New Jersey Baby Boomer

I was in my early twenties when Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man” played loudly from the speakers of my car radio. Phoebe Snow was born in New York, but raised in Teaneck, NJ and died Tuesday, April 25, 2011, in Edison, New Jersey. We lived in Edison Township until I was about 14 and I worked and attended a small college in Teaneck in the early 1070′s, so the area is very familiar.

Her personal life touches mine as well…as she sacrificed her singing career to care for a disabled daughter. Watching my mother love and care for my disabled brother gives me a picture of what kind of person she may have been like. According to her Manager in an article I read on northjersey.com, the 31 years spent raising her brain-damaged daughter, Valerie, who apparently pre-deceased her, was her greatest accomplishment. Her daughter was born with hydrocephalus and needed constant care, which Phoebe provided for her rather than putting her into an institution. That says a lot about a person, doesn’t it? There are some things so much greater than fame.

Phoebe died at the age of 60 (wow, that’s how old I’ll be at my next birthday…we do tend to notice things like this as baby boomers, don’t we?) from complications of a hemorrhage to the brain she suffered late in 2010 – it was one of those health situations where one thing just seemed to lead to another from the information I’ve been reading.

One thing about losing a musician, actor, or other celebrity, is the fact that you can still listen to them or watch them after they are gone. So it is with Phoebe Snow, as seen in the following video. This later recording of “Poetry Man” by her in 2009 shows her wonderful personality and that almost 35 years later, she was still a very talented musician and will be missed:

It seems trivial to compare the flooding situation many have been experiencing here in New Jersey to what has been happening in Japan, but both show the devastating power of water. We have spent the last few weekends preparing for potential runoff problems (big ones) on our property after heavy snows all winter, snow-melt saturating our soils and then heavy rains washing what is left of the snow from the hills across the street from us…across the road…to the lake where it wants to go, not where the designers of the “fine” drainage system on our street wants it to go…at 2 right angles then down to the lake. We are long overdue taking this situation to our Town to be fixed, just asking isn’t enough. They did try a couple of minor fixes, none adequate, and there used to be years between incidents (we’ve been here for going on 27 years). The last flooding was just last Spring, so they are getting closer together, and we are getting older and less able to keep up. We had hoped to retire here, it’s a small, cozy home on a lake, but if this isn’t fixed, we’re not sure what we’ll do.

But then we look at the news and see what is happening in Japan, and our hearts break, it makes what we are experiencing look so small. Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Japan, and those not far from us in New Jersey who experienced much more than we did, thanks to some carefully placed sand bags by my son.

Here is a short video clip we took of a river in Butler, NJ, not to far from us, video taken March 12th:

Smartphones are getting a little too smart it seems, and it’s making me concerned for the welfare of my friends and family that have them.  My husband made me aware of a report on the news that shows how, by taking pictures with a smartphone that also has gps abilities, then posting that photo online, whether it be by facebook or another means, you are pinpointing where you are when you take the picture.  If that picture was taken at your home, of you, your children, you pet, whatever, with such a phone, then put up on Facebook, anyone “out there”, whether friend or foe, should be able to find your home.  There is also a new feature on Facebook that was mentioned that helps you find friends in close proximity to where you live.  I am sure that with the internet, and how we freely share our addresses, etc., it probably is not hard to trace many people, but this story has it’s own unique set of concerns attached to it.  Here is the video of the news report for you, be aware and use care.

A wee little town in Camden County is going green today, not necessarily in the ecological sense of the word.  Gloucester City is about 50% Irish, and so today, St. Patrick’s Day, is a special day of remembering the wonderful heritage of the descendants of family members who came to the United States from Ireland.

In fact there are plans in the works to make an Irish village on the Delaware River waterfront. Funding is a little challenging right now, but hopes and dreams don’t die, so I’m sure one day this fun little destination will become a reality.

A Schooner called the “North Wind” has already been purchased, and will be coming out of dry dock in April, it’s a great educational experience for students, and provides day trips and more…click here for more info about North Wind.

ACORN has made news in a big way with the pimp and prostitute videos in the past few weeks thanks to Glenn Beck and FoxNews Channel, not to mention the courage of James O’Keefe acting as a pimp (a New Jersey native…grew up in the town next to where my mother lives now) and Hannah Giles playing the role of a prostitute looking for help to open up a brothel, complete with girls brought in through the sex trade.

Forgive me, this isn’t my typical nice post, I’m a little steamed at this. I know just mentioning Glenn Beck’s name and FoxNews in one sentence probably has raised the blood pressure of a few of you, but many are watching according to the ratings…..and talk about raised blood pressure, if you haven’t seen the videos, I hope your’s will be too after viewing them…and not because of pretty Hannah who Glenn Beck suggested be careful and “cover up”.  Don’t be fooled by Acorn’s claims that these are just a few problem people, there are at least 5 videos that I’ve seen in various locations throughout the country, all similar, some more shocking than others.

After watching the videos in stunned disbelief, I wondered how many ACORN community organizations were here in New Jersey.  I did a search, and as you would be inclined to expect, most are located in our cities, Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, and Trenton.  I’m not going to include links to these organizations until I know that they are worthy…in fact I removed a most of a post I had done a few months ago because of their ties to the organization. 

I’m going to be interested in seeing how the investigation they are starting is going to change things, if at all, and watching the shuffle in Washington DC as they try to distance themselves from the organization that President Obama claimed would play a role in his being elected to the Presidency. 

Just in case you watch the wrong news stations, thought maybe I’d include a video or two for you so you can see what’s been going on, and lets hope that exposing this will lead to a better ACORN, and if it can’t get better, no ACORN at all.  Where did they get these people?  Don’t they have a screening process when they hire?  Here’s just a couple parts of one video session in Brooklyn, New York:

And here’s the one from the other side of the Country, in San Bernadino, oh there’s more, but this is enough for now…I’m really sorry to clutter up this blog with such negative stuff, but it’s important, and since the film maker is from New Jersey, belongs:

(acorn image from acorn.org)

I was browsing New Jersey topics today, and read an article about the comeback that the Bald Eagle is making in New Jersey.  We often watch large birds circle in the sky and wonder if one is an eagle…are more accustomed to seeing them when we travel to Maine, but apparently, they are indeed finding their way into the Garden State.

The following video was interesting…it always bothers me just a bit when they take the animals from their nests and do all the things that they do to study and research, must be terribly unsettling for the animal, but that is the way it is, and is done for good reason.

Have any of you seen our Nation’s symbolic bird, the bald eagle, where you are?

Other NJ Wildlife Posts You Might Like:

New Jersey State Bird, the Cute Little Goldfinch

A Visit By a Young Bear

Turkeys and Peacocks at New Jersey Ecology Center in Wyckoff, NJ

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

A few posts ago I told you about the earthquake felt in the town where my husband works, Dover. Well it appears that there have been a couple more small quakes in the area, one on Valentine’s Day, and another in the wee hours of the morning.

The first quake, the one mentioned in an earlier post, was reported on the 4th of the month, and measured 3.0, the second that occurred on Valentines Day measured 2.2, and the latest that occurred around 1:40 in the morning today, Wednesday, was a 2.3 magnitude quake, centered about a mile outside of Dover. Windows rattled in Dover, Rockaway and the Morris Plains area. The Valentines Day quake was felt in Boonton and Montville.

These quakes are due to shifting of plates along the Ramapo fault.

Click here for info about the most recent quake, and below is a “youtube” about our the first quake. Okay, if you’re living in California, this probably isn’t a big deal, but we don’t shake, rattle and roll in New Jersey as much as you do, at least when it comes to earthquakes:-)

Today New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen sang at another Obama event, and while I’m not promoting Obama, not one bit, it gives me an excuse to talk about another NJ celebrity who has been around for as long as I’ve been listening to rock ‘n roll.

Bruce Springsteen was born in Freehold, NJ, south of where I am in NJ, in fact, almost everywhere in NJ is south of us, since we’re at the top of the State. I found a great website that provides some trivia about him, and will give you a taste, but out of fairness to copyright guidelines and all that fun stuff, the link to the full page follows.

Here’s some Springsteen trivia:

* Children, with Scialfa, Evan James, Jessica Rae and Sam Ryan.
* Says his favorite film as a kid was _Searchers, The (1956)_
* One of Springsteen’s most famous songs, “Thunder Road”, took inspiration from the Robert Mitchum movie of the same name.
* Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, where Bono of U2 gave the induction speech. When U2 was inducted in 2005, Springsteen gave their induction speech, returning the favor.
* Awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award, in 1997.
* Bruce Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazine simultaneously. At that time this had only happened to world leaders. [27 October 1975]
* Brother of Pamela Springsteen
* Considered becoming a baseball player prior to devoting himself to music.
* Many of his earlier songs make reference to the New Jersey shore, where he spent his youth.
* Paul Schrader asked Springsteen to write a title song for a movie he had written called “Born in the USA”. After Springsteen wrote it, he liked the song so much, he used for his multi-platinum album of the same name instead. As a replacement, Springsteen wrote another song and that song title became the film’s new title, Light of Day (1987). That is why Springsteen thanks Schrader in the liner notes of the album.
* Father, Douglas “Dutch” Springsteen, died in 1998.
* Has two sisters, Virginia and Pamela.
* Mother’s name is Adele.
* Frequently works with director John Sayles, a fellow Jerseyite who shares a similar social conscience.

Okay, that’s enough…there’s more and a bio at this link, but promise you’ll come back after you visit.

And what better way to close a post on a Jersey blog than with Bruce singing “Jersey Girl”: