What are people like who live in Warren County, NJ, you ask?
Well, let me give you the rundown of the main prototypes:
The Warren
County Lifer. In certain Warren County towns, there's a large
percentage of "I've Lived Here My Whole Life" types. This is not to
say that no new people move here. But it's just that some are born to live and
die in the same small town (Springsteen lyrics coming to mind). The Warren
County Lifer lives to talk about the Good Ol' Days, is hot on the local gossip,
and will look at you funny when he finds out you lived somewhere outside of his
sphere of understanding. I have tried to hang with a group of Warren County
people who have known each other since nearly birth, with me as an outsider.
Although these folks generally mean no harm, it gets old pretty fast.
The Backwoods Hillbilly. There are some people around here
who wear cowboy hats and overalls, sport wild, unkempt hairdos and untamed
moustaches, and are just plain hicks. I am not saying this is a good or bad
thing; it is what it is. If you like farmers who talk about weather patterns,
or feel at home with simple, river folk, then you will be in good company here in rural Warren County, NJ. I'm in no way disrespecting these folks. It's just that they don't exist in other parts of NJ!
The Middle to Upper Class, Conservative WASP. Again, I'm
just telling it like it is. We have a lot of White Anglo Saxon Protestants
around here, living among the farmers. They can be a bit cliquey at times. I am not saying everyone is like this; it depends on
the town. The parts of Warren
County that I'm familiar
with were founded by hardworking English, Dutch and German immigrants. I think there are
some Italian and Irish too, but not as many unless they showed up later. A lot
of people around here vote Republican. I'm just saying!
The Artsy, Free Spirit. More so in Blairstown, I think,
where culture abounds, you can find the arty, open minded type who one day decided
to ditch the corporate job, pack it in and head to Warren County for a lower
cost of living and the peace, quiet and freedom that country life has to offer.
We have our share of potters, painters, antique dealers, bakers, writers and
the like, which is never a bad thing unless for some reason you are an
art-hater and have no appreciation for free enterprise (?).
P-Burg White Trash. I'm sorry to say, but Warren County
has more WT than any other town I've lived in. This
county is crawling with pale, pasty, wide-bottomed, non-baby-daddy-having, crock-wearing,
cheese-doodle eating, Walmart-shopping, low-rent trailer park dwellers. I mean, this is compared to other places in NJ, whose poor consist of illegal aliens and inner
city blacks. We do have African Americans and some Hispanics here, but most of our less fortunate
population is P-burg white trash. I think Hackettstown is probably similar but
I really haven't been there much to know.
The Transplanted Commuter. These are the people who moved here from other parts of NJ because they figured out it costs less to live here and it's beautiful and an awesome place to live. The reason for the commute is that, as far as I know, there still isn't much in the way of corporate jobs here in Warren County. I suppose you could work for M&M Mars, and I think a lot of people used to work at Ingersoll-Rand but they're gone now. So most probably travel a long way to work at pharma jobs, marketing jobs, and such.
Like anywhere, we have an array of people - if I think of any more I will come back here and add to the list.