You’ll all be eating hoagies in a month. It’s a Jersey Thing.
This is a line from the SouthPark episode that parodies the current surge in popularity of all things Jersey.
Or is it a surge?
We’ve always had the Boss (Bruce Springsteen, in case you aren’t from Jersey). And Bon Jovi is a Jersey boy. And tomatoes. Even Campbell’s soup knows Jersey tomatoes are the best tomatoes (although they actually don’t still grow tomatoes here in Jersey, but they did cultivate the original tomatoes for the famous tomato soup here).
Yes, we have the Jersey Shore, but it’s not filled with Guidos with gelled hair and Guidettes with a poof. You won’t find them in Ocean City. Ever.
Jersey was first in a lot of things –
First organized baseball game (Hoboken 1846)
First phonograph (invented by Thomas Edison in Menlo Park 1877)
First National Historic Park (Morristown 1933)
First town lighted by electricy (Roselle 1883)
And we’ve had Jersey boys as presidents – Woodrow Wilson and Grover Cleveland (okay, so they weren’t your “big time” presidents like Lincoln, Jefferson, or Kennedy, but hey, we had presidents!)
Jersey has produced quite a few famous people –
Entertainers:
Abbott and Costello, Danny DeVito, Zach Braff, Michael Douglas, John Forsythe, Alan Alda, Michael Landon, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Nicholson, Jon Stewart, The Jonas Brothers, Meryl Street, John Travolta
Authors:
Judy Blume, Peter Benchley, Mary Higgins Clark, James Fenimore Cooper, Stephen Crane, Norman Mailer
Athletes:
Yogi Berra, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Derek Jeter, Vince Lombardi (I put this in for my friend Kay!!), Carl Lewis, Shaquille O’Neal
And other notables such as Buzz Aldrin, Aaron Burr, Admiral William “Bill” Halsey, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Charles Lindbergh, Annie Oakley, Carl Sagan, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dave Thomas, and Martha Stewart
Even Mr. Magoo and Felix the Cat
Maybe that’s where we get the “Jersey Driver!” stereotype?
So hold your head up high, New Jersey. We’re not just famous for our housewives, Snooki, the Jersey Devil and our Mob ties.
We’ve always had a lot to offer and we’ve got a lot to be proud of – and it’s not all covered in spray tan!
