Alan B. Clapp
- The peace and quiet of Basking Ridge. Broken only by the occasional airplane taking off or landing at the Somerset Hills Airport or the daily twelve-noon carillon from the Presbyterian Church. Do they still do that?
- Few cars on the major roads. Finley and Maple avenues were usually deserted. We could ride our bikes everywhere with little fear of being run over.
- More relaxed in general. Do you remember one snowy winter when Maple Avenue was closed off at the Presbyterian Church going North so the children (US!) could go sleigh riding down the glistening hill? Police and everything! What a day!
- Crime was non-existent. Parents had no concerns for the safety of the children, other than the usual childhood traumas of falling out of trees and such. We walked to the bus stop with no escorts (contrast that with today at bus stops – it looks like a PTA meeting with all the local SUV’s convening for a discussion, essentially to keep the children safe while awaiting the big yellow school bus).
- Everyone knew everyone or so it seemed. The rag-tag collection of children (different ages and both sexes) would swarm around the neighborhood like gnats and descended upon each neighbor in turn. And we were welcomed as many of the neighbors had a child in the swarm. Those who didn’t still welcomed us as we were the epitome of innocence. I knew each of the residents along Maple Avenue on my way to Maple Avenue School (the "Egg Lady," Mrs. Snable immediately comes to mind). I’d say hello going to and coming from school if anyone was around. We were good kids and people knew it.
- Mr. Taylor's Chemistry class was a hoot and especially the Chemistry Club. One time the project was to electrolyze water to increase the deuterium concentration in the water. Mix sulphuric acid with water and pass DC current through two electrodes to induce electrolysis. Well, one fine, upstanding member of our club (I honestly forget who, but wasn't I) spilled the concentrated acid onto his black pants while adding it to the cell container. Mr. Taylor quickly rinsed off the acid and neutralized any residue with a buffered base (look it up). However, a burned hole about the size of a quarter remained on the student's black pants. Always a quick thinker, Mr. Taylor took a black magic marker and marked the student's skin beneath the burned hole to match the pants. Voila! No more (visible) burn hole.
- Then there was my complete humiliation (scarred me for life) in Mr. Birnbaum's English class. The assignment was to write a short story. "Twilight Zone" was popular then, so I stole borrowed created a scenario where an immigrant couple was boarding an ocean liner to begin a new life in America. They were poor, etc. Truly a heartrending story. In the last scene, they noticed the name on ship, 'RMS Titanic." Cool, huh? The problem was the central thought with the scenario was ONE SENTENCE! Multiple main clauses and subordinate clauses, prepositional phrases, subordinate conjunctions, pretty much everything that grammar and syntax had to offer. Not one to let a golden opportunity to delve deep into a student's psyche ("What was he thinking???), Mr. Birnbaum had me walk to the front of the class and write the entire sentence on the board. That alone took about 15 minutes. Then he had me, with the aid of a decidedly amused class, DIAGRAM the sentence!!! I'd rather have struck out with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of a World Series game with the bases loaded and my team behind by one run!. Oh, the humiliation, oh the shame! I was surely headed for a Pulitzer absent that particular experience. I'm an inch shorter in height than I was supposed to be, too!
- Mr. Taylor also taught us what a one molar solution was by suspending a human molar tooth inside a liter clear glass bottle. Thus amply demonstrating that a one molar solution consists of a mole of solute per liter. He also very graphically demonstrated why one should NEVER heat picric acid with an open flame. I think the school's fire insurance rates doubled after that particular demonstration.
- Remember batting practice in Mr. King's Solid and Trig class?
- Mr. King had unique talents in Math class (besides eraser batting coach). Board filled with equations and triangles? Need to write some new equations on the board? NO PROBLEM! Mr. King would simply erase with his right hand and write the new information with his left hand, right behind the rapidly gyrating eraser! Think rubbing your belly with one hand while circling the top of your head with the other is difficult? Try writing coherently with your left hand and erasing the board with the other. Truly amazing!
- First Grade at Maple Avenue School with the 100 foot ceilings (or so it seemed), we were playing with clay. Kenny Milleti (sp?) wanted to see what would happen if you threw the clay straight up really hard. Well, the clay stuck to the ceiling, a fist-sized piece. It probably came down when the building was razed for the new library in 1970. Teacher was NOT amused!
- One of the nicer traditions in Basking Ridge is the Christmas Eve Caroling on the green before the Presbyterian Church. The weather was always quite nippy, one could almost say "wintry" and the singing was magnificent! Unless it was actually snowing, I always kept an eagle-eye above, perchance to catch a glimpse of Santa soaring across the heavens. I'm afraid we've lost or forgotten many of the more simple traditions that made us a community. One did not have to be a devout Christian, or a Christian of any sort, to enjoy the community sing-along. The words were handed out to anyone needing what to sing. It was a Wonderful Life.
- One nice tradition not confined to Bernards Township, but a nice indicator of the times was the showing of wonderful family films with few commercials.
- First and foremost is "Miracle on 34th Street."(1947) Wonderful story, wonderful actors, wonderful acting and a movie full of wonder (created in 1947 - a great year for creations). I still tear up a little every time I see it. [It was originally released in May with no references to Christmas or Santa Claus in the promotions. Can you believe it?]
- Second is "The Wizard of Oz."(1939) Another terrific cast and a timeless story, "There's no place like home." And, of course, "Over the Rainbow" sung by a young and innocent Judy Garland.
- Last, but not least is "It's a Wonderful Life."(1946) A little fantasy with values and an enduring message, "Remember no man is a failure who has friends."
- Probably my most memorable was "Operation Zero" at Sabattis Adventure Camp in the Adirondacks (check the link - they still do it!). Over the Washington's Birthday Weekend, we boarded a bus to Sabattis and you had to have either snowshoes or skis. I had neither, so we borrowed both. The snowshoes were terrific, but clumsy, as you might expect. The skis were 1940's vintage: over 7 feet long, solid one-piece hickory skis with "interlocking segmented steel edges" screwed onto the bottom of the skis. The bindings were of the "bear trap" nature. That is, you locked your feet into them in the morning and released them in the afternoon. Your leg bones and ankle were the release mechanism. Hey, I was young and stupid, who knew? The borrowed boots were relative soft and about ankle high. Oh, yes, the skis came with "climbing skins." These were sealskin strips that attached to the underside of the front and rear of the skis that enabled you to climb up the mountain of snow while wearing the skis, critical before there were many ski lifts. The heel of the boot could lift up while walking, then fastened down while skiing. The ski poles were bamboo with very large rings fastened (snow baskets) at the bottom with leather straps.
That year at Sabattis (near Lake Placid), it was particularly cold and snowy. Prior to our arrival, there had been a snowstorm that dumped about 3 feet of snow on top of the 3 feet of packed base. Very cold! As we walked from the bus into the campground, there was dead silence save for the occasional "crack" of the trees from the intense cold.
As planned, we slept "outside" in a para-igloo that first night. A para-igloo is made up from a circle of snow blocks (we stamped the snow down, then cut it into blocks with wood saws) about 10 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, then we built a pedestal in the middle about 6 feet high. Then we spread a parachute over the top and draped the edges over the circular wall we had built. From the outside, we put more snow blocks over the parachute on the circular wall to hold it down.
There we slept overnight and it got down to -33°F (that's MINUS 33 DEGREES F!). We had prepared for the cold with a seminar on how to dress, what to bring, how to make a sleeping bag warmer, etc., but, just to be sure, an adult came around every hour and shined a flashlight on our faces to see if we were still pink and we weren't hiding inside the bag. Apparently that is very dangerous as the condensation from the breath can make it worse. The walls of the para-igloo kept in the heat very efficiently so with the breath from our lungs, the whole place warmed up to above freezing by the time morning rolled around.
My first adventure on skis was another "Funniest Home Videos" without the video, adventure. Never before on skis, I took a group lesson provided by the Scouts and thought I knew all I needed, so I went to the Expert slope (less crowded) and proceeded to snowplow down this steep slope. All the experienced skiers know what happened next. With crummy steel edges and very long and heavy solid wood skis, it was impossible to maintain the snowplow position. The skis wanted to become parallel. As they became more parallel, I went faster. As I went faster, the forces making the skis parallel became greater and so on, until I was parallel skiing! Great! Except I had no idea how to ski parallel. Basically I was a projectile hurtling down the mountain, completely out of control, scaring women and children, Ski Patrol, assorted wildlife, not to mention me! My eyes were big as saucers, but somehow I kept my balance and avoided the trees and the larger people. The bottom had a long enough runoff to allow me to slow down and review the life that had just flashed before my eyes. OK, onto the bunny slope for round 2!
- "Winter Camporee" was the second great event. That was held in Glen Gardner at the Boy Scouts' summer camp, Camp Watchung, right here in New Jersey (closed in 1981) in the winter. There were lean-to's for the summer campers and that's where we slept for the camporee. It was colder than expected (below freezing) and this was not Operation Zero, so we weren't prepared (Yes, I do know the motto of the Boy Scouts) for this level of cold. We built fires in the stone fireplaces in front of the lean-to's and they were burning all night long. All of the meals were cold...cooked and hot while on the fire, but by the time we scooped up our portions and transferred to our mess kits, it was cold. Not fun.
But the most "fun" was during the competition. Each troop had a team. Each team had to build a fire with one match, mix up a pancake mix, pour into a pan, cook on one side, run 20 feet or so, flip the pancake over a string 6 feet high stretched between two trees, catch the pancake, run back and cook the other side. Pretty simple, no? No! Somehow we were just a tad late and had forgotten to bring the pancake mix. Kid runs back our lean-to and grabs the wrong box. Instead of pancake mix, he grabbed Bisquick mix. Anyone who cooks should know the difference, but we were just kids, right? We performed each of the steps mentioned above flawlessly. Until the step where we flip the pancake over the string and catch it. Well, Bisquick is light and fluffy to make biscuits, not sticky and cohesive, like pancakes. Our confident young man (I think we were in the lead at the time), flipped the pancake in the pan with a mighty heave to ensure sufficient flight to pass over the string...and it disintegrated into a thousand tiny, but fluffy, pieces. The look on his face as our beloved "pancake" simply floated away in the gentle breeze, never to touch the good earth again, was priceless! Almost everyone fell down laughing. We didn't. Children have no ethics about embarrassing situation. If it's funny, it's funny! Yeah, looking back on it, it WAS funny. But not then.
- Finally, the annual Kiwanis Fair at the Oak Street School. A bittersweet time, for sure. A great time for family and friends, but it signaled the end of summer and back to school. I had a serious crush on one classmate (still do!) and my little heart would go pitter-pat whenever I’d see her in tight jeans and T-shirt.
My one time at the dunking booth, I hit 6 out of 6 (dumb luck)! Sadly, that was probably the highpoint of my life (I was about 10 at the time)!
Ah, those were the days…
