Were you born in Jersey DS?

I grew up knowing about Toms River, NJ.

My aunt & uncle moved there early in their marriage almost 60 years ago when it was very sparsely populated. My uncle got a job working for the Garden State Parkway and was somehow able to retire quite comfortably at age 60. He tried to talk my parents into moving us down there, where he could've gotten my 'former marine' father a good job with the police dept. For some reason my dad preferred working in a factory and renting cheap from his in-laws to providing his family a better life and so that never happened.

Anyway, we visited about once a year and as a kid I remember seeing nothing but wooded area behind their backyard...where my Italain uncle planted and still plants tomato/basil/peppers/cucumber etc. annually. I remember passing a few stores and 'Toms River Liquours' on Route 37 on the way to their house. The liquor store was the landmark my father used to know at which jughandle to make the turn.

In the early 1970's other relatives moved down there and by then lots of building and modernizing was going on. That uncle got a good job w/ Toms River Chemical. They started calling our North Jersey area 'The City', because still seemed so quiet & peaceful down there, except of course at tourist time during the summer shore season. Again, our family was beckoned down to take part in the abundant opportunities but not enough motivation to relocate in either of our parents.

Now we drive down there to visit BOTH families and Rte. 37 seems as bustling as any major highway up here. Plenty of businesses, houses and unlike those early days, probably not an acre of undeveloped property!!

And to think...but for a decision that was not mine to make, I could've been a part of it all!!!!



Me???? Born & raised in Palisades Park, NJ...NOT home of the famous 'Palisades Amusement Park', home of the (then) 'World's Largest Saltwater Pool', in which I never got a chance to swim

It which was actually located in Cliffside Park, where high rise apartment buildings now reside.

Did anyone actually get through this streamofconsciousness post?????

Apple

It was interesting to me! My folks moved down here in the early 60's -- a brand new hospital was opened in 1961 (my dad's a retired doctor). (The hospital has grown a lot since then, and is now part of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System). While that was a few years before I was born, I still remember lots of farms and chicken coops (there are still some!), and my mom said the now-major Hooper Avenue going to Bricktown was a dirt road then! We used to have a drive-in theater on Rte 37 many years ago. We now probably have more storage facility places than anywhere on earth it seems. And between here and Manchester probably have as many senior citizen communities as Florida (slight exaggeration).

According to wiki the population was under 8,000 in 1950, over 17,000 ten years later, almost 44,000 by 1970, and estimated to be about 95,000 today. And driving around, it's easy to notice!

Yet, it's still very green here with lots of woods and wildlife (click on the Satellite (Sat) link below and scroll around).


View Larger Map

http://www.judandk.force9.co.uk/worksop.html

A little about the work houses in my area

The old work houses eh?

Gods i bet they were grim

Hey TIS - a fellow Michiganer. I was born in Iron Mountain, moved to Syracuse, NY when I was 12 and now live in Southern NJ just outside of Philadelphia. Iron Mountain is a small town in the Upper Peninsula about 100 miles north of Green Bay - everyone in town is a Packer fan!

I was born & raised in Hartford,CT. Not a lot happens here. The trouble with Hartford is that we are stuck between New Haven,CT. and Springfield,MA. Here is our beautiful city:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Hartford_Connecticut_Skyline.JPG

Definetly i wouldnt have fancied working in them,they were very hard times

Crybaby Worksopians.

I was born in the Borough of Dunmore, PA. It was a working class town, which was mostly Irish, Italian and Polish. It's in the northeastern part of the state, which was a big coal region, so one thing my friends and I had in common was that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were coal miners.

There was virtually no crime in the community. The church that I attended was, and still is, the only Catholic cathedral in the world without steps (St. Mary's).

Here is a link explaining the town. They mentioned some notable people from Dunmore. I went to school with Paul Richards, the astronaut. On our youth football team he was right guard while I was left guard. Nestor Chylak, the Hall of Fame baseball umpire, was also a well known resident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore%2C_Pennsylvania

Ah, you're practically a New Yorker, Klyd. I used to go out to Scranton quite a bit. My cousin had a "country" home there. Nice.

We're neighbors! Whereabouts in the Scranton area would you visit? I'm guessing the Poconos, which are about 20 minutes from where I grew up.

Dunmore, PA the home of my in-laws (not anymore). They lived on Bunker Hill. Rt 81 goes through where their house was. My wife's grandmother (Irish) married an Italian, whose family ran a boarding house for Italian coal-miners. She lived in the boarding house and learned to speak Italian. When I met her she was about 70 yrs. old. She had an Irish brogue and could speak Italian. You could listen to her stories of Bunker Hill for hours. The Irish brogue peppered with Italian curse words and a bunch that she made up. Quite a lady.

Gateshead; over the river from Yogi. It's alright, just like anywhere else - what your mind makes of it, I suppose. Good things, bad things; same with the people.

I moved away for uni, to Norwich.

I need to escape.

An ancestor of mine...Amos xxxxx played John Purdue in a poker game. The winner would name the university after themselves and the loser would get a building.

xxxxx Hall at Purdue University



Here's the official story:

Ha! Good story.

I know the area well. My first job was delivering groceries in 7th grade for a local grocer/butcher, named Vito Ianelli, and we had many deliveries in Bunker Hill. My friend, who also delivered groceries, and I were driven by a small, old balding man, known as Nick, the Greek. All I remember about him was that he would mumble to himself a lot, and would laugh occasionally for no apparent reason.

Recently, I stopped at a new lunch spot in Dunmore Corners, called Cara Mia (next to the Candy Kitchen, which is still in business, MC). The place makes phenomenol sandwiches, soups and breads. The menu included a note from the owner, who explains that in addition to studying the culinary arts in Hyde Park, she learned a great deal from her great-uncle Vito Ianelli.

I felt like asking her if she needed a delivery boy.

It was in Scranton, close to this locally famous diner we'd often go to while intoxicated---lol---Chuck's or Chick's, I'm not sure which. I'll call him later to find out.

It's Chick's Diner, one of the local landmarks. Coincidentally, Chick's Diner is a client of mine in workers' compensation. It's a pretty good diner, pizzaboy.

I guess your cousin lived in Southside.

His place was literally two minutes from there. GREAT diner, ton of food!

The owners are wonderful people too. It's a family business, and theywant more than anything that their customers are satisfied.

I know, that was the irony to it, get a sense of irony will ya?

Don Marco,

I didn't know you were from Michigan (or if you mentioned it before, I don't remember). Anyway, I can't say know of Iron Mountain. I was only in the UP a couple times. However, my nephews are avid hunters and they have a place in the UP they go to. Not sure what city though. Winters would be way way to snowy/cold for my taste. But it is pretty.


TIS