Susan Agoglia (Ivovich)

Memories of Growing up in Basking Ridge

• My memories of growing up in basking ridge begin in November of 1957, when my family moved there from Brooklyn, NY. Our property had a pond, a brook, and woods. I learned to catch frogs in the pond. I made friends, who taught me how to leave my city girl ways behind and learn to be a country girl. I played “house” under a grove of apple trees across the brook, in the woods. I remember Carol Balsamel teaching me how to cross a creek on a fallen log.

• I remember sledding down the hill on Lake Rd., from S. Alward Ave to Spencer Rd., with whoever was on the lookout for the rare car, calling out “Car, Car, C-A-R!” so those sledding would steer over to the side and stop. There was one winter when the weather was dry and cold, and our pond froze thick enough, and Carol and I would come home from school and ice-skate till dark.

• At our last reunion, Joanie Blackburn reminded me of our time making potholders and going around the neighborhood to sell them. And then there was Girl Scouts, which never did make a happy camper out of me, though I learned to, and still do, cover metal hangers with rug yarn, which keeps clothing items from sliding off.

• I remember there was a drought, but we had a pump and pumped water from our pond to water our lawn. Neighbors up the street put in a pool, but couldn’t fill it, as it would have depleted their well, and they couldn’t buy water from anywhere. So through their connection with someone in the fire department, a pump was set up and a big hose was run up the street from our pond to their pool and the water was pumped up to them. It certainly gave their pool filter a test, getting the mud out. Only one fish got through to their pool. And the water in our pond was only lowered by a couple of inches. The brook that fed it never dried up.

• When I first moved there, there was a bus that I could take from the top of Lake Rd, at Finley Ave, where the High School is now. I took it to get to Morristown. My mother worked in Morristown back then. So I could get there for appointments, etc., and she would bring me home after work.

• I remember picking wild blackberries in the woods, and making blackberry apple pies with them.

• Our property bordered the railroad tracks, but we got so used to the train whistle at the crossing that most of the time hearing it never registered in our consciousness. Still don’t know if I lived on the right side or the wrong side of the tracks…

• In high school I remember the basketball games, followed by school dances. And the times of gathering around while someone would play the guitar and we all sang folk songs, like “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”

• Life in Basking Ridge was so different from that in Brooklyn. I am so glad my family moved there. I would never have had the wonderful experiences growing up in Basking Ridge, or even gone square dancing at the Grange, had we remained in Brooklyn.