New Jersey is becoming California

 

The image I have always had of New Jersey is that it is a place where men work on their cars in the driveway while listening to old records of the sixties on a rather loud radio playing WCBS FM. Today, though, a number of developments are leading me to believe that New Jersey is becoming more like California. 

A few years ago I went to Los Angeles and at the Safeway in Santa Monica I went in to buy some food for my room. The clerk eyed me suspiciously when he saw I didn't bring a burlap bag with me to bring said groceries home. "I'm from New Jersey", I apologized, before he sold me a reusable hemp bag with a picture of Big Sur on the front. Now, New Jersey is not going to be offering free plastic shopping bags anymore. My kitchen is knee deep in plastic bags now as I hoard them until May. 

Of course the next way New Jersey is going to become California-ized is when ordinary people can legally buy pot in dispensaries. When I was in college you could buy "Colombian" or occasionally "Vietnamese" from your colleagues on the dorm floor. As a treat, he might sell "hash". Today you are supposed to choose among a wealth of varieties they never had at school. You can choose indica or sativa, tinctures or gummy bears, vaporizers or buds. I have no idea what I'll buy when that happy day comes next week. I know I'll have to bring my own bag, preferably a hemp one. 

Next year, people will be coming to New Jersey to use the slot machines, sports bet, buy pot and obtain an abortion. New Jersey will still have Democratic senators and most young women will be sporting tattoos. Just like California. Hope some of that new revenue goes to pay my pension.