The Other Jersey Shore

Imagine my surprise when I saw this headline on AP's newsfeed:

Snooki and JWoww wanted in Jersey Shore ... Pa.

I didn't laugh and wonder what they were talking about. I didn't scratch my head asking how there could be a Jersey Shore... in Pennsylvania.

In fact I know right were it is. About 50 miles east-northeast from Penn State, 80 or so miles north of Harrisburg. Nowhere near New Jersey. It's my hometown where I spent the first 18 years of my life. It's not large and has little claim to fame.

Well, two of them that I can think of off the top of my head. On July 4, 1776, legend has it, a group called the "Fair Play Men" declared independence from England at the same time some better known patriots were doing the same in Philadelphia. The second is that Hunter S. Thompson worked there very briefly as a reporter in the 1950s at the newspaper located across the street from my Dad's pharmacy.

Thompson hated it.

Anyway, when the New Jersey shore (well, Hoboken, NJ, to be exact) refused a permit to film the Central Pennsylvania Film Office jumped on it. According to the AP story:

MTV said it was "flattered by the invitation" to Pennsylvania.

"We love all Jersey Shores!" it said.

Officials in Williamsport, population 29,000, and Jersey Shore, which has about 4,300 residents, say they're all ears if MTV or the production company wants to pitch the show to them.

"It would be fun to have the spotlight on the borough," said Jersey Shore borough manager Gretchen Speicher. "But we'd like to know what the show's going to be about, will it be shot inside or outside ... and I would like to know because I've never seen ('Jersey Shore')."

Any way it plays out, might be interesting. Maybe even get my hometown out there in the mountains and valleys a little bit of publicity.

Well, it looks like it will play out this way.....
After I wrote the above (yesterday) for posting today, I came across this from the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and the Jersey Shore Borough.

JERSEY SHORE - The borough here today released the following statement in regards to the suggestion by the Central Pennsylvania Film Office that the MTV show Jersey Shore:

"The Borough of Jersey Shore has been contacted by the Central Pennsylvania Film Office expressing their interest in inviting the cast of MTV's hit show, the Jersey Shore, to our small town.

"While we appreciate all the attention being given to the Jersey Shore Borough, we do not feel that the values portrayed on the television show are reflective of the values held by the people in our community.

"Therefore the Borough of Jersey Shore is not interested in pursuing any kind of filming opportunity with the cast of MTVs' Jersey Shore."
--Link

Thus ends this Jersey Shore's moment in the spotlight.