[ back ]
BACK IN THE DAY - 07/13/2008
Saloons, the prayer ban and old pros
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends around early July over the years.
1963 – Local boozing
The top story in the July 4, 1963 edition of Suburban Trends is called, “Step closer to the bar, brothers – None of you ever had it so good.” “It was written by someone using the name “The Old Pro,” and it’s about the development of bars in our area.
“Are you of the opinion that bars, as known today, have existed for a long time? If so, make that drink short, mister, step over the spittoon and rest an elbow. You’re in for a surprise,” begins the old article.
It explains, “As late as 1915, there were no bars, as such, in this North Jersey area. Saloons existed a-plenty, for the preauto (mobile) resident was a hard worker who liked his schnapps at the end of a day’s work.”
According to The Old Pro, a pre-World War I worker in the area “did his drinking in a homier atmosphere.” Most people called them “saloons,” not “bars,” and they were part of the hotel business in the early 1900s.
“In Pompton Falls, the oldest tavern was the Pompton House, a frame structure at the site of the Grand Union shopping center. It was a rambling structure, and had many rooms for the accommodation of travelers,” related The Old Pro.
“Coming north, as late as 1915, there were two well-known spots where a man could wet his whistle. Again these were inns, known at the time as hotels. These were Shippee’s Hotel, built partially on the bridge that divides Butler and Bloomingdale at Union Square, and Frank Reardon’s Hotel, across the Hamburg turnpike, in Bloomingdale.”
“Going northwest along the main street of Butler, there was the Park Hotel, then Casterlie’s. Again, this was essentially a hostelry, which provided meals and drinks for the weary traveler. In our jaunt from Bloomingdale into Butler, we bypassed Cook’s hotel, today a private resilience. This is on Main Street, Butler, near the Butler Coal and Lumber Company.”
“Going still farther north, again on the Hamburg Turnpike, was found the Charlotteburg Inn, closed when the watershed moved in. Another hotel in this area was Mabey’s, at the Intake. This still is operated as a tavern.”
“Yes, looking back 40 years to the days of swinging doors, brass cuspidors, gaudy and artful, if not arty pictures over the bar, one finds that saloons did not exist as entities,” told The Old Pro. “They were part of establishments which offered rest to the weary and food and drink to the hungry traveler.”
“These hostelries – inns in the true sense of the word – remained a throw-back to stage coach days and lasted through the early railroad era. It was the auto that put them out of business. They existed up to Prohibition.”
“After FDR took office and Repeal was effected the country was on wheels. Motorized traffic had no need for stopover points every 10 or 20 miles. Hence, the taverns and restaurants received exclusive patronage.”
They didn’t have a prayer
The Bloomingdale Board of Education, at July meeting, accepted without comment a policy set by the United States Supreme Court that banned prayer and Bible reading from schools, starting by the next school year.
“Although no comment was made by the Board, Principal Walter T. Bergen told reporters that the Lord’s Prayer and Bible reading have been part of the school system ever since he could remember,” it was reported.
Bergen stated that each class in the Samuel R. Donald School and the Martha B. Day School book turns daily reciting the Lord’s Prayer over the school public address system, followed by a teacher’s recitation of a verse from the Bible.
It was reported that, “The school had no choice but to comply with the order, Bergen said.”
Nick Kenny
We featured a long story about Nick Kenny, a famous newspaperman, poet and lyricist who had lived in West Milford for 22 years when the source article was written.
While a sportswriter and rewrite man at the Bayonne Times (1920-23), he wrote his first column, “Getting an Earful” (later collected in a 1932 book). After a brief period at the Boston American (1923-24), Kenny moved on to the New York Journal (1924-27) and the New York Daily News (1927-1930). In 1930, for the New York Daily Mirror, he began writing “Nick Kenny Speaking,” a column combining verse, jokes and observational humor with his commentary on current radio programs.
Kenny wrote the words to the song, “Love Letters in the Sand,” that was a 1957 gold record hit for Pat Boone.
His first popular song was “Gold Mine in the Sky,” that reported inspired the Gene Autry movie of the same name made in 1938. With the money from that venture, Kenny and his brother Charles started their own music company, Gold Mine in the Sky Publishing Company.
During the mid-1930s he was the host of "The Nick Kenny Radio Hour." On NBC television, Kenny had his own 15-minute music and talk show, "The Nick Kenny Show," from 1951 to 1952. He also worked for ABC.
Kenny made the commute from his home near Greenwood Lake to New York City almost every day of the year. He also kept an apartment in the city when he couldn’t make it home, but he didn’t like to be apart from his family for too long.
“I always wanted to write,” he said. “When I was about five years old, I composed my first poetry – I just thought in rhyme.”
He also spent eight years in the United States Navy. At the youthful age of 15, after attending P.S. 7, and Bryant High School on Long Island, Kenny ran away to join the service. His experiences during those years included being a deck hand and a navigator’s yeoman. Besides that, he was a boxer and a boat racer. He was also a member of the U.S.S. Arizona’s champion racing crew.
After his discharge from the Navy, the sea was still in his blood, so he joined the Merchant Marines as the youngest ever in its service. Onboard, he edited the ship’s papers and, as an interesting sideline, wrote poetry and love letters to promote the eloquence of his shipmates to their girls back home. At twenty-five cents apiece for these efforts, he soon became known as the “sailor poet,” it was reported.
The first good advice he had with regard to entering the field of journalism came from the eminent journalist, Arthur Brisbane, who suggested that Kenny get a job on a small paper and gather experience in all of its departments.
Kenny got a job with the Staten Island Advance as a court reporter. He also was the keeper of the “morgue” – organizing old newspaper files for future reference. He also did sports and features writing, and wrote a daily human interest column – All for $20 a week.
Funnily enough, adjusting for inflation, that’s just about as much as a new reporter is paid weekly around here, after taxes.
Then he saw a help wanted advertisement seeking an “all around reporter” at the Bayonne Times. He got the job, but after a few months, his editor told him he stunk.
So he went to the public library and memorized examples of good reporting in the “best book” they had about journalism. His next story was a doozy, and he wasn’t fired.
Then he started writing his “Getting an Earful” column about all the gossip he heard during his daily travels around Bayonne. The column was so popular that it doubled the newspaper’s circulation. He became a hot commodity in the industry. Then staffing cuts left him unemployed until he got a job for New York Evening Journal on the “lobster shift” from midnight to 8 a.m.
Kenny then started writing his stories in rhyme. The style proved popular and was imitated. He got hotter and hotter and branched off into radio and television – and professional football. He was on the 1925 New York Giants football team.
A grandpa of seven grandchildren by the time the article about him appeared in the Suburban Trends, Kenny still kept busy entertaining people as the as master of ceremonies at the Waldemere Hotel in Livingston Manor, New York, on Saturday nights.
When he did finally retire, Kenny moved to Sarasota, FL, and golfed and fished for the rest of his days.
1973 – Emo is nothing new
Although the people written about below are around retirement age by now, 35 years ago they were about to enter the real world, but they were pretty blasé about it.
“They do not necessarily want their children to inherit their religion; Eastern thought and the occult frightens them. They favor decriminalization of marijuana use and Watergate has only further eroded their interest and trust in their government,” it was reported from Pequannock Township High School.
“They” were the Class of ‘73, and the above were some of the things running through their minds.
“An attempt to interview a cross section of the Class of ‘73 resembled a forum for women’s liberationists, when a half-dozen female grads responded recently to a request that members of this year’s graduating class get together and air their views on a host of topics. While the ‘guys’ were contacted, none attended because of full time jobs. The girls’ responses to some of the questions more than made up for their absence, however,” it was reported.
All five of the girls we interviewed – two Cathys, two Debbies and a Pat – planned to continue their educations after high school. Two were going to a private girls school, two were going to a co-ed school, and one was going to business school.
They had aspirations to be a dental assistant, a lawyer, a fashion designer, and a legal secretary.
“Perhaps surprisingly to some,” it was reported that none of the five were in any hurry to get married and have babies.
The way the world is, we're not going to be here long,” said one Debbie. “Things keep getting worse.”
The reporter categorized Pat’s attitude about being a mother as “selfish” because she was not eager to settle down and breed.
“I don’t want my life to stop,” she said. “I’d want to have kids only if I was rich enough to have someone else take care of them.”
Only one of the five girls said she was an optimist. The other four said they were either “pessimistic” or “indifferent.”
All five said they wouldn’t mind sending their children through the same educational system they had just gone through. All but one of the girls was Catholic, but all said that they wouldn’t teach their children about religion like they had been.
Pat said she stopped going to church when her parents stopped going. The other four girls said their religion had fallen from their favor. All said they rejected the fundamentalism of their religion.
While they said that Eastern thought and the occult frightened them, the majority said the theory of reincarnation warranted serious thought. The girls said there were some students in the high school during the past year who professed to be practitioners of Satanism, and that while some were “into witchcraft” merely for show, others did indeed take it seriously.
“Rock music clothing and ‘luxury items’ such as ‘booze,’ drain the purses of the girls,” it was reported. Three of them owned cars. All planned on leaving the area and living some place South or West.
Pequannock Township didn’t have a hard drug problem, said the girls, although marijuana was easy to come by. None of the five knew any “addicts.”
They thought smoking marijuana was no different than smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol, and should become almost legal. They didn’t want marijuana to be completely legalized because they said then it would probably cost more.
“Each of the five girls in her own way has been attempting to keep track of the complicated Watergate affair. They feel that President Nixon is too powerful and that there is too much money at the disposal of politicians,” it was reported.
The girls said that Watergate was “the clincher” that confirmed their beliefs that politics from the federal level on down to the local level were corrupt.
“Despite their overall pessimism, they would rather be alive at this point in time than at any other time past or future, they say,” it was reported. “They all agreed that a lifetime, no matter when spent, is not without problems. While two of the girls want to be remembered in this life for their success in their respective careers, the others agreed with Debbie who said, ‘We are already known for what we are today.’”
[ back ]
