“Pinelands’ administrators”. I haven’t been through there in many years, but I remember back in the 70’s I went blueberry picking with a girlfriend. We were on a dirt fire road about 10 miles from Fort Dix. We were probably 2 or more miles off a main road into the forest. In the middle of nowhere was a ramshackle house with some kids playing with their dog. The dog started barking and that made the father come out onto the front porch with a shotgun. I told him we were just looking for blueberries. He said, “another mile down the trail, now beat it.” Some very strange people down in the Jersey Pinelands. And bodies dumped by the mob. Jersey’s version of inbred redneck hillbillies.
The family of my best friend growing up here in Suburban North Jersey had a 2nd home a little south of the Toms River area. My friend would refer to them as "Pinies".
We lived in Little Egg Harbor Twp. from 1986 to 2004. This is the Tuckerton area. Pinelands Schools are in Little Egg, our kids went to the intermediate school, way back.
We are from the Jersey Shore, Monmouth County. When we moved to Little Egg in 1986 it was a bit of a culture shock but it wasn’t redneck city or loaded with inbred families or run down squatter filled shacks. True there was an incident where the mob dumped a body along the parkway (actually a road that runs along the parkway called “Poor Mans Parkway”. But it was overall a good place to live and people were great.
Some in this thread are talking about picking blueberries. That’s a bit of a hike from Little Egg. I think they are confusing it with Egg Harbor City, Burlington County. Another misconception is that it is urban. Between Stafford Forge, Bass River and Wharton Tract, I had about 250,000 acres to deer hunt. You can get lost out there easy. Little Egg/Tuckerton has grown up a lot since we left. Really has developed. Do I miss it? Not really because we replaced NJ with NE PA. Have a great day!