Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The Jersey Devil and South Jersey

Growing up in South Jersey sorta numbs the fear of the ‘Jersey Devil’. From surf teams to hockey teams, the name Jersey Devil is plastered everywhere turning a once local horror story into a simple South Jersey Mascot. I remember the first time I heard the tale of the Jersey Devil in school around Halloween. Of course I was afraid the first three times I heard it but after that it became more repetitive and less scary. Later on I did in fact look into the tale and was a little disappointed in the lack of content available to me. Unlike most monsters and creatures there aren’t that many videos of “sightings” of the Jersey Devil.  Instead, you get a short Wikipedia page and you’re almost always directed towards the NHL hockey team. One could even say our cursed Devil has been outranked by the newly popular Mothman. That’s totally understandable considering the abundance of content and stories surrounding it. If you’re a fan of The Jersey Devil, some cool things to look at  is episode five of the X-files, a horror movie titled “The 13th child”, an entire episode of Buzzfeed unsolved as well as multiple horror themed video games.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJuly 25, 2018 at 8:24 AM

    Hello,

    Like you, I too am very much disenchanted by the stories of the Jersey Devil. The lack of any evidence makes all the stories hearsay. The error in these hearsay accounts reminds me of an interview with a man claiming to see Bigfoot on a documentary (the name of which I now forget). He said "I don't mind being told that what I saw wasn't Bigfoot, just don't tell me I didn't see anything". When I heard him say that I couldn’t help but think, why can’t everybody have that attitude? I think it’s particularly concerning from the perspective of the Jersey Devil that people would jump to such conclusions when the sightings are in south jersey – a region highly dominated by the Pine Barrens. In other words, lots of animals exist there and there are plenty of people. Most sightings happen in dark unclear conditions. So while I honestly don’t doubt that most of these people saw “something” I think they’re being highly presumptuous to think it’s something out of the ordinary. The story of Jersey Devil is already highly unbelievable and fictitious so I know if I made a mysterious sighting – that’s the last thing I’d think. I’d think it’s a buck or a human with a strange shadow casted on them depending on the nature of what I saw.

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