Long Valley is actually the most underrated town in America

While everyone admittedly grows up wanting to leave Long Valley — or Happy Valley according to everyone who lives there — we all end up missing our hometown.

We miss the people, the Jersey pizza, Chagels and even our old high school, West Morris Central. Though time has passed, the memories have not and only those who grew up with us can understand them. Take a glimpse at childhood in Happy Valley and see why it’s actually the greatest and most underrated town in America.

The parks are perfect for hangouts

Rock Spring, Palmer, Schooley’s Mountain, the list goes on. By day, they’re basically a child’s heaven complete with fields, monkey bars and even a mini rock wall. But by night, they become the ideal teenage hideaways for stargazing, story-telling, hiking and bonding. All you need are friends, some music and you’re set. They key is to be especially quiet and responsible at Rock Spring Park, however, because the police station and town library are located in the park.

Farms are the best part of fall

No one is surprised if they see a traffic jam caused by a tractor or a herd of wayward Oreo cattle. We still hate the slowness, but farm life becomes a little more tolerable come fall when we can enjoy corn mazes and pumpkin patches. No autumn is complete without a stop at the Stony Hill farm maze, Ort Farm’s perfect pumpkin patch and Alstede’s amazingly adorable animals. In every season, though, pay no attention to loose cattle and the farmers sprinting after them — except to take pictures for Twitter.

Random things aren’t actually so random…

This does not only refer to the herds of Oreo cows, but to basically anything and everything that happens around town. It includes entire friend groups dressing up as the basketball team from High School Musical and shouting, “GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!” in the hallway. It includes Mr. Angus riding around in an Angus Beef cart on Halloween, fire alarms being set off one too many times by arguably the best chemistry teacher West Morris Central has ever seen, and a teacher throwing a knife to see if he could stick it into the ceiling and then jumping on his desk like an ape.

We’ll never forget daily drawing contests when going over calculus homework, buying pet fish and bringing it to school for a psychology project, putting West Morris Central-colored streamers on an opposing football team’s school bus, the screaming next door from (or if you’re lucky enough, inside of) one of Walsh’s history classes. The list goes on and on and on. Needless to say, really really weird things happened in that school, yet we all accepted it as normal and didn’t think much of it — and we loved it.

Penwell is the ultimate summer spot

This is by far the best place to spend a hot summer day, flooded by teens every afternoon over break. It’s a hidden watering hole with rope swings that’s nearly impossible to find — even with assistance from someone who has been there before — but absolutely worth the effort.

Chagels are a lifestyle

Chagels are the essence of West Morris Central. Chester Bagel and Deli is amazing and a must-have for anyone visiting, returning, or simply hungry. At least once per day, I would hear someone in the halls talking about Chagels. It just became a staple of life for all in school, and a local hang-out for us as well.  Additionally, the Pub is one of the few places you can get food that is actually in Long Valley itself. Just past the center of town, it serves incredible lunch and dinner, usually with some live background music.  The food is very good, and the atmosphere is even better. Not only is it absolutely worth a trip, it’s necessary to being a Long Valleyan.

The Delaware Water Gap is a natural beauty

Let me sum it up: amazing hiking trails. Easy and hard, long and short, for all levels of challenge, age, experience and fitness. Whether you spend an hour, a day, or a week, you will see glorious views and meet tons of people. I do not know a single person who hasn’t hiked there at least once in their life, and there’s not a soul alive who could doubt its beauty. And it’s just about 20 minutes away.

Location, location, location

Speaking of location, Long Valley is very close to both New York City and Philadelphia.  Sure, other places brag about how they’re are extremely close to one, but an often overlooked benefit of living in Long Valley is that we have the honor of being near both. This means we can spend Christmas in Philadelphia and New Years Eve in New York and spend the time in between curled up under blankets at home.

What’s theirs is ours

Because Long Valley itself doesn’t actually have much and is pretty boring as a whole, we tend to claim locations in neighboring towns as our own. While Penwell, the Water Gap, Chagels and others favorite spots aren’t actually in Long Valley, we still consider them ours as many of us spend a significant amount of our time either being there, thinking about being there or talking about being there. If we have been there and it comes up in a few conversation a month, we will likely tend to think of it as our own.

Since graduating and leaving for college, my family has actually moved out of Long Valley. Being away from my hometown gives me an even greater appreciation for Long Valley.

More than anything, Long Valley would be nothing without the people there. Practically everyone in town is kind and caring and would help someone in need without a second thought.  The unity, generosity, kindness, and pure friendship is the one thing above all else that makes Long Valley so great. Happy Valley has such a pure sense of friendship, which is why it is the best hometown a kid could ever ask for.