North Jersey

I was surprised at the beauty of North Jersey the first time we went up there. It was loaded with lakes and streams with beautiful valley's along the mountain ranges. I especially liked the cool mountain air right in the middle of Summer. The view from High Top is spectacular.
We took a side trip to Princeton on the way home and that is one place I wouldn't mind living in. It's about as pretty a place as any I've ever seen.

Hot Dog Roasts

We didn't have BBQ's, we called them hot dog roasts. We would build a fire and get a green branch for everyone to cook their own hot dogs. Afterward, we would use the same branch for roasting the marsh mellows. I feel that the charcoal and gas grills ruined the fun.
I always liked to burn everything so that it would have a black crust covering it, both hot dogs and marsh mellows. I also liked having them after dark. It just wasn't the same during the day.

Old Higbe's Grave

Our boy scout troupe went camping down at the beach behind the old magnacite plant. One of the older boys told us about old Higbe's grave and he would take us to see it. We all got our flashlights and took a little hike to see this thing. Shore enough, there it was, very eerie looking with a black metal fence around it.
One of the older boys had gotten there before us that we didn't know about and was standing in the dark just a few feet on the other side of the grave. He started moaning and stamping his feet, then he turned his flashlight on his face which was covered with ashes and scared the living daylights out of us. We ran all the way back to the camp site and told the scout master about it and he was going along with the gag. He said we would post 2 guards all night to make sure it didn't raid our camp. I think most of stayed awake all night.

Weeks Landing

We used to go over to Weeks Landing to go crabbing. It was a lot different in those days, the parkway wasn't built yet. Thompson's had a little marina there and some of the local people had cabins on stilts built through out the marshes. Old Charlie Hand had a nice one not too far from where the parkway is now. It was right on the creek and he had his own little dock.

Losing A Wheel.

Dad was driving his Dodge truck up to visit Mother in the hospital and when he got to Erma Park, his rear wheel came off. He said that he felt the back end go down and suddenly he saw a wheel rolling across the field next to him. Good thing no other cars were on the road. It turned out that old Ben Prichard put new bearings on the axles and pressed them on backwards. It didn't hurt the truck any, he used it for years after that.

The Evening Bulletin

Every day about dinner time, they would deliver the Evening Bulletin. You knew when it was coming because they would be laying on the car horn to let everyone know their paper was here. Just about every house got it.
Just as exciting was the mosquito fogging jeep. During the Summer they would run up and down our street fogging us with DDT. We didn't know any better and would run through the fog. Sometimes I wonder why I'm still here.

Wash Day

I remember when every Monday was wash day in the neighborhood and there were clothes lines in every back yard. Keeping clothes looking good in those days was a very hard job. There were no stay-pressed or wash and wear clothes and everything had to be ironed. If it rained on Monday, your schedule was messed up. Quite a few things were starched. There was no spray starch so it had to be mixed up and the clothes dipped in it, then ironed. Things have really changed.