Glen School Reunion Update

This is from my pals at the Glen School Class of 1967 blog:

Art Brierley was kind enough to file the necessary papers and we are confirmed for the Glen School reunion. It will be Saturday November 7 at Glen School! I will update with times, cost, etc.

If you're already on the list I will email you - I will need your addresses and phone numbers soon. If you're stumbling onto this site, come to the reunion! We have about 38 so far but there are still a lot of classic Glen alums out there! Get in touch! If you don't we'll make you climb the ropes in the gym! Its hectic at the moment with local baseball, etc but we will ensure everything goes smoothly with this one - its special!

I promise I will add more great Glen stories!

BF and RHS friends are welcome too - but space is limited so you have to let me know!

Email them at cmad@ntplx.net.

Baseball Gloves

I got this quote off the New York Daily News blog:

I remember the days of summer when we never left the house without bringing our baseball gloves. The gloves fit very nicely over the handle bars of our bikes. We never knew where or when a game of baseball, softball or stickball might break out, so we always had to be prepared...even if it was two guys just having a catch. I look around today and sadly I don't see that anymore.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2009/08/26/2009-08-26_summer_essay_series_what_a_day.html#ixzz0PK6ewkTJ

A few years ago I decided that if I ever played another game of softball or stickball it would be with a new glove. It was then that I got rid of the only two baseball gloves I had ever owned. Now these gloves were over 40 years old and had long ago out-lived their usefulness, but I had kept them anyhow. It was both sad and liberating to throw the gloves away. I was sad because they were old and filled with many great moments. I was happy because it meant I might have one more chance to break in a new glove.

It's been 20 years exactly since I last played a game of baseball. The very happy circumstances around this last game, not unlike Ted Williams last at-bat, have held me back from participating again. Why try to top yourself? This is an old show biz adage and I am an old ham.

In any event, it was 20 years ago that I was playing my first game as a "ringer" on a US Congressional league softball team. The Congressional League rules require that a woman bats at least every third at bat. This meant I was going to be sitting for most of the game as I was a newbie, and the girls had to play.

By the time I walked to the plate we were losing 15-0. I knew I would have one chance and would have to be patient. Just my luck the opposing team brought in a new pitcher, who was hoping to make good. His first pitch was right across the plate and I took it for a strike. This took the pitcher by surprise and I suspect he wanted me to make contact. The next pitch I didn't take and sent over the center fielder's head for a home run. When I crossed home plate I suspected this would be last at-bat.

If this is to be my last game I privately will allow myself to say I retired in the same manner as Boston Red Sox great, Ted Williams. On his last at-bat in 1960 he hit a home run, and seemingly skipped all around the bases.



Notice all the empty seats in Fenway Park in Boston. I didn't skip but I felt I was done, and haven't entertained the idea of doing it again, for love or money.

The Dog Days of Summer

These are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. They seemed to always coincide with those last few days before we returned to school, and a routine we knew well.

By the time the Dog Days arrived in August we had been without our usual ways of doing things for a couple of months. While we loved the freedom, there was also a desire to see people again who were usually only encountered in a school setting. This is just the way it was, people took vacations at different times and we would lose touch with one another. I don't remember how long it took to re-connect once we resumed school, not long I imagine, but it seemed by the Dog Days that we had been out of school for quite a while.

I lived adjacent to the school yard of Willard School and could literally look out my bedroom window to see who was there, and what sort of games were being played. By late August I knew not to look because there wouldn't be enough people to start a game of baseball, and even if there were it would be too hot and muggy to contemplate choosing up sides.

I suppose the thing which kept us going, if we were around during this miserable stretch of the summer and not out of town on vacation, was thinking about the alternative: sitting in a hot classroom in September!

The days before our classrooms were air conditioned, as they are now in Ridgewood, were wretched for teachers and students alike. I know it's fine to be nostalgic about the simpler days, I do it all the time, but this one facet of growing up will never, ever seem like a pleasant idea. Nobody trying to learn in a hot, brick building could concentrate or think of anything except getting out of their school cloths and running around barefoot, including the teachers I would imagine.

We didn't have a centrally air-conditioned house until I was a junior in high school. I can clearly remember walking the two miles home from RHS during the dog days of my sophomore year. It was hot and I was carrying a ton of books. When I came home I shed my cloths and stood in front of a large fan for about 15 minutes. Of course, I then went outside to see what was going on in the school yard. Nothing was going to keep me inside by this time, heat or no heat. Even standing under a tree on a late summer afternoon was better than the alternative of sitting inside a school building. Every little breeze we felt made us thankful, even if we didn't verbalize it, that we were out and about. It's moments like these I suppose we will ponder later in life. Or as one of my favorite poets William Butler Yeats wrote, "When you are old and gray and full of sleep. And nodding by the fire." For that brief moment under the huge oak tree behind the principal's office we were both free and cool. There is nothing better in the world for my money.

The Duck Pond

I was reminded of the Duck Pond when I came across the news that it now has a dog park, a couple of fenced pens for dogs to run around in without a lease. I'll save my opinion of this for when I have seen it for myself.



By some good luck this is an item I came across during my Google search, courtesy of the Ridgewood Historical Society. It reminded me once again of how times change, and how we are smart when we find new uses for old ideas. In this case, ice was a prized commodity in the days before refrigeration could be afforded by everyone. By the time I came around the Duck Pond had fortunately evolved into a skating rink in the winter, a place for elementary school class parties, and a spot to take a date for a stroll during more temperate climate.

I am hoping that Ridgewood finds a similar use for Graydon Pool which is just as enduring as the one that was found for the Duck Pond. Seeing Graydon empty, like I did recently this summer, is not something which brings back any good memories for me, or makes financial sense when we are in the middle of a depression. Just my two cents.
Now the article which made me smile:


"When The Duck Pond Was More Than A Walk In The Park"

Before there were refrigerators there was the Duck Pond. As recently as the early 1930s, local hotels, inns and uptown markets relied on ice to keep food fresh and lemonade cold. Ridgewood’s Duck Pond was a major source of ice at that time, which was harvested and stored in the winter for use in warmer days. The enterprise was owned by Garret Tallman and Walter Hanham and their “empire” consisted of six wooden buildings that stretched from the west bank of the pond to Pleasant Avenue.

Blocks of ice two feet thick and three to four feet long were cut and hauled by pulleys into the ice house where it was stacked between layers of salt hay to prevent melting. Horses were used to maneuver the ice from pond to shed and they required special horse shoes to grip the slippery ice. If an accident sent the animals into open water, everyone participated in their rescue. Any delay could mean sickness or death for the horses.

The stored ice lasted throughout the warm weather season. Ice was not used in the winter as families relied on pantry boxes set in the windows, or lowered into a well. In the fall, the pond was drained and cleaned and men in hip boots would rake the bottom. This proved a bonanza for the people of the area: fresh fish was available for dinner! Many people waited at the pond’s edge for the fish thrown to them by the rake wielders. In time, we progressed to refrigeration and harvested our own ice in trays. Then the Duck Pond became a walk in the park!

Source: Alberta C. Ruckert, The Record 4/28/80 Photo: National Geographic

Stanley Warner Theater

Had to post this one! Everybody will remember the Warner as it looked in this photo (photo is circa 1930's but it pretty much looked like this in the 70's too!) Lots of Saturdays I spent there with friends and dates. What a great town to grow up in !!!

Ridgewood Moving Services: Cindy Neidig Myers 1977

Little did I know when I moved from NJ to NYC in 2002 that the moving company, Ridgewood Moving Services, I chose would one day be owned by Cindy Neidig, class of 1977. They did a fantastic job and I would certainly employ them again. I have added a link to their site to the sidebar. This site is all about helping people to reconnect, but also about helping people. Cindy's firm did a wonderful job in helping me back in 2002 and I didn't want it to go unnoticed.

Matt Fau on Graduation Night 1977

Matt with Cesca and Sue Broadhurst.










Has anybody heard from Sue lately? If we want our 35th reunion advertised on the RHS web site we need our class representative (Sue) to forward the details to the RHS webmaster.

We would all love to see you post on FaceBook, Sue.

Lucky Dave Rorty

David Hastings Rorty, class of 1977, has always been a ladies man. Here is a shot circa 1977 with Sue Kenyon.

Sue Kenyon in London 2009

No, this is not Sue Kenyon, RHS class of 1977, with her new boyfriend. It is Sue on vacation with her son. Such genuine affection needs no words to describe.





Sue posted this photo on FaceBook so I am hoping she doesn't mind my posting it here.


Here are some other more vintage shots:



Sue and Leslie DeVries in 1977












This is a stellar photo of Sue:

Upper Ridgewood Tennis Club

I learned to play tennis starting at the age of 8 at the URTC. We dressed in tennis whites and had to play to the letter of the rules. This included on weekends being kicked off the courts by adult members. We didn't ask why but if they saw us playing and there were no other courts then we were done.

I stopped playing for good when I started watching people like McEnroe on TV ruin the game with child outbursts at referees. I know he thought it helped him receive better calls but it also completely shattered the aura of civility which had been a watchword for the game. Now McEnroe makes jokes in American Express commercials making light of his petulant behavior, where he goes and apologizes to the retired referees he badmouthed. This is too little and too late for him.


He is the current fee schedule:

FEES & DUES SCHEDULE

Application Fee $25.00 per adult membership
Initiation Fee $1,300 per adult, payable at once or over 4 years
Membership Certificate $2,000 per adult, payable at once or over 4 years
Annual Dues $775 (age 35 to 65)
$575 (age 31 to 35)
$585 (over age 65)
Annual Dues - Juniors $165 (up to age 18)
Annual Dues – Jr. Associates $175 (age 19 to 23)
Annual Dues – Associates* $350 (age 24 to 30)

Another Restaurant for Ridgewood?

The phrase, "Carrying Coals to Newcastle" came to mind when I glanced at the Village of Ridgewood web site and saw the following notice:

Take notice that the Village Council has determined that it is in the best interest of the Village to permit the issuance of an additional Plenary Retail Consumption Liquor License pursuant to the authority granted to it under N.J.S.A. 33:1-19 et seq.
Date of Receipt of Bids:
September 18, 2009 at 10:00 A.M.

I guess the town also needs a few more bank branches.