I drove through and around the New Jersey neighborhoods of my youth yesterday — Westfield, Clark, Rahway, Mountainside — and was mildly taken aback by the Christmas decorations still up everywhere. It was two days after the dawn of ’09 — time to take down the tree, put away the tree lights, grim up and get back to work — but New Jerseyans were hanging tough with the mistletoe and the candles in the windows and the sugarplum fairies, etc.

January 3, 2009by Jeffrey Wells18 Comments