gurdymonkey | Because it'll confound and mystify the Californians.....

You Know You're from New Jersey When...

* You know that the only people who call it "Joisey" are from New York or Texas.
* "The Oranges" are not fruit.
"The Meadowlands" are a swamp.
* You know how to merge.
* You can throw a quarter and dime like ninja shuriken as you whiz through the toll booth at 45 mph. (I suspect the standard toll on the Garden State Parkway is more than 35 cents these days, but it used to be the going rate.)
* Everyone has a light. Further, every Jersey Boy owns a zippo that he can open, light, and close with two fingers. (I don't smoke and I worked around horses, so no.)
* You've been seriously injured at Action Park.
* It's "Great Adventure," not "Six Flags" and you went there on a school trip.
* You know the blue/red track always beats the green/yellow track on Rolling Thunder.
* You know someone who knows someone who knows someone who was attacked by a spirit/monster/rabid sparrow on a Weird NJ trip.
* You've known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven. (I didn't move to Jersey until I was nine, so no.)
* You remember when a soap truck collided with two other trucks and demolished the Denville/Route 80 bridge in a bubbling disaster.
* You know what "Ironbound" means.
* You know someone with a 30' backyard and a 25' above-ground pool.
* You've eaten breakfast at a diner (particularly while stoned, drunk, crying, or dressed like a freak) at 3am.
* You know a hard roll with butter is a good, cheap breakfast.
* You know it's prepackaged meat...and it's safer that way.
* You know to never drink tap water, to hold your breath when you go over bridges, and not to open your eyes in Staten Island or they'll turn brown.
* Whenever you park, there's a Camaro within three spots of you.
* You remember that the "Two Guys" were from Harrison.
* You know that the state isn't one big oil refinery.
* You know that the state isn't all farmland.
* You suspect that the state is 5% mall parking. (Make that 10%. We have to deal with a lot of overflow shoppers from the City.)
* You have a prejudice against radio DJs. (Just Howard Stern. I miss WFUV though.)
* You remember when Hoboken was poor.
* You remember when Jersey City was safe.
* You remember the Garden State Plaza when it was just three magic beans next to the Paramus Park Mall. ( The GSP pre-dates Paramus Park and used to be an outdoor shopping center before they roofed it over.)
* You looked for rats out the windows of the PATH train.
* You smile knowingly at tourists who complain to the police that a homeless person tore their clothes off, slathered them in grape jelly and licked it all off after being given five dollars.
* You know what town Jon Bon Jovi is from.
* You know someone who still calls it "Slayerville."
* You know what a "jug handle" is.
* You can properly negotiate a Circle.
* You knew that the last two questions had to do with driving.
* Being wedged in traffic between four speeding 18-wheeled trucks doesn't frighten you, and you don't understand why other people think it should.
* You've been down Annie's Road.
* You've stopped for a deer, bear, cow, or large dog that tried to stare down your car.
* You've been seriously injured by a paintball.
* Double or triple parking isn't illegal as long as no one is coming.
*You know where Fountains of Wayne is.
* You know what a WaWa is.
* Someone caught you singing in your car.
* You've wondered what the giant Lumberjack on 440 has to do with carpeting.
* You know coffee is only as good as the person making it...but IHOP is different from all others.
* You know, at 4am on a Sunday, you can have dinner, alcohol, a movie, and cigarettes delivered to your house.
* You know there are no "beaches" in Jersey - there's "The Shore," and you don't go "to the shore," you go "down the shore," and when you are there, you're not "at the shore," you are down the shore."
* You know anyone who precedes "Parkway" with "Garden State" is a tourist.
* You can identify three cultural groups in any five block radius that feel at least two other groups have invaded their personal space.
* You visit the traveling carnival in more than three towns.
* You know nine pizza joints on one street aren't enough (because there are more than nine kinds of pizza).
* You know "Piney" isn't referring to a tree.
* Even your school cafeteria made good Italian subs, and you call it a "sub" not a "submarine sandwich" or worse yet, a "hoagie" or a "hero."
* Bad Chinese food can kill someone.
* You remember the song from the Palisades Park commercials.
* You went on the Palisades Mall Ferris wheel before it began sinking into the earth.
* You know that "Acme" is an actual store, not just a Warner Bros creation.
* You know that this is the only "New" state that doesn't require "New" to identify it (...Mexico, ...York, ...Hampshire).
* You only go to New York City for day trips, and you only call it "The City."
* You know that a "White Castle" is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.
* You consider a corned beef sandwich with lettuce and mayo a sacrilege.
* It's "mootsarel," not "mot-zer-RELLA," and use of the words "string cheese" is a punishable offense.
* Even your diner waitress pronounces names of food correctly in their native tongues.
* You know that all diners have the same menu, and you know never to order steak, grits, seafood, or hash if you wish to live.
* In the 80's you wore your hair REALLY high. (No, that was my youngest sister blowing holes in the ozone layer.)
* You know that a large puddle with level ground on either side may contain a pocket that will swallow a Honda.
* You still own a pair of ripped jeans.
* You don't think "What exit" is very funny.
* You think it's perfectly normal for a bar to be situated on the island of a major highway.
* You know that the real first "strip shopping center" in the country is Route 22.
* You are still searching for the Route 46 WEST exit from Route 17 South. (It's tricky, but not THAT tricky.)
* You know that people from 609 area code are "a little different."
* It's not 95. It's the Turnpike. 95 goes down the coast. The Turnpike goes through Jersey.
* The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school, work or local bar.
* You live within 20 minutes of at least three malls, six movie theaters and nine diners. (Make that ten minutes.)
* You can see the Manhattan skyline from some part of your town.
* You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers. (And none of them are preceded by "the." It's "Route 80," not "The 80.")
* Every year, you had at least one boy in your class or office named Tony, and one girl named Marie.
* You know where every "clip" shown in the Sopranos opening credits is. (My old commute used to take me past the location shoot for Club BaDaBing.)
* You've gotten on the wrong highway trying to get out of Willowbrook Mall.
* You know there is a "new" and an "old" 17...but the only (ONLY) thing on old 17 is Faire.
* If you can safely navigate the entrance and exit to the Garden State Plaza, you should be qualified to pilot a fighter jet.
* You remember a time before the 17/4 cloverleaf when the intersection was one of the most dangerous in the country.
* You've eaten a Boardwalk cheesesteak with vinegar fries.
* Everybody's grandmother makes the best lasagna, and you know not to forget it.
* You have a favorite Atlantic City casino.
* You have walked 1.99 miles to school.
* After the airports were closed, your school finally released you due to inclement weather...after which point you walked 1.99 miles home because the roads were unsafe to drive.
* Someone one your bus was permanently injured through their own stupidity (example: hanging out the window and clipping a mailbox)
* You were one of the cool kids on the Avenue or the Corner.
* You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February.
* You know that people from North Jersey go to
Seaside Heights, and people from Central Jersey go to Belmar and people from South Jersey go to Wildwood. It can be no other way.
* You were not raised in New Jersey. You were raised in either North Jersey, Central Jersey or South Jersey.
* You don't consider Newark or Camden to actually be part of the state.
* Trenton is to New Jersey as Washington DC is to Connecticut. It's an important place, south of us.
* When you say you're going to Englishtown you mean you're going to the flea market, not the town.
* You know that asking a Jersey girl of Italian descent if she knows the mob can be more dangerous to your person than asking the mob if they know any Jersey girls of Italian descent.
* You've been in a mosh pit for an elevated garage band.
* You're happy to pay New Jersey's high car insurance premiums because it keeps all the people who can't drive from moving to the state.
* You know two towns, each a mile wide, where the average salary differs between them by several hundred thousand dollars.
* You aren't afraid of bear, but you are afraid of spiders.
*Why would you ever go to Olive Garden when there are half a dozen great Italian restaurants in town?

And finally...

* You NEVER, NEVER pump your own gas. (And it's still 20 cents a gallon cheaper than in California.)