Innocence and Experience

      Everyone loses their childhood innocence at one time or another, either gradually through the normal course of growing up, or all at once as the result of an unforeseen trauma and disturbance. I count myself lucky to be part of the former group.

      The events I recall which gradually stripped away the vestiges of my innocence and made me come of age:

1. April 4th 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, TN;
2. May 4th 1970 when the shootings took place at Kent State University in Ohio;
3. August 8th 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned as President;
4. April 30th 1975 when Saigon fell and the North Vietnamese took control;
5. June, 1977 when I graduated from Ridgewood High School;
6. June 1978 when my family moved from Ridgewood into Manhattan.

      These events forced me to re-evaluate my untainted, youthful ideas of Life and made me start to realize what the world is really like. Everyone can rightly name their own but these were the ones which stick out in my mind. These events provided me with experiences which hopefully have not made me grow too pessimistic.  There is much to see in terms of joy and wonder in our world. A person like myself only needs to remember the fact that others have been given much harsher introductions to adulthood and have trouble recollecting anything at all which they would care to reminisce about. I am lucky to have been spared such trauma and to feel grateful for my childhood memories.

Graydon Pool Lifeguards

       My pal Kurt created a page on Facebook dedicated to lifeguards who worked at Graydon Pool. Kurt is from the old school of lifeguards, when there were thousands more badge holders than today, before there was an iron fence ringing the pool, and when the guards, in particular his father, knew it was ultimately up to them to maintain order at the pool.

      To say it was different in the 1960s and 1970s than it is today would be an understatement. Back then swimming pools were a novelty, as was central air conditioning, so you had to go to Graydon Pool or the Jersey shore to cool off. "The Pool" or simply "Graydon" was a commons in the traditional sense of the word. It was an environment we all shared in Ridgewood, that no one owned but everyone could enjoy. Graydon was held in trust, and still is, for the current generation as well as future ones. By the very nature of its wide open layout and the fact it was a shared resource it helped promote the idea that we are all part of the same community.

       I'm currently not sure if we can get this shared feeling for Graydon back, even if they construct a concrete bottom for the pool and figure out a way to make it pay for itself. It's not that we don't need a commons any longer. We will always need symbols which promote aspects of our cultural heritage in order to help secure our mutual cooperation in the long-term. The problem here as I see it is we simply don't use Graydon to communicate among ourselves the way we used to do it. We will need a solution which combines the best aspects of Graydon's past with a new purpose which the current generation will understand and thrive within. I believe it behooves us all to re-think the purpose of Graydon and find a way to maintain its central place in Ridgewood for this generation as well as future ones. Graydon Pool is now a beautiful symbol of a bygone era and it would be shame not to give it some deep reflection before we change it irreparably or close it all together.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ridgewood-Graydon-Guards/111923052178143?v=wall&ref=ts

Sweets and Confections

     There was a unspoken tradition among my brothers and I that no pie my mother made every made it past breakfast. It was first come first serve and the pie would be gone, and usually one person did all the damage.

      When I think about and all the candy I ate as a youth it is surprising I was not overweight or afflicted with juvenile diabetes.  I was probably lucky and also living in an era where we burned off on a daily basis all the sugar we consumed.

      As far as pies my favorite has always been pumpkin with whipped cream on top. This was usually associated with Thanksgiving meals but we often insisted having it on other nights when my Mom was baking. Next came cherry, blueberry, and apple, in that order.

     As far as candy I was a Sweet Tart and Milk Dud man, after having grown out of a childhood fascination with Pixie Sticks. Amazing as it might sound for someone from my generation but I never liked bazooka bubble gum and never learned how to blow a proper bubble. Not even the Bazooka Joe comics each piece contained or the act of saving the wrappers in order to mail them away for a prize could change my mind. I did chew a fair amount of other sugary gums, especially that stick which came with a 5 cent pack of Topps Baseball cards. Though I eventually stopped collecting cards and heeded the warning from my dentist and switched to sugarfree gum.

      My tastes have matured as I have grown older but I still love sweets. Though now I am the one who makes them, with my favorites being English Trifle and various types of fruit pies and tarts. Pumpkin still remains my favorite and it always makes me nostalgic. I like to silently reminisce about those first ones I ate after a big Thanksgiving meal in Ridgewood. Also, to show times haven't changed too much I am not above having a piece of my homemade pie for breakfast the next time. Why change a fine tradition?

Sony TR-63 Transistor Radio

     Like many kids growing up in the 1960s who loved baseball but who had a bedtime which prohibited staying up to watch a game that might be broadcast on TV, I often feel asleep with a transistor radio on my pillow, not knowing how the came ended until I read about it in the New York Times the next morning. My parents would come in and turn my radio off when they were ready for bed.

      I listened to baseball games whenever I could and even listened to games which were re-created for the radio audience. I knew the game had already been played but I was so hungry for baseball news that I didn't care.

      When baseball season was over there was 77 WABC with Cousin Bruce Morrow to keep me company before falling asleep. It's nice to know he still plays the airwaves via Satellite Radio and continues to call everyone cousin. He has a rapport with his listeners which most DJs of our day don't have the time or freedom to cultivate. It didn't matter that his play list of songs was short. We turned him on because of his familiar, friendly voice. His warmth and charisma came through loud and clear, even on a tiny little Sony transistor radio with the volume just barely on so our parents wouldn't hear it and decide to come in and turn it off for the night.

The Black Rotary Phone

     Hard to imagine a time when phones like this venerable Model 500 made by Western Electric occupied prime real locations in everybody's home. We had this model upstairs and it had a cable long enough so that it could be moved between my Dad's study and the hallway outside the master bedroom. We also had a white rotary in the kitchen which was hung on the wall. This had both a limited length handset cable and no easy means for moving it, which meant if you were taking a call in the kitchen you had no privacy at all.

      I dare say when current and future generations look back on our phones from this era they will wonder how we did it. They will wonder about the lack of portability, ring tones, colors, and the fact most houses had a single phone number. And who can forget being on the phone and having somebody mistakenly pick up the phone in the other part of the house and then have to quickly apologize for interrupting the conversation? These sort of things just don't happen anymore. Now we have people who sit in the same room and text one another in order to communicate. I wonder if that is progress?

      I do like all of our new phones and all the tasks like email and searching the web which they are capable of accomplishing. Though I would one day like a working replica Model 500 phone in my future home. It would have to be able to perform the digital tasks required by our modern phones because the phone company as a rule doesn't install rotary phones any longer. I am sure there are some still out there but they are slowly but surely being replaced. My wish for a rotary phone is entirely an aesthetic choice, not that they were pleasing to look at only that I am old school and having one would match my style.

       This is from Wikipedia:

"Originally, the 500 was available only in black and had a rotary dial with a black-painted metal fingerwheel (black remained the most popular color throughout the model's production,[citation needed] and the Model 500 has been affectionately nicknamed by some as "the black brick"[citation needed]). Within a few years the Model 500 was available in a variety of colors, and the metal finger wheel was replaced with a clear plastic rotary dial, by about 1964."

Monetizing the Ephemeral Joys of Childhood

      As some of you may know, I have been in the Information Technology business since the early 1990s. With this much experience you would be correct that I have seen many trends come and go. I have also built up a fair reservoir of knowledge about the nuts and bolts of how the Internet works and how it can be made more secure.

      Though with all this knowledge I still don't understand the intricacies of how companies like Google make money selling ads on the Internet. To try and fill this gap in my knowledge I accepted an offer from Amazon to monetize this blog.

       Here is what Amazon says about this new integration with Blogger:

Once the service is enabled, you can either create a new Amazon Associate account or link an existing account. Then when you go to write a blog post, an Amazon box will appear on the right side of the screen. You can find items on Amazon using the search box, and add them to your blog posts with a single click. You can choose to add just a text-based link, a product image, or a link + product image.

This is going to make it way easier for Blogger users to post affiliate links in their posts, and so there's a pretty good chance we're going to start seeing an explosion of Amazon links on Blogspot sites. If you're worried this is going to lead to an explosion of irrelevant, spammy links, Google is way ahead of you. The blog post announcing the new program points out that "affiliate programs work well when readers trust you," and suggests users avoid posting items simply for the affiliate fees, lest their blogs start to look like they only exist to make money for the author.

      I love the part about how affiliate programs work well when readers trust you. My comeback is, "how much will they trust me in the future when I start inserting ads for Amazon Best Sellers inside posts recalling days gone bt?" How sincere can my postings be, especially ones filled with descriptions of activities we used to cherish but haven't given much thought to as of late? I guess we'll see how it goes and if it just ends up as one more attempt by a writer to sell his soul in order to garner a little attention. Maybe I can keep it more dignified than this and maybe with a little luck I will never be inspired to include an Amazon ad in one of these entries.

      In the end I'll probably just chalk the entire exercise up to research about my chosen profession and if a dollar happens to comes my way I figure out some appropriate use for it.

School Lunches

       I didn't have the option of eating school lunches until I began attending George Washington Junior High School in the autumn of 1971. Until that time I went home like most everyone else at Willard and ate whatever my Mom was offering that particular day. It seems quaint to look back on this time when a stay-at-home Mom would make lunch for her children, and sometimes their friends, too. Some people blame school lunches for the obesity problem we see now with children. They have a point if you consider all the energy we burned during our lunch hour, where now the kids must sit and probably watch TV or play on their computers. It doesn't take a math whiz to calculate the fact that if these same children lived when I grew up then they would be outside much more of the time and burning many more calories than they do now. This is not a slap at these kids in the slightest. They have been dealt a hand and now are being forced to play it, even as the pounds add up at an earlier age. 

     Our school lunches at GW were probably no more nutritious than the ones being served today. Kids then as now could decide for themselves to just eat ice cream and tater tots and throw whatever lunch they brought in the garbage can. The big difference is the seven years of walking home for lunch which I experienced and the children today don't have as an option. This is where the problem lies, and it won't be changed easily because of all the two-earner households we have today. We can't send the kids home to make lunch for themselves so we have to provide lunches in the schools. Here's hoping that we can better educate our kids to make more nutritious choices and save the tater tots for special occasions. English Chef Jamie Oliver has the right idea and if you have a chance to catch his show Food Revolution you will probably become hooked on it like I have. He is literally spending his own cash to promote a campaign to get better food into homes, schools and communities all over America and give our kids a better future. Check it out because I don't see the return of a stay-at-home Mom revolution beginning anytime soon so we better grab what we can and see if we can make it work.

Reconnecting With The Past

     After giving some consideration to all the observations I have gathered these last four years of writing this blog, reading the feedback (privately or publicly conveyed to me) I can categorically say that there is a huge need for remembrance. Even if it is accomplished via a humble blog about growing up in the suburbs of Jersey in the 1960s and 70s. There is a certain psychological wisdom to remembrance. If you need any more proof just take a look at our calendar and you will see that it is filled with days dedicated to this act. We need this time in order to manage the rest of our lives on a daily basis. If we didn't stop and pause once and a while about events long past then our lives would comprise a series of actions done by rote and likely lacking in style or grace. This all begs another question: Should you try to reconnect with your past when you sometimes simply feel overwhelmed just trying to keep up with your present life? In sports lingo, this would be called a "gimme" in my opinion. The answer is most certainly Yes! Of course, reconnect with times long gone and linger in those memories for as long as it is practical. There is no harm remembering a simpler era, like I do with this blog, or in attempting to reaffirm old friendships via the Internet, US Mail, or a simple phone call out of the blue. What is harmful is not making any attempts. Think about things you regret in life, are they mostly things you did or are they things you wished you had said or done? The answer, if you are like most people, is the latter. So go ahead and try to "Friend" people on FaceBook for example. Or use Google and find out someone's possible mailing address or phone number. This is all easier than you might think. Even if you come across someone who just wants to be left alone, at least in your own mind you know you tried. What's more, you still can reflect upon the pleasant memories you once had of this person. You will be the better for it, this I can guarantee. One more thing, if you can supply one jot of writing (you may ask to remain anonymous) which describes our "moments of glad grace" as Yeats would say, then please send them to me, even in their rawest form. I will attempt to give them some shape and hopefully the result will be of use in furthering someone's recollection of a time well spent.

The Corner Store

      It's had countless owners over the last 50 years and more than a few names, but to its customers it was either the "Corner Store" or the Little Store." There truly must be thousands of people who can claim when they walk through its doors today on the corner of Erie Ave and Glen Ave that they can remember patronizing it as a child. Parents would only go there in a pinch as the prices were much higher than in the Supermarkets. This was a lesson lost on most kids until they started earning paychecks themselves and had families of their own to support. 

     Today the Corner Store is the home of Parkwood Catering. It still serves its "Little Store" function for the neighborhood kids but supplements its income with a variety of catering offerings. To show how times have changed, I can't recall ever going to a catered party in Ridgewood, except for the annual Fish n Chips dinners held on Election Day at the Upper Ridgewood Community Church. These weren't exactly catered affairs as the Moms helped out the two paid professional ladies who fried all the fish and fries. The Moms plated everything and volunteer teenagers would act as waiters and waitresses and bring the food to people at the long tables. There was one other paid job: running the dish washer. This was a task no Mom would ever do for an event of this size so they would find a teenager, like myself, to run the machine and stack the dishes at the end of the night. Of course, this work was completed under the supervision of the Moms in attendance who would still be wiping down the counters like they were their own. I did attend plenty of parties while growing up in Ridgewood but it was a Mom or a combination thereof who were the caterers. Little did they know that the next generation of Moms in Ridgewood would come to rely so heavily upon other people to plan and prepare food for their parties. While much can be said for the certainty and uniformity of the food purchased from caterers, you absolutely lost the randomness that always accompanied events with multiple chefs. For instance, no caterer would ever bring a green jello in a mold to an event, but you could usually count on at least one at a block party, open house, or church social event. Names weren't attached to these dishes so in the likely occurrence that they went untouched there was not a lot of embarrassment or complaining to a caterer as to why they would ever make such a dish. No, the social event itself was the matter of chief concern and the fact food was being offered was a bonus. Since there were a lot fewer professional restaurateurs in those days than there are now, the organization of a typical Ridgewood party was shared and everybody attending always politely asked what they could do to help. The division of labor in that era was fairly straightforward: the men liked to hover around the charcoal grills, if it was summertime, and the party was held outside; the women would usually gravitate towards the kitchen to make sure all the food and utensils made it to the appropriate locations. Cleanup was also a communal activity though by the end of the party the hosts were usually so tired they would try and tell people that they would finish the clean up themselves. This I imagine was said in order to expedite their guest's departures. Though the social custom at the time was for the faithful friends to utter cries of "We'll help" and that they would hear no more about the hosts doing it all themselves. I would imagine this was mostly done out of righteous concern for the hosts and partly by the fact that the next party might be their turn to host.

Drawn to a Larger Scale

     When you are growing up in a town like Ridgewood you are usually too young, and no where near reflective enough, to understand why so few people return to raise a family in Ridgewood of their own after they graduate high school. It's easy now to say how expensive it is and that the taxes can only be afforded by the truly wealthy, or at least a two salary family. Since I grew up in a one salary family and am not a person with an old Wall Street salary the idea of settling down in Ridgewood never really crossed my mind. Though there can be plenty of other perfectly fine reasons like wanting to experience life in other parts of the country or the world. Don't get me wrong, Ridgewood is still a nice place to live in and visit, but I put the idea out of my mind early on in my twenties of ever living there when I started doing the math and ascertained there was a probable need for two incomes to pay the freight. My ultimate rational being that if I was going to raise a family in Ridgewood I wanted it to be one I could recognize, and one which would have at least one parent at home. Call me old school if you like. It just came down to wanting a similar experience, not exactly the same, to what I had while growing up. 

      I reasoned if I couldn't do it based upon my expectations then I figured there were plenty of other ways to lead one's life. For the record I am happily ensconced in Forest Hills, NY with no regrets as to never having had a second act in Ridgewood. Second acts in life are rare to begin with, and many people make themselves unhappy by trying to top themselves by attempting a return to familiar surroundings, even if they do it unconsciously and with no desire to do it better or the same. I actually lucked out by moving here to Forest Hills after I was married (in Ridgewood as a matter of fact). It took some soul searching but it dawned on me that I would have felt a great regret if I had never lived in New York City on my own. I may have been borne in Manhattan and had numerous opportunities to crash in my parent's apartment in Greenwich Village during my college days, but these wouldn't have counted in my mind as having lived in New York City. My wife and I have been here for over eight years and we still delight in the energy and happenings of this city. We understand that this sort of life is not for everyone, but neither is the life found these days in Ridgewood. Both are good, they are just different. It comes down to understanding what is the proper sort of scale and proportion you'll feel comfortable living in and then going out and trying to make it happen. This is the sort of life lesson you can tell to an adolescent but until they are confronted with their own set of choices they won't really understand. One can easily say that much of life is like this, and after a while, if we have adjusted well, we come to accept it.

The Van Sickle Sisters

Judy, Lisa, and Susan

Keepers of the Flame

     All it takes now is a glance down the left side of this blog and you will see a fair number of web sites and blogs all related to Ridgewood and its neighbor Hohokus. There are plenty of others I am sure and they will be added in good time. I'm still not sure this is the best platform to do this sort of accounting of events but it is the best one I have found to date. Of course, I am open to suggestions. All the sites listed have the same intent that this one does: be a bulletin board, web portal, and diary. Some sites emphasize one aspect more than others, while I simply go with the flow and try to chronicle it all. I never sit down in front of the keyboard and try to do anything but what is on my mind or has come to my attention. This serendipitous approach keeps me fresh and interested in continuing this pursuit. It also allows me to explore trains of thought that I might have ignored otherwise. I anticipate this particular blog will continue to slowly grow and will add more regular contributors, including a female prospective. For now, what we have going is fine and I appreciate all the supportive email I receive from old pals who check in to tell me they find this interesting and that I should keep up my efforts. I'll do my best to inform readers of what I see going on, to point them to web sites which might be of direct interest, and entertain them (I hope!) from time to time with a picture or story. This is the least I can do to keep some pleasant memories alive and to help folks who sometimes take their current lives too seriously, myself included. Who knows, we might one day use this platform, or the next generation of Social Networking tools that are created to produce some random acts of kindness. Another way of stating this is that we might "Pay It Forward" as a movie of a few years back intended to demonstrate. I'll end this post with a quote from Albert Schweitzer which I trust is apropos :

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into a flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

Doug Perkins

One of the best parts of graduating in a class of over 550 students, as we did in 1977, is the randomness with which former classmates sometimes re-enter your life. Combine this naturally occurring phenomenon with the search capabilities of Google and the living scrapbook which is FaceBook and you can begin to see why people spend loads of time on the Internet. Today I was told the whereabouts of an old gradeschool pal from my Willard days, Doug Perkins (pictured on the left). We used to kid him in grade school by calling him "Nature Boy." This was for his prolific memory and love of the outdoors. Who would have thought that he would have decided to settle in Vermont? The link below is to the musical group, the Jazz Mandolin Project, he has primarily played with for the last 15 years. Way to go, Doug. Doug Perkins of the Jazz Mandolin Project

Faith in the Future

      A mainstream theme while growing up in the 1960s and 1970s was our collective faith in our country's future. We had elegant symbols like the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows (Queens, NY) and exciting moments like when we had men walk on the moon. These two alone suggested future prosperity and a common sense of community. Who can forget waking up early to watch space craft launches? It took precedence over getting ready for school and for work. We all stood around in our PJs and bathrobes while we waited for the countdown and eventual combustion of the propellants which would launch the craft into outer space. Today we are unquestionably a richer society in the aggregate than in those earlier days. The faith in the future we had was certainly justified and has borne fruit beyond our wildest dreams. What's more, it is still justified in my opinion. Yes, those were simpler times in many respects, despite the technological advances represented by our space flights. There were fewer distractions than we have today, no I-Phones, countless TV stations, and the vastness of The Internet to consume large amounts of our collective time and energies. Though one question continues to make me wonder, "How does our sense of community today compare?" 

     I am going to assume collective experiences and our inter-dependency are good things, and by sharing them they help us through difficult societal transitions. For instance, like ending segregation by race, and allowing women to have options in addition to being a stay-at-home Moms, to name two. No doubt there are issues, large and small, today which we still must face. These current problems will likely require the same sense of duty and commitment, if not more so, than that we mustered in the recent past. This is really no surprise to anyone who keeps up with world affairs. The follow-up question is, "Do we still possess the expertise and capacity to solve our current problems?" As an optimist, I will answer yes. Though the pragmatist in me realizes that a personal investment will need to be made by everyone involved. These efforts will be aided, as they usually are, by easily identifiable common symbols. This is where my grounds for optimism requires some clarity, because I can't see which common symbols people will feel compelled to rally around. Maybe the answer is that the symbols will be smaller and more localized than in the past, and there will be more of them to choose from. The end result will hopefully be the same as in the past when we were doing the highly visible space exploration projects. People saw themselves then watching those early morning space launches as members of a group who were intent on producing positive, lasting changes. Their efforts, however tangential, felt significant and like they would long endure. This is the sort of feeling which will need to be re-created for us to continue to have a justifiable faith in our future. The efforts I know are going on as we speak. All it requires is for each one of us to look around and see how we can best help.

Stephanie Jones Strategies

      Here is a plug for a fellow RHS 1977 graduate, Stephanie Jones. She always has had a can do it attitude so it came as no surprise to see her make this announcement today on FaceBook. "Stephanie Jones Strategies, LLC empowers businesses, non-profits, industry associations, government and individuals to bridge the gaps between here and wherever they need to be. Blending bedrock knowledge, keen-eyed insight, concrete credentials and solid contacts - attained through more than 25 years in policy, government, law, education and the media - Stephanie Jones paves the way for clients to advance from objective to success! Stephanie Jones Strategies launches on May 3, 2010."

Earth Day 40 Years Later

       It's hard to imagine that 40 years have sped by since the first Earth Day. On the first one there was much less rancor than there is today whenever the environment is mentioned. The first Earth Day was designed to be a Teach-in and I remember it as a time when we all were learning about things we could do like not litter and to be more conscious of things we tossed in the trash like batteries. 40 years later those are minor points and now there are two sides to issues concerning the environment, both sides with their feet dug in deep. Here is the link to the official web site. Here is a tidbit from Wikipedia: "On 22 April 1970, Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans participated. Denis Hayes and his staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values." I like the part about "shared common values" the best. If only we could begin and end our debates these days about topics like Global Warming with a statement that says we realize that we share common values and that the goal of our discussions should be to unite, not divide; the goal should be to respect one another's opinions, not make fun of Al Gore; the goal should be to teach each another what can be done by us all no matter how small and insignificant it might appear.

Ironies in Our Lives

      Growing up, if you are fortunate, you are surrounded by people who know all your faults but love you anyway. We notice the inherent irony of this situation many years later when we are surrounded by people who know our faults but who treat us less than kindly. What is it about all the accumulated education and experience that routinely causes this occur? One would think we would become more compassionate regarding everyone's faults, including our own, as "we grow old and grey and full of sleep" as Yeats would say. The bitterest irony is that our harshest critics are sometimes ourselves. Again, with all the education one would think we could at least cut ourselves some slack. I am as guilty as anyone of this character trait and am working to change it. To this end I resolve to surround myself with reminders of my idyllic childhood growing up in a home with a stay-at-home Mom, and a baseball field I could see from my bedroom window. To make this easier I took an idea from Bill Nolan and had this picture framed and placed in my office just like he did. You will notice him kneeling in the first row. I realize I have posted this picture more than once but it does have a certain positive energy emanating from it well worth the re-posting. It also shows many of the people who knew me best as a youngster; those people whose affection was genuine, and whose presence in my life will likely never be replaced.

Complexity and Aging

     Remember when your friends were a bike ride away? I sure do. While I like to reminisce about those carefree and halcyon days, I understand that its therapeutic value is its most important aspect. To recall the times when both parents were alive does my heart good. If an occasional recollection worth blogging about comes to mind then all the better. It is a complex process this aging we all go through. We all adjust to it differently and approach it with our own individualistic mindset. My view after more than 50 years on this planet is that we need to be grateful for what we have and not rue the fact that we don't have more money, power, and expensive diversions. I would personally take having my friends a bike ride away once again rather than have all the power and luxuries in the world. Maybe we will all ride together again in some retirement community. Hopefully we will all be communicating via some form of Social Networking when we have gone to live in a retirement community or have simply retired. The reunions we have every 5 years or so are truly not enough to nurture our long standing friendships or knock the deposits off of friendships which long ago become rusted. Yes, I believe in the power of the Internet and the ability of Social Networks to be the WD40 for our generation and those to come. Give it a try and you might see what I mean.

Ho-Ho-Kus Stone Fort Train Station

Photos by jlechner201

I had never heard the Ho-Ho-Kus Train Station called a "Stone Fort" until I googled a picture of it today. It does look like a stone fort now that I think about.

My Dad, along with many others, did the commute to New York City from this station. I don't know how he did it for 17 years but those were different times and a different generation's way of doing things. I'm sure the current group of commuters from Ho-Ho-Kus have the same things in mind: college tuition, retirement, and a bit of money to hand down to the next generation.

I rode this train into Hoboken many times myself. Now the ride has a new stop in Secaucus which allows for a transfer to a train which goes to mid-town Manhattan. My favorite part of this trip is the Water Taxi, which is an alternative to the Path Trains under the Hudson. It is akin to the Ferrys which were used as early as 1775 to move people from Hoboken to New York, only now it is quite a bit faster and much less dangerous. Here is an undated photo of what is described as "The Old Hoboken Terminal"















Here is a shot of the restored Hoboken Terminal Waiting Room


This is a bit of history courtesy of Wikipedia:

"Designed by architect Kenneth M. Murchison in the Beaux-Arts style, the rail and ferry terminal buildings were constructed in 1907 as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The terminal building is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places (added in 1973 as #73001102 as the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad and Ferry Terminal). It has been undergoing extensive renovations which are projected for completion in 2011.

The large main waiting room, with its floral and Greek Revival motifs in tiled stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany set atop bands of pale cement, is generally considered one of the finest in the U.S. aesthetically. The terminal exterior extends to over four stories and has a distinguished copper-clad façade with ornate detailing. Its single-story base is constructed of rusticated Indiana limestone. A grand double stair with decorative cast-iron railings within the main waiting room provides an entrance to the upper-level ferry concourse.

A 225-foot (69 m) clock tower was originally built with the terminal over a century ago, but was dismantled in the early 1950s due to structural damage and deterioration from weather damage. A new clock tower, replicating the original, was constructed during the terminal's centennial year of 2007 and was fully erect that November. The replica tower has four foot high copper letters spelling out "LACKAWANNA", which are lit at night."

Penny King Quirk--Art Smarts

Art Smarts Penny King just announced on FaceBook that she had spent a couple of hours in the Apple Store and was excited about the design she came up with for her new web site: Art Smarts.She had started the company a few years ago when she noticed the need for art in the schools. The part I like best about the site are the embedded movies. You get a feel for Penny's style and the fun the children are having working with her on their projects. You truly couldn't ask for a better testimonial if you were a prospective customer (parent) and were wondering what it would be like for your child to be instructed by Penny. This is from the web site: "Art Smarts offers after school art lessons to kids. Children are encouraged to try new avenues of creativity by using several different drawing and painting techniques, mediums and subject matters. We help them to expand their horizons for their future successes in life by demonstrating to them how many different kinds of artists make their living through various art projects we provide."

New RHS Alumni Directory

      Received this via email from Harris Publications regarding their work on a new RHS Alumni Directory: "Because so many of you have expressed an interest in rekindling old friendships or simply finding out what happened to each other, we have decided to move forward and create an all-new publication for Ridgewood High School. We will be contacting you shortly with more details, but in the interim we wanted to advise you of the exciting news! Publication Office for Ridgewood High School at Harris Connect 1400-A Crossways Blvd. Chesapeake, VA 23320"