So what, now everyone wants to be from New Jersey? Right!!
They're lured by the Bad Boys of the
Soprano's, is that it? All of a sudden, that New Jersey Attitude is
attractive.
Well, let's clear up a few things about that attitude. It's
not that we have AN attitude, it's that WE HAVE ATTITUDE. And we're not
afraid to use it! Even the New Yorkers, who mostly are afraid to cross
the river to come here, are slowly crossing over to the other side. As
a matter of act, a large part of Bergen County (we'll see the map later)
now should be handed over to New York, as most of the people who live
there, are from New York, New Jersey wannabe's, ya know. The real New
Jerseyan's say:
But it'll never happen. They'll keep coming here in droves
because as much as they joke about us, complain about us, and jeer at
us, they long to be like us. We have personality, after all.
To really appreciate New Jersey, you have had to have been
born here. We know there are lots of people who have lived here "most"
of their lives, and not born here, and they may have been able to "adopt"
some of the behaviors of a native New Jerseyan, but they'll never quite
have it completely. They're missing that special edge, that special gleam
in their eye. If you're from New Jersey, you know exactly what I mean.
People born in New Jersey are allowed to call it "Jersey.".
People from other-than-New Jersey, should call it New Jersey. Hey, we
don't chop up the name of their state, do we? Do we ask, "Where ya
from, 'Nneticuit? 'Orida? 'Chussettes? 'Fornia? No, of course not. And
it's the New Yawwwkas that call it "Joisey", not the native
New Jerseyans!
We're called arrogant, obnoxious, rude, crude, brash . .
. and more! But we don't care because we know that unless you're from
New Jersey, you know how to not care about that. We just don't care what
you say about us. We like the fact that you don't want to live here. What,
did you think we didn't put all those oil refineries and dumps and broken
down warehouses around Newark Liberty Airport for no reason? That's what
most people think New Jersey is . . . and we like it that way. Do you
think we want you to know about all the great secret places there are
in New Jersey so you may actually want to move here? Not on your life!
Let me explain the attitude thing: We are an intense bunch,
driven, clearly focused and not afraid of very much. We know what we want
and we go for it in the most direct route possible. We are very friendly,
we just don't have much patience for people getting in the way of where
we're going or what we're doing. We have a high level of self-confidence,
a high level of motivation and a low level of patience for certain things.
New Jerseyan's don't think of themselves as being better than anyone else,
we just want to do things, get things done quickly and easily.
Oh, yeah, another thing, being born in New Jersey also means
that we have built in BS detectors. So if someone tries to BS us, we automatically
know it. And there's more: Here
Take The Test!
There's a lot to New Jersey that many people aren't even
aware of. Maybe if we let you in on some of our history and lure, some
of the people who were born here, made contributions to the rest of the
world from here, and a few more interesting tidbits about New Jersey,
you'll understand why we want to live here. Even if we move away to another
state, many of return after a while. It's our roots and they're roots
that you can only understand if you're born in New Jersey. Born New Jerseyans
are proud of being from New Jersey and don't ever have to apologize for
it! One
statistic says that 73% of us say it is a good or excellent place
to live! and 71% of us own our homes!! What say that, New Yawwwkers?
Mother Nature can be downright ruthless (think
SANDY!)
and You and Your Family can be left in serious peril! Be
Ready!
Hope for the Best! Be Prepared for the Worst!
First of all New Jersey was first settled in 1618 by the Dutch,
became a Royal British Province in 1702, was one of the thirteen
original States and had it's most recent State Constitution ratified
in 1947. Our 22nd
& 24th President of The United States (same guy) was born
in Caldwell, NJ in 1837. We're made up of 21 counties. We actually
started out with six but politics being what is is, those were split
and new ones made up so now there are 21. We'll take a look at the
map.
We're nearly surrounded by water, could have been an island . .
.Oh, if only . . .
Not interesting enough? Well, how about some of these places to
visit: