Easter Egg Hunts

I'm not sure when we stopped having Easter Egg Hunts in our home. It probably was near the time I was about to turn eight and my brother six. We always knew there wasn't an Easter Bunny but searching for chocolate was fun all the same. Later we were simple given a chocolate Easter Bunny and told not to eat it all at one time or else we would spoil our dinner.

We would have an Easter dinner around 1PM and it was usually a ham laced with cloves and sometimes pineapple. Later in life I would learn the wonders of spiral sliced smoked hams when I worked as a retail manager in a Heavenly Ham store. Our Easter hams were much simpler affairs and my Dad would have to slice them. They were always a favorite as they made excellent sandwiches for days afterwards.

This all reminds me of something Phillip Roth, the American novelist once said:

"American writers leave where they came from then write about it the rest of their lives."

While I am hardly a writer of any degree, I am an American blogger and I do write about a time and place I only rarely see in person.

I can't say I have ever read anything of Roth. According to Wikipedia, he first gained attention with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of American-Jewish life for which he received the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Roth's fiction, was regularly set in Newark, New Jersey. Though I do believe he is going on my bucket list of writers to spend time with.

To me, any writer who can make an observation that hits home with you is somebody to read. I'll probably start at the beginning and see how it goes. He is a very prolific writer, spanning more than five decades, so maybe I will have to investigate him via Amazon and the Kindle Fire I was given by my employers to evaluate. As an apartment dweller I really don't have the space for books, even though I love them dearly. The tablet is, despite my initial misgivings, a good idea for space deprived city dwellers. Nothing wrong with collecting books and I admire any household which has the room to display all they have read or hope to read. My wife and I have made the decision to live in the city so it's either books or cooking gadgets. From the looks of things the gadgets have won!

Walking Around Town

I used to do quite a bit of walking around town, as well as riding and driving. Who knows how many miles, we didn't go in for the pedometers back then, and today's Fitbit and Jawbone Up had not been invented. Some of us had odometers on our bicycles and in our cars but it was rare that we looked at them to see how far we had gone around town.



At first walking was difficult and even a block or two seemed like a big effort when you were young. Then the strength of youth grows inside of you as well as the impatience and the walk isn't such an effort as it is a use of time.



It wasn't until I getting ready to go off to college and we were readying our home for sale so my parents could move back into Manhattan that I slowed my gait down enough to truly look around at my surroundings and circumstances. Though by this time it was too late to savor the safety and tranquility of our upper Ridgewood neighborhood. It all went away too fast, which was ironic as earlier in my life I couldn't cover the ground fast enough.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance,
plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity,
good speech, good silence and nothing too much." 
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Now on those rare occasions when I stroll about town I search my memory banks for why I was in such a hurry. Then it usually comes back to me in a saying I made up:

You can go home again, but only for as long as it takes you to remember why you left in the first place.

.

New Jersey is a Peninsula

You may have seen this already on the Internet by James Stiles:

"New Jersey is a peninsula.

New Jersey has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.

New Jersey is the only state where all of its counties are classified as metropolitan areas.

New Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky.

New Jersey has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq mi .) than Havana, Cuba.

New Jersey has the densest system of highways and railroads in the US.

New Jersey has the highest cost of living.

New Jersey has the highest cost of auto insurance.

New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation.

New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the "Diner Capital of the World."

New Jersey is home to the original Mystery Pork Parts Club (no, not Spam ): Taylor Ham or Pork Roll. Home to the less mysterious but the best Italian hot dogs and Italian sausage w /peppers and onions.

North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius.

New Jersey is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The Passaic River was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.

New Jersey has 50+ resort cities & towns; some of the nation's most famous: Asbury Park, Wildwood, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, Long Branch, Cape May.

New Jersey has the most stringent testing along our coastline for water quality control than any other seaboard state in the entire country.

New Jersey is a leading technology & industrial state and is the largest chemical producing state in the nation when you include pharmaceuticals.

Jersey tomatoes are known the world over as being the best you can buy.

New Jersey is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry production (and here you thought Massachusetts?)

Here's to New Jersey - the toast of the country! In 1642, the first brewery in America, opened in Hoboken.

New Jersey rocks! The famous Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah, in 1940.

New Jersey is a major seaport state with the largest seaport in the US,located in Elizabeth. Nearly 80 percent of what our nation imports comes through Elizabeth Seaport first.

New Jersey is home to one of the nation's busiest airports(in Newark ), Liberty International.

George Washington slept here.

Several important Revolutionary War battles were fought on New Jersey soil, led by General George Washington.

The light bulb, phonograph (record player), and motion picture projector were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ, laboratory.

We also boast the first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs.

The first seaplane was built in Keyport, NJ.

The first airmail (to Chicago ) was started from Keyport , NJ.

The first phonograph records were made in Camden , NJ New Jersey was home to the Miss America Pageant held in Atlantic City.

The game Monopoly, played all over the world, named the streets on its playing board after the actual streets in Atlantic City. And, Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world, not to mention salt water taffy.

New Jersey has the largest petroleum containment area outside of the Middle East countries.

The first Indian reservation was in New Jersey, in the Watchung Mountains.

New Jersey has the tallest water-tower in the world (Union, NJ!!!)

New Jersey had the first medical center, in Jersey City.

The Pulaski SkyWay, from Jersey City to Newark, was the first skyway highway.

NJ built the first tunnel under a river, the Hudson (Holland Tunnel).

The first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ, which is also the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.

The first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1889 ( Rutgers College played Princeton ).

The first drive-in movie theater was opened in Camden , NJ, (but they're all gone now!) except there is still one in Vineland!

New Jersey is home to both of "NEW YORK'S" pro football teams!

The first radio station and broadcast was in Paterson, NJ.

The first FM radio broadcast was made from Alpine, NJ, by Major Thomas Armstrong.

All New Jersey natives: Sal Martorano, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifah, Susan Sarandon, Connie Francis, Shaq, Judy Blume, Aaron Burr, Joan Robertson, Ken Kross, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Marilynn McCoo, Flip Wilson, Alexander Hamilton, Zack Braff, Whitney Houston, Eddie Money, Linda McElroy, Eileen Donnelly, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman, Jerry Lewis, Tom Cruise, Joyce Kilmer, Bruce Willis, Caesar Romero, Lauryn Hill, Ice-T, Nick Adams, Nathan Lane, Sandra Dee, Danny DeVito, Richard Conti, Joe Pesci, Joe Piscopo, Joe DePasquale, Robert Blake, John Forsythe, Meryl Streep, Loretta Swit, Norman Lloyd, Paul Simon, Bill Muehleisen, Jerry Herman, Gorden McCrae, Kevin Spacey, John Travolta, Phyllis Newman, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Eva Marie Saint, Elisabeth Shue, Zebulon Pike, Natalie Muehleisen, James Fennimore Cooper, Admiral Wm. Halsey Jr., Norman Schwarzkopf, Dave Thomas ( Wendy's ), William Carlos Williams, Ray Liotta, Robert Wuhl, Bob Reyers, Paul Robeson, Ernie Kovacs, Joseph Macchia, Kelly Ripa, and, of course, Francis Albert Sinatra and "Uncle Floyd " Vivino, and of course the great Irene Taras.

The Great Falls in Paterson, on the Passaic River, is the 2nd highest waterfall on the East Coast of the US.

You know you're from Jersey when . . You don't think of fruit when people mention "The Oranges."

You know that it's called Great Adventure, not Six Flags.

A good, quick breakfast is a hard roll with butter.

You've known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.

You've eaten at a diner, when you were stoned or drunk, at 3 A.M.

You know that the state isn't one big oil refinery.

At least three people in your family still love Bruce Springsteen, and you know the town Jon Bon Jovi is from.

You know what a "jug handle" is.

You know that WaWa is a convenience store.

You know that the state isn't all farmland.

You know that there are no "beaches" in New Jersey--there's the shore--and you don't go "to the shore," you go "down the shore." And when you are there, you're not "at the shore"; you are "down the shore."

You know how to properly negotiate a circle. You knew that the last sentence had to do with driving.

You know that this is the only "New" state that doesn't require "New" to identify it (try . . Mexico, . . York ...! . . Hampshire -- doesn't work, does it?).

You know that a "White Castle" is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.

You consider putting mayo on a corned beef sandwich a sacrilege.

You don't think "What exit?" is very funny. You know that people from the 609 area code are "a little different." Yes they are!

You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton --that's for out-of- staters.

The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school or local bar."

Then and Now

THEN

Gas was pumped for you, your windshields were cleaned and you went inside the station to get maps.

NOW

You pump your own gas, clean your own windows and maps are on your phone. Of course, in New Jersey they still pump your gas but they rarely do the windows.