Weeks of December 28th and January 4th

We actually didn’t pick a state out of the “bag” this time. I was planning a trip east for this week, so previous plans trump the “bag”.

As our readers might have noted from prior entries, this writer is from New Jersey. Since my son and I were travelling east to visit with my family, New Jersey became the state of the week. The problem with celebrating the state that you’re from is that you never actually do touristy things on your home turf. But, we’ll do our best.

First I must fill you in on why New Jersey, a state most often associated with industry, pharmaceutical companies, highways (What exit…?) and the “Shore”, is nicknamed the “Garden State”. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know the answer to this and after researching it, I’m still not sure I get the answer.
It is said that during an address at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia on Jersey Day, August 24, 1876 Abraham Browning, of Camden, compared “New Jersey to an immense barrel, filled with good things to eat and open at both ends, with Pennsylvanians grabbing from one end and the New Yorkers from the other”, hence the “Garden State”. See what I mean.
Some say that the name came from the fact that the small farms of New Jersey provided food to the soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Neither explanation refers to what we traditionally think of as gardens. But I will tell you this, while I was growing up in NJ, our area was blanketed with small roadside stands with the best tomatoes, corn and white peaches ever tasted. The truth is that NJ is a far more beautiful state then people who have never visited or just see the state from the airport really know.
When it comes to music, Detroit may have it’s Motown, but who can deny that a state who’s home to such diversity as Frank Sinatra, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons (“The Jersey Boys”), Count Basie, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, and Bon Jovi is the tops in the music industry. Not to mention the fact that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in New Jersey.

So it didn’t surprise me that while we were celebrating the great state of New Jersey, one of its finest was honored by the Kennedy Center for his lifetime achievement to the arts – Bruce Springsteen. I never actually saw the Boss play but I spent some time in my youth in some of the legendary bars of Asbury Park and the “Shore” area. As a matter of fact, I was hoping to convince my family to take a drive down to Asbury Park during our visit but the snow kept this wish at bay.

I started the New Jersey celebration by watching “Garden State” on my iTouch on the plane from St. Louis to New Jersey. I wished someone would have warned me that the movie starts with an imagined plane crash. If I’m not mistaken, sometime during our visit we passed the school that served as a backdrop for one of the scenes in the movie.

After settling in, I started Janet Evanovich’s book, “Hard Eight” – a Stephanie Plum novel, which is only fitting since Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter from Trenton, NJ. I grew up in NJ and lived there until I went away to Graduate School but I never heard of half the places she talks about in her adventures but she certainly has the culture down pat. She talks about the colorful Italian population, the lousy drivers, the great delis, and the best pizza in the world. (Except for the delis, am I in NJ or St. Louis?)

OK, you wanted touristy things. Although the temperature was below freezing, my son and I bundled up and went to a local attraction, Turtle Back Zoo. I worked at the zoo, as a tour guide, in between High School and college, so it brings back fond memories. How many people can say that they have a llama named after them? It was nice to see that the town put some money into the zoo and it’s quite nice for a small venue. However, we didn’t actually see any turtles. I think they all went south for the winter.

I do need to educate you with some little known facts about NJ:
• New Jersey is 1 of only 2 states that prohibit self-serve gas stations. (While there I almost bought a t-shirt that said “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas”).
• The streets on the classic board game Monopoly are named after the streets of Atlantic City.
• Jersey ranks 2nd in blueberry, 3rd in cranberry and 4th in peach production. (Now that speaks to the “Garden State” question.)

This entry is getting pretty long and it’s time to head back to St. Louis. By the way, we did manage to pick up some saltwater taffy (also invented in NJ) in the airport for our friends but Newark Liberty Airport does not have 1 NJ snow globe for sale.

Color in the “Garden” state with friends, family, music and Monopoly and travel back up to the Northern Midwest to the “North Star” State – Minnesota. 11 down - 41 to go.