Weird N. J. 18. [antikvár]

"So what's, the WEIRDEST, thing you've ever seen?"That's the question that keeps popping up wherever we go these days, no matter who we talk to, and it's the one question that we've learned to dread. Why? Because Weird NJ is not about the "WEIRDEST" things or people in the world. That sort of stuff is fodder for tabloids like the Weekly World News. We're more interested in those little things that are part of our everyday lives here in New Jersey which are slightly offbeat or left of center. It might be an odd roadside site that you drive past every day on your way to work which you reallyThis odd sign, photographed by Jim Parris, can be found on River Road on Rt. 27 just outside of Princeton. There are all trees and no homes on this road. The purpose of the shoes and the number 3 is unknown, but someone put an effort into it. Is it fhe weirdest thing we've even seen, or just another day on the road?never gave a second thought to. Then, one day, you see it again, as if for the first time, and scratch your head and ask yourself, "Just what the heck is that thing anyway?" Or perhaps it's your neighbor, who has lived in the house next door to you his whole life without drawing much attention to himself. Then you open up this issue to learn that he has built a plywood car in his barn in which he believes he can travel back and forth through time.New Jersey has a wonderful plethora of oddness that oozes from every pore and pothole. Encounters of the weird kind happen to us just about every day. Finding aON THE COVER: SOMETHING SPHINXThis odd statue is one of eight such decorations found in the courtyard of the historic Ringwood Manor, Passaic County. The sculptures are reproductions cast from figures purchased be the Hewitt family in France in the 1890s. The originals had to be put in storage about five years ago due to deterioration from being exposed to the elements for more than a century. Our question is this: How could any artist graft the demure visage of this young woman onto the crouched haunches of this hound with a clear conscience?Thanks to reader Jason Currie for bringing these unusual lawn ornaments to the attention of Weird N J.fireplace made out of tombstones and then seeing an abandoned house full of prosthetic legs is all in a day's work. Of course, there are the darker roads we travel that we wish we had steered clear of. Entering old train tunnels and exploring abandoned mental hospitals in search of local history is sometimes met with unforeseen dangers (most of them are human). Seeing shoes nailed to trees in the middle of the woods can be more unnerving then one would imagine. But is it the weirdest site? Can something be stranger than that? Well, it could be if you encountered a man wanting to pay you for your old smelly socks!And what about all of NJ's albino communities? Can we say that they are weirder than the Midgetvilles we've stumbled over? How do you compare Demon's Alley to Ancora Village? Is Crazy Larry weirder than Crazy Tony? Is Spook Hollow Road weirder than Bonetown Road? These are the thoughts that rush through our brains when asked the "dreaded question."Personalized properties, roadside oddities, deranged people, undersided history and things that just don't make sense; this is the weird state of New Jersey that we all live in. What more do we need to say?So what do we tell people when they ask us about the weirdest thing we've ever seen, or the weirdest place we've ever been? Well, we usually say something like this: For something to be considered "weird," it has to be so unusual that you think that someone must be pulling your leg the first time you hear about it. That is exactly what has kept us out on the road all these years. When we get a lead about something weird going down in NJ, we hit the road to investigate, only half convinced that the weirdness in question even exists. If in fact it does, then for that moment we probably consider what we've just discovered to be the weirdest thing that we've ever seen, that is until we reach our next destination. You see, for something to be weird, it must be unexpected and out of the ordinary, giving it an element of surprise. Will it still seem as weird the next time we see it? Probably not for us, but certainly it will for those other travelers who follow us and discover it again for the first time.We've been doing this for over ten years, and another question that folks seem to continually ask us is this: "Do you think that you will ever run out of material?" A long time ago, before we had such a devoted readership, we might have answered "yes" to this question. But now, with our files bulging with all of your letters and E-mails, we're beginning to feel as if we've only just begun to scratch the surface of this very unusual state we live in. It has gotten to be more of a challenge though, to find new and more interesting places in a state that we've come to know so well. Anybody can get lost in a place where they've never been before - we try our best to get lost in this little state that we've been traveling around for more than a decade.As long as there is something strange or unexplained out there which you folks tell us about that peaks our interest and curiosity, we'll be on the trail tracking it down and bringing it back here to share with everyone in the pages of Weird NJ. You see, we still believe that the weirdest thing that we will ever see is somewhere just up around the next bend in the road.Now go get lost!- Mark and Mark