N.J. has last laugh: No. 5 in livability

Philly Inquirer ^ | Thu, Mar. 09, 2006 | Troy Graham

[RepubMommy]

Annie's Road? Is she the girl that died on Prom Night?

That would be it. The story is, they try to paint over the blood from when she got hit by the car, and it keeps coming through the cement. FTR, I did see it, when i was about 17 years old driving around probably with too many of my friends piled in the car with me, doing something I shouldn't have been doing.

[RepubMommy]

You all of people, should have known, i know you've read Weird NJ. See my previous post. I can't recall the location of the road, somewhere in surburban Passaic county.

[Calpernia]

I heard the stories; but I've never been to that spot.

>>> with too many of my friends piled in the car with me, doing something I shouldn't have been doing.<<<

Yeah, I've done that too :P

:)

[Coleus]

the only annie i know of is annie oakley who lived in nutty, i mean nutley.

[RepubMommy]

haha, very funny. silly me, it's totowa. Go into directly into the weirdnj.com website, right there as one of the first stories.

[Coleus]

Ok, now that you mention it, i think i remember that story.

[Coleus]

here is their next event. 

 

WEIRD NJ MESSAGE 3/9/06

Next Wednesday, March 15, Weird NJ's "Editor-In-Freaks" Heather Wendt Kemp will be giving a presentation at the Senior Center on North Main Street in Boonton about her favorite subject—freaks in New Jersey! The talk starts at 2 pm and admission is free and open to the public. Why not stop by and get your freak on?

The following article about the event appeared in the Star-Ledger on Thursday, March 2.

For Boonton Talk, Sideshow Freaks Take Center Stage
By Paula Saha

Heather Wendt Kemp of Denville is a chronicler of "freaks," as they once were called -- bearded ladies, Siamese twins, the very small and the very tall -- a cast of characters for a vaudeville sideshow or old time carnival. She delved into this world about six years ago.

Call it ancestral curiosity.

Kemp's family has a long and storied history in Boonton. Her cousins are major figures in the volunteer fire department and her great grandfather wrote a popular history of Boonton. But there was this other relative, too.     At the turn of the century, Frank Wendt owned a photography studio on Boonton's Main Street. Wendt was her great-grandfather's uncle, she recalled.  "I think he was considered some sort of eccentric," Kemp said. "I know he didn't have a really close relationship with my great-grandfather and his side of the family. Nobody really knew much about him other than he was a photographer."  Kemp actually inherited some negatives of Wendt's work, mostly local sites around Boonton. Then, over the last few years, she collected more than 30 of Wendt's "sideshow" images, and she will be giving a talk this month at the Boonton senior center for the town historical society.


Wendt apprenticed under another photographer, Charles Eisenmann of New York City, who was something of a pioneer in the photography of "sideshow freaks," Kemp said. When he left his business in New York, Wendt took over.  Eventually, he moved to Boonton, where he took more traditional portraits. Boonton at the time had three theaters, Kemp said, so Vaudeville performers would come through on a regular basis, and that side of his business thrived, too.  Wendt would make "cabinet cards," Kemp said. The performers would pay him to take their pictures, which would be mounted on cardboard so they could be sold on the road as souvenirs of their performances.  "He photographed the famous Siamese Twins, Millie-Christine," the Carolina Siamese Twins,"Kemp said. "There is a three-legged man who's pretty famous -- Francisco Lentini."

Kemp splits her talk into different segments -- there are "actors and athletes, family acts of acrobats, knife-throwers, strong men, long-haired ladies and bearded women, fat people and thin people, giants, dwarfs" and "people with physical anomalies."  The whole political-incorrectness of it all gives Kemp some trouble, she said. "These are people," she said. "A lot of them have handicaps or physical anomalies that today we don't have anymore necessarily because they can be corrected."  At the same time, she said, "I think it's fascinating that it was a way for them to earn money." Kemp's talk will take place March 15 at 2 p.m. at the Senior Center on North Main Street. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.

[time4good]

"I'm on the GSP, its Friday rush hour, I am going past the "boneyard" on my way to the "hole in the wall."

And why should I like this????

(to all Freeper, you have to know north jersey traffic to understand this one.)

That's funny - I swore you were going past the South Orange graveyards on the right side going north on the Garden State Parkway between exit 143-145 (Irvington/Oranges/280) and the "Hole in the wall" was a pizza/subs place in Nutley (exit 150 GSP). So yes, I took you literally.

But hey - I left Jersey in '93 after the 18 blizzards - 6 months of cabin fever - FL heat beats that any day.

[Clemenza]

Very true. My dad had many meetings in places like Parsippany and Newark whereby he did the Southern State to Belt to SI Expressway to Goethals or via the Lincoln Tunnel, to say nothing of visiting his mom in Jersey on a regular basis. It is a PITA to get to if you are not on the LIRR from the city.

[Clemenza]

Pennsylvania is not a fun place at all.

Let's see:

1. State Liquor Stores. My aunt drives two miles into Delaware to get a drinkable bottle of Chianti.

2. ZERO lighting on main roads. They claim its to "retain the country feel", even in North Philly.

3. When the roads get icy, they STAY icy until the spring.

4. If you live in PA for at least three months, you WILL hit a deer. The rats with antlers are EVERYWHERE at all times, not just in the rutting season like they are here in Central NJ.

5. You want garbage collection? Once a week, if you're lucky.

6. No beaches, unless you count the shores of the Delaware.

7. Much of the central part of the state is as dry as much of the bible belt. Lots of scary Deliverance types there are well.

8. The diners s-ck.

9. You have to pump your own gas, and its more expensive to boot.

10. Too much of the electorate is made up of retired steel workers and coal miners. Don't let the American flags on the porches of their shotgun houses fool you: they are paleosocialists.

PA has its finer points, and I have lots of family living there (who did the Jersey City-North Bergen-Wyckoff-Chester County, PA thing). Nevertheless, I am much happier on this side of the Delaware. Remember, General Washington crossed into NJ to get AWAY from PA on the first leg of his victory tour, not the other way around.