course, you don't miss the one necessary left hand turn at the family-run hot dog stand on the corner. (No, I'm not joking, nope, you can't miss it.) In aproximately 40 minutes you will find yourself at the Jersey shore, Long Beach Island, specifically.

LBI (for no one ever calls it Long Beach Island) is the beach I grew up going to, the one I know the best of all the beaches in the New Jersey area.  Countless, the amount of hot summer days when Mom would pile me and my brother into the car with promises for a day at the beach, at the shore.  The Jersey Shore.

Ocean City, if you'd rather head there, is a touch further South - though only another 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic. It was here we'd go when Mom wanted to change things up a bit on our day trips, or as a newly minted high school graduate, where I got to spend an unchaperoned week with some of my best girlfriends in a shore house we rented, just blocks away from the boardwalk.  Ocean City is where one of my closest high school girlfriend's family has had a beach house for as long as I've known her, where my friends and I still gather every few years, a spot I recently reminisced about with an old guy friend, one I hadn't seen in over ten years, learning for the first time that that crush had been mutual after all, those many years ago.  It's a house that stands on the same block as one that Grace Kelly's family used to own, a fact that intrigued and mystified me the very first time Meghan told me this news, one that still stirs a few starstruck butterflies even now, as a 30-something.

If you've driven this far, you out to go see Atlantic City, for it's only 20 minutes away.  I can't tell you much about the casinos, the gambling, or even point out shots from Boardwalk Empire here. But I can tell you that, as a kid, my Dad was a boater.  He lived and breathed for weekends spent on that boat, and would often take my brother and me out for leisurely day trips from our dock in Mays Landing all the way out to the shore line of AC.  Depending on the weather, the timing, his mood, he'd even drive us down to Egg Harbor Bay where we'd could watch the Ocean City ferris wheels in one direction, and in the other, we could study the skyline of Atlantic City, begging for a chance to strap on Dad's binoculars, my brother and I eager to "spy" on the tourists wandering the boardwalk.  Bobbing in the ocean, listening as Dad pointed out Ocean City and Atlantic City landmarks, I found myself starry-eyed.  Out there you couldn't see the seediness that fell on the outskirts of AC. Instead, you just fell under the enchantment of the boardwalk itself. After all, I can't be the only girl who came of age singing the song from Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken under her breath day in and day out, can I? 

So the news today, the coverage of the overwhelming devastation to hit New York City and that beloved Jersey Shore of mine, well it saddens me immensely.  I have literally been near tears as I watch shot after shot of flooded homes, swelled beaches, landmarks crushed.  I have audibly gasped as I recognized former landmarks, like the Seaside Heights amusement park, now washed away into the ocean.  I know this isn't exactly the first storm to hit the East Coast, I'm well aware there have been worse.  But this one, Sandy, she hit home.  She hit with a vengeance.  And it breaks my heart.

Thankfully, my father is safe, warm, dry, and with power.  Most of my friends and my friend's parents still living in the area where I grew up aren't so lucky.  I haven't heard back from my friend Meghan, the one with the family beach house in Ocean City, yet.  I've been checking my phone all day, hoping to hear from her, hoping they, the house, are all okay. 

Of course, I'm aware my reminiscing and my musings won't mean anything to most of you.  After all, these are my Jersey shore memories, thoughts of my home state.  Still, I wish you could pull up a chair, I wish you could glance through my old photos albums with me, that we could laugh together over old and new memories formed along the Jersey Shore.  Because I've got some really great ones to share.   

And I will tell you this.  They are good people down there.  It is a good spot.  A beloved spot, a treasured one.  If you can help, this website provides a multitude of options.   

On the Board Walk in Atlantic City
Life will be peaches & cream.
Cinderella you will find your fella
Someone waiting for you...
In romantic, enchanting,
Atlantic City...
Down by the old New Jersey shore.