Meg Ryder (Franks)

Memories of Basking Ridge from Meg Ryder Franks

• How hard it is to believe it has been 50 years. Since this is for Alan, I will start off with the memory of my father teasing me about the boy on the next street named "Lanny" Clapp. [Whatever happened to him, anyway? - Editor]

• Being born and raised in Basking Ridge was a gift. Life did not always seem idyllic at the time, but looking back it surely was. As kids on Lindbergh Lane we were able to play outside all day with no supervision, just the ringing of a bell to call us home to dinner. I remember playing cowboys (and cowgirls too), raking leaves to create the outlines of houses, riding bikes, double Dutch jump rope in the middle of the street and in the winter hoping for enough snow and a snow day so we could go sledding down the street before the plows came by and sanded.

• The kids in our neighborhood played on the Maple Avenue School playground and had to run around the fence to recover balls that went over the fence into Pitt’s yard. The Pitts moved to town in third grade, finally someone my age on the street. I remember hearing the six o'clock whistle every night, and watching the volunteer firemen race up the street when it was an actual siren. Even my children recall the “6 o’clock weasel,” as my father dubbed it.

• I went to kindergarten in the Presbyterian Church House. I can't recall the teacher’s name but I do remember learning to tell my left from my right by saying the Pledge of Allegiance. First through third were at Maple Avenue School, Miss Schmeltzer, Mrs. Gould, and Miss Schmeltzer again. It was half a block from my house so I always went home for lunch and didn't have to brave the basement cafeteria which always seemed dark and spooky. I remember having to wear itchy wool snow pants under my dress in the winter, no pants to school in those days. Hanging upside down on the monkey bars was a challenge for us girls.

• Fourth grade was in the Methodist church with Miss McCartney. She went to Mexico at some point that year and we all learned some Spanish, "Como esta usted?" I had her again for fifth grade in the brand new Cedar Hill School. I remember learning the cha cha in dance class in the cafeteria. I had Mr. English for sixth grade. Years later I was astonished to learn he had married Miss McCartney!

• Denny Ward mentioned "Mr. Ryder" and Boy Scout Troop 151. I always thought it was unfair that I couldn't be a Boy Scout. They had so much more fun than us Girl Scouts. We did benefit though in the form of many family camping and canoeing trips to the Adirondacks.

• Basking RIdge meant going to the Kiwanis Fair on Labor Day weekend with all the rides, marching in the Memorial Day parade or collecting donations for paper poppies, the Christmas tree on the Green, walking up town to Cerino’s grocery store or later to Brush’s. I remember walking past the liquor store when it was down the hill from Ridge Pharmacy (back then it was where the Corner Cupboard was later) and seeing the pictures of the Miss Rheingold contestants, very glamourous. Miss Dunham was in the library making sure you didn't check out anything inappropriate. In high school I worked for Rusty Allen's mother in the Yarn Barn after school and in the summer.

• I remember going to the movies in Bernardsville for the Saturday matinee, and not being allowed to see Doris Day and Rock Hudson in “Pillow Talk” because I wasn't old enough (they went away together without being married, how shocking!), going shopping at Sussmans store in Bernardsville where you could find most anything, and going to the big city of Morristown at Christmas to see Epstein’s window decorations.

• Going to a brand new high school, we had the honor of being the very first ever freshman class. I remember being in Mr. King’s Geometry class when we heard that President Kennedy had been shot; struggling with train times in Mr. May's Algebra II class; diagramming sentences in Mr. Brasher’s English class; learning grammar in Mr. Moody’s Latin class and learning to love history with Mr. Meys and Mr. Pederson. I think I remember Carlie Sella dissecting our fish in biology and saying she was going to take the eyeball home to her mother. I struggled with typing papers on an old typewriter with carbon paper and lots of white-out handy. The kids I teach today have no idea how lucky they are. Our skirts had to touch the floor when you kneeled, I didn't even own a pair of blue jeans until college. Barbara, I do remember being in Drivers Ed. When I was told I wasn't ready to get my license because I struggled with that manual transmission, I didn’t mention that I already had it. Inge, do you remember a gathering of foreign exchange students who were at schools in the area in Basking Ridge one weekend in the spring? We had a girl from Belgium, Ella, stay with us that weekend.

• I was extremely fortunate to be able to bring my kids home to experience what it was like to grow up in Basking Ridge. I even have pictures of my grandson playing in the library my mother worked at for so many years on the site of the school where a lot of us started first grade. My parents lived in that tiny little house on Lindberg Lane for over 65 years. The house, like Pitt’s house, is gone now but the memories will live on long after I am gone.