For the most part, I get by as a New Jersey resident without Northeast nostalgia making me too homesick. However, that all changes once baseball season starts going.

I’m a big Phillies fan, and living up in Mets/Yankees region isn’t simple. I get dirty looks whenever I wear my Roy Halladay shirt or when co-workers pass my cubicle and see my Phillies posters hanging up.

Making it worse, I have to pay extra money to watch or listen to a Phillies game up there (via an MLB TV package or something similar) and feel like I can barely appreciate the team for which I profess to be a “die-hard fan.” That doesn’t seem very die-hard to me.

continue reading »

For four years of our lives – definitely some of the most formative years of our lives – high schools become our second homes. In addition to classes, we might spend additional time there for extracurricular activities. Then when we go home, we do additional work for school that essentially permeates into the rest of our lives. With so much time dedicated to school, we doubtless have an endless amount of stories and other memories, many of which are hopefully positive.

If we are ever forced to part ways with our childhood homes – whether due to moving, foreclosure or something more negative – we would feel like a part of us has been destroyed. We feel as if our identities are being stripped away, identities that soon exist as nothing more than memories.

I believe the case is the same in terms of how we view our school years. Now I am lucky enough to have gone to a high school, Archbishop Ryan, that will hopefully be immune to closure for a long time due to it being co-ed and its accessible location with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia – right on the edge of Northeast Philadelphia and almost right down the street from the suburbs.

Not everybody is so lucky. Take my parents, for instance. My father graduated from Northeast Catholic, which closed in June 2010. And the Archdiocese suggested at the beginning of the month that my mom’s alma mater, St. Hubert’s, be one of nearly 50 schools to close at the end of the school year. The future will be certain once the Archdiocese announces its official decision in mid-February. continue reading »

I am not what one would consider a bar aficionado. Nor would anybody even dare to call me a bar frequenter. Furthermore, I highly doubt anybody would ever confuse me with even an alcoholic’s second cousin.

That being said, occasional imbibing happens – mostly, I find – whenever I come back to the Northeast to visit. I’m not necessarily always keen on spending too much money to drink; however, if I have to accept a friend’s plan that involves throwing down some money for alcohol, I prefer the location to be either a dive bar or a place that is relatively low-key. continue reading »

I recently read a story on NEast Philly about Sister Alice Hess, I.H.M., a teacher I had at Archbishop Ryan High School eight or so years ago, and it got me to thinking about my appreciation for the Catholic school system in the city — specifically the ones in the Northeast, with which I am most familiar.

Yes, many of the Catholic schools, especially high schools, in the Northeast have merged or closed over the past few years. However, if I had to do it again, I would have gone to the same schools I attended as a kid. continue reading »

Last month, I began discussing a few obstacles to living away from home that lead to me missing the Northeast.

Honestly, when I sit down and think about them, the obstacles can occasionally seem overwhelming.

Therefore, I wanted to use another column to help lay them out.

Take a Walk

Although there are admittedly fewer trees, less grass and fewer parks in the Northeast – partially due to a denser population – than many parts of New Jersey with which I am familiar, one thing I have always liked about my hometown is that you can pretty much walk anywhere.

Of course, just like everywhere else, Northeast Philadelphia has its fair share of highways and high-traffic streets that are difficult to cross. However, just about every street has a sidewalk.

It may seem like a trivial point, but you would be surprised how few streets in northern New Jersey have sidewalks. Of course, most of these towns have sidewalks in and around their downtown areas. But, other than that, you’re pretty much forced to use another form of transportation other than your own two feet.

To make matters worse, many of these towns don’t have streetlights (other than the downtown area, of course). Don’t get me wrong; it’s probably great for residents to cut down on the light pollution. However, it makes it difficult and unsafe for people to attempt to walk in the sidewalk-less streets at night.

I saw it as a rite of passage back when I was in third or fourth grade to be allowed to trek a few blocks by myself to a friend’s house on a Saturday afternoon — an opportunity that would have been difficult to come by if there weren’t any sidewalks around. Additionally, not having sidewalks would have made it a little less safe as I walked to and from Archbishop Ryan High School as a teenager.

No Wawa

It’s funny how much Philadelphians rely on Wawa. But it’s terrifying how much you go into withdrawal when there isn’t one around.

Sure, there are 7-Elevens and Quick Cheks, but there is something about Wawa that makes it irreplaceable. Perhaps it’s the freshly made sandwiches. Perhaps it’s the lemonade iced tea.

The problem is the sheer lack of Wawas in northern New Jersey. The first one just opened a few miles away from my job, and I believe there are plans to open additional shops in the area.

For the time being, though, I guess I’ll just have to stick to making my own sandwiches and mixing together my own proportions of lemonade and iced tea.

Missing the Northeast is a column written by Stephen Wilson, a former Northeast resident who moved to New Jersey for work. You can read his column on the last Monday of every month.

I find that many of these columns either start or focus around me comparing the Northeast to where I live now. When I pull myself back from what I have written, it always kind of makes me laugh because, although I completely agree with every word in front of me, I really do like where I live now and can see myself being up here in northern New Jersey for a long time.

That being said, there are a few obstacles I constantly run into that I would never come across if I still lived in the Northeast. continue reading »

This month’s a column is going to be a bit different than usual. Instead of discussing something I miss about the Northeast, I thought a long time and decided I wanted to write a little bit about an issue – one that has reared its ugly head again once more in the Northeast, as well as the entirety of the Archdiocese – affecting the area and discuss something that I miss that comes as a result of this issue.

Now I’ve never liked discussing issues, and I absolutely despise taking stances on topics. Therefore, I won’t get into any opinions on the topic or what sort of actions should be taken. I simply choose to look at this through the lens of this column, and I hope you all keep that in my mind before you rush to the comments section at the bottom of this page.

The simplest way to begin is to say that I miss innocence, the innocence that comes with being young and simply enjoying life and being a kid. continue reading »

I was never really a big fan of reading, as, I assume, is the case with many kids.

Sure, I had a brief stint with the Hardy Boys during fourth grade and thought Star Wars novels passed as literature in seventh grade. However, video games, re-runs of Saved By the Bell and hanging out with my friends were clear priorities to me back then.

As far as I was concerned, I did all the reading I needed to do in school and didn’t have enough time to read recreationally.
Fortunately, I changed my ways and got into the habit about halfway through college. However, with a bevy of branches sprinkled around Philadelphia, and in the Northeast alone, I kind of feel bad sometimes that I never too more advantage of the services offered by the various area libraries when I was younger.
continue reading »

I usually use the space of this column to talk about the things I miss about Northeast that either I cannot get or does not exist in New Jersey, where I now live. However, as I write this in my parents’ house in the Northeast, I realize something that I miss, not necessarily geographically but from my childhood.

As I look out the window of my parents’ house the day after the most exciting holiday of the year, snow fills the street as it follows a perfect diagonal trajectory to the ground, making what some might consider a “white Christmas.” There is something missing though, to me at least.

Years ago, the snow used to have a soothing sort of reflection to it, aided by the soft glow of red-and-green or gleaming white icicle lights. However, as I look out my parents’ window, all I see is snow. No glow.

continue reading »