WEIRD NJ NOTES THE GUM WALL

The latest issue of Weird NJ magazine offers some press for our beloved (and often derided) Gum Wall on Baker Street near Maplewood Middle School.


You cannot see it online, but order a copy of Issue 37 for $7 and hit page 73.

If you can't read the fine print, it describes the chewy mess as a "collection of dried gobs," but also "a sweet treat."


But this is not the first time the wall has gotten some top media attention. The New York Times and Maplewoodian Tina Kelley brought the gum garden some fame in 2005 when she wrote about it for the Grey Lady.

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A B C's of an Odd Collage: Already Been Chewed

Dith Pran/The New York Times

Used chewing gum makes a strange sugary collage on a wall in Maplewood, N.J.

By TINA KELLEY

Published: May 19, 2005

It is gross. It is tradition. And it is growing.
And it sticks on the soles of anyone walking the fine line between art and vandalism.
A sugary collage of sorts is evolving in Maplewood, N.J., a daily accretion of chewing gum wads stuck on the wall underneath the railroad overpass between Maplewood Junior High School and the center of town, the shortest distance between algebra class and a slice of pizza and a fountain drink for $2 at Arturo's.