My second day in Jersey was AMAZING. First, we started where everyone should start: the beach. We went to Sea Bright and got some sun on the beach. We even braved the chilly waters of the North Atlantic and waded around until the water was somewhat bearable. Me personally, I'm used to the warmer beaches of the South Atlantic. Think Jacksonville, FL...
After that, we headed to Cassie's favorite store Funk and Standard. If you're from Atlanta, think of it as like, the Junkman's Daughter of this particular neighborhood. After that, we headed over to a thrift store across the street. While I was looking for Foursquare check-ins for that particular thrift store (which I couldn't find, hence I can't remember the name of it), I saw Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash on the list of check-ins where I was and it was 35 feet away. I started to freak out.
Of course I knew Kevin Smith and View Askew crew (nice) were from Jersey but I never think about things like that! What kind of fangirl am I? Of course we had to go check it out!!
So here we were, outside the Secret Stash. Holy shit. All my high school memories of Clerks and Mallrats came flooding back. This was it. This was the place I had seen in many an interview about the whole Jay and Silent Bob phenomena - AFTER it had been actualized. I was there. I was totally there!!
Once we were actually inside, I was in complete awe. It was full of comics, memorabilia and more. I recognized Brodie's corner instantly and remembered that scene in Chasing Amy about "tracers".
Then, we were lucky enough to have some quality time with Mooby AND Buddy Christ - which was AMAZING.
Aaaanyways. After I was done nerding out and giving Cassie a little too much of my (limited) knowledge of Kevin Smith and how Clerks was made and my experience with Mallrats and how Kevin Smith kind of helped me hone in on my dream of being a filmmaker (it's still alive - most days) in the 90's, she told me she could take me to THE Quick Stop where they filmed Clerks. WHAAAAAT?!?!?!?!! It was a real place? Yes. (Of course it was) It was actually called "Quick Stop"? Yes. Was it open? Yes. Holy shit. We were going. We were going to THE Quick Stop.
As we pulled up, I nerded out some more and took photos (of course) and noticed there were some kids hanging around at this abandoned place across the street with their skateboards. As we went inside, I looked around in total awe...of a freaking convenience store. I mean, who the fuck gets all giddy from being at a freaking convenience store? This chick does. Because I will say that Clerks, in all its vulgarity and silliness and relatable-ness, was one of my favorite movies as a teenager. I mean, who hasn't felt like Dante every once in a while? I had to resist the urge to say "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" while at the register AND as we exited, out of all the lines from Clerks to utter, "Hey-try not to suck any dick on the way through the parking lot!" was the only line I could think of at that particular moment. That and "She sucked 37 dicks." "In a row?". WHY? Why oh why were the only lines the fucking dick ones? Oh well. At least I got out one "I'm not even supposed to be here today" in the parking lot before we left.
So - to recap: beach, Jay and Silent Bob, dick jokes. Holy shit. 17 year old me is really impressed with that. So is current me. It was really fucking amazing! I even bought some Monroeville Zombies t-shirts at Jay and Silent Bob's - which was awesome because now I have a gift to bring back my old man. Everybody wins!
Oh sweet, sweet New Jersey...you're really shaping up to be quite the vacation for a nerd like me. And to think, the Jersey Shore was all I could think of as being quintessential Jersey. NO! The View Askewniverse is HERE! Why on earth could I not remember that??? Oh well. It was definitely a wonderful surprise. Hopefully, there will be more to come!!
Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.
"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"
No comments:
Post a Comment