I grew up in a small town in New Jersey, and I loved everything about it. When most people think of New Jersey, they think of the shore or our “accents.” Which, by the way, is not the case for anyone who was born and raised in the sticks of Glen Gardner, NJ, we have nothing close to the typical “Jersey” accent that most non-New Jersians think we have, but we have pork roll and delicious bagels, which is what truly matters.

So, here’s a little bit about my small town in New Jersey. When I say it’s small, it’s small. Everybody knows everybody, or in my case, everybody knows my mom, so, therefore, they know who I am. I liked that about my town, except for the times that I wanted to make a run to Shop Rite at 11 o’clock at night to grab some ice cream in my sweats and old t-shirt praying I don’t see anyone I know. But, with as unrecognizable, I felt due to my outer appearance, I always ended up seeing at least 1 person I know. Honestly, it’s hard to avoid, but I guess you could say you get used to it after a while.

Besides the constant run-ins at the grocery store, I love my small town. I love it especially for the fact that I worked at a small general store right by my old middle school, and also right down the street from my high school. The Woodglen General Store started to become my home away from home, and trust me, as much as I loved it, I hated it, and as much as I hated it, I loved it. I still love it and talk about the stories from my day’s working there. I loved this little store and working there because I was able to meet some amazing people in my years working there. Not only that, but all of the employees became family to me, and I don’t think I will ever experience a work environment quite like this ever again.

I loved the people I worked with, especially my boss. My boss, Ed, became one of the closest people to me, still to this day. Ed was hard on me, and sometimes I thought he was being ridiculous, but I realized at the end of the day and reflecting back on my work days right now, he had a reason for being the way he was. He taught me what it was like to be a hard worker, even though sometimes my co-workers and I would goof off. You can even ask Ed, I think he asked me to stop talking at least 10 times a shift, probably even more than that when I would work with my really close friends.

Those times working with my close friends were some of the best memories that I have, and like I said, I still talk about them to this day. For example, one time it was so slow at the store, Megan, Danielle and I (shout out to the best Saturday crew) got in a pastry fight. Yes, you heard that right, we took all of the old parties and started throwing them at each other until the boss man (Ed) came in and saw us and honestly I think we all started laughing and Ed just rolled his eyes and went back to the back of the store and shook his head. Whether it was a pastry fight or a game of “what are the odds,” we always managed to have fun, and surprisingly, I managed to not get fired too. The reason I say that is because I was usually the person involved in all of these weird activities.

Besides these crazy stories (I could go all day) and endless amounts of dishes, I really want to express how much that place means to me. Some of the customers that walked through that door have become a special part of my life. When I worked full time in the summer before I left to go back to Hawaii last year, some of the regulars I had in the morning managed to impact my daily life, in a very positive way. I looked forward to going to work each day, even if that meant that I would reek of deli meat after a 7-hour shift.

The Woodglen General Store, as well as New Jersey, will always have a special place in my heart. To all of you who don’t know what pork roll is, you need to find out and visit the g-store and have Ed make you a good old pork roll, egg, and cheese, but make sure you don’t come and order it after 11:30 am, or you’re going to get some attitude from the employees (to all who know what I’m talking about, you can start laughing now).

I want to give a big thank you to all that Ed has done for me in these past couple years. He is a special boss, and for all who have worked for him, you know what I am talking about. Also, I want to thank all of the friends I’ve made in the past couple years because of this store. I miss it every day, especially the pork roll, egg, and cheese!