TO THE CLASS OF 1957, I GIVE YOU MEMORIES

Herein lies a simple soliloquy of memories of our
youth. You might ask why I've put this micro-tome together,
so I shall tell you straight out: it's an abject fear of being
impeached as your class historian. Don't say never ! Look
what happened to Bob Donato !!!

I must also quantify the forthcoming memories by saying
some of which may not be all goody-two-shoed (by the way
who coined the latter and why. Never made any sense to
me. Think about the phrase). However, you might also
give me some slack as much of the detail was Warren
Point driven. Remember, to a Warren Point kid, traveling
to Columbia Terrace, for example, was a light year distance
away. And, of course, we Warren Pointers never had the proper
documents nor economic backgrounds to enter Radburn.
So let me further preface the following by saying that you
Columbia Terrans, Rooseveldtians,Radburners,and
Memorials are more than welcome to email me your own
vignettes so that one and all will truly agree that your writer is
not an unholy autocrat. Amen and here goes something: fully
unabridged and unsequenced as they've been extracted from my
69 year old recollections.

SADDLE RIVER TRAPPING
One early morning, Bob Johnson and I traveled to the river
to check our traps -- Muskrat pelts paid well. Through
the mist we saw Richie Reiser jumping up and down. "I
caught a mink" he shouted to us. Well that was nice Johnson
and I thought: Maybe $ 18 bucks, big money! Unfortunately,
Richie didn't keep his eye on the mink who revived and
promptly escaped into the river. I thought Richie would
cry.

SADDLE RIVER CATFISH
We were all about 14 and fishing off the little Dunkerhook
bridge. It was sunset and the water couldn't have been
more a 1 1/2 ft deep. We must have pulled out at least
40 catfish. Bob Piccola and Bob Rubini were there as well.

THE FOUR DEUCES
The deuces was a small soda shop with a few booths and
a countertop. It was owned by Phil, a German emigre.
Phil (deservedly so) had little patience with us. We were,
in essence, a pain in the arse. One night, on the way to
a St. Anne's Friday night dance, Phil's penny gumball
machine was overturned, spilling out all the little colored
orbs across the sidewalk. Who dun it?

TRADITIONS
There used to be a huge boulder that had a bronze plaque
honoring WW I vets at Warren Point Elementary. During a recent
trip I noted the boulder was gone. Why? Where is it? Who had
the bright idea of moving it?

Speaking of bright ideas, why was the FL logo changed
from block lettering to italic. Why must some people
mess with tradition?

HERPETOLOGISTS
Not too far away from FLHS was a little stream where garter and
black snakes loved to sun themselves. Well, during our 8th grade
lunch time and with apparently too much time on our hands, Jim
McFadyen and I traveled to yonder site and proceeded to capture
two nice sized black snakes. Unfortunately for Mrs. Housekamp,
we smuggled them in our jackets and placed them in our desks.
You might imagine our teacher’s hysteria and the outcome. Lets
just say that Jim and I had a trip to the office and then a forced
vacation of a few days. My father, of course, did not see our
herpetological study as a sincere scientific endeavor.

FAIR LAWN GIRLS VERSUS RIDGEWOOD COUNTERPARTS
What a great tradition: Fair Lawn versus Ridgewood on Thanksgiving
morning. You could always differentiate our FL girls from their Ridgewood
counterparts as the latter wore camel hair coats with maroon and white
corsages, hence the economic differences between the two towns.

FL QUARTERBACK
Jack Studt cracked me up one day when he said that Ray Reichert
was the only Fair Lawn quarterback that was not allowed to call
the plays as Ray would call all of them to himself.

KINDS DAIRY
How many of us loaded up on those fantastic ice-cream cones at
Kinds. I’m guessing now but I believe they had at least 15 different
flavors. Bob Donato worked there after school.

EARNING MONEY
We kids were much different than today’s version. The girls all baby
sat and the boys collected bottle refunds, mowed grass, shoveled
snow,trapped muskrat and set-up pins at the Hiway Bowling Alley.
Question: how many of us were overweight?

LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL
The Fair Lawn Little League baseball program was inaugurated in 1951.
Monte Weed was commissioner. Some of the sponsors were VFW, PBA,
Sun Photo, PBA, and Strehl’s Pharmacy. The field was at Memorial Park
which gave up its first homerun to Charlie Hochkeppel.

JUNIOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
That came about a year later in 1952. Playing for the Fair Lawn
Jaycees, I had a no hitter going until Jim McFadyen tripled off
of me. To this day, I never forgave him (grin).

LYNDHURST VS HAWTHORNE
Jack Studt’s father took Jack and I to see that memorable game
when Lyndhurst beat Hawthorne 110 to nothing. I think it was
around 1949 or 50. It was football not basketball, and Lyndhurst
even suited up the waterboy whom believe it or not scored a
TD in the second half.

OUR SCHOOL CLOTHING
Poodle skirts. Some of the girls wore Bermuda shorts and knee
socks. Ask Carol Szuhai. We lads, for the most part, wore chinos
and jeans. Some had pegged pants: George Kolinsky, Bob Rubini,
Kenny Fearns, Ray Reichert (red ones), Ray Carrotozola, Jim McFadyen.
No one had piercing or tattoos.

MOST HAPPY GUYS
My vote goes to Mike Summers and Joe Bishop as the kids with
the best happy-go-lucky attitudes.

DAVE SIME - ALL EVERYTHING
While most of you will remember Dave’s all everything sports
achievements the one I will best recall is when I first met him.
One day when Charlie Haigh’s brother was organizing a little
game called “Pick Up and Slaughter” this red-headed kid showed
up walking his dog.
In those days we did not have organized sports. Instead we usually
played on a deserted field. Anyway, our game involved one kid
carrying a football through at least 20 kids or so, hence Pick Up and
Slaughter. Wally Haigh asked the red-headed kid if he wanted to play.
“We’ll kill him,“ Wally bragged. And you can all guess at what happened.

CAMP CARLSON
The boys club had a camp in the Kittatinny Mountains. Camp Carlson
was run by the well respected Henry “Pop” Milnes. It was not an easy
camp at all. One had to hike over a mountain by himself and sleep the
night for his Trail Blazer award. I still have the badge. But speaking of
Dave Sime, I remember that he was counselor with Pete Kerwin. One
day at the chow hall I remember them throwing Larry Speer’s western
records down on the rocks. Dave and Pete were in that class of ‘54,
So were Ron Piranesi - Dodger pitcher, and Millie Perkins - actress.

LYNCREST ICE SKATING
Many of you simply have to recall ice skating on the Lyncrest pond.
They let you build fires back then to keep warm. Bob Heaney and
Ray Reichert had racing skates. Remember the “whips”?

That’s about all for now. Let me know if you want me to continue
these oldie-goldie memories of our youth. Moreover, if you do, send
me yours so I can incorporate same.

Regards, Bob Grubb