Debby Does…

In just a few hours, I’ll be leaving New Jersey for good, minus a couple trips annually to catch up with my friends at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  Though Jersey is the butt of an awful lot of jokes and the victim of many misconceptions, she’s been good to me, so I want to give her all the love as I exit.  

New Jersey is not for the faint of heart, at least that’s what they want you to believe, and they might be right.  It’s depicted as brash and dirty and full of gangsters.  The musical, Hamilton, declares that “everything is legal in New Jersey.”  I mean, I haven’t found that to be true, but Bob Menendez seems to have figured it out.  

Yes, there are people who are brash and spots that are dirty and, I suppose, there are some mafiosos running about, but I’m pretty sure that you can find that everywhere.  I’d like to propose that New Jersey just makes it look way more professional, movie worthy, and fashionable.  We’re good at being Jersey.

Having spent my life here, with the exception of a few years during college, I think I know a different version of the Dirty Jerzee.  I know the Garden State.  I know that the old slogan, “New Jersey and You, Perfect Together” was true for me.  New Jersey has loved me all my life, and I love Jersey right back.  

Okay, alright, I’ll stop waxing rhapsodic and get specific.  

What Do I Like About New Jersey? By Debby Jenkins

• Food.  There are things that you can get here and things that taste different here than anywhere else on earth.  Anyone who has lived here, spent time here, or eaten here knows it’s true.  It’s in the water.  Seriously.  It is.
  • Bagels.  Duh, we know what we’re doing on this one. 
  • Pizza.  New Jersey is 17% Italian; that’s more than New York as percentages go.  It stands to reason that our pizza is the best.  For me, it’s Tony’s Baltimore Grill in Atlantic City.  There is no other pizza in the nation like it.  I’ll pine for it when we’re gone.  
  • Hoagie Rolls.  Everyone has their favorite, but they all have one thing in common:  the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer.  High in calcium and magnesium, that water’s magic for the roll.  My favorite?  Liscio’s, it’s soft and giving for a sammich.  Now, if I’m eating hot roast beef with jus, then give me Rando’s because it holds up!  I’ll also never say you nay to a Formica seeded roll.  Sigh, I may need overnight shipping on these goodies. 
• Produce.  Now, New Jersey is known as the Garden State, which, if you’ve traveled the Turnpike, you may believe to be a lie, but it’s not.  There are few things more beautiful than driving the backroads home from the Delaware Memorial Bridge during spring when the orchards are in bloom.  It is simply stunning and its fruits are some of the best you’ll find.
  • Did you know that Hammonton, NJ is the blueberry capital of the world?  Well, it is!  
  • The Magnificent Cranberry is the Jewel of the Pine Barrens! We are the nation’s 3rd ranked cranberry grower and home to Ocean Spray.  We even have an annual Cranberry Festival each fall in Chatsworth! It’s quite the event.  
  • I must pay homage to the Jersey strawberry.  Its season is fleeting.  Blink and you’ll miss it, but the fruit is the best I have ever had.  Mid May to early June is the time.  If you’re here, don’t miss it.  Plus, they freeze great!
  • The freaking peaches are divine.  The peach crumb pies that I make during the Jersey peach season are obscene with juice and tart sweetness.  Or is it sweet tartness?  Or am I just describing myself?  My god.  I am going to have to go back, buy peaches, and drive them to Indiana so I can make pie!
  • And, someone said something about tomatoes? I wouldn’t know about that, but I hear they’re good. 🤮
  • And, finally, the corn.  Look, I know I’m moving to the midwest, Land of Corn, but Jersey sweet corn is the bomb diggity. I NEED IT.  I gotta make corn ravioli, corn salad, corn carbonara, and plain old corn on the cob. Let’s start to figure out shipping on that.  
• Seafood.  It comes right off the boat here.  No shipping needed.  My teaching buddy has his own oyster farm.  All I have to do is ask and a beautiful dozen appears.  You don’t have to wonder if it’s fresh.  The water’s right there.  
• Full Serve Gas
  • Need I say more? Can I pump my own?  Yes.  I have lived in Indiana, worked in Pennsylvania, and traveled throughout the less civilized US where one must pump their own fuel.  I’m here to tell you that it’s unnecessary and does not do a damn thing to the price.   
• Wawa.  Yes, I know it has come to other parts of the country, but a Wawa in New Jersey is something special.  Its parking lot is the greatest people watching spot on earth and the same guy who contorted his body to hold the door for you will run you over in that parking lot without a moment’s hesitation.  A late night hoagie, bag of chips, and a fountain soda is serious Jersey cuisine.  When we moved to our first house, the Wawa was less than a half mile away and, for a brief time, had a Taco Bell inside.  Come on!  That’s heaven.
• The smell of the Ocean City Boardwalk.  It’s a combination of sand and salt air, Kohr Brothers’ custard, caramel corn from Johnson’s, french fry oil, and salt water taffy.  They all come together to create a sensory memory that is like no other.  That smell is embedded in my being.  
• The Garden State Parkway. It might seem like an odd thing to highlight, but it’s a pretty great road.  Did you know that it was designed so, as you look ahead, you see trees, not just highway?  It was purposely built to be functional and beautiful, and it is.  I drove that road every day, multiple times a day, for more than 25 years to and from school.  It was beautiful in every season and allowed for some lovely introspective time on my commute.  I-65 could take a lesson from the GSP.  
• The Atlantic City “International” Airport.  It is a gem.  Just five minutes from our current home, this little airport has been our go to travel launching spot as often as possible.  When we were still dating, Jim could fly from Midway to ACY, where he would walk out onto the tarmac to meet me.  Then we would walk to the free parking in a field.  Clearly, this was pre-9/11, so things have changed, but there’s still a homey, small town feel to it.  I will refrain from discussing the nearly gynecological level exams that I have received thanks to their subcontracted security employees.  That will not be missed. 
• Hydrangeas.  I know they have them in Bloomington, but the Ocean City annual hydrangea spectacular is not to be believed.  The colors are vibrant, the flowers are huge, and each homeowner takes great pride in their hydrangea display, even fertilizing them in the dark of night like our one time next door neighbor! 
• Access to healthcare.  I can be in Philly in 40 minutes, New York in 2.5 hours, and, more importantly, my cancer care team in 90 minutes.  To quote M.A.S.H., it’s the best care anywhere!  
• Access in general.  We are close to some pretty great metropolitan areas.  D.C. is the farthest away at 3.5 hours, but we can day trip to some of the best cultural spots on earth.  
• The water.  I don’t know much about lakes and ponds.  I have spent my days in the bay and the ocean.  With the exception of college, I have never lived more than 13 miles from the ocean.  For much of my life, I lived on a barrier island, where I listened to the docks creak and moan with the tides and the wakes.  Salt water is the only water I understand; its buoyancy keeping me afloat throughout my life—literally and figuratively.  My mom’s ashes floated away from me in that water on a windy November day to join her parents who had taken their last swim in that salty lagoon.  #saltlife is more than just a hashtag for most who live here.  Personally, I always think that font looks like #slutlife, so I don’t have the sticker, but that feels pretty Jersey too.  

The greatest part of New Jersey is the people.  Our friends here are family.  Leaving them is one of the hardest things that we have ever done.  You cannot even begin to understand the depth of love, the generosity of spirit, and the camaraderie that we have developed.  We’ve built relationships that are based on kindness, service to each other, and more laughter than you can imagine.  There are people here who are part of our everyday everything.  These are the people who show up when shit is hard and those who stick around through the long days.  I’m endlessly grateful to my school chums who held me up through my darkest times and ignored the dirty hair, the extra pounds, and way more drama than any of us needed.  We’ve had some pretty epic neighbors in each of our homes and, even though those bonds might have been more about location than anything else, without them, days would have been harder and not nearly as much fun.  

I remember when we moved here 30.5 years ago from Bloomington, Indiana.  Jim’s family assumed that our house would be at a landfill, by a highway, in a town riddled with crime.  When they came, they found the perfect combination of bucolic and beachy in a world full of characters and culture that they never knew existed.  We’ve had some wonderful adventures, investing in our communities, driving the backroads, trying new places, and meeting the colorful folks who live and work along the way.  

It’s been real, New Jersey.  And, it’s been really New Jersey.  Though I’ll be looking at you through the rear view mirror, I’m pretty sure the old saying is true:  

You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you’ll never take the Jersey out of the girl.  

Peace out, Garden State.