road trip stall off
had a flash idea a few weeks ago: take a road trip to ps' home town. thought it might put some juice in my blog muscles, a bit flaccid lately, and spark an insight or two -- geography's not destiny, of course, but geography can tell some story.
first, needed to know the name of her town. a snap, you might think, but she's from sjersey, where i also live these days, and where names of towns change regularly, where towns split off from or become incorporated into larger townships sometimes with the same name as one of the towns (extremely confusing!). have to be "in the know" about all the splitting off and incorp-ing, or else you're lost all the time (my condition most of last year if i veered off route 30 or route 9).
sjersey road trip lesson 1:
the map changes,
gotta "go with the flow" (Madonna, "Vogue"),
juggle then and now maps in mind before setting out and during the trip.
i recently read that ps grew up in deptford township (exit 12 off 42, an exit i mistakenly took on my first trip to sjersey, thinking i was getting off the ACE in galloway, so i knew how to get there from route 30; everyone in sjersey knows how to get to deptford twnsp apparently since deptford has the only indoor mall in the area); however, i have also read that she grew up in woodbury, a city close to deptford twnsp, in fact a recent split off (deptford has actually shrunk since its incorp. in 1695 from 106 to 18 sq. miles., according to the twnsp website). deptford still retains "woodbury" in the names of two sections: woodbury terrace and woodbury gardens. good intent, is the name of another section, fyi. quakers and other religious groups settled in both deptford twnsp and woodbury, and the two places maintain roots to these religious traditions (note: sjersey was an important station on the underground railroad, transporting escaped slaves farther north after they made it across the delaware).
sjersey road trip lesson 2:
history matters,
otherwise every place looks the same, condos mcdonalds' outbacks mall-sprawl -- and, in sjersey, undevelopable wildlife refuge or pinelands reserve areas.
since i wasn't sure whether to head out for deptford twnsp or woodbury, i decided to people search ps' mom (beverly) and two sisters (kimberly and linda); maybe they still lived in the town where ps grew up. maybe i'd give a call before i left. didn't find any particularly useful information, though, not an address or phone number that i knew without a doubt corresponded to ps' mom's or 2sis'. however, woodbury and deptford were among the places listed as previous residences for all three names. but only confirmed what i thought i already knew: ps grew up somewhere in gloucester county.
sjersey road trip lesson 3:
cool out when you're going in circles,
take a cigarette break, buy a cold diet coke (down it till you burp), chat up a local, watch the entire last season of something on-demand, as scarlett o'hara said, "tomorrow's another day."
the day after that day, turned on the computer again and searched (long shot, i knew) the deptford twnsp and woodbury websites. thought, maybe, beverly held a local position, or ps' 2sis, or ps went back to read poetry with school kids at one of the local libraries, or ps performed at a summer music event. but, no. however, the woodbury website contained links to the local paper. so i searched "patti smith" in The Gloucester County Times.
sjersey road trip lesson 4:
try everything,
keep going: even if you end up on an unpaved road, pinelands on both sides, ghosts wafting, recitations of piney legends on the wind -- and you end up having to turn around -- if you want to find ps, you have to look:
"Outside of society they're waiting' for me/Outside of society if you're looking/That's where you'll find me/Outside of society they're waitin' for me" ("Rock n Roll Nigger")
okay, so the local paper isn't "outside of society." but it's outside of any place i initially thought to look, smack dab in the midst of sjersey cult, ps hiding out in plain sight, how ironic, how in character, how nostalgic for the clash of woods and mall. she's not from deptford twnsp or woodbury, pitman (17 miles outside of, se of, philly, and the location of a vinyl pressing factory back in album days).
you'll see:
read through the "nostalgia" forum on http://www.nj.com, follow "rayosunshine" threads....
first, needed to know the name of her town. a snap, you might think, but she's from sjersey, where i also live these days, and where names of towns change regularly, where towns split off from or become incorporated into larger townships sometimes with the same name as one of the towns (extremely confusing!). have to be "in the know" about all the splitting off and incorp-ing, or else you're lost all the time (my condition most of last year if i veered off route 30 or route 9).
sjersey road trip lesson 1:
the map changes,
gotta "go with the flow" (Madonna, "Vogue"),
juggle then and now maps in mind before setting out and during the trip.
i recently read that ps grew up in deptford township (exit 12 off 42, an exit i mistakenly took on my first trip to sjersey, thinking i was getting off the ACE in galloway, so i knew how to get there from route 30; everyone in sjersey knows how to get to deptford twnsp apparently since deptford has the only indoor mall in the area); however, i have also read that she grew up in woodbury, a city close to deptford twnsp, in fact a recent split off (deptford has actually shrunk since its incorp. in 1695 from 106 to 18 sq. miles., according to the twnsp website). deptford still retains "woodbury" in the names of two sections: woodbury terrace and woodbury gardens. good intent, is the name of another section, fyi. quakers and other religious groups settled in both deptford twnsp and woodbury, and the two places maintain roots to these religious traditions (note: sjersey was an important station on the underground railroad, transporting escaped slaves farther north after they made it across the delaware).
sjersey road trip lesson 2:
history matters,
otherwise every place looks the same, condos mcdonalds' outbacks mall-sprawl -- and, in sjersey, undevelopable wildlife refuge or pinelands reserve areas.
since i wasn't sure whether to head out for deptford twnsp or woodbury, i decided to people search ps' mom (beverly) and two sisters (kimberly and linda); maybe they still lived in the town where ps grew up. maybe i'd give a call before i left. didn't find any particularly useful information, though, not an address or phone number that i knew without a doubt corresponded to ps' mom's or 2sis'. however, woodbury and deptford were among the places listed as previous residences for all three names. but only confirmed what i thought i already knew: ps grew up somewhere in gloucester county.
sjersey road trip lesson 3:
cool out when you're going in circles,
take a cigarette break, buy a cold diet coke (down it till you burp), chat up a local, watch the entire last season of something on-demand, as scarlett o'hara said, "tomorrow's another day."
the day after that day, turned on the computer again and searched (long shot, i knew) the deptford twnsp and woodbury websites. thought, maybe, beverly held a local position, or ps' 2sis, or ps went back to read poetry with school kids at one of the local libraries, or ps performed at a summer music event. but, no. however, the woodbury website contained links to the local paper. so i searched "patti smith" in The Gloucester County Times.
sjersey road trip lesson 4:
try everything,
keep going: even if you end up on an unpaved road, pinelands on both sides, ghosts wafting, recitations of piney legends on the wind -- and you end up having to turn around -- if you want to find ps, you have to look:
"Outside of society they're waiting' for me/Outside of society if you're looking/That's where you'll find me/Outside of society they're waitin' for me" ("Rock n Roll Nigger")
okay, so the local paper isn't "outside of society." but it's outside of any place i initially thought to look, smack dab in the midst of sjersey cult, ps hiding out in plain sight, how ironic, how in character, how nostalgic for the clash of woods and mall. she's not from deptford twnsp or woodbury, pitman (17 miles outside of, se of, philly, and the location of a vinyl pressing factory back in album days).
you'll see:
read through the "nostalgia" forum on http://www.nj.com, follow "rayosunshine" threads....
posted by clh at 8:00 AM
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