Welcome to the iPhone age. Where life revolves around celebrities, and tragedies pop up as news notifications when you wake up in the morning. Where everything you see on social media is a projection of only the best of times. Where the focus is all on the surface, and never on the backstory that lies beneath.
When you picture small-town America, there is only so much that comes to mind. Streets lined with houses that are all the same, familiar faces, wrinkled by time and reputations after staying in the same place for some forty-or-so years. Storefronts that are family owned and haven’t budged in eons.
But if you look closer, you will find them. They are the people who you don’t see as often in the media. The people who have remained in the same location in a fast-paced world that is rapidly changing, witnessing the rise and fall of traditions. The ebb and flow of time. These are the stories that grow through the cracks in the pavement--that grow and refresh the town anew. They are the faces or the stories you don’t see on screen. Stories you may never know about.
Here, you will find the stories of the people who have built Fanwood, New Jersey--my hometown. Who has seen it through storms and construction and many changes throughout the years. The faces on your morning commute to New York City. The faces that smile as they hand over your bagels, the faces that stand before a classroom, that deliver the mail, that have come here seeking opportunity, that have dreams beyond our small borders but will never forget their roots. They are the children who have a road ahead of them, full of lessons and mistakes that will make or break them.
A town is merely a location. A speck on the map of a vast country. But a town is only as great as its people and their stories. In the next few weeks, you will find the tales of Garden State dwellers from all walks of life, and how they all wound up in our small corner of the world, making their way through this life and making their own unique contributions.