During 2001, I lived and worked in the New York/New Jersey border (which means, yes, I was in NYC on Sept. 11). I went back to the area to look at an awesome FEI sales prospect, and was reminded of all those idiosyncrasies that make New Jersey New Jersey.
Here's 5 things about New Jersey I forgot about completely:
1. You can't pump your own gas. Which meant I white-knuckled it until I was back in Delaware.
2. You can't walk into said gas station wearing riding boots without getting stares, and when a guy asks you to "do a little favor for him," you have to remind him you don't run an S&M den.
3. They have these stupid tolls where you have to throw change into a bucket. Which meant I had to scrounge for 10 minutes to find $0.70, while on my cell phone, with cars behind me, praying the 7 dimes made it into the frickin' bucket after I tossed them, all because New Jersey can't get with the times, and accept debit cards at their tolls. Really, who carries around change for toll booths (and why didn't I just run the toll)?
4. The "gold chains and baseball hat" look is still de rigueur. Particularly in South Jersey.
5. New Jersey residents require a lot of personal space when standing in line. Or perhaps they moved away from me because, well, I smelled like a horse.
Good night everybody!
