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I have lived in New Jersey all my life. I’m on in years in my 60’s.

This is NOT the state I was born into. The state I was born into gave teachers and students off on Opening Day of Deer Season. There was a rifle team in High School which met and competed in the basement of the High School. I could take my gun out to a wooded area with a large earth back stop nearly anywhere in the woods here and bang away at targets, and, if an odd cop or two showed up, he took a few shots with me.

On Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day, the streets of most towns were full of proud soldiers marching in review before equally proud crowds of citizens waving American Flags.
Prayers were recited in the school system and the flag was saluted.

In most areas, you could leave your house or car unlocked and there was no fear.

But gradually, over time, the evil Shadow of the Rotten Apple loomed bigger and bigger over the state, matched by that equally evil shadow of Philadelphia. Large cities like Newark lost their business districts and degenerated into slime centers ridden with vice, political corruption, crime and despair.

Actually, very few people who were originally raised in Jersey and are older speak anything like the freaks on Jersey Shore, who resemble charactures from Brooklyn or other parts of New York City, more than original Jersey residents.

Politicians like Christie are part of the problem, but they reflect the attitude and beliefs of the average resident of the state today, who really are nothing more than clones of New York City or Philadelphia type folks.

There are still some very beautiful parts of the state up in Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon County and even upper Passaic County. Parts of South Jersey in the Pine Barrens, closely resembles the Pine Woods of North Carolina, and the ORIGINAL inhabitants thereof were more like them also.

I hope and pray I can finally escape this pit when I retire.

I will carefully examine anywhere I chose to move.

The Evil Shadow of the Rotten Apple is also looming over New Hampshire and Vermont as well as eastern Pennsylvania and Florida and parts of North Carolina.

I just can’t understand why these people refuse to realize that the reason they have to leave where they live - with its political mess, high taxes, high property values and crime - is because of their very political views and cultural “values” (?) which they always seem to take with them.

I grew up in New Jersey, but left about a dozen years ago for Texas (it helped that my wife, a native of Mexico, hated the place). I echo what Zulu says about the state - it isn’t the same place it was when I was a youth (I’m in my early 50s). The state’s problems began, I believe, shortly after WW2, when people who were tired of the mess that their votes had created in NYC decided to move out, and NJ was unlucky enough to be within commuting distance. Unfortunately, these people brought their attitudes and ideology with them. Now, my parents were both born and raised in Brooklyn, but were thoroughly conservative - they are the exception to the rule.

I recently went back for 2 weeks to visit my mother, and I felt like a criminal driving around with Texas plates. Fortunately, I know where the speed traps are (everywhere), so I was careful not to get pulled over...especially on the way in and out, when I was carrying (yes, illegally - I subscribe to the old saw about preferring to be tried by 12 than carried by 6).

One story will illustrate why I’m glad not to be in Jersey: When my wife and I were on the way to Texas, we were listening to the radio as we passed the sign on the Delaware Memorial Bridge that said, “Welcome to Delaware.” I turned to her and said, “Now you don’t have to worry about bailing me out of jail.” Of course, I got the intended bug eyes and dropped jaw. She asked why, and I told her about Florio’s ban on magazines that can hold >15 rounds (which is, btw, still in effect - yes, a ban on a metal or plastic box with a spring in it, that a bunch of braying jackasses deem to be too large for some reason). She asked me how many I had, and I told her, “Oh, about 200 years in Rahway worth.” She turned white, the jaw dropped again and she became quiet (which is very unusual for her, trust me). A few seconds later she asked me if Texas had any laws like that, and I said, “No, Texas is in America.”

Zulu, if you are looking for a place to retire to, I would highly recommend Texas. No income tax, lots of space, people who are far more conservative than in NJ (although, on that score, you might want to avoid Austin). You can buy whatever guns you can afford, and get a carry license (CHL) without much trouble. Crime is lower because most people have guns, and as of the end of 2011 there are 518,000 of us who can carry. Business is booming, especially in the San Antonio area and south because of the fracking in Eagle Ford. C’mon down, we could use more solidly conservative refugees who can warn the rest of the people of the dangers of statism.