Bingo – 97% of the time, I’m fine with full service. But every now and then, I’d like to just handle it myself without the attendant yelling from three pumps over about how I’m not allowed to touch it.
Another side effect of the “no pumping” rule: Every time I find myself needing gas while in Pennsylvania, I always sit in the car for five minutes, impatiently waiting for the attendant before I remember that I’ve got to handle this one myself.
:eek:
Not sure why, but from some of your posts, I gathered that you are Israeli! Wow, wrong about that! 
I too grew up in Jersey suburbs (Exit 8 ), so let me take a shot before I read the thread.
Jersey has little identity of its own,e ven as one of the 1st 13, it has always been so.
It exists primarily as a satellite of Philadelphia on one side, and NY on the other.
At one time, there was a lot of empty space between those spheres of influence, and that was mere farmland - hence “The Garden State”, which makes moderns go “Huh?”.
As that garden area has filled in, it is not really because of something new and innovative about NJ itself, but is solely because more and more of it has fallen under the spheres of influence of NY and Philly.
And to a large part, the parts that are in NJ (when the jokes started), was manufacturing and other dirty stuff.
So, NY and Philly could be said to have outsourced their dirty work to NJ and NJ citizens gladly took the work, and got little of the culture in return.
There is no real need for anyone from NY or Philly to go to NJ except to pass through, maybe stopping for a brief visit at the Shore, but still really passing through.
This is highly unlikely to ever ever change, there is just nothing really on the horizon or even conceivable that would remove Jersey form the economic spheres of influence of NY and Philly.
This dependence on those two, plus the willing acceptance of the dirty work, with nothing to independently offer, is the basis of the jokes.
OK, let me read the thread now and see what others said
Uh, your hands only smell if you do it wrong.
And hell yes I I am not waiting for guido to manage 10 cars and their credit cards like he is the only one that knows how a pump works. And I have gotten into it with him on more than one occasion when I visit family in NJ. he gets his 8/hr whether he pumps the gas or I do - he should go bother someone else.
I just wanted to chime in: I’ve had a driver’s license for almost 25 years, about 1300 weeks. I’ve spent two weeks of my life in northern New Jersey, mainly just driving between my hotel, my company’s HQ, and someplace to eat dinner–1/650th of my driving life. And in those two weeks, I witnessed the two stupidest individual vehicle operation decisions I have ever seen. If that was a representative random sample, then I find myself a bit shocked that the entire population of the state hasn’t perished in fiery wrecks by now.
Did seem pretty nice otherwise. 
I mean, provide excellent service to someone who cares, and to whom he has a snowball’s chance in hell of ever seeing again
It was representative, but up above someone asked, and never got answered, “What is it about Jersey Girls?”.
Do the math
Lat night I was on the phone with my father as he drove from Princeton to Ocena County.
Suddenly he started talking about a lot of lights up ahead where he had to turn. then he started saying it looked like a bad wreck. Holy Crap! Holy Crap! he said as he approached, in tones I rarely hear from him.
Finally he go there, he said it was a pickup truck.
I asked, anticipating gory details what happened. Upside down? guy in pieces in the road?
“Not so bad really. Just crushed about the size of a refrigerator box.”.
As a lifelong Jersey resident, I think my favorite Jersey joke of all time comes from an episode of The Daily Show where they were commenting on the state’s search for a new tourism slogan. After listing all the major highways in the state, they commented that though accurate, “New Jersey: You’re Going To Have To Drive Through It Sometime” wasn’t probably the best idea.
I’m pretty sure I’m doing it right, and your hands will smell regardless. This is because you may be doing it correctly but at least one of the previous 100 users did it wrong, and you can’t control that. You’ve probably just grown accustomed to having smelly hands.
Also, delays are rarely a problem. You just have to know when to get gas. In NJ, we’re smarter than most about when to get gas. In fact, I’ve experienced much greater delays getting gas when I lived in Texas and when I drive out of state. The attendants, in addition to pumping gas, are smarter about making cars move up to the front pump and keeping the process more efficient. The general public is not (at least not in Texas or upstate NY).
And “Guido” (or Sanjay, more typically) knows that I can operate the pump just like Jose is aware that I know how to operate a lawn mower and Ying knows that I can iron a shirt. (The latter 2 names are actually the names of my lawn guy and dry cleaner, respectively) While I agree that a law forbidding self-pumping isn’t necessary, I think it ends up being the utilitarian solution. If you give people the option of paying 2 cents per gallon less for self service, they just might take advantage of it and screw it up for the rest of us.
I don’t typically defend NJ, but my only response to your other post is that people who can afford to live anywhere they want choose to live in NJ. Once you’ve “made it” in NY or Philly, you then can afford to move to NJ or CT. Hence, some of the wealthiest counties in the US are in NJ:
And the state’s median income is the 2nd highest:
yeah every driver in the US save NJ and Oregon has smelly hands when they refill the tank.
wouldn’t that be a big social problem that people would discuss?
because you didn’t know when or where, what the local patterns are.
When I visit for a vacation every now and again, I can’t be expected to know local patterns, or to be dependent on if the owner is too cheap to hire sufficient help, which he would get for free (at a one pumper to once car ration!) if we could pump ourselves!
Funny I have lived a long time in the largest urban areas of California, and this has never been a problem at a large station or a small one. Never.
One factor may be in some places in NJ, there is not enough space to handle the volume otherwise, but not everywhere. If the value added is the guy can direct cars, then let him direct cars from hear the driveway or whatever. But hard to focus on that is you are pumping gas and collecting payments for 6 cars at a time or more.
Utilitarian for you maybe, not for me. I am happy risking my hand getting dirty, willing to let Sanjay direct me to a pump, and to let him provide you better service because I don’t tie him up.
what is wrong with that picture?
You are gonna find it is not going to be 2 cents/gal, more like 40 cents. Let the market determine how much people are wiling to pay to not find out their hands won’t get smelly
I agree with all that.
But it doesn’t change the fact that NJ’s economy is, with very little exception, and always has been, in the sphere of influence of NY and PA. Wealthy people will always move and live further out, same in LA and SF for example, no different than there except the state is so much bigger you don’t cross lines. But you still have the “sphere of influence” principle at work.
+1
I wasn’t sure if we were the only ones. Most of us from Long Island have self-serve, except in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County. I think it’s the only municipality in NY with that law on the books, and it’s not too bad. I mean, do you want to serve your own food in a restaurant too?
Yes, in many restaurants I do just that. And increasingly, I serve my own soft drinks just as I pump my own gas. And my hands don’t get either liquid on them
Better analogy would be - do you want some random guy to put the food in your mouth for you, while he is running around trying to do that for everyone else?
Or can we come to a sane division of labor?
Really, what do people from Oregon and NJ do when they move to another state? Does it really turn out to be so bad?
The New Jersey jokes are mainly due to the smell. The rest come from arrogant New Yorkers who view it (and the rest of the universe) as a suburb of NYC.
New Jersey smells bad? I’m in NYC now, and trying very hard not to breathe.
keels over dead from exhaust fumes
Of course. And I was just pointing out that I made that tired old joke on this board before you made the same tired old joke, which we both made after Joe Piscopo made the same tired joke that millions of people had made before him.
Never mind. I was just giving you a hard time.
Huh? What on earth are you talking about?
New Jersey has one of the most developed and well-known “identities” of any of the United States. Just do a search on this board and see how many threads there are about New Jersey. How many are there about any other state? People from Jersey just won’t shut up about being from Jersey. (I think only Texas beats us on that front.) How many wildly popular pop-culture figures have chosen to make New Jersey a fundamental part of their public image? How many who are from other states have done so? Even the negative stereotypes about us reinforce our identity and our pride, because we have the last laugh.
Of course we’re greatly influenced by NYC and Philadelphia. That’s part of what New Jersey is all about. It in no way interferes with our having a distinct culture and identity.
And that last sentence? Boy, you really don’t know anything about New Jersey, do you?
And since when does Guido pump gas? Guido is a doctor now. As JJ said, Sanjay is the one pumping gas. (Though in recent years, I’ve noticed Muhammad pumping gas more and more often.)
You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about. So maybe you should stop spreading misinformation.
Jersey Pride!
Nice post Green Bean.
Really? What does being from New Jersey “mean” or “stand for” - I bet we can all say what California’s identity is about, or Texas, but NJ? I am from there, and I know of nothing on a level that is worthy as a brand for the entire state.
Been about 5 years since I was there though, so maybe something has come up since then.
Right, if anything, it is the insecurity of our own identity that makes us stand up and have to say we are here.
I could say the same about California, where I live now, but then here we have any number of independent industries or other things that are unique to this State and are exceptionally well known.
I dunno, certainly springsteen and related folks, but in general, whatever number you give is going to be based more on size of population, and in large part proximity to NYC and Philly too.
Really, even with Springsteen, what is it specifically about NJ that is part of his message after all these years? I grew up in the next town over from Freehold, and my best friend’s older brother was in Springsteen’s graduating HS class. So I can say I had at least some of the same experience as he did growing up.
I remember his early songs about NJ (and his monologues in concert that I have heard) as being about how bad life was, while even his early personal songs about his time spent in NYC were more romantic in some sense (Think “Adam raised a Cain” vs “Incident on 57th Street”). yeah, “Wild Billy’s Circus”, I remember those circuses coming around every year too, but is that what the state is about?
After that, his NJ songs are dark, (“Atlantic City”), and he is better known for timeless songs about the American experience, not the NJ one. He is welcomed home regularly as a Popular Son, a local who done good, but his work hasn’t been about NJ for a long time, and when it was it was not really all that flattering. “Welcome to Asbury Park” is sarcasm, possibly sardonic as a title.
What is that idnetity than that is separate form Philly/NY and is statewide?
I feel bad even following that - I’d ratehr take the ethnicities out of it - that approach is something more common to NJ in my experience, not uniques, but Id rather just focus on that someone, not how you label them, has to pump gas for you. Sorry.
So enlighten me.
What industries, brands, etc. does NJ have that are independent of NY?
Exhaust? Maybe I’m just used to it. What makes me wince in NYC is the smell of piss. “Urine” is too nice a word for it.
There are a couple of reeky places along the NJ turnpike but I’m usually cruising by at 65 mph so by the time it registers I’m out of the zone. There’s that one area around the turnpike/78/tunnel-bridge splits gobbledegook that smells like rotting meat wrapped in dirty diapers, though. I could never hold my breath long enough to get through it. Fortunately I don’t take that way anymore. Now it’s just that candy/syrupy smell on rt 80 just east of Paterson. Only on my way home, though.
Of course.
New Jersey is a great place to be FROM. Because if you are from New Jersey, then clearly you aren’t IN new Jersey!
(Remember, I was born there!)
A little bump to say “Ha!” to everyone who called Jersey drivers the worst in the country. It’s now been shown that Jersey drivers are only the second worst – so suck it!