Having moved away from loaded Halloween candy...

Ah, so you know just what I'm talking about having "been there done that" as the pop phrase goes. The trouble with the Northeast Megalopolis is going from one city to the other seamlessly you don't know where you are unless you know where you are, there are no city limits signs on secondary roads. I grew up one town away from the E in Benny, on the other side of Linden from Rahway is Elizabeth. I never had a Benny attitude to leave at home, I was raised by the Golden Rule so I fit in everywhere. When I lived in Point Pleasant Beach that was part of Point Pleasant when I was dragged "down the shore" by my parents I learned why Bennys are hated by shore people. They invade swelling the population to the bursting point so we can't get on our own beach without being elbow to elbow with rowdies raising hell. They throw trash everywhere and treat the locals with disrespect beyond words. A good example is a gang of kids riding past us relaxing on a cool evening on the porch yelling in unison PORCH PEOPLE! City kids are jealous, they have stoops two steps from the street instead of porches with a front walkway across a lawn. I know all the city names you mentioned, but I never had any reason to go there.

Hey guess what, we have Rowan U in common in an odd sort of way. Living east of the tracks in Point we were under mandatory evacuation when Sandy paid a visit. I had two charges, a retarded woman and a man who suffered a stroke, we spent the night of the tempest in an indoor stadium in Toms River, the county seat. Most were transplanted Bennys and it showed, kids running amok and adults having a hurricane party until 3am. Add the middle row of HID lamps lit all night straight over my head, forget about sleep. The next night we got shipped off to Rowan because Sleazeside Heights was devastated, we got displaced by the sleaze. We call it that not because of the Bennys like Snooky and her crew from the MTV show Jersey Shore (they were all Bennys from New York state) but because of what lives there in White Trash City South. White Trash City North is Keansburg. Rowan has a bigger stadium and overall a very nice place except for the HID lamps on all night, but we got used to them. What should have been two days stretched on to two weeks I spent trying to arrange transportation home. Evacuation was well planned out and went like a Swiss watch, but there were no plans to return the evacuees, what a fine kettle of fish you got us into THIS time fat ass Christie! (the worst NJ governor yet) I finally managed to get us home, but when none of the agencies involved, not even the county Welfare communicates with any others it became quite an adventure.

As a footnote, the devastation that the TV news showed was almost all from flowing water that literally washed structures away and left a couple of feet deep sand in the streets, almost no wind damage. A few blocks inland water was still, plenty of first floors and basements flooded, just your basic salt water damage easily fixed by replacing furniture and appliances. Our landlord anticipated a flooded basement and prearranged furnace replacement so we could have returned in two days when JCP&L got the power back up. Power companies work together and have great disaster plans, workers and equipment was flown in from several inland states, at Rowan I watched huge air transport planes flying in low one after the other. On the ride home I saw what they had done, lines were down all over the place that were patched around so power was restored as quickly as possible, the mess was cleaned up later. Now whenever I hear Bruce Springsteen singing Asbury Park 4th of July the lyrics change to "Sandy, your storm clouds are rising behind me..." Yep, Asbury was hit hard, but Convention Hall and Casino Pier were built so strong the structure only suffered a few broken windows. FYI Casino Pier has no casino, they're farther south in Atlantic City, inside is a carousel and amusements.

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