Alphabe-Thursday..."N" as in NEW JERSEY!

Welcome to this week's version of Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." This week we are studying the letter "N" as in NEW Jersey or just plain Joisy to us natives and NEW Jersey to the rest of you.

However, first things first. I had an excused absence last week, and if my mother were still here she'd write a note for me. I thought I'd quickly throw up an "M" word and the only thing I could come up with in a pinch was the MARTIN family. Here are all the MARTINS once again.

This one also appears on my sidebar because we rarely are photographed together. Since this photo was taken in 2004 Troy and his significant other have broken up, but the rest of the picture is still the same. We haven't aged a bit. :)


Now on to "N" as in NEW Joisy.

Although I live in Texas now I grew up in Joisy. That's what the natives call it. Just Josiy for short. Yes, we sometimes talk funny although I've been told that my accent has faded over the years. However, if I go back to Joisy for any length of time I can hear the old accent creeping back in.

It's funny how things are different between here and there. In Texas women carry purses, but in NEW Joisy we carry pocketbooks. To this day my husband will say, "Don't forget your pocketbook." I have to remind him that we're not in Kansas anymore. Whoops, make that NEW Joisy. At one time I carried a pocketbook just like this one.

Another difference is that in Texas people go to the beach, but in NEW Joisy we go "down the shore." Again, different terminology for the same thing. I don't think you can grow up in Joisy and not visit the shore. My friends and I spent a lot of time at the shore. We'd go for holiday weekends and then rent a place for a week each summer. I'm pretty sure our Joisy shore wasn't anything like the TV show. I've never actually seen the TV show, but I did see The Situation on Dancing With The Stars. That's as close as I've ever come. Here are a couple of pictures of some of my friends down at the shore circa 1964.

That's Peggy Calligan, Brigid Bohan, and Maryanne Baretta.

And this is Mary Schumeyer.
For some reason I still had these pictures. I'm pretty sure they were taken with my Kodak Brownie camera. (There's one on eBay right now if you'd like one of your very own.) It's nice to know that my pictures were blurry back then too.

I grew up in Westwood, NEW Jersey which is in Bergen County and a suburb of New York City. (Almost all the way to the end of the Garden State Parkway.) My mother was born in Westwood and my dad moved there when he was three years old. Weswood is a pretty little town, but there's lots of traffic. I'm a nervous wreck driving there because it's a different type of driving. Here we have lots of traffic on the freeways, but in Joisy it's lots of cars on roads that were never meant to have that many cars and it's a lot of stop and go driving. When traffic lights turn green people immediately start honking their horns. You have to have a lot of patience because it takes a while to get anywhere. NEW Joisy is the most densely populated state in the country.

It bothers me that people always think of Joisy as being Newark. (No offense to Newark.) Most people only see Newark Airport (now called Newark Liberty Airport) and think that's Josiy. I'm here to dispell that notion.

This is right down the street from where I grew up. It's called Bogert's Pond and there's a waterfall and at one time there was a mill. (Not during my lifetime.) George Washington didn't sleep here, but he and his troops did stop and rest. (I'm not sure how they know that, but there's an historical marker saying it's so.

There's a lot of history in NEW Joisy since it was one of the 13 original colonies. Some key battles of the Revolutionary War were fought there. (We've all seen the picture of George Washington crossing the Delaware in history books.)

In Texas most people hop in their cars and drive to work in bumper to bumper traffic. One thing Joisy has is mass transit and it's wonderful. Right in Westwood there's a train station.

You just hop on the train and ride to Hoboken and from there cross into New York City. Just sit back and leave the driving to someone else.

In the area of Texas where I live most of the houses would be considered new in New Joisy. Most of this area was developed starting in the early 1960's when the Johnson Space Center came to town. In New Joisy there are many older homes. This is the house I grew up in. My parents had it built and I was three when we moved in. It's still there, but the people that bought it raised the roof and completely redid it. I've only see the outside, but it looks very nice. This is how I'll always remember it.

This is the house my mother grew up in and was probably taken sometime in the 1930's. It still looks pretty much the same.

This is where my Dad grew up. Many years ago the street was paved and the house has been remodeled over the years, but the basic structure pretty much looks the same.

In Texas they have barbecue and in Josiy they have Taylor Ham which is also known as Pork Roll. Instead of barbecue joints they have diners in NEW Joisy and I really miss them. There's nothing like a gooey, runny egg sandwich with Taylor Ham.

At one time our local Kroger had Taylor Ham, but I haven't seen it in a while. You can order it by mail from Jersey Pork Roll if you'd like to try it out. There are also some recipes here.

I miss diners so much that I set up a diner scene for my dolls. I call it Jeff's Jersey Diner and there's even Taylor Ham on the menu.

See the window above the diner booth? You can't see it in the picture, but I put a photo of the Westwood Train Station behind the window so it looks like that's the view out the window.

Growing up there was a soda fountain called Conrad's in Westwood and it's still there. On one of my trips back to Joisy my friend and I went to Conrad's for old time's sake. This is Peachy enjoying a milkshake.

I used to get chocolate Cokes at Conrad's. I love chocolate Cokes and there was actually a hamburger joint in Seabrook, Texas that made chocolate Cokes, but unfortunately they never opened again after Hurricane Ike. Now I make my own chocolate Cokes and I'm sharing my secret recipe with you.

Open one can of Coke. Pour it in a glass and add ice. Add 2 teaspoons of Hershey's chocolate syrup and stir well. YUM!

OK, "youse guys" get over to Ms. Jenny's now so you can visit some more Alphabe-Thursday posts.

Edited: 7/20 - I am having trouble leaving comments on blogs that have the little pull down menu where you indicate how you want to leave a comment. I always choose my google account, but for some reason it keeps asking me to sign in (when I'm already signed in anyway) and then when the sign in screen appears and I sign in again it keeps asking me to do it again and again. I'm sorry, but I can't leave you a comment. I've had this problem with around five different blogs today. I'm hoping tomorrow things will clear up.