Friday, June 05, 2009

Welcome to Downtown, New Jersey.

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If you are part of the Humorbloggers Summer Road Trip, then I hope you have enjoyed the short trip from Pennsyltucky to here, my home in Downtown, New Jersey. If you are just hopping aboard the bus, you can take a few minutes to go check out what you missed. I'll wait.......

Ok, welcome back.

As you may have heard, New Jersey is the center of the known universe, so we'll spend a few days here, taking a couple of quick trips to such important landmarks like Yankee Stadium and the Rocky Statue in Philadelphia. See, I told you it was the center of the universe.

For today, I'll just give you a quick tour of the county and town where I live, and over the weekend, we'll make a few visits to the greater Jerseypolitan area.

First, a bit about New Jersey and its citizens.

New Jerseyans are among the friendliest people you'll ever meet. You may see some things like this:
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Even if your name is Benny, pay no attention to the Benny Go Home signs, Tee shirts, bumper stickers, billboards, chants, graffitti and the like. It's hard to explain, this anti-Bennyistic activity, but it actually is a long story and well beyond the scope of this class in Jerseyana.

New Jersey is well known for its universities. I grew up right near
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Queens College at Rutgers University
This part of the University was established in 1766.

I failed out many years ago, and following in my footsteps, the Spawn failed out a few years ago, too.

A number of very famous landmarks are in my town. For instance
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This car has appeared in many magazines over the years. Every few years, the car rots out, and is replaced by a different blue car. The current model is a Tercel, replacing the old one that was a Renault.

Another kind of different thing here is this Photobucket
An Art Deco style phallic tribute to Thomas Edison. It was built on the spot where the light bulb was invented.

Stop by tomorrow, and we'll visit the shore, take in a ball game, and if we have time, tour an oil refining plant here in the Garden State.

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18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to have a Tercel when I was a teen. It was yellow, just saying. All really to say the car was my favorite part of the post: makes me think now that I should have put the famous landmarks around where I live...like the trailers with trash in front of them. Very classy. You see photos of them too. ;)

Chris said...

Ah, my home state. You gotta swing by Stuff Yer Face for a boli, pal.

Unknown said...

Yep.. that's exactly what I thought about that statue when I saw it! What can I say.. I have a dirty mind.

Thanks for the tour!

shyne said...

OOOOOhhhhhh....an oil refinery plant tomorrow! Yay!!!!! ;-)

We New Yorkers tend to look down at Jersey, but I think that's a geographical thing......I think.

Frank Lee MeiDere said...

Nice visit - and I didn't feel out of place wandering around still carrying the rifle I'd picked up in Pennsyltucky.

Lin said...

Wow. Thanks. Now I feel like I've been on vacation. Thanks for saving me all that gas money.

Donnie said...

I've gone to a few Phillie's games in the past. Does that mean I've visited Noo Joisey? Sorry, guess the thought of the Garden State made me do that.

Sandee said...

I don't think I can take all this excitement. Yawn. Just saying.

Have a terrific day and weekend Crotchety. :)

ReformingGeek said...

Oh, my. I can't wait to visit. How many Yankees does it take to change that lightbulb....er...symbol?

Love it!

brokenteepee said...

The publicist had a tercel too...it was her first manual transmission car. She never went back.

Next you should tour the publicist's first home. It was a portion of barracks from Ft. Dix moved to the saltmarsh in the 50ies. Put on cedar pilings and painted lime green with lemon yellow trim. It leaned to the left. Until it flooded on the high tide. Then it kinda centered for a few hours....

Then she got new pilings a touch higher than the old ones. They were about the best gift the male person ever gave her.

Me-Me King said...

Love the auto repair shop photo - now, that was certainly worth the trip! Look forward to the oil refinery tour, at which chemical exit is that located?

Unknown said...

Thanks for this... unique... perspective on the state in which I grew up. I believe I learned a few things. :)

kathcom said...

Do cars still turn over? Does that still accurately describe how a car starts?

Thanks for the landmark tour. I usually just see the IKEA...and smell Newark.

Who's Benny?

nonamedufus said...

My only knowledge of New Jersey is Secaucus across the river from Manhatten. I stayed there when I visited NYC because the hotels were a good deal. All I know is somebody's got an identity problem. I could see where the New York Jets and Giants played from my hotel window - Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. Like what`s up with that?

Da Old Man said...

@ Unfinished: NJ is just ripe with world famous landmarks, only a few are Toyota based.

@ Chris: MMMM, Stuff yer Face. Mario Batali's first restaurant job was there.

@ Dizz: Stop by tomorrow for even more.

@ Shyne: We are well known for them. Part of the Jersey smell.

@ Frank: If you go near Newark, you're going to need that rifle.

@ Lin: The ultimate staycation.

@ Don: Just a small part of the Jerseyopolis.

@ Sandee: It will be even more exciting tomorrow. Get a good night's rest.

@ Reforming: 1 to hold the bulb, and 1000 to turn the monument.

@ Pricilla: Sounds wonderful. Lots of barracks were used as college housing at Rutgers.

@ Me-me: It's just down the road from me, about a quarter mile. I used to see it nearly every day.

@ Jenn: So much to our small state.

@ Kathcom: We are well known for IKEA, and that smell.

@ Nonamed: The Giants and Jets maintain offices in NY, so they can claim to be a NY team.

Unknown said...

yay!

Da Old Man said...

@ Stacie: Glad you liked it. Tomorrow we have lots more planned.

A New Yorker said...

That's a very strange item at the time for a phallic symbol.