Ken Ballinger
- Does anyone remember what it was like on South Finley Avenue when the Ferrante stone trucks would rumble by? The Ferrante quarry mined “blue stone” a type of granite that
forms Basking Ridge deep underground. Anyway, the trucks were going by all the time making bike riding a real adventure before sidewalks. The road was also not wide enough for the heavy trucks so even cars had to squeeze over and that was not easy on the descending curve near our home.
Our house on Homestead Road happened to sit on the vein of rock that was exposed at the quarry and every now and then we would be entertained with a minor earthquake when they blasted at the quarry. My mother had to keep her china flat and in piles rather than on display because of it.
My brothers and I always enjoyed the sudden ride though. As I remember, we had a series of dogs that slowly went nuts with the unexpected rumble, or maybe the problem was actually the 4 boys in the house, who knows.
- My first day in Miss Barber’s third grade class in Liberty corner. Peggy Kaempfer had on a poodle skirt and a few days later Philip Mylod punched Miss Barber and knocked her down. I thought Liberty Corner was a tough neighborhood.
- I was in Mrs. Hedden’s class for fourth grade and remember the girl and boys hill outside where we pulled up weeds and threw them at each other. Had to be part of our cultural enrichment program.
- In Miss McCartney’s fifth grade class we built a rocket ship to Mars complete with robots and cardboard ship components. Cool.
- I remember shop class in 8th grade when I sanded the top of my coffee table until it was smooth as glass and then glued the legs on the top. Mr. Houtz did not laugh but made me turn it over and start sanding again.
- High School was a short walk for me but with sports I got home late. Yes, I was on the basketball team but sat on the bench for four years and finally Mr. Pederson gave me a varsity letter with a comment in the assembly something like “He was so persistent I just had to give him one.” I guess I just loved practice!
- I remember having track meets as a senior and having to cut my hair very short for the "King and I." I missed the team picture because I was in a dress rehearsal and had not mentioned anything about it to Coach Smith. (Not a good plan).
- I remember Mrs. Hull English class when we wrote out the memorized passage on the blackboard before a test (I think it was from the Bible?) and she never turned around. We all got an "A" and she thought our whole class was really smart. Come on, somebody else has to fess up to this too.
- I recall great relationships between our teachers and students. I don’t believe my memory is fuzzy about this and I seem to remember teachers in and out of the classroom being available for conversation.
- When I read Mr. Meys’ comments about the death of the student outside of Ridge walking home from school. The tragedy also affected the driver who took a long time to adjust to the accident. A double tragedy that I am sure we all remember.
