Seeing the lighter side of the N.J. Turnpike

00-00-0000
Seeing the lighter side of the N.J. Turnpike -- 'What Exit?' exhibit shows history, whimsy By GEOFF MULVIHILL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Date: 09-14-2002, Saturday Section: NEWS Edtion: All Editions.=.Late Edition. Early Edition

CAMDEN

The New Jersey Turnpike - cutting straight through farms, marshes, suburbs, and cities - was built to be functional, not beautiful.

But at a Rutgers University gallery, the 50-year-old road traveled by Tony Soprano, characters in Bruce Springsteen songs, and 218 million non-fictional drivers a year is on display.

"What Exit? New Jersey and Its Turnpike" gives America's second great turnpike - it opened 11 years after its neighbor in Pennsylvania - the academic treatment. But the historical, cultural, ecological, and sociological examination of the 118-mile road is not without whimsy.

The New Jersey Historical Society, which organized the exhibit, sent postcards two years ago to people across the country asking them to write what they knew of the road.

A woman from Columbus, Ohio, responded: "I do know that I was conceived on the turnpike. That's probably more than you want to know."

The exhibit honors the old Joe Piscopo "Saturday Night Live" gag ("You're from Jersey? What Exit?") by asking visitors to drop wooden tokens into cylinders to vote for their exit.

It chronicles when in 1997 former Gov. Christie Whitman got Mitsubishi to yank an ad encouraging viewers to buy an Eclipse to outrun the bad smell along the turnpike near Newark.

Young visitors can play in a replica toll booth or can press buttons to hear snippets of songs from Springsteen, Alan Jackson, Chuck Berry, and others that ruminate about life on the road.

"My favorite part is on the city of Elizabeth," Lynda Hitchman, museum educator at the Stedman Gallery on Rutgers' Camden campus. "It asks the kids to think critically."

The display's backdrop is a giant, now-kitschy, postcard showing the turnpike passing through Elizabeth. Newspaper clippings tell about the social ills caused by dividing the city in half, and asks visitors to decide whether it's best to put expressways through cities, farms, or swamps.

The exhibit examines the racial profiling debate sparked by a 1998 shooting of four minority men by two white state troopers on the turnpike.

Michael Aaron Rockland, an American studies professor at Rutgers' New Brunswick campus and co-author of "Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike," said the road represents "our love affair with expediency."

Rockland said the road has its own culture as well, which he found out while spending time at a turnpike rest stop researching for his book.

"In the 24 hours I was at the Joyce Kilmer area, Jesus came in twice," he recalled about seeing two different men come in with long hair wearing flowing white robes.

The exhibit, which has already been displayed in Newark, will travel to Trenton. After that, parts will be on display at some of the turnpike rest stops.

Illustrations/Photos: 1 - CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - You from Jersey? What exit? Here, its Interchange 13 near Elizabeth, and its industrial backdrop. Keywords: NEW JERSEY, ROAD, SHOW, HISTORY

Seeing the lighter side of the N.J. Turnpike00-00-0000
Seeing the lighter side of the N.J. Turnpike -- 'What Exit?' exhibit shows history, whimsy By GEOFF MULVIHILL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Date: 09-14-2002, Saturday Section: NEWS Edtion: All Editions.=.Late Edition. Early Edition

CAMDEN

The New Jersey Turnpike - cutting straight through farms, marshes, suburbs, and cities - was built to be functional, not beautiful.

But at a Rutgers University gallery, the 50-year-old road traveled by Tony Soprano, characters in Bruce Springsteen songs, and 218 million non-fictional drivers a year is on display.

"What Exit? New Jersey and Its Turnpike" gives America's second great turnpike - it opened 11 years after its neighbor in Pennsylvania - the academic treatment. But the historical, cultural, ecological, and sociological examination of the 118-mile road is not without whimsy.

The New Jersey Historical Society, which organized the exhibit, sent postcards two years ago to people across the country asking them to write what they knew of the road.

A woman from Columbus, Ohio, responded: "I do know that I was conceived on the turnpike. That's probably more than you want to know."

The exhibit honors the old Joe Piscopo "Saturday Night Live" gag ("You're from Jersey? What Exit?") by asking visitors to drop wooden tokens into cylinders to vote for their exit.

It chronicles when in 1997 former Gov. Christie Whitman got Mitsubishi to yank an ad encouraging viewers to buy an Eclipse to outrun the bad smell along the turnpike near Newark.

Young visitors can play in a replica toll booth or can press buttons to hear snippets of songs from Springsteen, Alan Jackson, Chuck Berry, and others that ruminate about life on the road.

"My favorite part is on the city of Elizabeth," Lynda Hitchman, museum educator at the Stedman Gallery on Rutgers' Camden campus. "It asks the kids to think critically."

The display's backdrop is a giant, now-kitschy, postcard showing the turnpike passing through Elizabeth. Newspaper clippings tell about the social ills caused by dividing the city in half, and asks visitors to decide whether it's best to put expressways through cities, farms, or swamps.

The exhibit examines the racial profiling debate sparked by a 1998 shooting of four minority men by two white state troopers on the turnpike.

Michael Aaron Rockland, an American studies professor at Rutgers' New Brunswick campus and co-author of "Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike," said the road represents "our love affair with expediency."

Rockland said the road has its own culture as well, which he found out while spending time at a turnpike rest stop researching for his book.

"In the 24 hours I was at the Joyce Kilmer area, Jesus came in twice," he recalled about seeing two different men come in with long hair wearing flowing white robes.

The exhibit, which has already been displayed in Newark, will travel to Trenton. After that, parts will be on display at some of the turnpike rest stops.

Illustrations/Photos: 1 - CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - You from Jersey? What exit? Here, its Interchange 13 near Elizabeth, and its industrial backdrop. Keywords: NEW JERSEY, ROAD, SHOW, HISTORY