BY NORA O'DOWD
In a mix of the macabre and the merry, "Weird N.J." is a bit like Halloween itself. Some legends are founded on fear, other accounts turn on the whimsical, and a few, like the puzzling creatures who will arrive on your doorstep tonight, will have you asking: "And what are you supposed to be?"
But it's all weird.
In their second volume devoted to the Garden State, Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman have visited New Jersey's lesser-known haunts in search of anything that is "not quite odd, not quite strange, but in a subjective category of weirdness all its own," as Sceurman puts it.
The whole thing started about 15 years ago when Sceurman started publishing a fanzine of offbeat stories. He and Moran teamed up in 1996 and began putting out a magazine that drew the attention of a Barnes & Noble executive. Weird N.J., the magazine, was outselling Time and Newsweek and every other magazine on the rack and the Marks were approached about doing a book. A lavishly illus trated volume that sold 100,000 in six months was the result.
Since then, it's been all weirdness, all the time. "Weird U.S." explored sites and stories across the country, and 12 books on specific areas from California to New England have since been published. There are 12 other state-specific books in the works, as well as "Weird Club," a book for children from 9 to 12.
Meanwhile, the magazine continues to be published twice a year, and there is definitely enough material for a third New Jersey volume, says Sceurman.
Celebrating 'local heroes'
Like indefatigable Hardy Boys, aided by loyal readers and tipsters, Moran and Sceurman investigate mysteries lurking underground, weirdoes in the woods, secrets of abandoned buildings and characters so colorful they are at home in New Jersey.
"We call them our 'local heroes,'" says Sceurman. Take, for example, Elvis impersonator Ed Geil. In full regalia, this ersatz King performs a tribute show by the back roads of Passaic County.
There are a few Pink Ladies with monochromatic digs, and the Bergen County man who decorates his home and grounds with his col lections -- pots, pans, lawn orna ments. Steven "Hoop" Hooper of Clifton customizes his cars with fur, aluminum cans and clocks, and there are those who have arranged bowling balls into pyramids in their yards.
"At first, some people are offended to be included in 'Weird N.J.,'" says Sceurman. "But then they find out what we mean by weird, that it's a celebration."
However, heartbreak does figure in some of these tales. There are unsolved murders, awful acci dents and lonely last wishes that make for mournful lore.
A yellowed wedding dress and journal of incoherent jottings were found in "Mary's Tower," an aban doned structure near Flemington.
The ghost of a football player cut down in his prime was said to inhabit the crumbling Lambertville High School.
Ghostly piano playing at The College of New Jersey is reputed to be the work of a young woman killed on the campus in the 1930s.
But Sceurman is quick to point out that "weird" encompasses a whole lot more than frightful sor row.
One of the scariest experiences he recalls is a visit to a remote region of the Pine Barrens to investigate a report of random shirts.
"The hair on the back of my neck stood up," he says, at the sight of about 30 white starched shirts stretched out on crosses placed on trees.
"There was water at the base of the trees, and we wondered how anybody could have done that," says Sceurman who had the uncanny feeling of being watched as they studied the situation. "We never found out any more about that."
Research for the second volume also led them underground as they explored tunnels, caves and an abandoned bomb shelter where 50-year-old supplies gather dust. They went looking for the Devil's Kitchen and the Devil's Wheelw right Shop in the vicinity of Dark of the Moon and Shades of Death roads.
They conversed with a nosy scarecrow, stopped by the gourd- domed Pumpkin House of Sussex, and photographed fences made of paint cans and walkways constructed of videocassettes.
They visited Ong's Hat, a town named weirdly enough after a guy named Ong and his hat. But really, the strange part is that some are convinced that this area, stubbed out as a village by time, is actually a portal to another dimension.
Sceurman and Moran are helped in their work by thousands of loyal fans, friends and sources who provide leads, directions and plenty of stories.
Their letters, e-mails and calls are filed away until it's time for the next field trip.
http://www.nj.com/living/times/index.ss ... xml&coll=5
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