You Might be from Jersey if...

[billski]

* You don't understand why there aren't more 24-hour diners elsewhere in the country.
* You know what a Wawa is, and know the location of at least 15 of them.
* You think a mountain is that big freakin' hill in Atlantic Highlands.
* You know Asbury Park is no longer the mecca of East Coast resort towns.
* Even though there's a new Wal-Mart in your town, you still go to the Englishtown Auction for cheap stuff.
* You can name all the flavors of salt water taffy.
* Your car is covered with yellow-green dust in April and May.
* You buy Shop-Rite brand food at Shop-Rite.
* You can smell and know when it's low tide.
* The Jets/Giants game has started fights at your school and/or local bar.
* There are no self serve gas stations and you like it that freakin' way... "yous gotta problem wit dat?"
* You've had sex on the beach, and I'm not talking about the beverage.
* You know how to successfully handle a traffic circle.
* You know what skeeball is and you can get three 50's in a row.
* You think the Olive Garden is crap and should have never opened any restaurants in New Jersey.
* You've run out of money on the Parkway.
* You're Italian.
* You know where to get the best bagels and pizza.
* Donald Trump is mentioned at least daily in your local paper.
* You say "water" weird. (Wooder, Cawfee, Dowg, wadever).
* Even your school made good Italian subs.
* You've lived through hurricanes, nor'easters and fires, but have never seen a tornado, earthquake, tsunami or volcano.
* You can't believe MTV went to Seaside Heights.
* You know that ACME is an actual store, not just a Warner Bros.creation.
* You only go to New York City for day trips.
* You know what a "jug handle" is.
* You have mandatory recycling. Enforced by law.
* You've eaten a pork roll and cheese on a hard roll...and like it.
* You go to at least one parade at the boardwalk each year.
* You've pondered, "Maybe basketball would be more popular in New Jersey if the Nets didn't blow,"
* You can go bowling at 1:30 A.M. (with automatic scoring)!
* In high school, you worked at a Friendly's.
* Route 18 doesn't freak you out at night.
* Because your town was founded before 1776, all the restaurants, taverns and shops have "ye," "olde," and "colonial" in their names.
* You don't have to go to Red Lobster to get fresh seafood.
* You once said, "It smells like New York in here."
* You've waited for the damn drawbridge for more than 20 damn minutes.
* At least three people in your family still love Bruce Springsteen.
* There's a fruit and vegetable stand down the road.
* "Anyone who makes bad pizza can go to hell" is your attitude.
* You always use a minimum of 10 variations of the word "damn" while driving.
* You don't take any shit from anybody. Especially from someone from New York, because you live here for christ's sake and just who the hell do they think they are anyway? Invading our damn beaches and bars, they're just here for the damn summer and they think they own the damn place and....
* You've gone to the race track with twenty different daily double bets from twenty different people.
* You've spent St Patrick's day in Belmar.
* You know that there are bakeries which are not part of a supermarket, but actual individual stores.
* You've ordered a "hard roll with butter" for breakfast.
* One time, a sea gull shit on your head.
* You've eaten at a Windmill, drunk off your ass, at 3am at least a dozen times.
* You know what a "benny" is and can pick one out at the beach.
* You've planned a local trip around ensuring you pass at least one Dunkin' Donuts.
* You're an aggressive driver.
* At least 5 people in your immediate family have asthma.
* Your drinking water should not be used for drinking.
* Your town has more water restrictions than people living in "dry" states i.e. Arizona, and Nevada.
* Potholes are as common as mosquitoes.
* You believe pigeons carry hand guns.

 

[hammer]

Thanks...having grown up on the Jersey Shore (lots of family still there) I can relate to a lot of those.

 

[RootDKJ]

* You've eaten Taylor Ham and cheese (w/ SPK) on a hard roll...and like it.

Fixed it for you. Pork roll is for people from PA :razz: and is 1000X better then that scrapple crap.

 

[billski]

Fixed it for you. Pork roll is for people from PA :razz: and is 1000X better then that scrapple crap.

Ignorance is bliss. I hardly ever get to eat out in Jersey. I visit my inlaws, and everyone insists on preparing a meal for us. It took me 15 years to get to White Castle. I still haven't eaten at a Stewarts Drive-in.

 

[hammer]

Fixed it for you. Pork roll is for people from PA :razz: and is 1000X better then that scrapple crap.

+100...have to get some of that when I go to visit family next week. Been advised to lower my sodium intake but sometimes you have to make an exception...

 

[RootDKJ]

+100...have to get some of that when I go to visit family next week. Been advised to lower my sodium intake but sometimes you have to make an exception...

Easy....just tell the guy behind the counter to only put pepper and ketchup on there and hold the extra salt :wink:

 

[wa-loaf]

* You know what a "benny" is and can pick one out at the beach.

So what's a "benny"?

 

[St. Bear]

So what's a "benny"?

I learned this because of the show "Jersey Shore"

Bergen County
Essex County
New
York

 

[hammer]

So what's a "benny"?

Same thing as a shoobie...just a word for an obnoxious tourist:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bennies

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shoobies

 

[RootDKJ]

I used to live across the street from Sandy Hook bay. Here's what I never got about some shore towns. They (generally speaking) look down upon the tourists as a nuisance that they most endure for 9 months of peace, quiet and less traffic..At least that's the vibe I got....

 

[snowmonster]

Did you ever watch that movie "Just Friends?" There's a line there:

"Are you kidding? You're Chris Brander. You're Hollywood; you date models. He's Jersey; he skis in his jeans. It's Dinkleman... it's Dusty Dinkleman."

 

[4aprice]

Great list. Know too many of them well. I gotta get out of here.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[jaywbigred]

I learned this because of the show "Jersey Shore"

Bergen County
Essex County
New
York

I don't think that is correct. My 94 year old grandfather told me the term "benny," as a derogatory term for summer tourists from New York, is actually derived from maybe the 30s or 40s, when a train line opened from New York Penn Station to Bay Head, NJ. Stickers would be slapped on luggage that said "BHNY" meaning "Bay Head <--> New York", and this got turned into the term "benny."

Bay Head remains the most southernly station on NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line, the terminus of said line. My friends from NY take it in the summer to get down to our fam's beach house.

Thanks...having grown up on the Jersey Shore (lots of family still there) I can relate to a lot of those.

This list should really be renamed "you might be from SOUTH Jersey if"

and Root, spot on, it TAYLOR HAM. Only people from South Jersey and Philly area call it pork roll.

 

[4aprice]

This list should really be renamed "you might be from SOUTH Jersey if"

and Root, spot on, it TAYLOR HAM. Only people from South Jersey and Philly area call it pork roll.

Lots of that list applies to the Shore and South Jersey and not to Northwest (The Skylands). I actually don't know the nearest Wawa but do know the nearest Quick Check.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[gorgonzola]

noice.... forgot two of my favorites:

you keep an eye out for big sabretts umbrellas on the side of the road when you need a dawg
you can get mussels marinara at most pizza joints

these, waves and boardwalk pizza are about the only things i miss about growing up in joisey

 

[Geoff]

I don't get some of the list.

Dunkin Donuts is a New England franchise, not a Jersey franchise.

You know by the smell what they're making at the refinery, not whether it's low tide.

 

[hammer]

I don't get some of the list.

Dunkin Donuts is a New England franchise, not a Jersey franchise.

You know by the smell what they're making at the refinery, not whether it's low tide.

Depends on what part of Jersey you are from...when growing up on the shore the smell from the marshes at low tide was pretty strong. uke:

Then again, I don't understand the ones about talking funny or about the drinking water...those must be there for people from North Jersey. ;-)

 

[jaywbigred]

Depends on what part of Jersey you are from...when growing up on the shore the smell from the marshes at low tide was pretty strong. uke:

Then again, I don't understand the ones about talking funny or about the drinking water...those must be there for people from North Jersey. ;-)

Umm, Tom's River is one of the most famous "cancer clusters" there is, if I'm not mistaken? I think that is part of the water thing.

And the refinery thing is stupid. Only a few towns in and around Linden might be able to smell that. Nothing compared to New Orleans or Baton Rouge or Houston.

On the other hand, hundreds of towns are near coastal waterways where low tide can most definitely be olfactorily detected.

 

[Ski Diva]

I grew up at the Jersey Shore, and I love this list. A lot of it is spot on. There's definitely a difference between those who live in North and South Jersey. I lived in the neverland between the two (Ocean County), though I always identified more with South.

And yeah, we always looked down on the day trippers. Though now that I live in a ski town, I don't think it's really that different. We want the tourists to come -- depend on them, really -- but can be a bit snobby about being a local.

 

[playoutside]

Good list. Funny. Grew up in northwest NJ...like others have said this definitely has a shore and south Jersey tone. Love Taylor Ham and was just craving a "butter roll" as I was driving to work this morning in Boston -- not a chance finding one. I never heard the term benny until I was in college and met a kid who grew up in south Jersey.