I like the Horse Country a lot. When I drive west, I usually take State Route 94 from the NY line and join I-80 down by Columbia. This takes me thru Vernon Twp., Sparta Twp., Newton and other nice places. I always have lunch at The Homestead Rest in Sparta, a good cowboy style place.
I live in northern New Jersey, and it’s not a crapfest. It’s an area of nice suburban towns with a diverse section of people. My only complaint is finding things. The roads are so messed up, and it’s easy to get lost. But public transportation is great, the area is cheaper than NYC, and I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
That’s because you can’t hear your own dialect. 
Yes, lots of people from Jersey do say it with a distinct dipthong and rhotacism (lack of, of course). You also say “glass of water” funny, but after 25 years, I’m still not sure how to write it in phonetics. “Joisey” is a bit exaggerated in spelling, but it’ll do.
(Don’t worry about it. I’m from Chicago(ish), and I’d argue 'till I was blue in the face that we don’t really say “sahsidge” for sausage. Then I’d say it myself and notice retroactively.)
Both my father and my stepfather were from Joisey.
The OP has been well answered (I liked Exapno’s pithy reply). Let me just add four things:
- I honestly think that, on average, New Jerseyans are poor drivers.
- We should all thank New Jersey for giving us that wonderful American institution, the diner.
- Something like a third of the state is a forest-covered semi-wilderness called the Pine Barrens. Check out John McPhee’s book The Pine Barrens.
- The area around Lambertville (up the Delaware River from Trenton) is absolutely charming, yet without pretense.
Yup. Most of us from other places only know the Jersey stereotype, and then we get on that bus from Newark airport into NYC and you have lots of time to sit and watch that ugly, industrial, litter strewn, grimy, grimy, grimy scenery pass by. It confirms every stereotype.
I’ve had people insist to me that other parts of Jersey are beautiful, completely different and worthy of glorious praise. I beleive that’s true, but it’s not what most outsiders see of Jersey, especially for the first time.
Beg to differ. Yeah, I know it’s hard to hear your own accent, but I’ve lived many places over the years. I’ve heard nothing approaching “Joisey”. And cetrtainly nothing like it’s usually pronounced.
I’ve been in a couple of different places in Jersey. And when you see nothing but Newark Airport, which is what a lot of people see, you start to think it’s all like that. That is a filthy little confusing airport.
But there are really nice areas, too. And I think it has something to do with the landfills, or the landfills that were possibly going to be there, or the landfills they were talking about, or something.
You called? 
That was a good summary. The Pine-Barrens are actually completely rural and take up a good portion of the state. NJ has a little of everything, good and bad. We have the best access to NYC, Philly, DC & Baltimore of anywhere in the country. We have “The Shore” and skiing. We have Atlantic City and five nearby major airports. We have more sports teams nearby than any other state. We have many horse racing tracks. I grew up 45 minutes from NYC with traffic and yet my neighborhood was surrounded by horse farms, creaks and parklands. We were only lower middle-class, not rich.
The mafia reputation is real and we have a high corruption in government level. However, in the end, this affects very few people and the Jersey Mafia appears to be better at not shitting in the stream they drink from. The Sopranos of course magnify the problem in the public eye.
We have the highest property taxes in the nation. We have the highest income per family in the nation. We have the longest average commute. I can and do go to The City* whenever I feel like it and yet live in a beautiful town on two acres of property with 5 farmer markets within 5 miles of my house and 2 malls. The beach is only 7 miles away. What more could someone ask for.
It is a very good state to live in.
I was singing that in August at the Clearwater Festival.
Jim {Where is Hal, **Eve ** and Cheesesteak?}{BTW: Shecky, I think you live the closest to me, I hope you make the next Dopefest.}
- The City = Manhattan
There used to be a huge sign - don’t know if it’s still there - near the Jersey Turnpike when you reached Trenton that stated “TRENTON: What Treton Makes, The World Takes!”
After making the mistake of rolling through that chemical-plant infested landscape with our windows down, a friend of mine decided that the sign should really say “TRENTON: What The World Excretes, Trenton Eats!”
I agree. Most of the stereotypical New Jersey accents you here on TV sound more like Brooklyn to me. I have never heard anyone say Joisey who wasn’t a New York transplant. I always hear and say the “er” in Jersey. If you want to hear a real New Jersey accent listen to James Gandolfini. When he is being himself. When he is playing Tony Saprano he sounds like he lives on Flatbush Ave.
Shagnasty writes:
Or, as we put it, “The population of New Jersey is very dense.”
And we’ll kill any out-of-staters who agree.
It’s not near the Turnpike. It’s off Rt29 not too far from where the Trenton Thunder play. Lower Trenton Toll Supported Bridge
Except for the “What”, it’s still there. On a bridge visible from the Amtrak line. Lights up at night.
I always interpreted it as “Trenton Makes, The World Picks Up and Walks Off Without Paying.” :dubious:
I don’t think the What was ever there. It reads the same way it did in 1935.
Even some of the areas near Newark Airport get an undeserved bad rap. I live 15 minutes away from the airport and if most Americans saw my neighborhood, they wouldn’t believe that. I’m not bragging about where I live, especially since it was more due to my parents’ hard work. But when you live in such denslely populated area, you will find multi-million dollar homes not too far from crack houses. Obviously, the nicer areas will be hidden from the highways. The only reason I would ever move away is because I don’t like the cold weather in winter. And NJ doesn’t usually even get THAT cold.
If it weren’t for New Jersey, Pennsylvania would have a seacoast. And Lord knows what would have been done with Atlantic City.
Amazing, the breed standardization that’s taken place. Is there a Guido under 6’2" and 240, or do they just get bounced from the clubs? And do any of the women look Italian?
I forgot to comment on this.
It will not work. Eventually the people from Somerset, Union and Middlesex will crowd in on you. Rt. 78 will bring them.
Jim
Former 9er and 14Cer chiming in.
My maternal grandfather (born on Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district, raised in Brooklyn) used to complain about how awful that drive down the Turnpike was. My father (born in Perth Amboy) used to respond, “You’re right. Maybe New York City should refine it’s own chemicals and keep its garbage, that would help.”
Except it is shown on TV, but not as New Jersey. Tons of movies and TV shows are filmed there without the location ever being identified. A friend of mine worked on a film crew making a McDonald’s commercial set in an Iowa cornfield. They shot it in South Brunswick, with the Turnpike maybe 200 yards away.
For the doubters, take three days and hike the New Jersey portion of the Appalachian Trail. You won’t see any trash, belching refineries, or Mafiosi burying bodies the entire time.
To say nothing of the Meadowlands, which was a dumping ground for all kinds of awful crap for a century. In the summer you can actually take a canoe trip on the Hackensack Rover starting in Secaucus and paddle through the swamp – it must be several square miles of wetlands ringed by highways, and the top of the Empire State Building is never out of sight the entire time. A very weird experience. Watch out for the old chromium dumps.
You can see the Trenton Makes sign from an airplane at night, a little red stripe going across the Delaware. For outlanders, the capital is pronounced with a glottal stop: Tre’n.
Speaking of accents, I had a neighbor in Jersey City who was born there and lived in the same neighborhood for 87 years, and she said something appproaching “Joisey” to some degree. I don’t think that pronunciation exists anymore, though. A woman I work with (Bergen County native) says “sawr” and “medier” (for saw and media) but not “Joisey.” I’m not insensitive to the local dialects – my mother studied speech and completely de-Brooklynized herself, she’s very attentive to stuff like that.
But I will admit that Californians are amused by the way I say “coffee” and “wall.” They think everybody from New Jersey sounds like Woody Allen, though. Or Bugs Bunny. (Bugs Bunny’s voice is, according to Mel Blanc, a melange of Brooklyn and the Bronx.)
Funny - while I saw the industrial side of Jersey, we always made fun of the Oranges (two scared-looking white girls stuck in East Orange on a Saturday night was NOT my idea of a good party) and the drivers. It was about it. Oh, and how Atlantic City is Reno with a Beach. But we’re from Nevada, so maybe we’re used to it…? Or maybe it’s just that I didn’t live in Pennsylvania long enough.
~Tasha