Thirsty?

New Jersey changes with the times, but the roadsides still carry reminders of bygone eras. Take the Big Bottles, for example.

The Renault Winery of Egg Harbor City added them to the South Jersey landscape almost a century ago, among 80 that were placed around the country. This one's on Route 9 in New Gretna.

Another stands on the same highway further north, in Ocean Gate. Two more are visible in Egg Harbor and Hammonton. The latter two still extol the winery, but the Route 9 pair change more frequently, leased as billboard space. Sometimes they simply stand, painted white and unadorned, for months on end. The graffiti at the base of our example here is another example of a changing New Jersey.

The bottles are listed in regional tourism guides and specialty books about the Garden State, usually the same ones that include giant roadside lumberjacks (one holding a roll of carpet these days) and Lucy the Margate Elephant.

The winery has since expanded to include a sumptuous resort and golf course, and remains a thriving wheel in Atlantic County's economic engine. It's changed, and the bottles are changing with it. They're part of what gives New Jersey state highways the charm that doesn't exist on the Parkway or Turnpike.