Jersey Divide Preview
For an entire semester, I have discussed my twisted take on the New Jersey Divide. I’ve addressed issues ranging from the corruption of New Jersey politics to the endless convenience store debate.
Over the course of the weekend, I plan on bothering friends, neighbors, and strangers in the hopes of getting some different viewpoints on New Jersey.
Of course, I will brush on important topics, such as breakfast foods, convenience stores, and vacation destinations less than an hour from your home?
Richard Pryce, a Jamaican immigrant who came up in the projects of Perth Amboy, a town in what some would call North Jersey, and others would call Central Jersey. Pryce defines himself as a North Jersian because of the Amboy’s proximity to Staten Island, the most removed, and worst burough of New York City. Now a South Jersey resident, Pryce has become involved in the local community, made friends… but he still drives an hour and a half to get his hair cut “up north.” He will talk about South Jersey barbers like I talk about South Jersey bagels… unfavorably at best.
Pryce and others will be asked to answer some of the following questions:
Do you ever have any reason to go to cross into North/South Jersey?
What kind of personality does North Jersey have?
Does South Jersey have any personality?
What do North Jersians think defines South Jersians, and vice versa?
What kind of food is the local favorite?
Do you eat pork roll? Where can you get a good bagel around here?
What is your favorite conveniece store?
What’s the best diner in Jersey?
Is it the beach or the shore?
What’s a bennie? A piney? A jackson white?
Who’s the Jersey Devil? Corzine?
I grew up in South jersey but haven’t lived there for MANY years…BUT I still am a JerseyGirl at heart…
Do you ever have any reason to go to cross into North/South Jersey?…N/A
What kind of personality does North Jersey have? North Jersey is just South New York…Kind of like North Florida is just South Georgia…
Does South Jersey have any personality? GD!!! Of course it does!!!
What do North Jersians think defines South Jersians, and vice versa?
NJ thinks SJ is a bunch of hicks…SJ thinks NJ is a bunch of wanna-be newyorkers
What kind of food is the local favorite? Philly cheese steak…the REAL stuff, not the crap they try and pass of down here in Florida…
Do you eat pork roll? Absolutely!!! Publix carries it
Where can you get a good bagel around here? Jewish delis in Delray Beach
What is your favorite conveniece store? Up there???WaWa of course…Down here? 7-11 for the Brain Freeze
What’s the best diner in Jersey?
Jim & Larry’s in Vineland
Is it the beach or the shore?
Geez, this is an easy one…the shore, for sure!
A piney? Someone who live in the Barrens…I’ve often told folks down here that what they call a “scrub” is nothing more than the Barrens…
Who’s the Jersey Devil? The creepy little guy I saw out on the roof of my grandmother’s house when I was about 5…I TOTALLY believe…
Corzine? The Jersey version of Charlie Crist????
BeeDancer said this on December 5, 2008 at 7:09 pm
This is a great website, I’ll have to add you as a link. When making the film, http://www.newjerseythemovie.com, – immigrants were tough to get to comment. It’s almost like you need to be in Jersey 10 – 15 years to truly get a grip on this North-South divide. But I met a recent Indian immigrant in Pennington and he leaned them South, but said that his staff disagrees. He said, “I am learning that this debate is important.”
For me (and for the film) if there is, indeed, a Central Jersey, it is where the cultures of Philly and NYC overlap. It doesn’t happen in Middlesex, Somerset or most of Monmouth (Hunterdon is more complicated). Those guys are all NY sports fans, all fly out of EWR, all call it a sub, sprinkles & slip in “w”s into the words like coffee and chocolate just like their Northern brethren. The cultures DO overlap in all of Mercer and half of Ocean. I mean, I was in in Middletown Twp. (Monmouth C), where Kevin Smith filmed Clerks, this weekend and I could see the NYC skyline from the shore of Leonardo. . . . so how can it be Central NJ if you can see a city’s skyline from your area? That doesn’t add up. . . . unless that skyline is Trenton.
Steve said this on December 7, 2008 at 8:41 pm