New York's Doll: Home

I remember overhearing so many brats in high school talk about how they needed to leave our town and live somewhere else, and then they just went off to JMU or Penn State where they gained the freshman 15 and continued to live a less fulfilling and thrilling life than they did in New Jersey.

When I leave New York, it's always a treat. I sit in a window seat on the glorious New Jersey transit train, listen to fleet foxes, and think of how close my backyard with huckleberry trees, a sparkling pool and an adorable dog are. I still adore the beautiful historic buildings and sprawling farms that line my town. Nothing is more refreshing and relaxing to me and I wouldn't trade my home for anyone else's.

Last time I was home, I took a morning to bike all around town to photograph some of my favorite places. Most are roads that I would always drive slowly down so I could stare at the beautiful houses, bus routes, or historical landmarks.
There may be such thing as Jersey trash, but I'll consider myself Jersey class.

I would pass these houses on the way to school in first-third grades

this graveyard is 100+ years old and we would always pass it on the bus ride to elementary school, and every kid on the bus would hold their breath.

this church was next to the preschool where my sister went

A REAL well. How quaint!

I love the look of the super-flat colonial style houses in my town.

This is someone's back yard- not only is it in front of the super old graveyard, it also has goats!

A lady was in front of this house watering her plants so I waited for her to go back inside before I snapped the pic.

My elementary school- it's almost 100 years old!

Matching mailbox goin on up in hurr

One time we were at this farm and a goat ate my brother's shirt right off his back.

My senior year of high school I was driving down this road (going to improv club) and my carborator fell right off the bottom of my car. I always drove ghetto cars (and still do)

I would pass this house going to school in the fourth grade and I dreamed of one day having a back yard like this

Our bus passed this lake every day on the way to school in the fourth grade and one week someone had put a large turtle on one of the fence posts and no one ever took it off the post, so every day when our bus pulled up to this corner I would peek out the window and I would slowly watch it die.

I wrote a story about it for AP Lang my junior year of high school and when I read it aloud in class my teacher left the room because she was crying so hard :'(

But I got an A!

Also one time I passed this lake when I was in the car with my boyfriend and we were fighting, but when we stopped to turn we saw a shooting star and we stopped fighting.

Miracles do happen!

This building used to be an inn and apparently some former presidents stayed here.

Now it's a chiropractor's office.

Despite what Hollywood said in that horrible Tom Cruise movie, this is where war of the worlds "happened".

I babysat the family who used to live in this house, it was the most beautiful home ever and one day I want to buy this house and make it just as cute.

You know this house is super old because 1. it's super close to the road and 2. the front yard is all ivy!

These houses are all near the train station in a neighborhood called Berrien City. John Nash (of A Beautiful Mind) lived here and we used to always see his son in the pizza shop nearby.