John Houtz

Memories of Bernards Township, New Jersey

• All Souls Hospital.

• The six-o’clock whistle (siren actually).

• Bernards Builders Supply Co.

• The Basking Ridge Airport; how many times did a plane crash on the hill behind the high school or on Maple Avenue?

• Mr. Smith’s dips and zips? Did the girls have anything like those?

• The Swamp before it was the Preserve.

• The proposal for a third Jetport.

• A time before I-78 and I-287 Then when they were built, I-78 ended at the Watchung Reservation and I-287 ended at Boonton.

• The policeman directing traffic where Mt. Airy met Rt. 202 in Bernardsville.

• Only two blinkers in the entire township; do you recall where they were?

• Parks Meat Market.

• Sawdust on the floor of the A&P in Olcott Square in Bernardsville; then when the ACME shopping center was built.

• DL & W [Erie Lackamoney? - Editor]: when the trains began from Hoboken with four cars but split at Summit to continue on to Gladstone. Many times did I watch out the windows of Mr. King’s math class as the trains passed by.

• When Harrison Brook Estates began and a new home cost $25,000.

• When they put in sewers in the township.

• When there was an ESSO gas station in Basking Ridge; for that matter, when there was ESSO instead of EXXON.

• When the police station was on Stonehouse Rd.

• When Memorial Field was always muddy.

• When we played a 24-hour plus softball game (Where’s Pete Strauss?).

• When we played Bombardment in Oak Street gym class; Kenny Schoenberg was always the last man standing.

• “The Trial of Ain’t”; Paul Danna was Ain’t; Linda Sullivan was the Prosecutor; Joe Kunzmann was the Bailiff; who else do you remember?

• The Kiwanis Fair, of course; the book sales in the gym; the dunking contest in the arcade; Mr. Keeler selling hot dogs.

• The Advanced Science Seminar trips with Mr. Shepard.

• The Blue Star cinemas.

• Two Guys From Harrison.

• Korvettes.

• Those freezing cold Spanish classes with Señor Paulsen; of course, heating oil was 30 cents a gallon.

• Mr. Keeler telling an assembly that it was okay to punch out someone if we ever saw that someone vandalizing school property; can you imagine that now….a video going viral?

• Humphrey Bogart in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

• Learning to swim at Mr. (Ted) Palmer’s pool; then him teaching the Flutophone in my fourth grade at Liberty Corner.

• Running countless laps around the bases for Coach Greco; but I did hit a homerun the one time our cheerleaders dressed in their uniforms and came to a baseball game! See what a good motivator can do! Thank you Barbara, Margo, Jean….

• And, for the record, John Carlson was always my favorite catcher when I pitched; he was a big guy and gave the best target!

• Watching from centerfield as Ron Silvent pitched a really big breaking curve.

• Being the “manager” for the baseball team for Coach Moyer when I was in eighth grade; pitching batting practice for the team then; years later, after college, pitching BP for RHS and Coach Pete Hall.

• Mr. Moyer’s World History class when he told us the one sure exercise to lose weight…simply push yourself away from the table.

• Mrs. Hull and Silas Marner.

• When my father came home and told my mother and me that Mr. Grossman was going to have a sex-change.

• Yes, I did have my father for shop class for two years at Oak Street; he told me he was only going to give me B’s so as to not appear to show favoritism; actually, back then, B was a gift; I’ve gotten much better since!

• And who were those female classmates of mine who would come down to my dad’s shop room before school to check out the tools and put on make-up at the sink and mirror? Carol? Penny? Who else?

• Mr. Brasher’s “system” and the ubiquitous analysis sheets; then, too, his story about his uncle Rex Brasher and the drawings of North American Birds; I actually have some of the books of those drawings! The drawings are quite impressive.

• The “thumbs-up” green and white placard for football games on the ledge in Drawde Remlap’s English class. That’s Mr. Edward Palmer, by the way. No disrespect intended; he was a cool dude! Who says that nowadays?

• Taking the Kuder Preference Record with those little pins in the music room of RHS; I have no memory of what my scores were; all this time I could have been in the wrong profession.

• Mr. Pederson telling us in eighth grade social studies he had Rheumatic Fever as a kid; Mr. Meys lecturing as he walked across the front of the room and down both sides and behind; was he circling for a reason? Let’s ask him!

• Those colored number blocks exercises in Maple Avenue; blue was one and ten, two was purple, three was white, four was brown, five was yellow, six was red, seven was light blue, eight was orange, nine was black. Have I got the colors right? PS: They still exist—Google "Catherine Stern Mathematics." [The way it's done now - Lego blocks! - Editor]

• Getting the Sabin polio vaccine cube at Cedar Hill.

• Rarely seeing deer; only after a prolonged snow cover did deer ever appear in back yards. Then there was so much wooded land in the township. BTW, Mr. Bieber would go deer hunting with a bow and arrow in the woods behind my house in Liberty Corner back then.

• The Yankees losing the World Series on Bill Mazeroski’s home run off Ralph Terry; Yogi was playing left field and he watched the ball go over the wall in Pittsburgh       [John, these were supposed to be GOOD memories! - Editor].

• Roger Maris’ 61st home run off Tracey Stallard on the last day of the season.

• Who remembers Mr. Greenfeig's biology class our freshman year (1961-62)? By the time we graduated in 1965, he was no longer at Ridge. But during our freshman biology class I have two memories about him I wonder if others remember as well. First, one day he gave us something of a "lecture" about us growing up and that we all needed to start using deodorant. Just to be clear, and in my own defense, I was already using one, so his comment was not directed at me. But it would be nice to know if any of my classmates also recall he said that.
• The second memory is about the day he used those flip-charts over by his desk. He flipped to the chart of the circulatory system, then the nervous system, then the digestive system (or some order like this). But when he turned the page to the reproductive system, he quickly, and I mean very quickly, flipped the pages again. Today, you can go into Ridge or any high school, even junior high or elementary school, and see sex education classes. But back in our day, there was no allowance for anything about sex, at least not in any class with both boys and girls. I do recall Mr. Smith talking to us (or trying to) about sex one day in June of our senior year. I just find it ironic that Mr. Greenfeig was able to talk to us in 1961-62 about deodorant but not able to even use the reproductive system flip-chart.

• First, when did some of us take a school bus trip to the Hayden Planetarium in NYC? I have a memory of riding the bus into the city and sitting through the show in the darkened auditorium at the planetarium. Was that kindergarten, first grade? I know it was before 4th grade when my parents moved to Liberty Corner.
• The second memory challenge is when did some of us visit on another school trip to the "aviary" in Liberty Corner? The house is still there just before the big turn on Lyons Road. The big bird cages were in some back yard and for years after, those cages still existed. There was a "cock-a-toos" sign along the road advertising the place. Who remembers that?

  [I remember the class trip to the aviary over in Liberty Corner. It was on the bend, just before you got into L C. - Pat Murphy (Steege)]

• Third, Mr. Shepard's junior physics class when Gil Reynolds wired Mr. Shepard's desk chair with firecrackers so that when "Shep" sat down and swung his legs under the chair (as he did habitually), the string pulled and the crackers popped. Then, as Mr. Shepard now suspected mischief, he got up and moved over to the science counter in front of the black(green?) board. At that moment Gil pulled a string he had passed through the ceiling tiles back to his own seat. With that tug then unraveled down in front of the class from above the black (green?) board a pennant with the word "FINK" on it. I challenge others in that class who might have witnessed these events to recall what happened next. Somehow, I have blocked any further memory of that day!
• Another memory is also with Mr. Shepard and/or Mr. Taylor in senior science, when they took us to Union Junior College to listen to guest lectures. On our way back we'd stop for soda or burgers at the Blue Star Mall. Who recalls the one lecture on ring tail doves and the bowing and cooing so clearly demonstrated by the professor giving that talk in front of the audience? What I do recall is Pete Busch and I laughing hysterically at the bowing and cooing demonstration. You see, as I recall, the professor, himself, was not too tall and a bit portly around the middle, very much shaped like a real dove.

• Who recalls the year (probably sophomore or junior?) they had to throw out the standardized test scores we all took in the cafeteria one Fall because our average scores actually went down that year compared to previous years? Why? Because that day the ladies in the kitchen were banging the pots and pans loudly all during the test time. We all knew; the proctoring teachers all knew the noise was loud and disturbing even though the doors to the kitchen were closed. But no one did anything about it. So, for the three hours that morning we took the tests listening to the kitchen noise. And the result was lower scores!

  I use this memory in my own classes in tests and measures at Fordham as an example to my own students hoping to become teachers and school psychologists!