Mad Men of Maplewood?

Forget the fact that Don Draper is sleeping with half the women in the greater metropolitan area, that Betty is an ice queen and Peggy had to scratch and claw her way to a creative job and equal pay, Maplewoodians are nuts about Mad Men.

So crazy about it, that we are holding Mad Men parties, entering Mad Men contests and chattering about Mad Men endlessly on MaplewoodOnline or at the Maplewood Pool.

Last winter, Patch's own Shop Localista columnist Lauren Bright Pacheco held a Mad Men holiday party—"which happened to fall on the day of one of the worst snow storms of the season. We weren't overly optimistic about the potential size of the turnout, but forged ahead with the soiree in spite of the weather, because I had a ton of ham and salmon on hand," said Bright Pacheco.

"It was both a testament to the strength of the show—and the strength of the libations it was assumed we'd be serving," she added, "that people not only showed up in great numbers, but did so in period costume."

Bright Pacheco noted that some of her guests even trudged through the snow with their "costumes" in plastic bags to change into. "We ended up having a great time, though I'm rather reluctant to share the large number of single malt scotch bottles we went though that night."

Bright Pacheco reports that her obsession with the show, as well as the fact that Christmas carols by Bing, Nat, Elvis and Dean Martin are all from the period, will probably lead her to host a second Mad Men holiday party this year.

Anne Vaccari's interest in Mad Men is more professional. Vaccari is a 22-year-old Maplewood resident—"born and raised"—who is currently studying Literature at Pace University. "My dream since I can remember is to be an actress and recently I entered a contest with Banana Republic and AMC's Mad Men to win a walk-on role," Vaccari told Patch. "The contest includes a website where entrants upload their best Mad Men photo of themselves and anyone can vote, but only once per day."

Being an actress and a pretty smart cookie, Vaccari promptly dolled herself up and took a picture. She's looking for folks to visit the website and vote for her. By September 6, the top 10 men and top 10 women with the most votes will be selected to be judged by a representative of Banana Republic and a member of the Mad Men production. [That's Vaccari's photo attached—we think she definitely has a Joan vibe going on.]

"I've been recently posting all over MaplewoodOnline.com and their boards asking for supporters. The response has been overwhelming to say the least. My photo went up Monday and thus far, I have 1,367 votes and am on page 5 of 121 listed under Popularity."

Around Maplewood's summer version of the watercooler—the Maplewood Community Pool—the Mad Men discussion more often focuses on our horrified reaction to 1960s-style parenting rather than clothing styles or scotch consumption.

One local mother of two was marveling over the fact that the children of Mad Men—little Sally and Bobby Draper—are constantly watching TV, sometimes with mom Betty dragging on a cigarette in the background. With "TV Turnoff" as a popular school district program, all that television viewing is the antithesis of good parenting to modern Maplewood moms (and the cigarette smoking—don't even go there!).

"I guess it was completely acceptable to parents to let the kids sit in front of the TV all day back then," said this Maplewood mom, who hadn't even been born yet in 1964, the year of Mad Man Season 4.