Leave it to someone from NJ to be that out-of-state jerk

There are some things New Jersey will always be known for. Some things are good, while others, not so much.

Let's start off with the good. One of those good things up there on the list is our food. No matter where you are in the state, you're sure to find a great bite to eat.

On top of that, we also have specific foods that are uniquely Jersey. Pork roll being one of the biggest, along with our amazing pizza.

Food sure spoils us in the Garden State. It's something we should be proud of as it brings us all together in a positive way.

It also brings together people not from New Jersey. From the outside, food in the Great Garden State is simply unmatched.

But with the good comes the bad. And unfortunately, New Jersey also has its share of negativity associated with it.

Probably one of the biggest things has to be the label of rudeness. It's really no shock that New Jersey is known for it's bold attitude or lack of caring.

Yes, there are a select few that give us this reputation, but by and large we're not like that at all. Most of us from the Garden State really aren't that bad.

And when we travel out of state, we try to keep it that way. Unfortunately, some of us who are more clueless kind of help that reputation of rudeness and not caring.

This actually happened over the summer when our family was vacationing in New England. We were at a complex we've stayed at before with no issues at all.

It's a small beach complex with seven separate beach cottages, with each cottage getting two reserved parking spots.

Those parking spots are clearly marked telling you which cottages they're associated with, making it easy for everyone to know who should and shouldn't park there. And if a particular guest needed more than two spots, there was an overflow lot just a short walk away.

It all seems pretty straightforward, but still, some people couldn't figure it out. It's like someone parking in a clearly marked handicap spot and claiming they didn't know.

And that's what happened here. Some guests staying at one of the cottages couldn't figure it out and parked wherever they wanted anyway.

They had a total of three vehicles, which as mentioned earlier, is perfectly OK. As long as the third vehicle parked in the overflow lot all would be fine.

Not only did this third vehicle not do that, the other two also didn't follow the rules. Instead of parking in the properly assigned spots for their cottage, they parked in any spot they wanted.

This led to complaints going to the property owner, including from us. For a while, nobody knew who exactly these people were parking in the incorrect spaces.

One of the cars for this particular cottage was using the right spot, but the other two weren't. For us, we just had one vehicle which gave us two spots to choose from.

One evening we were coming back after a long day out only to discover both of our spots were taken. We ended up having to park in the overflow lot for the evening as a result.

The next morning, those cars were still in our spots. Eventually though, we saw one of the drivers go to one of the cars, so I confronted them.

He ended up being really nice and claimed he didn't know and that both cars would be moved. I'm not sure how they could miss the big numbers marking which spots they belong in, but we chalked it up as a misunderstanding.

They did eventually move the cars and all was good again. We moved our vehicle back into one of our spots and forgot all about it.

Later that evening, however, one of our spots was taken yet again. And wouldn't you know it, it was the car of the person we confronted earlier.

So once again we had another word with him. And he once again played the dumb card.

But it was here that I noticed something about their car. They didn't have a front plate, but in the back one was a Jersey plate.

Now I was curious and had to ask where they're from. Turns out, they were from Parsippany, New Jersey. In other words, this established clueless jerk was a fellow New Jerseyan.

But why no front plate? According to him, it broke off and the plate was being kept in his front seat.

That's right. Not the dashboard so it can be visible. The front seat where nobody would really see it.

So even though this guy was nice, he clearly didn't care about the rules or the inconvenience he or his other friends and family were putting on the other guests of the community staying that week.

After that, I went to take a closer look at the other two cars. And sure enough, one of the other ones also had Jersey plates.

Around mid-week that third car left and they finally started using their assigned spaces, but not until after creating problems with the other guests.

So to this particular group from New Jersey, thank you for making us all look like jerks. You managed to upset others on their vacation and didn't seem to care despite claiming you wouldn't take the other spots again.

And extra points on the lack of front license plate giving the initial appearance that you're not from New Jersey. Way to go.

When people from New Jersey do things like that while out of state, it's no wonder others look at us like we just don't care.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 Sunday morning host Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.