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BACK IN THE DAY - 04/27/2008
Sharks, errors, drafts and forest fires
NORTH JERSEY —Here’s a look at the stories published in Suburban Trends around the end of April over the years.
1988 – Die Hard
Almost certain death came for a local man again, and again he survived.
At age 12, Sparta native Rob Nicholson was struck by lightning. He survived and read the story about his brush with death in the newspaper the next day. Then, at the age of 24, he was vacationing in Florida when an eight-foot shark tried to eat him. Again, he read about his experience in the newspaper the next day.
“People say I flirt with death,” said Nicholson. “I don’t know about that, but I do know that I’ve been lucky.”
Nicholson was swimming in the ocean when the shark attacked. He was able to swim away despite gaping wounds that required 50 stitches to close. The injury did not appear to be very serious, which was good news for Nicholson, an athlete who competed in triathlons.
At the time of the attack, Nicholson had been attending a fraternity reunion on Singer Island, and was training for triathlons with his girlfriend Heather.
On the night of April 15, 1988, Nicholson was out swimming. The beach had been closed a few days prior because of a shark sighting, but was reopened. Nicholson felt it was safe because he saw other people swimming about before he went in.
He was in the water about 100 yards from the beach when he felt something large bump him in the chest, but he said he wasn’t concerned about it.
“I was riding a wave in and something hit me really hard in the chest,” he said. “I wasn’t really worried because I’d been bumped before by fish. Then, whatever it was bit me in the foot. It grabbed me and started to shake me. I hit it with my hand to get it off, and it bit my hand. Somehow, I got it to let go.”
He was unaware of the extent of his injuries and swam back to shore where he told Heather to go back to the hotel and get help.
“I saw the amount of blood and I got scared,” he said. “I ran back to the hotel and went to the swimming pool and began to hose out the wounds. Then I wrapped myself up in towels and waited.”
After the paramedics came, Nicholson went to the hospital where he required 45 stitches on his foot and five on his hand, which also suffered a broken finger. He still needed skin graft surgery when he came back to New Jersey.
“I’m lucky,” he said. “There is a little tendon damage, but none of them were severed. From what I’ve been told, I got off easy. Usually, the sharks don’t let go after the first bite. I’m very lucky to have gotten away with my foot intact.”
The shark was speculated to be either a mako or spinner.
Grave error corrected
When Irving Grant discovered Richards Funeral Home in Riverdale had made an error of $7 on a bill for a funeral, he informed the funeral home of the error. The owner said he would immediately right the apparent error, but would have to write a check for $35.
That’s because the bill Grant was questioning was for services performed in the year 1919. The statement in question was rendered on Aug. 15, 1919. The additional $28 was what the staff figured the interest would be on $7 for 69 years.
Richards Funeral Home is the oldest funeral home in New Jersey that is still operated by the same family. Seven generations of Richards have been running the home since 1812.
It all came about after Butler resident Grant was speaking to a colleague, who asked him if he had any historic postcards to sell. Grant recalled a shoebox filled with old postcards. He went to get the box, and upon looking through the assorted cards and papers, he stumbled upon an Aug. 15. 1919 Richards bill. Edward Richards (great-grandfather of the contemporary operator, Carl) was operating the funeral home at the time.
Grant tallied up the bill, and discovered that an apparent billing error occurred and his wife Violet’s family was shortchanged $7. The total bill for the funeral came to $321. The funeral was for Violet’s grandfather, William Hunkle.
“When my wife’s mother died she left quite a box of postcards. She never threw anything out. My wife throws everything out. That’s when I found the bill. I know Carl Richards. I went over to Carl and he looked at the bill and said well I guess we won’t go broke. We’ll pay it off. He paid the $7 plus interest. He wrote a check out to my wife for $35. If we compounded the interest, it would have been way up there. I thought he would pay the $7. I never expected the interest,” said Grant.
AIDS appeal
The borough of Wanaque’s attempt to obtain a court injunction to prevent the proposed admission of AIDS patients to the Wanaque Convalescent Center was denied.
Mayor Angelo Cutillo reported that he and borough attorney Anthony Fiorello went before a judge in Paterson and that the judge refused to grant the injunction after a two-hour hearing. Cutillo said that the borough planned to appeal.
The grounds for the injunction, according to Fiorello, were that Stephen Lazovitz, owner of the Wanaque Convalescent Center, failed to tell Planning Board members that AIDS patients would be admitted when he applied for a permit for the facility. He had said two years earlier that the facility would house geriatric and pediatric patients.
Fiorello also cited a state statute that required the owners of for-profit nursing facilities to inform the borough before persons with communicable diseases were admitted.
“However, Deputy Health Commissioner David Knowlton has said that this statute was not violated, since AIDS supposedly is not spread through casual contact,” Fiorello said.
Knowlton suggested that the borough organize a meeting between its clergy members, volunteer groups and other public servants to educate them better about AIDS.
Residents were still protesting the convalescent center in Wanaque. They had just held their third protest, and about 50 attended.
NFL drafts two locals
Two NFL teams drafted men from our area.
West Milford’s Kevin Walker was the second selection in the third round for the Cincinnati Bengals. He was the first football player from the township high school to be drafted into the ranks of the professionals.
“I was really happy,” he said. “I had heard that I could go anywhere from the late second round to the early picks of the third round. The draft was kind of crazy, so I’m glad things worked out the way they did.”
As a star running back at West Milford Township High School from 1981 to 1983, the six-foot-two-inch Walker chased the ghost of Bobby Gunderman, at that time the all-time leading rusher in the school’s history. He did well in his pursuit, breaking the school’s all-time rushing records and earning several area honors.
After taking over as the top running back in Highlanders’ history, Walker, like Gunderman had before, went to the University of Maryland as a running back and later a linebacker.
“I think I can come in and make an immediate impact, play on special teams,” Walker said about joining the Bengals. “I think I can contribute.”
Walker is best known for making the tackle that ended the career of Bo Jackson. Walker’s own career ended in 1992 due to injury.
Lakeland High School football star and Ringwood native Fred Strickland also described the NFL draft process as gut wrenching. He was drafted in round two by the Los Angeles Rams.
“I wasn’t actually figuring on the Rams, but I’m glad things worked out the way they did,” said Strickland from his hotel room in Arizona where he and his family returned from the office of his agent, Bruce Allen, shortly after being selected.
1968 – Preachers and politics
A former Boy Scout from Butler created a controversy when he claimed to have mailed his draft card to the Attorney General in protest to what he called “an immoral, illegal and impractical war.”
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office indicated that Ingerson could have faced a five-year prison term or a fine up to $10,000.
On the other hand, a Justice Department official, Cliff Session, said that “a very large percentage of the draft cards that are returned are not legitimate. They turn out to be old draft cards, library cards or something else.”
Ingerson, 21 at the time, had more than 100 witnesses and was accompanied by local Reverend Charles Post when he mailed the card in a publicity stunt he held in Morristown. A statement was sent along with the card, signed by 13 supporters, including Rev. Post, who said that they would “aid and abet” Ingerson in his action.
Session said that upon receipt of Ingerson’s draft card, it would be immediately sent to the Selective Service Department in Washington to check its authenticity and Ingerson’s draft status.
“In the past,” said Session, “the cards have simply been returned to the sender and no action taken until the individual tries it again.”
However, with the Vietnam War becoming increasingly unpopular and protests like Ingerson’s becoming more common, the Selective Service was then taking draft cards mailed to them and accelerating the draft statuses of the owners.
“If the person cannot show cause why he is unable to fulfill his service obligations, he is re-classified. A student’s 2-S classification such as this young man’s would have probably become a 1-A,” said Session.
The removal of Rev. Charles Post from the ministry of the Butler Methodist Church was requested by several parishioners, according to J. Herbert Robertson, president of the official board of the church.
The requests came after Rev. Post reportedly supported Ingerson in the returning of his draft card.
An issued statement from Rev. Post said, “As will be noted by a careful study of the transcript of my statement, nothing is said about my advocating the return of draft cards. I took no position pro or con on the subject, and have not done so elsewhere. The statement is designed to say clearly and unmistakably, that I believe in this young man, personally.”
“For the record, it should also be made clear that I have not signed any statements aiding or abetting Mr. Ingerson or anyone else in the return of draft cards. If anyone doubts this, they are at liberty to write to the Attorney General to verify this as a fact,” Rev. Post’s statement continued.
Despite Post’s statement, he was barred from participating in Memorial Day services.
1963 – Forest fire fighting
Then as now, it was brushfire season in the area. An article recalled how firemen used to handle it in the days before radios, telephones and mechanized equipment.
Although low tech, firefighting was well regimented in this area in the early 1900s and did not get any newfangled improvements until after World War I.
Each municipality had a deputy warden whose job it was to get help immediately when a fire was reported. He did this by banging on one of the hoops placed in strategic points throughout the town as fire alarms.
These alarms, incidentally, were an institution unto themselves. They were circular iron rings about four feet in diameter, suspended from a wooden frame. Fastened within this frame for easy removal was a huge sledgehammer. This was used to bang the ring. The din could be heard for a mile on a clear day.
The first persons to arrive were dispatched to enlist other volunteers. On such occasions as many as 300 persons were known to be at a large forest fire. They were paid by the hour (from 15 to 25 cents) and often worked well into the night. There was no overtime pay.
Use of fire apparatus was impractical in those days due to lack of roads. One of the fire deputies in this area was the late Don Whitty lived in the Glen Wild Lake section of Bloomingdale.
He would regiment his help and later direct operations. Children were accepted into the ranks.
The firefighters were not paid immediately. Whitty would interview each one after the fire, noting their hours. Pay would arrive several weeks later.
The commonest way of battling a brush or forest fire was to use fire trees, usually cedar, to beat it out. Seldom did blazes travel through the trees. In such cases the “firemen” remained on the job much longer. Land was cleared ahead of the fire, which, on reaching this point, hopefully burned itself out.
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