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.

The Trash

In the early fifties everyone burned their trash behind their house. It was common to smell burning trash after work at 5pm. People would take a 55 gallon drum, cut the bottom out of it and punch some air holes in the side and there was your incinerator. They didn't start trash collection in Lower Township until we lived there quite a few years.

Camp Kimble

I joined the boy scouts when I was eleven and it was a great experience for me. We learned a lot at those meetings every week. The whole troupe went to camp kimble for a week and it was the first time I went somewhere without a single member of the family there. That was a great place with more food then I ever saw before and it was really good. The full size viking ship was my favorite thing there. We had trouble with the oars at first getting tangled up, but we finally got moving up the river. I believe scouting is one of the best things for a young boy.

Cleaning the Chicken Coup

One job we hated was cleaning the chicken coup which happened to be on the second floor of the barn. What a nasty job that was. We would throw the stuff out the window and try to hit the truck below. Jim said it reminded him of a giant dinosaur having a bowel movement. Anything to make life interesting.

Firewood

We spent a good part of our time cutting firewood when we were young. We didn't have any power equipment like chainsaws. Everything was done with an ax and a two man saw. The woodshed was connected to the barn, so at least we were out of the cold wind. Two of us would cut off 16 inch pieces of a log on the saw horse with the two man saw and one would split the wood. The whole time Dad would be talking about something or other. That's probably why we were so quiet, we never got a chance to practice.

Learning to Drive

Dad wanted me to drive the 36 Plymouth to help dig the potato crop. The plan was to use it like a horse to pull a plow that he was going to steer. I was only eleven years old and wasn't too keen on this idea. He said get behind the wheel and lets go. It was after dark and I got out on the road and headed south on Old Shore Road. We got down to the school and came back. We made it, but driving on the road was a lot easier than driving in a soft field so we gave up on that idea and dug the potatoes by hand.

The Old White Oak

Right inside the woods was a huge white oak tree that was so big that three of us together couldn't get our arms around it. That tree must of been around when the Indians were still in the area. There was one branch that swung up and down about ten feet and was better than a see saw. The last time I was out there, I saw that the tree had died and fell over. I often looked at that tree and thought it would be nice if we lived as long as a tree.

One Steep Hill

One day Bobby Phaff and I were riding our bikes around the back sections of the airport and came to this hill out in the middle of nowhere. We pushed our bikes up to the top and were planning to coast down. When we got to the top it turned out to be much steeper than we thought and we chickened out. As we were looking for the best way down, I started heading down because my brakes gave way. It was so steep that I thought I would start tumbling head over heals. It only took seconds to reach the bottom, but that was enough time to scare the wits out of me. Just as I reached bottom, I heard a loud groan and looked up to see Phaffey picking up speed as he was coming down. It was so funny, his legs were straight out to his sides and his eyes were big as golf balls and his mouth looked like he wanted to scream but nothing was coming out. We left that place, relieved that we were still alive.

The Airport

We were fascinated with the county airport and we would walk through the apple orchard to get there. We usually stayed there longer than we intended and figured it was worth any punishment that would come later. The prisoner of war barracks were still there and made nice places to explore.

The owner of Young's Flying Service was very nice to us, he even would let us sit in one of his planes if we promised not to touch anything. I once wanted to be a professional golfer and have my own plane to fly between matches.

The Old Brick Church Cemetary

One day we boys took a walk along the stream that flowed in the back and side of the cemetery at the Cold Spring Church. It was eerie for us and there were some strange things we came across that day. We saw some dragon flies that had florescent blue dots on their wings and it looked like blue dots flying around. We named them the flying dots. The place was like a jungle and we had to walk in the water to get out or else go all the way back the way we came. It didn't help that we were talking about maybe the water went through some of the caskets. We came to a stretch of the stream that had red stones on the bottom. That was scary and we were sure glad to get out of that place.

Shot At

Jim and I were walking along on the edge of the woods and found an overgrown strawberry patch that was full of overripe strawberries. We were picking away and suddenly we were shot at. I heard the pellets land around us just as the man that shot started laughing. We took off into the woods like a couple of rabbits and I won't incriminate myself be telling how I got even with him.

The Ducks

A friend of Dad's gave him a few ducks, there was one drake in the bunch. These ducks multiplied to a dozen very quickly and they were great flyer's. More than one driver was startled by a flying duck crossing in front of their windshield. The drake was king of the barnyard for 6 or 7 years and then one of his own beat him in a fight and it was over for him. He spent his last days running for his life.

Lye Soap

Aunt Wilda sent this.

Here is the recipe for that soap:
9 Pounds of grease
4 boxes or cans of lye
13 Gallons of water

Put into kettle all at one time.
Boil for 3 hours.
Let cool.
Cut into pieces.
I found this at an old Farm Show in Florida.

Soap and Roses

On the south side of the house, there was a room that was all windows and we called it the shed. This was the room where the laundry was done and it had a sink that was leaking for many years before we even moved into this house. There was a bunch of homemade soap there that the Hand's made from animal fat and ashes. It worked really good, but Mother didn't want to use it and it was thrown out. She used to buy some big brownish yellow bars of soap that were so strong that you thought your eyes and skin were ruined. We switched to Ivory after a while.

There was a beautiful climbing red rose on the side of the shed that was so big people used to stop by and take pictures of it. Well, it got so big from all the years it was getting fed soap from the leaking sink. I know this, because after we fixed the leak, the rose got a little smaller each year.