FOR REFERENCE Toxics Dumped in Mines

by Jeffrey Rothfeder Research Assistance by Kenneth Lumpkin

"When I first moved here to Ringwood in 1939 it was the most beautiful place on earth. Everything was perfect. It was like living in heaven. Everybody had a job. The mine was going." He is a short, wiry, sixty-one year old man. He was standing within shouting distance of Peter's Mine, a pit that he says he first pulled iron ore out of in 1941. By the 1960s, the last bits of magnetite had been hauled out of the mine. And when the miners left, the pit became a dump site for industrial wastes. Now it's covered over. Vegetation—weeds, dried grass—has grown thickly—but the terrain still bears a depression where the earth was opened. He remembers the plodding trucks—looking almost like troop movements —methodically working their way up the hill, with iron barrels in tow, to lean back against the mine shafts and toss tons of liquids and solids down the pit. "I've seen a lot of 55 gallon drums go into Peter's Mine. I don't know what was in some of them. But I know some of them had iron parts from cars."

II The cars were Fords. It was the garbage from Ford's nearby Mahwah plant that was dumped in the shafts of Upper Ringwood. And a glance into the company's past provides an ironic backdrop for a story of corporate waste disposal. It is said of Henry Ford that he hated the wastes of industry. In his factories, he ordered the salvaging of everything from floor sweepings to platinum. Wood shavings were made into charcoal briquets, formaldehyde and creosote; coal derivatives into coke, benzol, and ammonium sulfate; and slag from the massive steel ovens was used for surfacing roads. In fact, a separate industry sprung up solely around the by-products of Ford's plants that netted $20 million by 1928. His reputation as a scavenger became the butt of jokes. The New York Times wrote in 1930: ' 'Ford throws nothing away, not even the smoke from his factories." And a company insider said, "I wouldn't be surprised if he used the fever from the patients in his hospitals as heat in the industrial drying process." Much has changed since then, and the change is written indelibly in the statistics. Ford Motor Company—once the intensive recycler—has recently been cited by the Federal government as one of the top industrial waste water dischargers in the United States. Ford is, also, one of the ten major polluters of the Cuyahoga River, the channel in Cleveland that caught fire, burning off its burden of chemicals. RINGWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY

145 Sky'ands Road TALKING WOOD .O BE TAKEN FROM THE ROOM „.' j K; ..,,

uriM CAT. NO. 23 012 ,.'*.° : 32 Toxics Dumped in the Ringwood Mines

For over a month Talking Wood has investigated the dumping of Ford's wastes into the Upper Ringwood mines, and what unfolds is a story of facts and possibilities. Record keeping has been sketchy at best-non-existent most of the time—but through a series of extensive interviews and document searches, a pattern of corporate irresponsibility and government laxity emerges.

Specifically, here's what's been discovered:

%From 1967 through 1971 the Ford Motor Company dumped a significant quantity of pollutant wastes into the open mine pits in the hills of Upper Ringwood.

\These wastes have already begun degrading a main stream that passes the Ford landfill. The stream runs out at the Wanaque Reservoir.

^Despite this knowledge and other indications since the early 1970s that the dumped wastes are threatening to pollute the local water supply, area and state officials took no action and no comprehensive studies were initiated.

%This year a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection task force has been formed to study old toxic chemical dumping sites thought to be a cause of present and future environmental damage. The Upper Ringwood Mines have been cited as deserving of attention.

W The stories most often found when searching through Finally in 1956 the government sold the property to the history of the mines—in particular, Cannon and the Pittsburgh Pacific Company of Hibbing, Minnesota. Peter's located on the hill above the bulk of the area's Pittsburgh Pacific only drew ore from the mines for housing—read like a survey of America's war wounds eight years, and in 1964 they sold the land to the Ford and battles. Motor Company. The actual deed was made out to the Raw materials from the pits were used during the Ringwood Realty Corporation, a wholly owned Revolution for shot and shell, and more dramatically, subsidiary of Ford, whose officers and directors were all for the chain forged to block the Hudson River. The executives of the parent company. country, again, dug into Ringwood's iron reserves Conflicting reasones are given as to why Ford bought during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. the property. It could be that it was being considered as By the turn of the century, though, the mines began to a possible site for a new plant, or even a housing fade from prominence as new sources of higher grade development. ore were discovered and developed. But Ford never did develop the land around the Then in 1941, with the coming of World War II and mines. What they did do was dump liquid and solid the fear that there could be an interruption of iron flow wastes down the pits. through the Soo Canals in the Great Lakes, the Federal V government bought the mines and spent $4 million to get In December, 1967, Ford Motors hired O'Connor them into workable shape. Trucking and Hauling Company of Harrison, New They were never worked. But when the Cold War. Jersey to dump their Mahwah plant wastes. O'Connor began, a new possibility arose—the big open pits could had exclusive dumping rights in and around Peter's be converted into massive fallout shelters. This idea, Mine. too, never left the drawing boards. Neither Ford nor O'Connor kept records of the exact 34 Toxics Dumped in the Ringwood Mines

Fords, from the Mahwah assembly line, fill the factory's parking lot. passes next to both Ford landfills. After joining VII Ringwood Brook, the widened stream wends its way Although it was apparent six years ago that water towards the Wanaque Reservoir. was flowing through the landfills and that chemical Spink investigated this stream above and below the seepage was already occurring, no official follow-up disposal site. He concludes concisely: took place. The documents and studies only served to ' 'It would appear that contamination of the main confound the fears—not to augment action. stream is presently occurring from the old Peter's Mine The Chairman of the Wanaque Reservoir and from the Ford landfill." Commission, the body that oversees the water supply for Evidence of surface dumping also appears in Spink's all of Ringwood and the surrounding area, said he tried survey. Describing an area approximately 1500 feet to bring the threat of pollution at the mines to the northeast of Peter's Mine, he writes: attention of the DEP. ' 'Ford Motor Company dumped paint over.. .two "We knew the possibility of water pollution coming acres. (The area now has) the appearance of ropy out of that area existed, and we felt that Ford's wastes lava." might not have been disposed of properly," said Dean With this confirmation of toxic dumping on the Knoll. "We spoke with the DEP...and said that we did surface of the ground itself, not only is the percolation not think that the dumps had been operated properly. of ground water through the mines a danger, but the They said they did not think it was a problem." runoff of rainfall carrying the chemical substances also But the DEP denies having any communication with poses a threat. reservoir officials on this subject. One other relevant study was conducted in 1973. "In fact," says Richard Ghayal-Wanne, DEP Official sources remember it chiefly for its results, but Environmental Specialist, '"the first I heard about it cannot locate it in the files. It is said to have been done was when a resident complained that his water appeared by the New Jersey Health Department on mine water dirty We referred this back to the Reservoir samples. The sources say that obvious traces of arsenic, Commission since they have jurisdiction over the area.'' chromium, and lead were present in the water—all Recently, reservoir officials have begun to test more elements found in paint sludge. frequently for pollutants in stream water running out of These chemicals can prove dangerous. For instance, the mines. Results are currently inconclusive, but in arsenic, in even small amounts, is known to cause appearance and turbidity—the suspension of weakness, malaise, headaches, and weight loss; it is . particles—the water shows up on the wrong end of the considered carcinogenic over long periods. scale. For instance, appearance norms of 20 have come Toxics Dumped in the Ringwood Mines 33

amounts or specific materials dropped down the mine shafts. Only an obscure purchase order from the Ford/O'Connor file catalogues the kinds of wastes that were dumped. The purchase order directs O'Connor to haul and dispose of, in 55 gallon metal drums, the following: paper, IBM cards, cardboards, wood skids, tools, wires, garbage, floor sweepings, paint sludges, scrap parts, and packing materials. That list is the sole accounting of Ford's actions as waste depositor in Ringwood. In addition, no government records covering that period exist. In New Jersey, registration requirements for dump sites did not begin until 1970, and the current law only requires a general description of what will be disposed of, such as household, commercial or industrial wastes. Amount or specific chemical contents of the wastes are still not listed. Whether by design or coincidence, it was in 1970-the year even limited registration began—that Ford got out of the business of operating their own dump. That year Ford donated 290 acres of land, including Peter's Mine "...the Ford Motor Company dumped paint over an area and Cannon Mine, to the Ringwood Solid Waste of about 2 acres giving the appearance of ropy lava...." Management Authority (RSWMA), a five member non- profit agency, appointed by the Ringwood Mayor and ' 'This area is closed and needs a final cover. Council, formed to operate local landfills. And by the Promiscuous dumping of all types of items is in evidence end of 1971, Ford had ceased its dumping in Ringwood. over a wide area." The report was filed and no follow-up was done. VI The second document is more telling; it identifies In 1973 the first indication of state and local Ford as the "promiscuous" waste dumper, and environmental concern appeared. DEP sources say that describes the beginnings of a water purity decay cycle during that year there was a growing suspicion that the emanating from the mines. amounts and types of pollutants—paint sludges and oil The report was prepared by Walter J. Spink, a solvents—that Ford dumped could possibly be consulting geologist, at the request of Pandullo, significant and could damage the area's water supply. It Chrisbacher, and Associates of Wayne, New Jersey. was felt that water might percolate vertically through the Pandullo was hired by the RSWMA to design a 10 acre refuse piles and broken drums in the mines. Such landfill site adjacent to the Peter's mine workings, a seepage could carry bacteria and chemicals through the landfill that was never completed. Copies of the report subsoil and into the ground water, eventually to were found in DEP files. contaminate the springs. In his introduction, Spink identifies Peter's Mine as a Two documents, recording observations based on former dump for the Ford Motor Company, Mahwah 1973 official field work, express the mounting plant. He says that in an interview with William Van uneasiness. One is a routine report by the DEP, and the Dunk, who operated the Ford landfill, it was claimed other a geologist's study initiated by the RSWMA. that no toxic materials were ever deposited, and that the The DEP report was prepared on March 19, 1973 by fill was completely covered and diked. Inspector Robert Leary. It is a disposal site termination Spink's own observations, though, appear to be at form and describes the condition of Peter's Mine. odds with Van Dunk. He writes: Handwritten in ink at the bottom of the report—which ' 'A small breach in the dike (has occurred and it) otherwise gives the mine a clean bill of health-is a note appears to have carried leachate to a nearby stream." that is cryptic both in its terminology and lack of The stream that Spink is referring to is Peter's Brook specific information. It reads: which drains the area where the mines were dug and

TALKING WOOD Toxics Dumped in the Ringwood Mines 35

Water in the Wanaque Reservoir, now threatened by toxic wastes from the Mahwah plant. out in these tests with numbers has high as 3,000; operators to dispose of their wastes, a spokesman said, turbidity norms of 15 have shown up as high as 300. they are acting within the law. Moreover, reservoir officials admit that although they "We have no vested interest in creating a nuisance," are testing for trace elements, they still have not been Vic Sussman of Ford says. "We are concerned with the looking for the chemicals in paint sludge, such as safe disposal of solid wastes. Each contractor must arsenic and lead. No reason was given for this. provide us with a certificate of legitimacy, and then we Meanwhile, the DEP recently organized the Toxic depend upon government agencies to insure that the Substances Program, a $450,000, three year study group wastes are deposited properly." charged with investigating old toxic dumping sites. A preliminary investigation has produced 130 candidate sites for scrutiny; in all, 20 will be selected for further IX examination. The Ringwood Mine area is currently one The question of Ford's wastes polluting the water of the 130. supply is as subtle as the evolution of the earth's rock Carl Safina, Toxic Substances Environmental formations. Specialist, described the parameters in Ringwood. Specifically, in Ringwood the bedrock is mostly "We've got a strong suspicion that there are heavy igneous and metamorphic—dense rock with a slow amounts of paint sludge, oil solvents, arsenic and permeability rate. In effect, the hard, unconsolidated chromium in those mines." giaciai deposits couid be serving as a filter at times, holding back the suspended wastes. But when the filter is weakened or movement in the ground changes a VIII formation, polluted ground water could seep through. In Ford Motor Company feels that they are not other areas with similar bedrock and a similar condition responsible for any environmental damage they may of buried toxic materials, intermittent contamination of have wrought. As long as they are using licensed the water supply has occurred.

TALKING WOOD 36 Toxics Dumped in the Ringwood Mines

Peter's Mine in Ringwood.

Isabella Drew, geology professor at Ramapo College, ""There was loose paint on dump trucks-not in 55 feels that a definite danger to the water supply exists. gallon drums. The truck would just lean back and let go She says, "Since the groundwater is moving slowly, with what it's got. It wasn't very surprising—it was just there is no telling when traces of chemicals will show up the way we came to expect it would be," one local said. in somebody's drinking water. It might not show up in His words are echoed in Washington, D.C. —but our lifetime, our children's lifetime, or even our officially there is fear and confusion. grandchildren's lifetime. (But we should be aware) of Assistant Attorney General James Moorman said the possible long term effects anyway." recently, "More than forty million tons of toxic substances are being generated every year in the United States. The trouble is we don't know where all this poison is going." This is not the story of the Love Canal. Thus far, no chemically related illnesses have been reported, household water systems have not been infiltrated with poisons, polluted air hasn't risen from the disposal shafts, no neighborhoods have been evacuated. But it is one that deserves scrutiny and bears telling. A mining community of entrenched families, wedded to a range of broad hills, and an absentee landlord from Detroit who used the forced openings in those hills to drop off his manufactured garbage—a classic conflict that has inflicted present day technological wounds. When Ringwood residents speak of the years Ford owned the land, it is with detachment. It is as if it is a given that the mines-once bloated with ore, now depleted—were always an easy place to hide anything worth hiding; someone was bound to use them as a toxic graveyard. Gishikin-pommixin Tulapit menapit tulagishatten- Nanaboush lohxin maskaboush owinimokom WALAM linowimokom. Nanabush, the Strong White One, grandfather of beings, There he was walking and grandfather of men* was on the creating, as he passed by and Turtle Island. created the turtle.

Owini linowi wemoltin, Pehella gahani pommixin, Nahiwi tatalli Amanganek Manito-dasin tulapin. makdopannek mokol-wichemap, alendyuwek Palpal payat payat metzipannek. wemichemap. Beings and men all go forth, they walk in the floods and The Manito daughter, coming, shallow waters, down stream There were many monster helped with her canoe, helped thither to the Turtle Island. fishes, which ate some of them. all, as they came and came. II\WII\\\ Wj/(((((l\ WIN 17/IIUI 11\\\i)\\w»m\w \m\m\\)w////A\\\\\M\W////l/f/^\\\\\\W/f(((lll]W(\lL

Nanaboush •/1 HI /6&Z Nanaboush M V £L"YA^D wemimokom, ^^»«^1 Winimokom 1\11U1 JLmjL6

Kshipehelen penkwihilen, Kwamipokho sitwalkho, Maskan wagan palliwi palliwi.

The water ran off, the earth dried, the lakes were at rest, all was silent, and the mighty snake departed. t "///n » Sources 37

Sources The Army Corps of Engineers is presently conducting a $12 million study of the Passaic River Basin. Their preliminary report with complete aerial photos of the Annotated bibliography for Settling the Watershed -Ed Rutsch basin in available at the following libraries: Bernard Township-Basking Ridge For anyone who wishes to read further the following books in print give very good Denville Public Library-Denville overviews of the Passaic Valley's physical and cultural make-up. Livingston Public Library—Livinston Lodi Memorial Library—Lodi Ransome, James M. Vanishing Ironworks of the Ramapos, Rutgers University Madison Public Library-Madison Press; New Brunswick, New Jersey Montclair Public Library-Montclair This book is the best overview of the New Jersey-New York highland iron industry. New Jersey Institute of Technology-Robert Van Houten Library, Newark Schubeth, Christopher J. The Geology of New York City and Us Environs, Natural Nutley Public Library—Nutley History Press; Garden City, New York 1968 Bergen Community College Library and Learning Resource Center-Paramus This book gives a good background of the region's geology and has interesting field Parsippany-Troy Hills Public Library-Parsippany Branch trips that provide the reader with a chance to visit and examine various geological Paterson Public Library -Paterson examples throughout the region. Einstein Memorial Library -Pompton Lakes Wacker, Peter Land and People, Rutgers University Press; New Brunswick, New Essex County Center for Environmental Studies-Roseland Jersey 1975 Wayne Public Library—Wayne This book gives an overview of the cultural geography of New Jersey in pre- West Milford Public Library-West Milford industrial times. Suffern Public Library—Suff era Wolfe, Peter E. The Geology and Landscape of New Jersey, Crane Russack; New Tuxedo Park Library-Tuxedo Park York, New York 1977 This book takes up where Schubeth leaves off.

Miranda

Robertson, William Spince The Diary of Francisco De Miranda, Tour of the United States, 1783-1784; New York

Long Pond

American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society 29th Annual Report; Albany, New York 1924 Bayley, William S. Iron Mines and Mining in New Jersey, Geological Survey of New Jersey, Vol. 7; Trenton, New Jersey 1910 Bookchin, Murray Post Scarcity Anarchism, Ramparts Press; San Francisco, California 1971 Boyer, Charles S. Early Forges and Furnaces in New Jersey, University of Pennsylvania Press; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1931 Buffett, E.P. Hunting Old Furnaces in the Ramapo Mountains, American Machinist; February 25, 191)4 Christie, William Wallace Some Uld-Time Water Wheels, Engineering News; December 21, 1899 Cottrell, Alden T. The Story of Ringwood Manor, Department of Conservation and Development-New Jersey; Trenton, New Jersey 1944 Goldwaite, E.G. In the Hudson Highlands, Appalachian Mountain Club; New York, New York 1945 Hewitt, Edward R. Ringwood Manor, The Home of the Hewitts; Trenton 1946 Hewitt, Edward R. Those Were the Days, Duell, Sloan and Pearce; New York, New York 1943 Lesley, J.P. The Iron Manufacturer's Guide to the Furnaces, Forges and Rolling Mills of the United Stales, John Wiley; New York, New York 1859 Nevins. Allan Abram S. Hewitt, Harper and Brothers; New York, New York 1935 North Jersey Highiap.ds Historical Society The Remarkable Case of Peter Hasenclever, Merchant, Reproduced by photo offset from the original; London, England 1773

Ringuood Manor State Park-Sloatsburg Road. Kinguood. Museum hours: 10-4 weekdays, closed Mondays. $1.00 per car. Tuesdays free. 10-4:30 weekends, $2.00 per car. Closed October 31 thru May I. Cull 962-7031 for information.

TALKING WOOD TALKING WOOD Living in the Passaic Watershed FOR REFERENCE

VOLUME 1. NUMBER I Do Not Take From This Room

WINTER 1979 Ringwood Public Library 30 Cannici Drive Ringwood, New Jersey 07456 973-962-6256

Boonton 7 BOONTON RES Parsippany - Troy

PASSAIC RIVER WATERSHED PASSAIC. THE ONLY COUNTY IN NEW JERSEY that has a native name. Passaic. Peaceful Valley.

PASSAIC:-THE RIVER. OVER TEN THOUSAND winters ago a glacier scraped this valley floor like a snowplow. It left a huge bank of deposits blocking the river's easy southern passage to the Atlantic. So the Passaic turns around, winds its way north through the wetlands and the Watchungs, taking the outflow of the Whippany and the Rockaway rivers. Twisting toward the ocean it takes the flow of the Pompton river, full with the highland waters of the Pequannock, the Wanaque, and the Ramapo. Then the river pours through the gorge at Little Falls still twisting.. .sudden downturn. The Great Falls. A full seven subbasins dropping seventy feet. Water over rock. A pure formal rendering of the figures that regulate the life of this watershed. Droplets abound like microorganisms in the soil. Billows like the shells of bog turtles. Backcurls of water like muskrat slides. Fantails appear like the sudden flight of partridge. Small pools pulse like our wrists. Water cascades through rock formations like new trees competing for sunlight in an open field. A multitudinous song, once and for all. Easy now, its song well sung, the river moves further north, makes a hairpin turn, takes on brooks with names like Goffle, Molly Ann and Diamond. Seaward now, taking Saddle River to Newark Bay where the waters move with the moon. PASSAIC:-THE WATERSHED. CATCHBASIN for rains that come chest high each time we go around the sun. The drainage area looks like a single cell animal under a microscope. There is an indentation between the headwaters of the Pequannock and the Ramapo, as if pushed in by the winter storms from the Great Lakes. There is another indentation between the headwaters of the Passaic and Newark Bay, as if the watershed were pushed in by the summer and fall thunderstorms and hurricanes from the tropics. This is no desert. There are no broad grasslands here. Here the biosphere lives in terms of its woodlands. To live in the Passaic Watershed is to live in a falling leaf forest. This woodland works with the waters. On a hot summer day a mature tree will heave a ton of water JOHN BAUMGARTNER into the air. As the sun shifts south and the trees can no longer bear their water burden, they let their leaves go as nutrient and ground cover against cloudbursts. Budding again in the spring, the trees will share the water burden with the river. Each time around the sun, leafing toward the light, letting the leaves fall. Leafing toward the sun, letting leaves fall. OVER 500 GENERATIONS of human beings lived here REENHABITTNG PASSAIC starts with a feeling for before Europeans came from across the ocean. We the combination of factors that constitute the know little of their life in this watershed. We know uniqueness of Passaic. The sense that arises at the they did not destroy the woodlands. Trees would be Great Falls:—that Paterson could be restored and killed by bark stripping to clear land for planting and learn to live a life resonate with the richness of this sometimes fire would be used. But for the most part watershed. Daydreams that come while watching the natives would wait and take only trees that were river,—daydreams of the Atlantic salmon returning standing dead and dry. Free of its water burden, the to spawn again in the Passaic. Fantasies that come wood spoke in swift flame to all the warm blooded while walking in these woodlands,—fantasies that gathered round. Talk story into the night about life in generations to come could walk here among 500 year the sun. old trees as natives once did. This feeling that comes Only twelve generations of new people have been to us when we take the time to talk with old timers here and there is serious trouble. Deforestation for the who have a sense of this place. We will publish oral iron furnaces of war, deforestation for urban history, remembrances, poetry, geology, charcoal, thousands of houses built on floodplains, photos:—anything that resonates with the firstness of wetlands abused, industries that foul habitats, housing Passaic. developments that disable the watershed, fossil fuel Secondly, we are interested in particulars. machines that pollute air and water. The habitual Specifics that tend to undo the quality and feeling destruction of this woodland watershed is catching possible here. An asbestos dump on the upper up with us. Among people living here there is a Passaic. The cluster of leukemia cases in Rutherford. growing realization of this stark fact: If we destroy Automobiles and highways that link us to a global our environment, we destroy ourselves. monoculture indifferent to place. The history of our In the face of this realization people in this region cities. This broken hearted life. That divorce. The have been making changes. There are urban areas harshness of the job economy. The brutal facts of now green with houseplants. Runners and hikers are living here. That which resists our efforts to be suddenly common sights. Outdoor photography, resonant with the life of this place. That which must organic gardening, solar energy experimentation, be struggled with. The secondness of our situation. wood burning stoves and interest in local history are Thirdly, we will work with generalizations that all on the increase. Mothers in Bloomfield have been might enable us to develop different habits,—habits in fighting for access to the river for their children. keeping with the long term biological continuities of People in the lake regions are fighting sewers and this region. We have no easy recipe. We have questioning growth. Native Americans in the questions and a strategy. Questions like how can we Ramapos are reclaiming their tradition. Voters in rethink industrialization in terms of appropiate New Jersey said "yes" to 200 million dollars for the technology? What place does native American Green Acres Program. Paterson is engaged in a tradition have in the future of this region? What is the serious program of restoration. The Passaic River maximum number of diverse species this watershed Coalition effectively blocked a huge dam project and can carry? How can we develop the positional the Army Corp must now conduct a major study of intelligence proper to this part of the planet? The flood control in full public view. People are paying strategy is a Watershed Watch open to all the people attention to the current shift in weather patterns and of Passaic. We want to understand the ways of this trying to imagine this land in long term biological watershed through a common watch so that we can continuities. There is a concern for finding roots, become fully alive as members of this biotic maintaining kinship systems and learning to live in community. We want to make peace with the life of place rather than be tossed about by the illusions of an this valley. inflating global economy. People are growing in a willingness to take part in the necessities and pleasures of life as they are uniquely presented by this watershed rather than curse this area and look for Utopia elsewhere. We see these changes as part of a process of caring for our life in this land after its disruption and injury, of taking responsibility for the habitat that we hold in common. We call this process reinhabitation. Talking Wood is about the reinhabitation of Passaic. The Iroquois of the Eastern woodlands cut their masks from living trees. If the tree died, the mask was thrown away as useless. If the tree lived, the mask held the power of the living tree and could be used in ritual to heal the people. STAFF PAUL RYAN: Editor TABLE OF CONTENTS JOHN BAUMGARTNER: Managing Editor DON DELO: Associate Editor DAVID LUBIN: Art Director PATTY ARNETT: Administrative Assistant Solid Time 6 STEVE GARRISON: Environmental Researcher BY DON DELO VERNON TREXLER: Environmental Researcher BARBARA MORGAN: Editorial Assistant ALFRED PETERSON: Editorial Assistant Rock Bottom 10 FRANKIE VAN DUNK: Editorial Assistant BY DON DELO MADELINE MORGAN: Production Manager The New York Times recently published an article EDITORIAL BOARD about possible earthquakes on the Ramapo Fault. It JOHN BAUMGARTNER DON DELO had people buzzing. Geologist Isabella Drew at JIM RYAN Ramapo College is not at all impressed by the PAUL RYAN research behind the claims, but as Don Delo found OFFICERS OF TALKING WOOD, INC. out, talking with Isabella about the geology of this FRANCESCA LYMAN region is exciting with or without the possibility of a TONI PARUTA ROY SKODNICK quake. ROB STUART NANCY ZIMMERMAN The Driller 14 CONTIBUTORS BY JIM RYAN JUDY BERG PETER BERG ISABELLA DREW A Quarry in Riverdale 15 LINN HOUSE BETHANY JACOBSON Photographs BY EVERETT PALADINI DAVID KIRKHAM ROSEKRBLL JUDITH MCLEAD Midwifery 18 ED MERRILL BY HARRIET VAN DUNK JUUET MOSELEY as told to BARBARA MORGAN NAKONI EVERETT PALADINI CLAUDE PONSOT Life as a Young Girl 19 JACK TIGER WILLIAM VAN DUNK BY MADGE MORGAN as told to BARBARA MORGAN Talking Wood is published four times a year (winter, spring, summer and fall). Editorial offices: 125 Wanaque Avenue, Pompton Lakes, N.J., 07442. Growing up in Ringwood 20 Copyright 1979, by Talking Wood. No part of the BY ALAN MORGAN AND POOCH VAN DUNK contents of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of Talking Wood. Unsolicited My family has lived in Erskine Lakes for 28 years. manuscripts of poetry, fiction, oral history, and non- For us, the area was Irish Paradise after the Bronx. fiction are welcome and encouraged. Photography and illustrations will also be considered. Submissions For the families from Ringwood, the Ramapo . should be sent to: Editors, Talking Wood, P.O. Box Mountains were home for over 300 years. In terms of 364, Pompton Lakes, N.J., 07442. Please include stamped, self-addressed envelope. reinhabitation, it makes sense to simply invite these long term inhabitants to talk as they will about life in This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor under the Comprehensive Employment and Ringwood. -P.R. Training Act through the Board of Freeholders chosen by the people of Passaic. Talking Wood believes that the task of understanding, restoring, and reinhabiting Indian Heritage 22 this woodland watershed is proper labor for people BY WILLIAM VAN DUNK living in Passaic. While the opportunity for this project as told to PAUL RYAN was provided by the Board of Chosen Freeholders, the editorial board of Talking Wood is solely responsible Growing up in the Lake Area of Ringwood, I knew the for policy and content. names Van Dunk, DeFreese, DeGroat, Mann, Talking Wood is designed and typeset at the Pompton Milligan and Morgan mainly from the baseball line- Lakes office of Talking Wood Inc. up of the first place team. Now working with Talking Cover photo of 300 year old white oak at Passaic headwaters by Rose Krell. Tree is on Oak Street in Basking Ridge. Wood, I am fascinated to see these names on a February Noon 56 Smithsonian Institute Census of Native Americans in BY JIM RYAN the eastern woodlands. Currently in the Ringwood Community there are Lost Chords 56 different opinions about the question of Indian BY LOUISE ARGIROFF identity. For the first issue of Talking Wood, we asked "Pooch" Van Dunk to speak with us. He is the Untitled 56 official Ringwood Representative on the seven BY E. DURLING MERRILL member council of the Ramapough Mountain Indians. Red Highway 57 The Indian Future 28 BY ALFRED PETERSON BY TOM BERRY Thomas Berry has spent his life in a monastic order Borne Native in San Francisco 58 studying the religious traditions of this planet. He is BY THE FRISCO BAY MUSSEL GROUP the Director of the River dale Center for Religious Watershed thinking has been slowly making its way Research on the neighboring Hudson River, and into people's minds on the east coast for the past teaches at Columbia and Fordham. seven or eight years. Pete Seeger and the Clearwater Sloop are perhaps the most visible signs of this Two Studies 36 growing awareness. On the west coast the anonymous BY E. DURLING MERRILL Frisco Bay Mussel Group has been the most visionary. Nostalgia.. 36 BY JIM RYAN Watershed Watch .insert BY PAUL RYAN To Lucy Farrell 37 The Watershed Watch will be published monthly by BY ROB STUART Talking Wood. We invite all residents ofPassaic to join us on these watches. The first one will take place Magic Place 38 in Pompton Lakes. Sites have been selected by BY TOM ANDERSON Vernon Trexler and Steve Garrison. Vernon was a scout in Vietnam in the late sixties and a student of Goin'Home 40 ecology at William Paterson in the seventies. Steve BY DON DELO Garrison, a native of Pompton Lakes, has studied forestry in Montana and Agricultural Science at 1-287 46 Rutgers. BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER

Like Accidents 52 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BY JIM RYAN Page 6- © 1969 by Loren Eiseley. Reprinted from "The Ghost Continent" in his It's crazy. Automobiles. Automobiles. So much riding volume The Unexpected Universe by permission of Haicourt, Brace Jovanovich, Inc. in motorcars has made us perceptual paraplegics. Page 10- © by Willa Cather. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Page 46- © 1978 by Neil Young. Reprinted by permission of Silver Fiddle Music We don't know the contours of the land, we don't and the author. know the waterways and we don't know the way to Grandma's house. Don Delo, John Baumgartner and Jim Ryan take some cracks at the automobile world using the tools of the writer's trade. 6 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

NASA TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 7 Solid Time BY DON DELO

Ours is certainly the most time-conscious generation only way you can learn about the land is to get out that has ever lived...We unearth obscure ancestral there and look." Her Columbia Ph.D. is available for primates, and in the motion picture "2001", watch a the pale academics who demand credentials, but her struck fragment of bone fly into the air and become a accumulating knowledge is for understanding, not space ship drifting among the stars, thus telescoping pedantic impression. in an instant the whole technological history of man. Ms. Drew is comfortable using words like till, We expect the average onlooker to comprehend the morraine and glaciation. They are the short hand of symbolism; such a civilization, one must assume, her science. But if their presence becomes awkward should show a deep veneration for the past. or prohibits understanding for those intimidated by —Loren Eiseley what sounds like elitest jargon, she changes gears and finds the common ground of familiar language. An "PICTURE THIS BASKETBALL SIZED GLOBE I'm explanation of the Ramapo Fault and continental drift holding as the sun. If someone stood down the hall becomes a two-by-four block of wood sawed on an with a ball bearing in his hand, that would represent angle in the basement of her Asbury Park hpme. She the earth. Now if someone stood in the parking lot holding a barely visible round object, we'd have asks you to imagine one gigantic land mass and no Pluto's relationship to the sun. The nearest star would Atlantic Ocean. Then she helps you see the great then be someplace between San Francisco and break of land with the gap being filled by what is now Hawaii. I tell this to each of my new classes," says the Atlantic. With the wooden blocks you see the land Isabella Drew, professor of Environmental Studies at stretching and lowering to cushion the strain of mass Ramapo College. "That way the students can start to see the emptiness of space." By quickly running through the prohibitive atmospheres of the planets in this solar system (which she describes with the familiarity, of a tourist fresh from vacation), she forces the senses to home in on our planet. "There it is," she says pointing to NASA photographs of the earth, three pictures among the many which paper her small office. Pictures of rocks, mountains and dinosaurs surround her working space with limitless memories for the geologically informed. "Ecology didn't really take hold until people saw these pictures. There it was. Our chance in the universe. A big, beautiful, fragile blue ball, two thirds water, one third land. If you eliminate the polar caps and other uninhabitable land masses," she explains matter of factly, "You're left with fractions of one third for all the people of the world to live on and live off." Her office is alive with rocks that Isabella can personalize like a proud mother showing gold framed portraits of her family. As she moves from rock to rock her long, pony tailed, gray hair whips about. Her hair, jeans, and crew neck sweater (muted earth tones) are not pretentions of youth, but the working clothes reality of a vitally mature individual. "The PATTY ARNETT 8 TALKING WOOD, Winter 10™ movement, and the fault comes clear as stretch marks exclusive. Her feel for time in the millions and from the birth of a continent. billions of years makes her less afraid of it and adorns Isabella is annoyed by the questions of the Ramapo her with an infectious freshness. Her teaching Fault's current danger. Her mind is most interested by experience has taught her that plain language what we know and has little time for those who enjoy detoxifies the deadly tongue scientists, not interested creating backyard Bermuda Triangles in an attempt to in communicating ideas, use on turned off students. obscure the wonder workings of nature. She's With drawings, pictures, body language and words prepared a neatly dittoed sheet explaining the last Isabella projects her often animated vision of the past twelve incidents of alleged quakes along the Ramapo. onto a screen of layman plausibility. "I like to shrink "This fault, formed at least 200 million years ago, all of time into one year to show modern man has not been active during the recent geologic past. appearing for the first time on earth fifteen minutes The area immediately to the east of it has, however, before midnight on December 31." She teases you been the site of several minor tremors. This activity into feeling the brevity of man's existence, so you can probably constitutes only minor readjustments in the begin to wander through the woods with perspective. earth's crust, comparable to the cracking that "In Passaic County there are dinosaur footprints. In develops in an old building as it settles." one spot they found many tiny marks which they've determined to be a nest, and the marks were made by The fault talk sets Isabella off on a journey her the scurrying of baby dinosaurs," she says as her quick eyes turn inside to see. Before long the fingers dance to imitate the play of infants. incomprehensible millions of square miles of glacial movement is as clear as ice cubes in the freezer. Her Passaic is not houses, cities, roads and neon signs. belief in scientific discovery as fact transports the These easily recognizable objects are what man's listener to a time when the Ramapos were as high as done to the valley. If a personality breaks into the the Tetons, and mighty mountain rivers were carving music or movie scene, fans fight for background paths through rock waiting for mile high movements information, facts of birthdates, hometowns and of ice to round off peaks and strew endless patterns of schooling. An interest in cars, stamps or art inevitably rock debris about for science to piece together leads to a look into history. Geology is the history. background material, the history of the land that so many claim to love. Too much, too fast has stripped Isabella Drew often overlooks the political us of the feeling of belonging. Only a hundred years boundaries of cities, states and countries. She sees the ago most Americans were hunters, fishers, fanners world divided into bioregions determined by natural and gatherers and had a keen sense of the value of tree-rock-water distribution. A map of the east coast land. Isabella Drew's science rekindles this natural translates into fall lines, glacial periods and natural peace. Though her mind can take vivid journeys ports. Her train ride to work each morning, from across land masses in space, her feet are grounded Asbury Park to Mahwah, takes her from coastal plain here, on land she speaks of as "precious." to piedmont to highlands. She vibrates an enthusiasm that says what she's learned is essential to know. It's not to pass tests or to be charming at parties, but to ensure future life on earth. When confronted with the hourglass-shaped limits of Passaic County outlined on a map, she sees four and half billion years of rock history that can be studied. The mountains, streams and woodlands which too many citizens are determined to hide or explode away tell her spectacular stories of where we've been and frightening warnings of where we've headed. Precambrian, Paleozoic and Mesozoic work for Isabella, but she senses these words may be TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 9

RAMAPO FAULT: HISTORY

As North America tore apart from Africa Erosion was attacking the fault scarp even and Europe to form the Atlantic Ocean as it developed, carving it into a series of (about 190 to 200 million years ago), a fault block mountains similar to today's series of faults developed along the entire Grand Tetons. Eastern seaboard. The eastern block of Earth's crust slid down past the western portion at a steep angle for a distance of about 10,000 feet.

Today, the mountains have worn down to About 1 to 2Vi million years before the end the 1.5 billion-year-old core of granite and of sedimentation in the Newark Basin, lava gneiss which forms the roots of the flowed out through fissures to form the Appalachian Mtns. layer of basalt rock known as the First Watchung (Garrett Mtn., High Mtn.). About 250,000 to 500,000 years later, another flow produced the Second Watchung (Preakness Mt.). After another 600,000 to 1 ¥i million years, another flood of basalt produced the Third Watchung (Packanack Mtn., Hook Mtn.). io TALKING WOOD, winter 1979

JOHN BAUMGARTmR TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 11 Rock Bottom BY DON DELO

"We come and go but the land is always here and the —THE EARTH HAD ONLY ONE BIG LAND people who love and understand it are the people, to MASS, NO CONTINENTS, NO COUNTRIES, NO whom it belongs for a little while." PEOPLE. -Willa Gather —MILLIONS OF YEARS CAUSED SPLITS, MILLIONS MORE ALLOWED OCEANS TO FILL THE SPLITS, CONTINENTS WERE BORN. NO WHILE DRIVING THROUGH BEAUTIFUL, downtown PEOPLE. Paterson in a 1978, padded, air-conditioned, stereod, —THE PASSAIC RIVER (long before it was named) horseless carriage, it's easy to forget where you are. ROARED THROUGH MOUNTAINS AND Ninety percent of what you see is man made, and as CARVED HILLS AND FLATLANDS ALONG THE the thinking animal, you can be proud. It's easy to NORTH EAST COAST OF THIS NEWLY forget the earth beneath the city. It's easy to ignore FORMED CONTINENT. NO PEOPLE. how that earth got there. It's easy to forget that only a —TWO THOUSAND FEET OF ICE (glacier) couple hundred years ago the city was trees, rocks, MOVED OVER, THROUGH AND AROUND THIS hills and rivers. It's especially easy to forget in AREA, DAMMING THE PASSAIC RIVER, Paterson because it's the first formally industrialized FORCING IT NORTH, FORMING A GIANT LAKE city in America. Urbanization is what brought people IN THE MORRISTOWN AREA. NO PEOPLE. off the farms, away from the soil and into the city. —THE GLACIER RECEDED, THE GROUND Urbanization lit up the night, hiding the sky, allowed BENEATH ACTUALLY REBOUNDED SEVERAL man to move away from fresh water supplies, made FEET IN RELIEF, THE LAKE DRIED UP him believe he had the right to level nature and made LEAVING FERTILE, FLAT INHABITABLE him forget. It's easy to forget, but it's not wise. LAND. THE RIVER CONTINUED TO FLOW NORTH OVER THE GREAT FALLS. STILL NO There are those who are determined not to forget, PEOPLE. who fear forgetting threatens our survival. They've —FOR THE NEXT 10,000 YEARS THE RIVERS amassed a two billion year story of what was FLOWED AND OVERFLOWED, TREES GREW, happening to this earth long before any human placed ANIMALS LIVED, A RHYTHM WAS CREATED. his foot on it. Not some slip-shod, story book, fairy —PEOPLE FINALLY ARRIVED. tale, but a careful accumulation of solid rock evidence. Not to make us feel the gaps in our What do you think? Unbelievable? No. Incredible? education, but to make us feel where we live, to Yes. But there are clearly visible marks made by make us remember. glacial movement on top of High Point (elev. over Just for a moment, stop progress. Turn around and 1900 ft.), and many of the loose rocks and boulders look back. Let this thought roll through your mind: found here are originally from points north, and this THE REST OF THE WATGHUNG MOUNTAINS entire continent is still moving west a little more all ARE IN NORTHERN AFRICA. the time, and so on, and so on, and so on. What happens when you read such a thought? You So what? can ignore it. That's easy. You can say it ain't so. Somehow certain sections of this globe rose from That's easy. Or, you can let your mind ride. You can the sea, dried off and became inhabitable. Because of feel the fresh air of an expanding thought. You can the trees, rocks, water, ice, wind and sun, life was feel your brain smile attempting to fathom the work possible. All animals learned to live according to of billions of years despite the brevity of human life. what this land permitted. Human beings followed Keep looking back. Bombard your mind: suit. The Egyptians understood the Nile would overflow and realized it had to for them to exist. The 12 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

American Indians worshipped the land, because they years of living without us, the earth invited us to were grateful to be a part. The original white settlers exist. If we cannot live within its guidelines, it will who came to America gave thanks for being allowed watch us fade like dinosaurs and continue on its way. to live on a piece of earth so conducive to the support Despite our attempts to forget, we are a part of a of human life. But it's changed. whole. Attempting to destroy something you're a part of is simply suicide. In Northern New Jersey the land is sufficient to support about fifty people per square mile, or about three quarters of an acre should be available for each Getting In Touch person. Nineteen hundred people per square mile are using the land in the Passaic River Basin. All the fresh water in the world could be held in a Overcrowding forces us to ignore our place, our container 30 miles wide by 30 miles long by 30 miles natural coexistence with nature. We decided to step deep. out of the natural order and take over. Billions of years of earth history watches us, laughs at our The remainder of the Watchung Mountains can be juvenile pretension, then spanks us good. found in Northern Africa. We pat ourselves on the back for having the perseverance to build a dam, then construct homes Mt. Everest rises five miles into the sky. There's a beneath the dam. The river, which has persevered for trench in the Pacific Ocean seven miles deep. Yet the a million years patiently eliminates the dam, then the Earth is so vast that the twelve mile climb from lowest houses. We build homes over filled swamps and are to the highest point is as negligible as a slight outraged when they sink. We hang a house over the indentation on the smooth surface of a billiard ball. ocean and feel cheated when the ocean washes it away. We build cities on fault lines and pity ourselves The Earth is four and a half billion years old. when the earth cracks. We build on flood plains, then demand the floods be eliminated. North America moves west three to four centimeters a "There are no geologic hazards, only people living year, or about the length and speed of growing in the path of geologic events." After billions of fingernails.

ERWIN J. RAISZ TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 13

the earthchase runs wide — from footpath to roadbed and back again

only the sun sees back alleys stranded on the landscape

JOHN BAUMGARTNER

NASA 14 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

THE DRILLER

A lick of flame on the bare rock in his red rainslicker, the driller quakes as though with rage, the pneumatic drill pounding and hammering in like a crazed beak hungry for sweet secret morsels. The bit sticks. He tugs on it between his legs, stalls, dips a cup into a puddle and pours water on the smoking shaft. Free, it's a lance taller than he is that he leans on to rest before planting dynamite under covers of woven cable.

JIM RYAN

DEANNA FOSTER TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 15 A Quarry in Riverdale PHOTOGRAPHS BY EVERETT PALADINI 16 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 17 18 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 Midwifery

BY HARRIET VAN DUNK as told to BARBARA MORGAN

"MY MOTHER STARTED TO BE A MID-WIFE 1925 igain. The last baby Ma delivered was the end of through 1958. In that time she brought 914 babies in 1961, by that time Ma was 73 years old." the world, never lost one through normal delivery. "Ma had eleven children of her own. Dr. Shippee She worked throughout this area with the help of Dr. and Dr. Hubble delivered Ma's babies. Ma got four Meyers, who lived in Haskell, New Jersey." children left. I remember Ma used to go out if "She got started in mid-wifery through Dr. anybody was sick, and stay with them all night if William Meyers, because the hospital was far away necessary. I also remember Ma used to lay out the for the women to get to. Also they didn't have the dead. Ma showed me how to lay out dead people." money to pay the hospital bill. So when the women "Ma also worked at the poultry house. Ma also would go into labor, their husbands would come and showed me and taught me how to deliver babies. That get Ma. Ma would stay until they had their baby. She was in 1947. I delivered babies right here in would cut and tie the umbilical cord, clean and dress Ringwood, New Jersey. I delivered seven babies." them and made the mother comfortable, then she "I met a woman not long ago that I delivered a would leave. From then on the women could take baby for. She told me, this is the girl that you care of themselves." delivered for me, now she has a baby of her own." "Sometimes the doctor would be there and if he "I wish Ma was living yet. She could tell you a lot thought they needed hospital attention he would send more. She died last year at the age of 91. There used them down to St. Joseph Hospital. At that time the to be a couple of other women who used to deliver ambulance had to come from Pompton Lakes. Ma got babies here in Ringwood, before Ma got started, but I sick and had to give up delivering babies for a while. don't remember their names." Then Ma got better and started to deliver babies

MUNICIPALITY OF TALKING WOOD. Winter 1979 19 Life as a Young Girl

BY MADGE MORGAN as told to BARBARA MORGAN

"As A YOUNG GIRL, I remember that my father sold PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BRENDA DE GROAT candy, gum, peanuts, bananas, soda and ice cream. Poppy sold candy and things long before I was born, and up until he died. He also repaired shoes for the Hewitt's hired hands. Before he started selling candy and soda, etc. he told me he worked in a sort of blacksmith shop, also owned by the Hewitts. "The Hewitts were very good to us children in Ringwood. In November when the Hewitts went to New York for the winter, they brought back beautiful material for us girls to make clothes with. Then we would have an exhibition for all of the things that we made during the school years." "The schoolhouse still stands on the hill where us girls and boys went to school. We also made rugs on a loom." "Each kid would receive a cornucopia. In the cornucopia was an orange, one pound of peanuts and stick candy. The Hewitts gave sleds and different prizes for the things that each of us made in sewing, crochet and wood shop." "They also taught us girls, 13 years and up to make homemade bread. We would go down to the teacher's house in the morning and put our yeast to soak. Then we would mix the bread dough. When it was all finished, us girls would receive two loaves of bread and six rolls. My sister and me won first prize for the best homemade bread. The prize was we each received a baking set, bread board and rolling pin." pork barrels which were plentiful." "Some winters, the Hewitts would stay up in "World War I came and Miss Hewitt let some of Ringwood. Miss Sarah Hewitt would tell us children us women work for her in the summer, taking care of not to go on the ice and to be careful." the vegetable garden. Hoeing beets, green beans and "I grew up and married a man from Ringwood, he etc., we also raked leaves. I enjoyed working for the worked on the farm. The Hewitts were very good to Hewitts." the hired hands. One year, she gave each hired hand a "Some of the men worked for the Hewitts in the barrel of flour. Another year, she gave each man Cow Barn feeding and taking care of them. They also twenty heads of cabbage. The way they preserved the milked them. In the later years one of the hired hands cabbage in the winter was to bury it with the stems went over to the Dairy House where he made butter sticking up so they could find it. The people had their for the Hewitts." own gardens. We had very bad winters, but we didn't "One of the men worked in the chicken house worry about food, because people had their own feeding and taking care of the chickens and gathering gardens so they canned their fruit and vegetables. the eggs for the Hewitts. I can't think of anything else People also had pigs, which they killed (slaughtered). right now, but if anything comes to my mind I'll talk The people preserved the meat by salting it down in to you again." 20 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 Growing up in Ringwood

BY ALAN MORGAN AND POOCH VAN DUNK

POOCH: "WE USE TO GO PICKING BERRIES, wildberries, blackberries, guttenberries, crabapples; even cowslips. A lot of people say, what's good about them, but you could flour and oil them and it taste better than spinach. Same way with snaps, right? You take your snaps, my God, our parents when it comes time to cook them up; a mess of snaps or dandelions or stuff like that...cook it up and the smell of bread and pies baking and everything like that. Their pies were made from natural foods, no canned stuff from the stores and stuff. Cause our parents didn't believe in them in those days. Wildberries and apples, you name it and it was there. This time of year, you walk by and smell the chili sauce and stuff cooking. Go out and get a bag of hickory nuts; make sure you had a lot of nuts into the house during winter, cause that was a big thing sitting around talking and cracking hickory nuts, yea, walnuts. I was just lucky cause I just found a butternut tree. I swear to God where that butternut tree is maybe about a couple feet off the road. I'd be getting butternuts off it like crazy, I remember by your mother's house years ago and oh, his mother, Madge....my God; I don't think there was ever a night that that woman didn't have a crowd of us kids there, and I never heard her tell the kids that you got to go or anything like that. She would tell you when it was time to go home and go to bed, she'd tell, but we knew this was our gathering place, her house." "That was it, yea, making ice cream down around the rock cut, Mine Pond, breaking ice and carting it home to make homemade ice cream sitting around an old pot belly stove something like that." ALAN: "A pot of coffee on the stove. Everybody around here would say "well it was the best darn coffee in Ringwood"; that's living, you don't get that kind of thing." POOCH: "...Just like Bob's mother when we were young, we would go out into the woods and get our deer; her mother, oh her mother could make homemade bread. We start frying deer meat, but her TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 21 father said well you boys, gotta go out into the woods something. You was outside, they never keep you in and get your wood and cut it. We got in the woods, the house. The boys mostly was in the woods." get a big pile of wood, kindling wood, she had baked POOCH: "We had blacksmiths. My grandfather was a bread. We had a stove burning all night long frying blacksmith. His father was a blacksmith and her deer meat. She'd holler downstairs, leave one loaf for grandfather was a blacksmith. Uncle Willie got some us. All night long, her brothers and I would sit there tools that Grandpa made." eating deer meat and playing pinochle. All night long. You know the part about it in them days is, I ALAN: "One of the biggest parts when the mine was don't think any kid had the time to get themselves in operating, they tampered and soldered the ends; hand trouble cause they come home, they had to get wood. welding. You know them days are gone. I would like You had chores to do. You had to help your father, to see what happened here. Blacksmith trade is a rare you go into the woods, you cut your wood. I know as trade today and it's a big money maker. What I would long as I can remember, there was never a piece of like to see is some of our kids get interested in wood stolen from anybody. You went in the woods something like that, and whether they want to do it and somebody had wood laying up against the tree, for a trade or not, at least they'll know something of you never took nobody's wood. I still think there are what went on. All right, like our girls learned the way pieces standing up against the tree today, that nobody that their grandmothers done it. Hey, this is how we ever touched them. Cause that would be one of the use to can years ago. Canning is a big thing that's biggest crimes you could ever commit." coming back, and learn them these things. They say like, like she is doing talking to the older people ALAN: "We use to go house to house, so if we learning about the medicine cures. Learn our kids wanted to play, we'd cut his wood, then we go help about the medicine cures. I remember if you cut Ron and Les cut their wood and they're all done, so yourself years ago, they put a bunch of cobwebs right we got time to play. Helping one another." on it." For a bloody nose, you take a piece of brown POOCH: "YOU know another tradition, you never paper bag and roll it and push it up under your upper borrowed nobody else's ax. His father, Alan's father, lip and it would stop a nose bleed." use to make ax handles, hammer handles and all that POOCH: "YOU know Ringwood is deep in tradition in stuff." history. It's something you're never going to take ALAN: "Yea, you know that's the thing I'm saying away from Ringwood. I think that Ringwood needs has died out, the only one that I know does it now is should be one of the towns that really should dig into Kenneth. Years ago, when Uncle Pete and all and history, don't skip over us people, let's get to know your father, they sold things like that." these people. Like I said, we've been here maybe 300 "They made it out of special wood, they knew to 400 years. Hey, here they are, you know, you want their wood; black walnut. They go get it, split it and to see die original people of Ringwood, here they are. then let it dry. He would take his chisels and all his Like I said very few townspeople can come up and little tools and make gun stocks for the fellows and say here is the original Ringwood people. The same hammer handles and stocks and everything else." way, you know like you talking down here, your Mousy makes gunstocks, he's the only one who took brother Ken knows, what they're talking about, after daddy. In them days, if you went to school, you rebuilding the old house around here. And when we wasn't in the house. Either you was out doing was fighting the authority about housing, the biggest turnout was 300 to 400 people from over the lakes, they fought our cause with us." ALAN: "We had the borough hall packed. It shocked us to know for a fact that these people were with us." "Really it was a big lift to see all these people were on our side." 22 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 Indian Heritage BY WILLIAM VAN DUNK as told to PAUL RYAN

NAME William Van Dunk PAUL: HOW do you see Cohen's book in terms of the NICKNAME Pooch identity of the people? POOCH: "Put it back, the man was telling lies to the INDIAN NAME people. He wanted to get a thesis going, getting credits for his college education. Then after he wrote the book [The Ramapo Mountain People by David Cohen] he found out that the book was about this guy "...This was like a meeting area, like the crossroads who has to do with the sentencing of prostitutes. You of tribes, all the tribes meeting here in the mountains, know it was as good as saying our grandmothers and and that was how most people identified with us. We them were whores. He's saying that there was no had talked to some other Indians and they claim, Indians around, that our people could mix with; ' 'Here you people on the mountain can identify with Hessians or anything like this, which we know, there mostly all the tribes. They were here." were Indians around or maybe some of our people did —Pooch Van Dunk mix with slaves, maybe some of our people mixed PAUL: YOU mentioned a letter sent to the Tribal with Hessians all right. But when he gets out and Council asking about the Indian identity of the people says, Well I could find the black, but I can't find the in the Ramapoughs. others, that's cause he don't actually want to check. He goes into the Dutch Reform Church in New York, POOCH: "There was a letter sent asking about it, talking about it. Cause at that time they doubted very he finds us there. If we were slaves, how come? much, like they didn't want to recognize the people Slaves wasn't allowed to go to Church? They wasn't here with Indian heritage. And they got the tribe to even allowed to have a vote, so how come there's our send the letter back saying "Welcome Home Long peoples names in the Dutch Reform Church in New Lost Brothers". So they recognized us and what was York? And he started you know getting on that happening, that no one recognized us. You know they Jackson White thing. And then he started naming want you to use that name, Jackson White, which I Jackson Blacks, you know, he tried to sell a book don't think is the name." instead of doing what he was suppose to do. That's all. It just was no good." "Right now, we're recognized by mostly all the tribes and even when they went to Washinghton, just "They claim some old sea captain named Jackson lately when the Indians had their demonstration, or had started the whole thing and .. .1 went to the library whatever you want to call it in Washington, the in Ringwood where they have a good source of people were recognized with open arms. A lot of information and the only thing that I come up with people say, well you don't have long hair, braids and was Colonel Jackson or Sgt. Jackson and saying that, all that and high cheekbones and a reddish color that's you know, during the revolutionary war, at that time what most people identify an Indian with. But, you the soldiers came in and confiscated all gardens of could meet different Indians from different sections food and this sergeant and colonel were feeding the and no two tribes ever look alike." people. People were coming out of the mountains, "The Smithsonian gives you all the tribes names, locations of the tribes, and I was surprised when I first seen it, you know, you seeing your name like North Eastern tribes, like I said, your DeGroat, DeGrot, DeVries or DeFreese, Mann or Van Dunk. They're your North Eastern tribes." they were feeding them. All right, like some light- skin people which you see around here is various, blondes, redheads, whatever you want to see, come out and the first thing they start calling them Jackson people; and all of a sudden, like I said, the light-skins come out, ok, here's the Jackson's Whites. According to that manuscript that's the way it got started...and they come out with some other stuff saying, oh the mountain people by intermingling and marriage and all that stuff, they got six fingers, six toes, some got twelve fingers and all that and that we were really messed up. But you know you find out that you're as normal as anybody else."

PAUL: With Talking Wood we're trying to figure out how to live in a place for a long time and its obvious in terms of this place that the mountain people have lived here longer than anybody.

POOCH: "Yeah, 300 to 400 years you're talking about.There were periods of time that we were trying to be pushed out and during the war, World War II, they were thinking about making this a reservation. This was that important then, they were thinking about fencing it in." "They recognized us then, back in the '40's, what we were. All of a sudden it pops up, you know, saying oh no...you know why doesn't the government...it's a shame we have a good government in a way, but our government doesn't recognize the native Americans whatsoever. They don't want to recognize us. They're not a first class citizen, a first class citizen, a lot of their rights have been violated. Now the Indian movement's gonna start what we've involved with and I'm a part of the Indian movement."

CLAUDE PONSOT "The OPEC nations asked the Indian tribes to join. This was at one of our council meetings. And the tribes were thinking about, as far as I could find out, and they were thinking about it. And their government says you can't have a nation within a nation but it will give them something to think about as far as the OPEC nations saying to the Indians, 'We got money to back you.' Your Indian names are 100% American. I don't think we would ever do anything like that. We would be selling down the country that was here first." "I always believe what the older folks say because we always talk about somebody else's problem, take care of your own first. We got people starving to death here for a long time. And they say, like your Indian tribes is most suicidal and alcoholism. You never hear too much about narcotics. But who's the blame for it? Instead of educating the tribes to the part about it, they're just making tribes, keeping them ignorant for the fact that they don't want them to know anything." "When they had that trouble out west; what was that? Wounded Knee? The Indians wasn't wrong, cause he was fighting for what belonged to him." "All right, in Mahwah, they got something going where the kids are taught their heritage all right. Now they know something about themselves and they're proud about themselves, what they are. But here in Ringwood I don't know, once we get it going into the school systems I don't think there will be any problems here either. Our problem here is you got TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 25 some concerned parents and you got some that will being a chief by his deeds. The popularity is amongst say well, I'll go along for the ride. You know you the tribes, like if I'm elected chief, this is true can't always have them agree with you everytime you because I'm popular and in battle I accomplished a lot do something. But you have got some concerned of things, and that's the way it is. He does not carry people here and I think you know, once this heritage the power a lot of people thought a chief would carry, is taught into our school systems...some of our he was just like the spiritual leader." children have it rough into our school system right "Just like if I come in and raided your tribe. I now. Not that the students have it, but the teachers •don't care what kind of war it is, there's gonna be a cause it. A teacher had told my daughter; you know certain amount of killing. Like I told you, like I the kids say around here 'I'm a blackfoot and I'm would keep you for a while then I would have the wild', just a saying you know, just, God, I guess the right to adopt you into the tribe. But if you had done teacher didn't like it and asked my daughter, she like some misdeed, then you would go through the asked my daughter how do you know that you're torture rites. The women did that. In the movies you Indian? And I told my daughter tell the teacher I'll always see the braves dancing around a big fire, come to school and tell her, if she wants me to. Man, right? The women are the ones responsible for the this is what we got to do into our school system to torture. Women play a major role in the tribal have somebody go into our school systems, let the customs. She's the one who can kick you out, you other students know who we are for the fact that they don't own nothing. The only thing a brave owns is can just point back and say, well we have people in what he has on his back, everything else belongs to our town who have been around for 300 to 400 years, the women. His job is to make sure the food's who knows they're from here. You know it ain't easy coming in, when the food's in, then she takes over." to go to a town and point it out and say well these "Since I have been into the Indian movement, I people have been here 300 to 400 years. That's one feel good for the fact that I finally found out who I thing Cohen did do. He found out that we were am. You know you could run around through a around in the 1600's." lifetime and not know who you are. You think you "Like I say that even if they have an Indian know, but you don't know who you really are until Instructor come in, all right, it's educational wise, somebody wakes you and says, here you are, what right? That's history. Come in and get time into the are you going to do? I think everybody in their school system to let our children, go into class and lifetime should know who they are. Like our children learn about themselves to learn about drums, how the should know who they are. I put it this way, maybe women made pottery and everything. Cause the some of us are a little late...we know who we are women were the main source of any Indian tribe. now, we're a little late of doing things for our own You know they talk about women's liberation, the immediate self, (but we can do it for our children and Indian women were the most powerful there was for our grandchildren. To make sure that they don't have the fact that she could strip a brave down, an Indian to be satisfied like we were, because we were taught woman could strip a brave down and make him to be satisfied.) When I see them on television the nothin'...they call it taking away his horns." cowboys chasing the Indians, I used to say, 'catch 'em'. Now, I say look at them son-of-a-bitches. And PAUL: Why did they do that? a lot of tribes right now, the ones I have talked to, POOCH: "Just the power of the women. In an Indian they don't let their children watch certain pictures on tribe when you marry, you didn't marry into your television. When it comes down to anything that deals family, you married into her family. The same way with racial problems, maybe they'll let them watch with the chief. Now a lot of people say, well the chief some of them not only with the Indian but with is the most powerful. It's not so. A chief accounts for anybody's racial problems, they don't want their children to know about it. The only thing they want their children to know is how to go about correcting the wrong. You know you got your own problems and sometimes you got to deal with other people's problems. Just like your Bureau of Indian Affairs. That's one of the rottennest outfits there is. They ain't done nothing and they ain't never going to do nothing.. .1 remember reading a book long back where 26 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 the Indian agent how he had robbed the Indians out of stuff." "The land when it was coming to the court, the Indian had to stay outside, he wasn't allowed in the courtroom. So what happened? Anytime you go to court, you can't represent yourself, the man in the court wins the case. So I got a feeling this is what happened years and years ago. Happened around here like I say. In that book, Cohen wrote, like all right, there's a Tappan Zee patent, there were farms belonging to different people of our ancestors. How come like if you go down South, man owns a farm it can trace that back to the beginning. Cause a farmer don't move; you go upstate New York, you can find the same thing. This man had this farm years upon years where his ancestors once were, so how come in this central part, in the Tappan Zee patent, that these people have farms and crops and apple trees and pear trees and fruit' trees; all of a sudden they moved. Cohen never said that, what caused them to move. The way he put it in his book, they're lazy. That's the way I read the book. That they're lazy people, I'll sell the property out to you so I don't have to work no more. In them days, a man had to work his land for the fact that's what he had to depend on to eat." "My sister's suppose to eventually bring this Indian chief down, Thunder Cloud, Chief Thunder Cloud that's what his name is. He has an old old book and in the book it has what your name, like what the meaning of your name is. and what he does, all right, like us right now we carry the white man's name. That if you want he would give you your Indian name. And what's happening is what he's doing for a lot of people. And they say all right I'll live with my white man's name, but I want my own true name."

Pooch Van Dunk is the official Ringwood Representative on the seven member council of the Ramapough Mountain Indians. He is taking part in a recent initiative that has registered. 1100 members from Ringwood, Mahwah and Hillburn as native Americans. By the 1980 census, the tribe expects to have over 3000 people on tribal roll. With support from H.E.W., the Ramapoughs sponsor an educational program to bring awareness of their culture to both Indians and non-Indians and to reclaim their native American heritage. Interested parties can contact Judith McLead, Native American Cultural and Educational Program; do the Board of Education: 40 Malcon Road; Mahwah, N.J. 07430; 201-529-5750. TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 27 28 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL fflSTORY TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 29 The Indian Future BY TOM BERRY

THE INDIAN PEOPLES OF this hemisphere will soon be too exclusive a commitment to the white man's ending their first five centuries of contact with the values, his life style, and his sense of superiority. The European peoples who have been occupying this very structure of his technological civilization region of the world since the early sixteenth century. prevents him from communicating in depth with the While there was a certain historical inevitability in native peoples. this meeting, no adequate interpretation of this event There does exist, however, a widespread awareness is yet available. It remains, however, one of the most that the Indian on this continent has a significant significant events in the total history of the earth. At place in the historical and cultural development of first glance it was pure tragedy on one side, man. Survival and development within his own unmeasured gain on the other. But this is too simple a cultural traditions concerns not only the Indian; it view. The final score is not yet in. Just now there is a concerns the other peoples of this continent, as well deeply tragic aspect on the human level for all as the human community itself. It concerns the concerned. destinies of the universe. The effects of this meeting have varied in South If we assume that the Indian peoples have such America, in Mexico and Central America, in the significance, it is all the more important that the other United States, in Canada. If the Spanish, Portuguese, peoples of this continent develop attitudes that will French, English, and Dutch were the earliest to make the next five centuries a creative period for the occupy the North American continent, the other Indian. It is especially important that the Euroamerian peoples of Europe came later. Peoples from Africa develop confidence in the extensive human resources were brought here. Then came the peoples of Asia. that are available to these original inhabitants of this Among all these peoples the Indian maintains his continent. If we have broken their rhythm of unique status as the original dweller in this region of development it is important that we assist in recovery the world. He has this position of honor, however, of this rhythm. Only if we recognize and appreciate not merely by his temporal priority but by his this rhythm will we be able to step aside to let the mystical understanding and communion with the deeper qualities of the tradition develop from within. continent. The continent itself and the living beings A first duty of the white man in relation to the upon it were safe and the Indian secure until the Indian is to see that the Indian has the land, the invasion took place. Since then the continent with its resources, and the independence needed to be rivers and valleys, its mountains and plains, has been himself. This involves radical abandonment of the exploited with all the violence that modern science policy of assimilation. To do this requires much of and technology could summon. The Indian tribes the white man because of his compulsive saviour have suffered to hold on to their territory and to instincts. He takes up the burden of saving others maintain their way of life. From being one of the even when in fact he is destroying them. The freest peoples who ever lived, they have become one religious personalities from the European culture have of the most confined, culturally as well as physically. been especially limited in their ability to see the Even so there have been renewals within the Indian profound religious and spiritual qualities of the Indian traditions. Within this century, after the decline in the traditions. European-derived peoples have 19th century, new strengths have developed, numbers consistently had difficulty in communicating with have increased, cultural expression has expanded, others within a shared human context. They have political competence has grown. Yet the aggression of tended to confer salvation—whether political, social, the Euroamerican against the Indian and his territory economic, or religious—and have resisted continues, directly and in more subtle ways. incorporating the resources offered by others into Extensive efforts of many Euroamericans to improve their own process of becoming. the situation remain ineffective because there is still The present discussion is directed to the 30 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

Euroamerican in the hope that if he understands That his deeds were done for sacred purposes and something of the human resources of the Indian he with the highest cultural intentions is an irony that will become less an obstacle and more of a help. Our baffles any human effort at understanding. presentation is from the cultural-historical point of But even with such recognition by the white man, view. Studies of the tribal cultures of the world, of no immediate cessation of his aggressive deeds can be the more massive civilizations, of modern culture, expected. The economic and political realities of his and the prospects for the future can be a great aid in life have set him on a course that apparently will understanding any people. Within the larger complex continue into the indefinite future. On occasion this of man's cultural transformations each can be seen in aggression can be mitigated, but it can no longer itself and in its relations with the others. The history assume the position of righteousness that it once of each helps in understanding the history of the assumed. In principle a counteraction has been others. Against this background it can be seen that the initiated that in time must have its effects. The culture of the American Indian is unique, one of the Indian, strengthened by a new consciousness of most admirable in all cultures, destined perhaps for a himself and his resources, is now able to resist more future historical role of wide significance. effectively. But whatever the situation it is important There will be little mention in this essay of the that the Indian has not retreated simply into a negative violent forces that have been at work. We presuppose or merely antagonistic position. He has established a all the destructive events of Indian-White creative response rooted in his ability to sustain life in relationships that have taken place during these its moment of high tragedy and to continue the basic centuries: the dispossession from the land, the path of his human development in its most distinctive rapaciousness of settlers, the communication of aspects. This attitude has been adopted on a wide diseases that wiped out many tribes and critically scale by the Indian peoples. Awareness of their moral weakened others, the destruction of the food supply, victory has always existed but it has now led to an the corruption and mismanagement of government increasing confidence and is beginning to function administrations, the exploitation of natural resources, more effectively. The peoples of this continent have a pollution of air, water and earth, the denial of basic genius that cannot forever be denied its expression. rights, and the betrayal of solemn treaties. All of A second support for the native peoples of this these and many others are presupposed. Repeated continent is the awareness that they give to the human mention of all these events has its uses. It is also mode of being a unique expression that belongs useful, however, to reflect on the interior sources of among the great spiritual traditions of mankind. It is renewal that are available to the Indian. These are the an observed fact in history that high religious Indian's strength and, if consciousness of them arises, traditions are often carried by peoples who are not as may become the white man's hope. numerous, as powerful, or as advanced in science and The first basis for cultural survival and renewal for technology as other peoples. Just as other traditions the tribal peoples of America lies in their awareness have their specific glory-as India has its awareness of having won a moral victory of unique dimensions of divine transcendence and China its mystical during the past five centuries. Many peoples have humanism, and Europe its sense of an historical been besieged in the course of history, many have divine saviour—the American Indian has his own disappeared from the earth, many have survived over special forms of nature mysticism. Awareness of a long periods to rise in renewed vigor. It would, numinous presence throughout the entire cosmic order however, be difficult to find a people who over such a establishes among these peoples one of the most long period have undergone such destructive integral forms of spiritually known to man. The influences, yet have survived and preserved then- cosmic, human, and divine are present to one another identity so firmly as the American Indian. in a way that is unique. It is difficult to find a word or The Euroamerican has won his battles with the expression for such a mode of experience. It might Indian in the military-political order, in the possession also be called an earth mysticism. of property, in the power to control the exterior This numinous mode of consciousness has destinies of the native peoples; but he has lost in the significance for the entire human community. Indeed moral sphere to such a degree that he is himself one of the primary instincts of the human community amazed to discover the depth and violence of his is to protect and foster such primordial experiences. destructive instincts, and this not just as a speculative This task is gradually being recognized even by white truth but as the lived reality of his own existence. peoples who have temporarily set aside many of their TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 31 own most primordial experiences. These experiences, degree in North America because of the limited which generally present themselves as divine numbers of native peoples in this region. Still, the revelations, are irreplaceable. They form the influence of the native peoples on the incoming foundations upon which the cultural systems of the Europeans has been more extensive than is commonly various peoples are established. They also determine realized. Further modifications can be expected in the the distinctive psychic structure of the individual future. The total effect may well be a gradual renewal personalities within the culture. Together these and development of the Indian traditions themselves. revelations form the ultimate psychic support for the One great strength of the Indian peoples lies in human venture itself. their interior communion with the archetypal world of While the Indian peoples may not always be the collective unconscious. This is manifested in their reflexively conscious of all this or of the pan-human extensive capacity for the use of symbolism, by then- aspect of such primordial experiences, the Indian has visionary experience, by their dream power, and by become increasingly aware not only of his own their use of language. To renew their ancient unique qualities, but that he carries a human symbolisms is to renew their ancient techniques of formation of great significance for the entire human power. Just how these will function in modern times community. Because of his hurt in associations with is less clear than we might wish. Yet the Indian the dominant political powers of the continent, the capacity to reach deep into the realms of numinous Indian might well conceal the inner mysteries of his power remains evident in their life, art, literature and spiritual traditions lest they be trivialized by a secular ritual observances. society that destroys the inner meaning of everything This intimate communion with the depths of then- it touches. But the reality is there, it is widely own psychic structure is one of the main differences recognized. The hope must be that the inner between the psychic functioning of the Indian and the resplendence of this reality will find its fitting modern psychic functioning of the Euroamerican in modern expression and the wide influence it deserves. times. The white man has so developed his rational A third resource that the native peoples possess is processes, his phenomenal ego, that he has lost much the instinctive awareness of their own qualities of of the earlier communion he had with the archetypal endurance. Those historians acquainted with the world of his own unconscious. The American Indian, larger cultural development of man can witness that on the other hand, is the living exemplification of frequently the peoples of the earth, the dispossessed recent understanding of the collective unconscious. peoples, those lowest in the social hierarchy, have All the symbolisms are there—the journey symbol, the greater survival value than those with a higher status, heroic personality, the symbolism of the center, the with ruling power, or even with higher intellectual mandala symbolism of the self, the various achievements. This happened in Europe. It is evident transformation symbols, the great mother. in India where peoples of a higher civilization These symbols have found clear expression in the invaded the territory in the middle of the second creation myths, the initiation ceremonies, in the millenium B.C. During the first centuries of sacred pipe, the healing rituals, the sun dance, the occupation the incoming group established itself in a ghost dance, the vision quest. They are also evident dominant position in the various areas of life. But in literature. Portions of the oral literature are almost immediately the peoples closer to the earth, passing into a written literature. The hope must be the peoples without the more sophisticated culture, that more of this oral literature will be committed to the peoples with less political or social prestige, writing, not only in the tribal languages, but also in began to make their presence felt in every sphere of English—the most available transtribal language for life, from the simplest elements of life style to the the Indian peoples. This is important since literature highest spiritual insights. Such a process of must always be one of the main sources of guidance transformation from below continues even to the as well as a main source of psychic energy for the present: The history of the Indian may accurately be task of renewal. Indeed it is in the new literature of interpreted as the acculturation from below of a writers such as Scott Momaday that the interior dominant social order, external in its origins, massive dynamics of Indian renewal find their finest in its power, and extensive in its intellectual expression, although this expression can be sophistication. discovered throughout the various forms of artistic That a similar process is taking place in Latin creation that are once again emerging. In such periods the first step is in the recovery and renewal of esteem American is evident. It may not take place to such a 32 TALKING WOOD. Winter 1979 for the ancient arts and literature. Then comes the this continent is their appreciation of man in his new art and the new literature which bring the ancient integral relations with the earth. Even those desolate cultural dynamics into present expression. In the regions assigned to the Indian tribes by the white man future we can certainly expect the Indian traditions seem to become sources of strength. This has become of dance and song to emerge in a new true particularly for the Navajo. What is profoundly creative context. impressive is the subjective communion that takes The arts of the Indian in these past five centuries place between the Indian and the earth and the living indicate the capacity to absorb outside influences and beings upon the earth and all the natural phenomena to reshape them in accord with their own genius. So that take place upon the earth. with the beadwork of the Indians. There was The intercommunion of life systems, understood beadwork prior to the arrival of the white man but this with a certain instinctive awareness by tribal peoples flourished with new vigor once beads from Europe throughout the world, is something that the white man were available in quantity to the Indian. Beads were with all his science and technology seems unable to then able to express visions that they had never appreciate, even when his very existence is imperiled. expressed previously. They became part of the European man has had a certain sense of himself as gorgeous display of the interior grandeur of the above all other living things, as the absolute lord and human. This capacity for absorption and re-creation master of the earth. He sees the earth as divinely in the cultural order could be illustrated from almost presented to him to do with as he pleased. It was every phase of Indian life. Powerful cultural forces there as an eternal reality that would by some were already at work in the depths of the Indian mode inevitable law not only provide man's basic needs, of consciousness, forces that enabled the Indian to but endure whatever affliction he might lay upon it. interact with the white man's traditions even in such The earth, it seemed, would bear any amount of things as the Ghost Dance and in establishing the human exploitation, would sustain any amount of Peyote cult. Earlier, it can be observed in the damage as an inexhaustible store of nourishment and religious movement begun by Handsome Lake among of energy for man's use. With a supreme shock the the Seneca. white man discovers that the earth is a delicate But this is of course only one aspect of the balance of life systems, that the fuels for his machines interplay of cultural forces that has taken place are limited, that defacing the earth defiles man and between these two peoples. The other aspect is the destroys the divine voice that speaks so powerfully influence exerted by the native peoples on the through every phase of cosmic activity. incoming European. One of the most fundamental is The Indian now offers to the Euroamerican a the influence of the Indian on the development of mystical sense of the place of the human amid other Modern Dance; Isadora Duncan, originator of living beings. This is a hard teaching for the white interpretative dance in America, was in her early man since it is unlikely that he can undertake the years influenced by the dance rhythms and adjustments it demands until he acquires both a new movements of the Indian peoples. In other realms of set of values and a new art. This art of communion life the Euroamerican has also been deeply with the earth the white man can learn from the influenced, so much so that C. G. Jung claims that Indian. Thus a reverse dependence is established: often in his dealings with Americans in psychotherapy survival in the future may depend more on the white he found an American Indian component in the man's learning from the Indian than on the Indian's psyche. The basic ideals of freedom found in the learning from the white man. American peoples have been" profoundly influenced A sixth source of strength for the Indian is his by the Indian ideals of personal freedom. In the traditional heroic ideal. The Indian has never develoment of the United States constitution, there accepted human life as ordinary, as something that was early reference to the Iroquois confederacy as a can be simply managed in a somewhat superficial or model. These are only a few of the areas of influence painless manner. He has realized that life tests the that have passed into American life from the Indian. deepest qualities within himself, qualities that emerge The one thing that has not been influenced by the in heroic combat not merely with others, but with Indian or even modified by these contacts is the white himself and with the powers of the universe. The man's idea of private property. But this too may sacred function of enemies was to assist each other to change in the future. the heroic life by challenge, even by the challenge of A fifth source of strength for the native peoples of death. For this to be effective, however, it was TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 33 necessary that there be a certain equality between the with, to control, and to develop his environment. protagonists. The Indian and the white man will long Such emphasis is placed on Indian spiritual and be at war. It has never ceased and possibly will never aesthetic traditions that there is a tendency to cease in the foreseeable future. What must be hoped downgrade Indian achievements in the social, for is not exactly peace but a creative tension. Peace scientific, and technological orders. Here we must does not create heroic achievement. There must be attend to the wider range of Indian accomplishments challenge that forces the best that is in man to emerge throughout the western hemisphere and see the Indian into its proper expression, challenge that brings about within the region of the United States as a border dimensions in human achievement that would not group who by choice remained committed to the more otherwise be attained. Just now, however, the free and diversified mode of tribal existence. disproportion in size and power seems to remove all The greatest single achievement of the Indian was, possibility of truly creative relationships that would of course, the occupation of this hemisphere, an event be neither destructive not paternalistic. Yet in the of vast significance but dimly appreciated by dialect of human affairs size and power eventually historians. After occupation of the hemisphere in a become self-destructive; the inequalities may period some twenty thousand years before the earliest eventually be leveled and the ancient fruitful combat neolithic villages of the Near East, the sequence of relationships revived in a new setting. civilizational development in the Indian World took What can be said is that the heroic life attitude is place at a slower pace than in some other parts of the available and even demanded in the line of the Indian Eurasian world. The New World civiliztions were development itself. The great chiefs of the past have lacking in many of the achievements of the Eurasian attained an immortal place in the annals of mankind. world but achieved much that did not or could not They are not simply tribal personalities, nor are they take place in the earlier phases of the Eurasian world. simply personalities of the American continent; they Many parallel social structures developed in both are personalities alongside the greatest leaders known hemispheres. The great cities of this hemisphere were to man. They have exhibited strength, spiritual theocracies; hierarchical social groupings were insight, human compassion, as well as an aptitude for established; monumental religious centers were public affairs and a capacity for leadership in periods erected. Writing was developed. Astronomical of unspeakable tragedy. A people who can hearken calculations of extreme refinement were made. back to such leaders as Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, and Mathematics of a high order appeared. The zero was Chief Joseph are necessarily a people capable of discovered, probably at a time prior to the discovery amazing human achievement. These men of the past of the zero in India. More animals were domesticated talked with the nations of the world on a plane of in Europe, but the New World domesticated more equality. They spoke as equals with the highest plants. It is estimated that Indian-derived plants now officials in the land, including presidents in provide close to half the world's foods. Principal Washington. They stood in their regalia before the among these are corn and the potato. Then there are world representing something beyond what the white the pumpkin, squash, peanut, and several kinds of man could understand at the time. They stood as beans, among a much longer list that could be drawn numinous figures in a world that had lost its up. Com is the third grain crop in the world, after numinous qualities in favor of the practical qualities wheat and rice. of exploitation and oppression. If we consider that an early village neolithic mode This tradition of leadership has not been lost, of living, with domesticated plants, was achieved in although it has not found its full expression in recent the New World around 3400 BC, we can see that this times. Even in the midst of the white man's cities the was not far behind the earliest village life of the Indian lives in his own psychic world that seems an Eurasian world. The higher civilizations in the New indestructible reality. He is not so much in a role of World, dating from around 700 BC, were not much antagonism. His is simply another mode of later in developing than the Chinese, the latest of the consciousness, a language that is not only foreign but Eurasian civilizations. Without compiling more also mysterious. Translation is less a matter of extensive data on the subject, it is clear that the linguistic skill than of feeling insight. civilizational achievements were fully comparable in Among the resources least understood by the white their human quality and in the same order of man is the powerful intellectual tradition of the pre- magnitude as the civilizational achievements of the Columbian Indian shown by his capacity to interact Eurasian world. 34 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

If not all of this was spread evenly throughout the North American continent, some of these achievements—especially the domestication of plants, mound-building, the capacity for building advanced shelters, and a number of other features—were very widespread. Few Indian groups lacked com. the basic human capacities were found everywhere in a high stage of development. This was quickly recognized by European settlers and was one reason the Indian was so feared and assaulted. He was a rival who had reached a similar level of human achievement and, often, a higher moral and spiritual level. The rhythm of Indian civilizational development has been broken, but it has not been destroyed. The psychic structure remains intact and these memories of the past demonstrate that the capacities claimed for the Indian are not a romantic conception of what might have been but a reality which can be again. After the North American Indian groups unite among themselves, and if they then unite with the Indian peoples throughout the hemisphere, a new power may well emerge. That power would affect the civilizational development of the western hemisphere more extensively than anyone can now forsee. Neither the Indian nor the white man has yet shown any adequate understanding of the need to consider the total Indian presence in this hemisphere when The wooden masks of the Iroquois people were carved considering any phase of Indian development. But by members of the False Face Society. To become a this will almost certainly be one of the next stages in member of the False Face Society a person had to the developing of the Indian consciousness as well as have a suitable dream in which a false face appeared in the white man's understanding of the Indian or be cured of illness by the society. Illness among presence to his own traditional European-derived the people was often caused by horrible heads that culture. appeared in the forest and bewitched people into sickness. Illness could be cured by a ceremony in These are some of the resources of the original which members of the False Face Society put on the peoples of this continent. They are also the basic wooden masks that looked like forest demons and resources that emerge from the depths of the earth broke their spell. process itself. The destinies of the Indian are inseparable from the destinies of the American earth. As the Euroamerican deals with one, so he will deal with the other—and in the end so will he deal with himself. The fate of the continent, of the Indian, and the white man, are finally identical. None of these can be saved except in and through the others. TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 35

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 36 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

Two STUDIES

above and below the trees- two studies in slow motion—

the sun at its zenith—

a white-haired man well past

E. DURLING MERRILL

NOSTALGIA

My voice cracks when 1 recall the house we moved home from with its groping tendrils of morning glory and honeysuckle choking off the hedge— the unstrung trumpeting of a summerporch dream.

JIM RYAN TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 37

To LUCY FARRELL

"Still me" she signed her letter, the script as gnarled as any branches bent to January wind. She holds her head high when speaking to you— as high as she can raise it, like the brave looping "S" from her aged hand. Blithe spirit in a looping frame, her words come unexpectedly, May flowers through the snow. Widowed, passed from house to house and praying still to God; "the good has now begun to overtake the bad," she says— a daily vault, clearing the tripping pole of her adversity— a bad heart, too. She walks among us still, reminding us she has not yet accomodated spirit to her years; for her it is the other way around. She punctures our ballooning pride and laughs the way a child does to see the real ones pop. Death waits— he has the time— but even then, beyond the grave, in gentle, laughing taunt, in warm remembrance from her letters that remain she will scribbling say— and legibly enough— "Still me."

ROB STUART 38 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

MAGIC PLACE

Brown, Ladies, Boxes, Money, People with black curly hair And Straight black hair with blue shirts And red pants Buildings look like gray German Shepard dogs White sky with big birds With black around their eyes Names of people on signs Zoo animals move around And elehpants make buckets of water And you can get there by car.

THOMAS ANDERSON

ILLUSTRATIONS JY THE RAINTREE KIDS DESIGN BY JULIA MOSELEY TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 39

add 40 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 41 Goin' Home BY DON DELO

THE IMPALA ENGINE STARTS, fracturing the rural evening silence of West Milford with mechanical sound. The car inches along the pot-holed neighborhood street and stumbles onto Union Valley Road, a two-laned black top that links anywhere to everywhere. Pushing my foot down on the accelerator makes something happen under the hood and this machine I take for granted works. Momentum. Rubber rubbing road rhythm. Glass framed vision at fifty miles an hour. Night driving meditation. The engine oms in cadence. In my rear view mirror Kerouac, Whitman and Steinbeck smile and compose road songs, to be sung on Jupiter twelve moon nights with cat-like indifference to the waking world. It's a reality parade. Each drives his own float at his own speed. Up ahead a four wheel drive obviously masculine machine races high above the road. It's a seven thousand dollar toy that grew from a child's post war fantasy with jeeps, and fouls the sanctity of the inner woods under the guise of loving the great outdoors. Route 23. Have to merge. New Jersey, a road builder's Utopia. Enough green to understand its Garden State status, but every garden is accessible by highway. New Jersey drivers talk in fluent routes. "Ya take Route 23, follow it 'bout twenty miles till ya get to Route 46. Take 46 east till ya see Route 3. Just stay right on 3 and watch for signs for 1 and 9." I wait for an opening on the merry-go-round. A blonde Cleopatra who found herself a daddy with some change cruises up the Nile in her Fisher bodied barge letting her Cadillac sing at sixty-five. Close enough behind to be in pursuit roars a sleek, tan Jaguar controlled by a curly haired, mustached young man who didn't button the top four on his silken, flowered shirt, but complimented his exposed chest hair with a gold symbol of some sort. His bumper reads "Dentists Make Great Lovers." The twelve cylinder phallus leaps north to playboy. An opening. I seize the opportunity and I'm out there. A cop car sharks part through the warm night water. Predators of necessity. He turns off to help a nurse in a disabled Mustang, and frees the road ahead. Sudden lights bounce off my mirror. The word 42 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

"Cavanaugh" in metallic gold on the side of a green HERSHEY, Pa., supports NORTH BERGEN'S H.S. pick-up flashes past my window doing twice my BAND, is REVOLTING against TAXES and is speed. The truck sails down the road out of sight. If insured by A.A.A. he hits something, he'll never stop. This is the stop. An eager to be younger mom hops by in a clean, Time enough to drive pick-ups, be a cop or write new, liberation of a sports car. She looks at me, stories. pushes a child's toy but of sight, smiles and moves on The road continues. My Impala rolls down the toward divorce. Ramapo Mountains, curves into the Wayne Valley, A cigared, white haired, high roller looks straight hops over the barely visible Watchung Mountains, ahead inside his Givanche, Lincoln Continental. The winds through the green, grass, golf slopes and chromed square lines of Ford opposed to the vintaged suburbs of Montclair and Nutley. It's a roundness of General Motors. He ignores me, fossil drive-with-one-hand, listen to the music, ease of fuel and time. As he passes I notice plant life splitting conveyance route. the concrete road divider, a gang of wise ass weeds At the peak of a hill the distance fills with the trying to recapture lost turf. yellow stares of Manhattan. The mountain waltz Finally, the cause, an accident. The cars slow to tempo jumps to jitterbug. Down the hill, steering dutifully gape at the wake of a brother. A teenager's wheel two handed and rigid, brake foot at attention dream of fame turned over on him ending his need for ready to save my life. I blur past the Coney Island conventional transportation. The Pontiac, Trans Am, feel of the diners and gas stations neoned over like a turtle on its back. Pontiac, Indian name, no Secaucus of pig infamy. It's a race. The truckers are relationship. I wonder if the young driver would have fast, professional and relentless. The buses are rushed out to kill himself in a car called "Across bullies. The city dwellers are exhilarated by the wide America" instead of "Trans Am." open speed. The commuters just hope to finish. Full stop for the ambulance. A group of similar, silent Most of the Niagara, never ending traffic prepares to homes sit by the highway like acne on the landscape. tunnel under the Hudson to join the speed freaks of Shrubs and bushes hide the cinder block foundation of Manhattan (hard to believe it's an island). Some of us the tract houses hoping to make these eyesore aren't ready for the big time and turn off into the intrusions look slightly more related to the earth with almost New York towns of New Jersey. foreign plants bought at a highway gardening Driving past the new Giant Stadium in the supermarket owned by a man who lives in a high rise Hackensack Meadows, which used to be the in Fort Lee. I remove the roof of the middle, Hackensack swamps, I envision the multi-million turquoise house. The occupants are unaware. I peek dollar playpen sinking into the sludge it's hiding. under their rock. Their habitat is exposed. Zoom in Quick, music, news, something to dull. Don't be the for a close up. There's a woman dancing through her fool. It's a waste of time to expect the golden ring. dusting, aerosoling the scent of a lemon on her color Distract, eliminate, fog. Prefer chaos. television. She takes five minutes to create a cake her Traffic jam! Everyone trying to get someplace. husband will think took hours of preparation. She We're headed in the right direction, but we're stuck waxes the floor so the girls will think she's good at in a spot where no one wishes to be. In slow motion her job, then bathes in oils to smell like a rose bush the Madison Avenue parade backs up. A hair-in- curlers woman inches by in her pseudo-wooden paneled Estate Wagon that lives in Leonia on a quarter acre estate. The business suited man in front of me is to all who see him "daddy". His little league station wagon creeps toward a mortgaged home letting the world read his life on his bumper. The man before me LOVES CHRIST, has ENCOUNTERED his marriage, VISITED TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 43 when hubby hugs her to show his appreciation for into another time. Lulled by the taped synthesized dinner. She hopes her new colored hair will insinuate harmonies, I long for the ease of unimportant sex to her mate (who wears his tie at home), because thought. A song begins with a vague, hollow she doesn't want to waste the Geritol she took today. thumping and echoing voices. Sounds like my birth. I The young boy's body, crowbarred from his pull into the fast lane to accelerate my arrival time, graduation gift, is discarded into the ambulance. A Wonder if I've heard the sounds of my death. cop's red, pointed flashlight signals me to move on. Wonder how far down the road. The tempo picks up. The cop conducts the road beat Mind shifts to neutral. Don't want to concentrate back to normal. on the arcade of motels that tourists ignore, but other Noise! Please! My eight track devours the silence people's wives use for a few hours of escape. Does it and instructs my hand to tap out the beat on my leg, matter if those who live on the road leading into the while my toe does likewise to the floor. Fears rock city can't open their windows to lung disease, or a newcomer's first view of my birthplace is through the rusted carcasses of dead Pintos, Mustangs, and Cougars strewn about in automobile graveyards? Is it my fault that houses were built ignoring the possibility of too many people living in too little space1.' Play music play. Dance me through the World's Fair dream ride turned nightmare. Look and see. The more progress, the more sophistication

AJiiiyEc 44 TALKING WOOD, Writer 1979

necessary to function in the everyday world. The more people that can't fit in; the more people who don't understand the point, the purpose. This piece of planet suffers for its ability to support life. Dust particles paint my pupils partially blind to steel in dark colors, and concrete with hints of former colors. Each home a novel; each apartment house an anthology of mysteries. By scent I know I'm in Jersey City. Heavy air to be used with short inhales. Each foundation rancid with the smell of vintaged anger fermenting in the cellars of mediocrity. Can't find a place to park. In spacious, rural areas many buy small, convenient, invisible cars. In the crowded city people own luxury liner, Flash Gordon equipped blatantly visible automobiles. Everything in the city is visible. Someone watches everything you do. Love scenes, tennis games, food shopping and ^P^^W*WWMW«BHHflTOpSit driving done with theatrical flair for an ever present audience. Swerve the Impala between two cars parked in a "No Parking Bus Stop", turn the engine off, lock all the doors, hide the stereo, remember you're back in the city, a failed urban experiment that might scare new cities into planning. A city before social observers knew whether modern, industrialized cities work. When they ran out of space to build out, someone yelled we'll build up, ignoring the cries of those anti-progressives who whispered maybe humans aren't meant to live in encasements piled one on top of another. Maybe there is a spacial necessity germaine to the human habitat. Maybe disguising the free form tree-rock-water surface of the earth with easily maintained concrete and macadam conformity would destroy man's security of feeling his place in nature. Maybe refusing to tolerate the darkness of a natural day/night rhythm would light up the skies, hide stars and allow modern man to grovel in self- importance, because he's no longer minimized by the visual magnitude of the universe. Maybe being ten, fifteen, fifty stories above the land, making the outdoors inaccessible, or flights of stairs difficult, would lull him into indifference about destroying his environment, because he believes his home is no longer a shelter from the elements, but where he belongs. Ecological, trendy, nit-picking. Hindsight. Jersey City watched big brother N.Y.C. cash in on progress and followed with blind fraternal pride. Every circus needs a side show. "Hi mom." "Hi. How was your ride in?" TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 45

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Wk.--'- • 46 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 47 1-287 BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER

/ come down fall, at several points along both of the major routes from the misty mountain being considered. Topographic and local street maps I got lost kept me as close to this blacktop dream as possible. on the human highway Closer than the thin fine line of the engineer's pencil — Neil Young or the ascendant graphs of the social seers. Close enough to try to speak of it. "...I DONT REALLY KNOW...one side wants it 1-287. We're talking six lanes, three each way, through here and the other side wants it through with shoulders and median and roadside right-of-way: there...I really don't know. I'll tell ya whats gonna 250 to 300 feet of superhighway. Through woodland happen though: the government is just gonna step in mountain and meadow; shops, homes and and say 'This is the way its gonna be and thats it.' neighborhoods. Then it'll be settled." — apple farmer, Lincoln Park. Towaco. Lincoln Park. Pequannock. Wayne. Wanaque. Franklin Lakes. Mahwah. The Bog & Vly. 1—287. One of the most enduring enigmas in New Turkey Mountain. Baker's Pond. Federal Hill. Lake Jersey's recent past. From its murky beginnings over Inez. Matty Price Hill. Ramapo Lake. White Ash. a decade ago to the current politicking in the wake of Tulip Poplar. Birch & Hemlock. Maple Oak and Congressman Roe's expedient suggestions, 287 has Blueberry. Sycamore. Spicebush. Sweet Gum. been a consistent source of confusion and frustration White-tailed Deer. Raccoon & Rabbit. Sparrow & for the people in its way, those who either stand to Swan. And the geese honking loud disapproval of lose or gain the most. Who really knows what gives winter. with this highway? Who knows when it will happen? Wanaque, Lake Inez: almost a mile of long easy Who knows if it will happen? And why should water, its child-like body drawn lean and supple from anyone care if it does or doesn't? After speaking to the Wanaque River, tossing its water casually over many people about it over the past few months and the dam and back into its river-lifeline. The low broad doing some of the research that accompanies standard falls are a strange counterpoint to Inez, cutting off the reportage, only the last of these questions has been calm outline of her shores. The quiet spillage flat and answered with any semblance of clarity. steady, sings in simple understatement to the Great We should care. Although we've heard that much Falls thunderous style downcountry, yet it still stands too often. as the headwaters of its city, Pompton Lakes. Inez is What follows is simply one attempt to describe the subtle and inescapable intrusion into the foothills what lies in the path of the concrete vision of those of the Ramapo Mountains, bringing them down who are planning for our future, here in Passaic gently to the city. County and throughout northern New Jersey. It is not A flash of the highway corrupting Inez, roaring a regurgitation of countless public meetings or the through these hills, and I find myself almost running rhetoric of self-interest expressed in the name of to the stillness of the forest beyond; much as the progress. It is not a survey of a multitude of opinions roadbed itself is to run on, with the blurred concerning this highway's future. It is not an tunnelvision of speed. investigation into the political shuck-and-jiving that Losing sight of Inez and her riverlover, I slow has prevented any clear perspective of 287 for the last down the pace. Leaves of many colors are letting go ten years. It is not... in the pull of these late autumn winds. Pale grey It is a series of impressions. Of the land. That clouds give occassional suggestions of rain. The days which goes first in the crush of a highway. That are getting colder now as the sun draws back and we which has the softest voice. on this island are left to fend for ourselves. The The walking was done in October, the fullest of voices of the geese traveling south pierce the dull bass 48 TALKING WOOD. Winter 1979 line of the traffic and construction noise distant. Their Confusion. Driving land and water under. Driving squawking echoes loudly with the madness of free six-lane scar through the highlands. flight. Home-owner, Jacksonville Road, Towaco: "...They're talking about dismantling the town up there, Towaco...it's about seven or eight buildings and they're thinking about putting it (287) right in there...that would affect me. Christ, it's right on my way to work. Sure...But I would just like to know what's going to happen. You can't figure it out. They talk about Environment Impact and pollution and all...a lot of big words they use and you don't know what it means..." He is a big white man in his fifties, a custodian at a local school. I interrupt him at his painting, white sun-glistening clapboard walls, and he seems to welcome the break. He walks slowly over to the truck, wiping his hands in the white kerchief he had worn on his head, and squints into the bright sky. Ramapo Valley. Wanaque, Oakland, Mahwah: After giving me directions, we talk a bit about 'my Tulip orange and maple reds and hemlock brown and business out here', the possible highway. It is clear birch yellows and wildflowers nearly on fire that he is tired of the whole subject. His interest in the competing for autumn's quicksilver honors. Staunch issue ended long before he could make heads or tails croppings of maidenhair fern along the Acid Brook of it — not unlike many of the folks along the way. trail have kept steady pace with me since the land I ask if he is aware that one of the proposed routes began to rise more sharply and out of the reach of may run within a few hundred feet of his home. Dupont's cyclone fences, girding this hairline "That close, huh? Sure now that would affect us. timebomb chemical plant against squirrels, rabbits The neighbors here and me and the people in the new and crosscountry wanderers. houses up the street. I got a four year old daughter I am out of the range of the city noise and into a here...I can't move anymore. What am I gonna do, place holding a thousand kinds of silence. drive an hour to work every day?" A nesting hawk and a few small finches dart off flurry of wingbeats to the side of me, away from me. Me, small intrusion by comparison. The forest all about stands intently (no signs of our paranoia) bristling in its various bright colors, modest in the disonant tones that score the wide-eyed symmetry. The intersection of branches and the light rain of leaves weave patterns for all to see, but for the artist to render. Slowly turning around full circle sees the intricate lines and huge family of color as a whole ... • />: picture panoramic, a freeze and release of infinite details. The flow of images is broken only by the pure voices of the leaves and birds all around the sky. 287 to Dupont to the valley to this mountain to the nimble squirrel in the trees above me. Do I look different, smell different to him than Robert Roe or the talking heads of transportation? He is no different Driving. Driving an hour to work every day. than any other squirrel to me. I tend to think that I am Highway driving. Driving us all out of here, only to at fault, like the others, trying to imagine the land on have to drive back. Driving through three counties. paper. The squirrel is still here, very close, without Driving people to a foreign place, in the State of concern. TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 49

Ramapo Lake: at the entrance to the chemical Finally. Some hard climbing makes it all the more compound a guard, older, balding, at peace with sweet and the water is soft and cool on my face. himself, points to my maps with a child's reluctance. Along with the difficulty of pulling myself over many His finger at last finds the blue blot of the lake. bulges of bare rock comes a sense of the random "What's that it's called?" he asks. order of this system at work. But the ancient crashing "Ramapo Lake," I offer. of stone and the elements' upheaval of trees makes "And you say it's up in the valley back of this this land alive. There is that. And then there is the place?" calculated blasting of the highway and the mindless "Yes, it should be." fallout of its presence that makes the land its victim. "Well, I'll tell ya. I don't know anything about a The water somehow remains indifferent. It drifts in Ramapo Lake, but there is a lake up that way. We easy patterns, spreading from solemn still beds of used to call it Rotten Pond. It must be the same place. lilypads. The winds lay variations on the rhythm and They just got the name wrong, that's all. Sure, Rotten gently curl up the edges of the pads. Pond. I used to hunt duck up there about thirty years Lying on the ground. Eyes scanning the surface of ago. Me and a coupla buddies a mine. Sure, it was this huge water map. Chart of the stars in the night the best place around for duck. We'd just sit and sky. Crystal shining landscape of the moon. Two of watch the water all day and there they'd be. Yeah, the three geese in sight abandon my side of the lake. that's Rotten Pond.. .used to go swimmin' there too I am foolishly upwind. The third moves slowly in the when I was young." changing current, finding no threat in my curious I leave him to remember those times past and walk eyes. back out to the gate and up into the hills to the lake. The Mountains: away from the lake I find the air 50 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 filled with the same variety of quiet that it decayed into a fragile state and breaks apart in my accomodates in the foothills. But as broad as the hand as I reach for it. stillness seems to be— almost sacred among the I stand up, scanning the glass and the staff and the hemlock— there is the faint rumbling of the civilized tree, and begin to back away. world hanging high in the trees. It is impossible to These mountains, this valley are too large for me to turn fully back. say and too small to let go of. You realize how special this forest really is, surrounded by the developments of man. It's like a As this first issue of Talking Wood was nearing the huge wooded finger pressed firmly down on the end of its production phase, a new chapter in the epic metropolis' pulse, asking it not to forget. 'Tales of 287' appeared in several newspapers. It Yet that is only its false face. Truth is the detailed the Department of Transportation's rejection mountains were here before we came with our names of Congressman Roe's suggested alternate route for them. Campgaw Reservation. Skylands Park. through the Ramapos. Needless to say, this Ramapo Reservation. The words only take us further development brought with it the usual deluge of away from the trees. Bringing us to property and objections— from community leaders, local privacy and ratables. The land is not negotiable. It is environmentalists, and the Congressman himself- our real corridor of defense. that has characterized the history of this highway for more than 15 years. (And you thought that nightmares ended upon waking. Could it be that we've been asleep for that long?) Anyway, the choice that we now seem to be left with is becoming horribly clear: either the six-lane blacktop ravages 11 municipalities, with 140 homes, 54 businesses, and 73 acres of parkland eliminated in the bargain, or it tears through 700 acres of our dwindling wilderness, with nearly 18 million cubic feet of earth and rock being rearranged. Some choice. It is very doubtful that this controversy will subside in the near future— as local leaders and Mr. Roe gird their loins for new battles in the courts, the news media, and the political arena. The earliest date that is now being mentioned for the beginning of 287's construction is 1983 and some have predicted its completion beyond 1990, by which time it may very well be outdated or, at best, inadequate. Perhaps this will give proponents of the mass-transit or do-nothing alternatives an opportunity to resurrect their claims, long buried in the landslide of technical data, political directives, and fragmented newspaper accounts. Meanwhile, another young person has been killed on Route 23 in Pequannock. Had the DOT or the Late Afternoon: scattered about the base of a tree I Congressman focused their efforts on improving am sitting near are the shards of thick glass and what existing roadways in the area, this terrible and appear to be the necks of a few old bottles. Looking unnecessary fatality might have been avoided. Must about my seat I see three small botdes still mostly someone die for every stop sign, traffic light, or intact lying next to my rucksack. Two of them bear crosswalk that is approved. In this case, the the bold raised-glass words "Sloan's Linament" and hazardous conditions plaguing Route 23 have been the other the tiny lettering of "Kemp's Balsam for ignored for years. Why? Perhaps because safety Throat and Lungs." Turning around to the ground precautions do not ease commercial traffic or win as behind me I find a long stick that no doubt served many votes. someone as a staff, probably the owner of the bottles Talking Wood's commitment to the question of and keeper of their contents. The stick has by now Interstate 287 will continue in our next issue. TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 51

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER 52 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 53 Like Accidents BY JIM RYAN

HE THOUGHT OF HIMSELF as sliced from the BONHAMTON EXIT 1 MILE. Two kids in the landscape by the scimitar ramp and lifted to Highway back of a station wagon made the peace sign at him 287, a narrow thirty-mile plateau. He was grateful for and giggled. He signed back, welcoming them to the this small detachment, this mechanized ascent out of mysteries of black beards and beads. Smiling, he saw a world which seemed the scattered bits of a broken his teeth reflected in the window, hanging in sheer kaleidoscope, lacking a necessary mirrored air, reminding him of the Cheshire cat and of reading perspective. Down to his left a patchwork of houses to his daughter. Pulling alongside the station wagon was pulled over the face of a far hill. Beyond it, he saw Alice broken of all beauty— chopped hair, factories spit smoke and sparks as the dying do thin mouth, fleshy cheeks— and cursed die zombies phlegm. He looked down on the swift gutter of his sitting in front, staring ahead to Aunt Mildred's. They nerves— broken glass, twisted beer cans, and have taken her life with directions and destinations. flattened hubcaps along the highway. The Some day she'll lay with me to forget her life was speedometer stalked forty, then groped toward sixty. spilled somewhere between home and Aunt His spider-mind trailed a filament of itself— the past, Mildred's, then packaged to look human at the ramp— which wound out in the rearview mirror so Bambergers. O my child, my madness like shining that his driving forward seemed strangely reversed, as from rear bumpers. He signed to the kids again so the into a tunnel at the back of his mind that continued to parents could see and wished the VW to sixty-five. stretch ahead of him toward a pinprick of light that he BONHAMPTON NEXT EXIT. would find— if he were ever to reach it— to be the Approaching the southern barricade, already rearview mirror. He thought: The spine of the future feeling his vision blank slightly toward white haze is tunneled by the nerve cords of the past. because he had forgotten his sunglasses, he was The VW floundered in the wind. A trailer truck stabbed by the flashing yellow lights, as though his clipped him with its wedge of air and sent him retina were a mirror of striken nerves. It occured to skittering to the side of the road. The April weeds, him that this barricade was a mirror image of the one ganglion tangled, etched themselves a moment in the to the north, or perhaps only a memory of his retina, windows and dissolved away like a deja-vu of the mirrored in the windshield. Disregarding the signs, he splotches of snow along the infinite Thruway promise crossed the dividing island. He cut into the path of infinite snow under splotches of skier's parkas in Vermont. Seventy. She needs something from the back seat and, turning, happy and thoughtless, lifts herself by grabbing the wheel. Like the hand of a rapist, the VW tears at the snow-groomed weeds and roughly brushes the ribbon of steel fence. A spittle of gravel sprays the car before it rocks back into land; Crying. A violated journey. 54 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 another car which beeped loudly above a circus Suspended in an infinity of road, in amniotic fluid, advertisement on the radio. Honk honk, you, MD in a haze of gauze. Going nowhere from noplace— Cadillac, Barnum & Bailey bludgeon of anesthetists, close to eternity. Exits open like holes out of the show killcart of healers, travelling psychic outhouse skull. Turn off? No. To the north end where beyond of egomaniacs with rolls of oaths and codes. O the fix the warning lights the road becomes bare earth, of formula! "I cannot give an improper daredevil tracked by earth crawlers, scribbled with roots and acrobats diagnosis." O Father, uhh Doctor, you're blotted with oil-filmed water; to see as though magnificent comforting costumes, strong, ethical insanely thrown up from the web of the earth the greatest moral show and on earth right just when the yellow machinery that left its lights at the barricade to one-hundredth anniv...we need it when my thrilling warn of its violent freedom. The blind and niggardly alcoholic performers father is bottling and drowning root hairs tremor at the tractor jolt. The bark screams. stupendous dive into us all, when my sister of seven Like the green cells of nature's brain the leaves knock thousands of acts cries Piscataway Next 4 Exits all against the skull of the sky and shatter like the night only two weeks in her Madison Square dreams, discharge of an epileptic before spilling mangled to when my mother is children must psychosomatically the ground. The mouth of earth, open in terror, is crippled on horseback, when I seethe sidesplitting stuffed with debris. The workmen eat lunch in the clown with nameless greatest violence you are right cab. The spine of nature is speared by the nerve cords as the Lord show on earth, chastizing my innuendo of prehistory; the graceful slalom of the future is my sentimentality. Doctor, forgive me for I... preceded by the instincts of the past that once hid in ROUTE 22 EAST NEW YORK. Traffic east and some spiral molecule and now roar in yellow skins west rumbled up through the overpass and into his behind clotted man-sized blades. North to the guts like the sound of planes in the insomniac night frontier, the land of darkness, the habitat of devils in when his wife dreams unknown dreams and each Cadillacs and earthmovers. Earthmover, move the catch in his daughter's breath is a death rattle. The earth that she might live. But delicacies are your trucks and vans, commuter bugs and wifely wagons, target— rivulet veins in the undersides of leaves, whizzed through his bowels with the always imminent sprigs of dogwood, the eggskulls of children. shriek of steel. Every entrance ramp merged to a Girls. Five. spearhead. 202 WEST BERNARDSVILLE. The landscape rose, wooded and hilly with small fields of open grass where deer feed at twilight when he returns from his mother's lake home singing How long will it take Is it as far as the lake! to amuse his family in the green night, in the green gone VW. This one's red as madness bleeding down a black plateau that might be any road a deer leaps onto over the fence, legs braced forward while, above the thrust of his hind legs, the rump and riding-white- rabbit tail freeze in the headlights. A rack like a press of nerve patterns gleams. Grace. He swerves left. The prickled hairs of the deer's spine slide up the hood, blotting his vision. Somehow the deer hobbles away, leaving only a few tufts of hair caught on the wipers, a half-blind car, and a crying, fetal-cushioning wife. You escaped, my child. For all my stupid swerving and your small size- no bigger than a heart chamber— you came to us whole. TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 55

Blonde. Children. Daughters. My son, you must realize that life is a vale of tears at the epidermis and cranium and soul which only prayer and faith, holy water, neurologists, G.P.'s, nurses' aides with dull needles can ever hope to heal. Who can answer your questions? None, my son. Who knows what awaits us in the outer ward? For the mind smashes against the dome of eternity like skulls against windshields. And like a wrecked car you come away wrinkled and creased like spilled grey matter. Don't torture yourself, my son. We must accede as in a hospital. Accept the anesthesia. To focus on the synapse death like an X-ray machine or a white-smocked eye with a knife-edge pencil light is to be a five-year daughter asking of her parents as they leave her in the pediatrics ward among strange costumed women and crying bandaged children a question as mindless and terrifying as is lettered on a truck that cuts into your \ lane at seventy while you stare in paralyzed shock at some magnified, multiplied, final and undecipherable acronym: WHY 56 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

RED HIGHWAY

Sprawled, small frog life unfolding grinning pain choking sunset serviced by steel belted radials lifetime guarantee

Alfred M. Peterson

•o TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 57

FEBRUARY NOON

Walking the Ramapos I coincide, along a twig calligraphy of armored buds, with the path of deer. Their tracks LOST CHORDS escort me to the streambank where the snow has been pawed from two beds of moss. The mindless, human din that daily spins it deadly web The stream is yin and yang of escalating decibels around my head in black and white. Ice enshrouds all tender sound; takes shape along its edges: intrudes obscenely on my senses thread bridge, amoeboid forms inescapable, persistent as graffiti pulsing with the water underneath, rudely scrawled on public walls. icicles like tears turned back, Where have they gone the banks worn to such grace- ...those little silences ful curves they tempt catastrophe. to mend and soothe the tortured earl Is there no corner of the earth In this dead time of year that shrill cacophony does not pursue; even an ephemeral mite no spot where I may dream in quiet space of field mouse—another and hear the rainbow sing! stroke of black on white- swells to godliness. LOUISE ARGIROFF

These are familiar woods not wilderness; it's not an ax I need to make my place. UNTITLED JIM RYAN

the sun has dropped another inch- evening coolness soaks the air- all the birds have moved west- perched in trees across the street- closer to the fading sun

E. DURLING MERRILL 58 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

* * TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 59 Borne Native in San Francisco FRISCO BAY MUSSEL GROUP

We who live around the San Francisco Bay- toilet for sewage and factory wastes. Generations Sacramento River Estuary, all species ranging this born here called themselves "native" but kept watershed on the North Pacific Rim, feel a common pushing the watershed's life exhaustion. Nearly all resonance behind the quick beats of our separate habitats for native species were destroyed. Attempts lives; long-pulse rhythms of the region pronouncing by many species to maintain themselves were stopped itself through Winter-wet & Summer-dry, Something- through outright slaughter or intolerable despoilation. flowering-anytime, Cool Fog, Tremor and Slide. Some of the largest are lost to the region now; tule The region proclaims itself clearly. It declares the elk, grizzly bear and condor. space for holding our own distinct celebrations: It was extremely profitable for a few of the new Whale Migration & Salmon Run, Acorn Fall, people to live here this way. Anything could be seen Blackberry & Manzanita Fruit, Fawn Drop, Red as unused surplus by a non-native eye and it was easy Tide; processions and feasts which invite many other to find markets elsewhere for much of it. But profits species, upon which many other species depend. The began slipping as native life-forms vanished. The bay-river watershed carries these outpourings easily. place withered quickly and became increasingly less They are borne, native, by the place. Their liveable for all of the people in it. occurrence and the full life of the region are inseparable. WATERSHED Human beings have lived here a long time. For thousands of years, the region held their celebrations SAN FRANCISCO BAY is the lower end of a vast easily. They ate enormous quantities of shellfish, watershed, beginning at the highest ridges of the acorns, salmon, berries, deer, buckeyes, grass seeds, Sierra Nevada and the inner Coast Range, continuing and duck eggs. They cut countless tule reeds for mats, through the Central Valley, ending at Golden Gate. boats and baskets, burned over thousands of acres of Watershed is the peak experience; selecting among dead grass, made trails everywhere, cleared land and bodies of water, watershed divides rainfall/runoff by packed down soil with villages. They netted fish from direction, this rainwater to the Russian River, this to boats, strung fish traps across creeks and rivers, and the Bay and Delta, this to the Pacific Ocean. dug up tide lands looking for clams and oysters. The Watershed often divides plants, animal lives, far- region probably never held a species that had a off views—which watershed are you in now? Once greater effect upon it, but for thousands of years divided, water flows in and out of steep mountain human beings were part of its continuous life. They canyons, through flat valleys, into marshy, muddy lived directly in it, native. bays and estuaries, always downhill, getting increasingly salty past the Sacramento-San Joaquin River confluence near Antioch, until it becomes one A FEW HUNDRED YEARS AGO some new people with the ocean in the Bay. moved in and began to impose a non-native way of life over the entire watershed. Instead of living Watershed is a whole, defines what is directly in it, they began living off of it, on top of it. upriver/downriver, what the space is we roam in, in Dams, canals and pipelines were built to shift our own bodies of water. Watershed is the universe of "surplus" water away from life-systems in rivers, our water body experience. When you follow a creeks, lakes, and marshes which had always required watershed, it teaches, leads you on in. When you cut it. Oysters and clams were stripped from the bayshore a watershed with roads, dams and ditches, it bleeds, in a few years and their beds filled in with garbage erodes, floods. Watershed defines place, wind, food, and crushed hillsides to create waterfront real estate. pathways, ceremonies and chants. Enter into that Within a short time, redwood and fir forests became houses and San Francisco Bay turned into a huge 60 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 flowing moment of watershed living, in this place, in floods, dries up creeks in summer, goes celebrate the return of salmon and herring, dream of underground when overused. waters merging, enlarge the watershed with your own So much of the healthy plant and animal life in our self, until you are in it totally, until you are it. watershed region has been damaged or destroyed, we Watershed is a living organism: rivers and streams will need generations to restore it, to return the and underground flows are veins and arteries; original healthy native/wild ecosystem to make our marshes are the pollution-removing kidneys; water to peace with this water body. drink; water is the cosmic sense organ of the earth, All around the Bay, there are tens of thousands of the dimpled skin between above and below; water acres of diked-off tidelands which could be restored rhythms show us moon, season, shape and sense of to pickle-weed/cord-grass salt marsh, the planet's land. intense biologically productive habitat, where the Flowing, tumbling water wears away hard granite, edge of the sea transfers food from land to water soft sandstone, creates the watershed form with what creatures. remains, brings forth nutriment for ocean creatures, Damming all creeks for flood control has been our creates beautiful beaches, the sound of the river constant practice, this great fear and unwillingness to turning is a low moan, waterfalls roar, water over lie with watershed events. Now these creeks, rocks. watercourses through the land, wider, deeper, drier Watershed landscape has history: we build where than before, need rehabilitation, to make them able- it's flat, avoid floods, water the crops, hunt animals bodied again, released from bonds of concrete and at the dark waterhole. The mud flats around the Bay riprap. To restore all creeks, to make mem flow full come from 19th century Sierra Nevada hydraulic of power, working for us and all wild life, is also our mining clay sediments. Flood control dams and work, is right action. channelized streams come from reactions to the 1955 Look around your town. Find the creek, follow it Northern California floods. Disturbances of the river down, figure out—what to do? Do it, right, now. spread upstream as well as downstream; too much silt When forests are transformed into housing means no salmon spawning, no clarity for fishing, developments, there is an illusion of prosperity which flooding at the raised river mouth. masks the hollowness felt by people who lie in them. Water falls by gravity, rises by levity. Landscapes full of buildings become depressing. Jobs We climb the watershed, to the ridge top, to that require annihilating living things or glimpse what lies beyond, what we can see, well manufacturing monotonous garbage breed self- grounded along the ridge, but intrigued, curious as contempt. Constant exposure to other people or all mammals are, to see, to see what lies beyond our television without an opening into the naturally- sight, beyond sense perception? evolved graces of the planet is oppressive and Down inside the watershed, a few peaks draw our demeaning. There is a feeling that one's life is being attention: Mt. Hamilton in the south Bay; wind-clean used. Used up. San Bruno Mountain to the west, the wooded sides of Non-native culture, live-in colonialism, becomes its Mount Tamalpais in the central and north Bay, the own worst threat. Rejection of living within the spread-out devil of Mt. Diablo uplifted from the sea boundaries of natural life-systems requires mammoth to the east, the volcanic lava cap of Mount St. amounts of labor and energy to build, rebuild, and Helena, the highest, sliding in and out of view as we keep up artificial ones. By reducing the diversity of travel the lower Russian River watershed. From life in the region, non-native culture constantly inside our Pleistocene-drowned Bay valley, we need narrows opportunities for social and personal self- climb only a short way to rise up high enough to see preservation. There's a steady movement through for fifty miles; Ohlone and Miwok Indians watched extinction of native life towards self-extinction. each other's fires across the Bay at night, kept an eye on fishing and shellmound rubbish heaps during the SPECIES: FAMILIAR AND GHOST day, eyes up on circling hawks. THE UNIQUENESS OF EACH PLACE comes in part Water and plants, land and animals, are at home, a from ecology and climate, but even more from the living whole, an ecosystem in a biotic region. When biota, the animals and plants that live there, shaping the water system is cut or altered, all else is affected. the landscape, its character, and one another as they When plants are destroyed, land covered for urbanity, evolve together. Each species which forms a strand of water changes, becomes sluggish, then ravages towns a living community has its own history and has TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 61 entered the regional fabric at some point in geologic In Lake Merced, an estuary which gradually time, bringing the mysterious information of its own became fresh thousands of years ago, there are fresh- previous being. water opossum shrimp and fresh-water tentacled sea This subtle and deeply resonant wisdom of place worms. Both have so far been able to survive the deserves respect and reverence, for those who vagaries of managing the lake for trout fishing. thoughtlessly destroy information so long in the Golden eagles nested commonly along the eastbay garnering are guilty of a crime against consciousness. hills and hunted jackrabbits on the flatlands below. A The shrines where uniqueness and subtiely are few remain, reminders of the time when they and the concentrated should not heedlessly be plowed or great California condors wheeled high in the skies paved over. The dappled carpets of Stipa bunchgrass, over San Francisco Bay. constellation with shooting stars and Fritillaria, the The natural communities which persist are precious solitary digger bees and dancing Hydropsyche are not fragmented holograms of the once great San replaceable by crude expanses of opportunistic Francisco eco-system. We should protect it and as weeds, wild oats & thistles, houseflies & Argentine much as possible restore it, for these living roots ants. which penetrate far into the past not only maintain the Two hundred years ago, San Francisco Bay and the biological integrity of our home region, but nourish land rimming it was a natural paradise. Nutrients, our spirit and sense of place as well. washed down from the mountain slopes all around the Winter-wet & Summer-dry, Something-flowering- great Central Valley, were carried to and accumulated anytime, Cool Fog, Tremor & Slide will remain. The in the Bay, which abounded with fish and oysters, region's unique resonance will continue to sound harbor seals, sea otters and dolphins. Indian villages behind whatever celebrations are carried by it, and were more numerous along its shores than anywhere proclaim itself more clearly than any declaration else in California. The rich alluvial deposits of the made about it. Reinhabitants of the place, people who tidal flats were crowned with vast marshes, a magnet want to maintain a full life for themselves and for the for awesome hordes of migratory ducks and geese watershed, are shaping human celebrations which and also the great food producer for the Bay's water respond to that resonance. Celebrations which creatures, while landward grew lush meadows of depend on but can be shared by other species. Lives bunch grass, where thousands of rule elk grazed. which can be part of the region proclaiming itself. In the sand dunes now overlain by the sod of Golden Gate Park, grizzly bears dug out ground Returning the whole Pacific Rim to more local squirrels among the yellow lupines and dune tansies. economies, increasing food abundance throughout the The tule elk and grizzlies are long gone now and the planet and reducing international power politics are dune tansy is making a last precarious stand on a few all tightly inter-woven problems. For instance, the small scraps of land soon to be built upon near the salmon streams of Russia and Japan have all been ocean beach. Two small but lovely species of destroyed or reduced. So, Russia and Japan now butterflies, which once hovered over the flowering harvest immature salmon (many born in North vales of San Francisco and nowhere else, have American streams). In retaliation, angry North winked out forever, one in the last century, one in American fishermen have convinced the US this. The beautiful San Francisco garter snake, which Government to extend our fishing property two lived in little fault ponds along the San Andreas, has hundred miles offshore. So, global wars start. Salmon been seldom seen since developers destroyed most of and all other migratory species (the Grey Whale, the its habitat in the early 1900's. A marvelous web of Delta's beautiful Canvasback Duck, the endangered native plants and insects, some found nowhere else, Least Tern) remind us that certain problems require still survives on the ridge and upper slopes of San planetary vision. Cleaning up our own house by Bruno Mountain, but development plans are closing restoring streams & rivers and removing dams that in fast. block salmon migrations would make our Two- The sea otters have been hunted from the Bay, and Hundred Mile Limit appear less war-like. Saving the most of the dolphins & harbor seals are gone. Some Bay Area watershed can help foster a Planetary of the Bay's invertebrates, native shrimps and Peace. mussels are being crowded out by competing species brought inadvertently from distant seas on the hulls of of ships. 62 TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979

DIRECT VERSUS TRANSFERRED ECONOMY What are the other ways we can restore the direct balance of life so that it can be shared with native A NATIVE ECONOMY is a direct economy, an plants and animals? Considering how much has economy that places value on what is already there. already been changed. How can we become native to Values are complex; oaks are tree-presence as well as what is here now? bearers of acorns, tule reeds are both singing spirits and basket material, salmon are annual visitors and smoked winter supplies. They are both personally direct for each person and direct to the place. It is an The Frisco Bay Mussel Group is a "committee of economy of seasons and migrations rather than correspondence" to act as a forum for sharing accounts. When there are fewer salmon than last regional identity and watershed consciousness. There year, more acorns are eaten, and the people continue. is no city/county division within the group because They continued with the flow of life around the Bay both locales are essentially interrelated through and for thousands of years. encompassed by the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento Non-natives imposed a transferred economy. River Estuary watershed. But there is a spirit to alter Transferred in were foods, materials, and cultural the dominance of city demands on the region, and ideas that were familiar to the new occupiers before extend a sense of regionhood to everyone living they came. Transferred out were things from the within it. Rather than restricting itself to areas such as region that had some value elsewhere. ecology, environment, or conservation—which appear No native way of life could compare with the to be directly related but tend to divorce the full advantages of a transferred economy in the minds of activity of human lives from other natural processes, the colonizers. Things accumulated quickly and the Mussel Group is developing information about: buildings were put up simply to hold them. native inhabitants, small self-sufficient early Subsequent waves of regional immigrants have homesteaders, "new settlers" accumulated so much, put up so many buildings, the extent of the watershed; biotic and life-realm imported so many devices to "succeed" here, and characteristics—geology, climate, plants, & animals transferred so much out that the region has been transformed into an enormous junkyard. priorities for restoring natural systems & removing Tourists glide mindlessly through a Barbary Coast exploitation threats romance which has nothing to do with the continuing manufacturing and agriculture justified by life of the place—posing for photos in front of boats nonexhaustible use of labor and renewable soil, idled along Fisherman's Wharf by failing crab energy and materials within the region catches. the spirit of multi-species relationships within the A transferred economy is a multi-bladed life- region and ceremonies to ensure biotic richness and mower which eventually jeopardizes the culture that diversity employs it. Empty cans for holding Japanese oysters thrown into the Bay spoil nesting beds for native partnership and trade within the watershed and with oysters. Housing tracts cover up topsoil that is other distinct regions essential for feeding people. Miles of pavement a form of planet-wide regional address prevent the natural flow and seepage of water actually causing floods. Obvious fumes fill the air around us Borne Native in San Francisco is an edited excerpt from an anthology of bioregional writings edited by Peter Berg entitled Reinhabiting a Separate Country (Planet Drum and no one risks thinking we can continue living here Books, Box 31251, San Francisco, California, 94131) this way to the end of this century. Restoring and maintaining watersheds, topsoil, and native species invite the creation of many jobs to begin undoing the damage invader society has done. Recovery of marshlands and tidelands along the Bay (with a moratorium on dumping raw sewage and other pollutants) would invite back the native birds and shellfish which were mainstays of a direct economy. TALKING WOOD, Winter 1979 63

•TALKING WOOD COMING ATTRACTIONS

1-287 is the future blacktop?

Don Delo on The Forest: Z From Rock Bottom to Treetop

U Watershed Wealth- " O O Carnegie Wealth— Could television turn the trick? Photographic Essay: 0 Paterson in black-and-white II by Eric Kroll

Musicians in Passaic— Leaving, staying, surviving?

Coming into the city; 0 An initiation rite in Paterson

Don't Tell Me This Town Ain't Got No Heart

Also—poetry, fiction, oral history, and photography Talking Wood invites you to For $10.00 you may become a subscribe to future issues and sustaining subscriber which includes Watershed Watches. For $5.00 you all our publications and the {j will receive our quarterly magazine satisfaction of knowing you are not H D and monthly supplements giving you part of the problem but part of Jj fresh information about the place in the solution. which you live.

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TALKING WOOD

VOLUME I, NUMBER 2 ONE DOLLAR

Please do nox rtove « PUBLIC urn* Second Issue from this room 4$ Road N-sw J#rsey 0/iSv /\ TALKING WOOD

VOLUME I, NUMBER 2

"WE NEVER HAD TO GO TOO FAR."

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Second Issue 2 TALKING WOOD

FOR STAFF JOHN BAUMGARTNER: Editor ALFRED M. PETERSON: Managing Editor THE JULIA MOSELEY: Art Director CYNTHIA LIGHTBODY: Associate Editor TURNSTILES MADELINE MORGAN: Production Manager BARBARA MORGAN: Editorial Assistant There are many references to music and things FRANKIE VAN DUNK: Distribution Manager PATTY ARNETT: Administrative Assistant musical throughout this issue. It just seemed to fall PAT GARBE: Business Manager together that way—as all that is living and breathing seeks new form with a changing of the seasons. To CONTRIBUTORS LOUISE ARGIROFF take the analogies a few steps further, we could TONY ARGO ANGELA COSTA compare the Second Issue to a record album on which DON DELO a myriad of perceptions are rendered, describing both BRIAN FERRY DEANNA FOSTER the cold realities and the rainbow dreams of some of \ STEVE GARRISON those living in our corner of the globe. MIM GREEN MARYANN KLEES This issue contains three extended STEVE KOBRIN pieces—orchestral, in a sense—commenting on the ERIC KROLL JAMES LABAGNARA greening of the new season, on the past and future of \ GERARD LITTLE ED MERRILL the city Paterson, and on the subject of music itself. JIM RYAN Ambitious, perhaps. But, like a record, it represents MARGERY RYERSON STEVE SKY the assembled industry of a group of people and, as ROB STUART such, the voices are diverse and the harmony is a VERNON TREXLER MARY VEITCH reflection of each person.

Talking Wood is published four times a year (winter, spring, summer and fall). Editorial offices: 125 Wanaque Avenue, Pompton Lakes, N.J. 07442. Copyright 1979, by Talking Wood. No part of the contents of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of Talking Wood. Unsolicited manuscripts of poetry, fiction, oral history, and non- fiction are welcome and encouraged. Submissions of photography and illustrations will also be considered. Submissions should be sent to: Editors, Talking Wood, P.O. Box 364, Pompton Lakes, N.J., 07442. Please include stamped, self-addressed envelope.

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act through the people of Passaic. While the opportunity for this project was provided by the Board of Chosen Freeholders, the editorial board of Talking Wood is solely responsible for policy and content.

Talking Wood is designed and typeset at the Pompton Lakes"office of Talking Wood Inc.

Cover photo of Passaic Falls by John Baumgartner

Inside cover photo of Rogers' Building, Paterson by Alfred M. Peterson

"-**** *«V.. .. Back cover photo by Eric Kroll SECOND ISSUE, 1979 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

An Initiation Rite in Paterson Crowsong _53 BY ALFRED M. PETERSON BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER

Paterson in Black and White 10 Art and Ancestry _54 PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIC KROLL BY ROB STUART

Paterson Remembered 14 Companion Plantings _60 BY STEVE KOBRIN ARTICLE AND PLANT CHART BY MlM GREEN

Early Days of Flight 18 Nature's Remedies AS TOLD TO STEVE KOBRIN COLLECTED BY BARBARA MORGAN AND FRANKIE VAN DUNK The Once and Future City J20 BY ALFRED M. PETERSON From an April BY RAINER MARIA RILKE Paterson You're Back _28 TRANSLATED BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER BY ANGELA COSTA The Sky Song 3,9 BY E. DURLING MERRILL BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER In Aries _69 Homing _29 BY JIM RYAN BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER Tryst _70 North Jersey Live _30 BY ALFRED M. PETERSON BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER Ramapo April. _70 A Conversation with Tony Argo _38 BY MIM GREEN BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER Equinox J\ Your Eyes 40 BY JIM RYAN BY STEVE SKY The Watching Place. _72 Iceberg a story for children BY BRIAN FERRY BY LOUISE ARGIROFF

The Young _49 Watching the River Flow _77 BY TONY ARGO BY CYNTHIA LIGHTBODY

Broken Nose, Be-Bop, Blue _50 Visitors of Time _78 BY DON DELO BY MARYANN KLEES

Two Untitled Poems _52 Watchung High. 79 BY E. DURLING MERRILL BY STEVE GARRISON 4 TALKING WOOD

JULY4,17S2

JOHN BAUMGARTNliR SECOND ISSUE. 197V 5 An Initiation Rite in Paterson

BY ALFRED PETERSON

THE PASSAIC RIVER passed away years ago. What The cop directs and beckons us across the street, into few fish remain in the river probably chew their way the city. Damn if it isn't another world. Officially through it. But this Friday afternoon the air is we're no longer in a suburb, but I don't need a sign. unusually clean, the sun generous, and the Passaic Everything reflects the crossing of borders. Within a reflects liquid gold as I cross the bridge on West block, the faces change, the streets narrow, the pace Broadway, about to take my first step into Paterson, is set at a different R.P.M. Haledon seemed ethnic in New Jersey. You might call it superficial beauty, but a European sense. Polish, Italian, German heritage the river image in my eye is postcard perfect; 'wish with all the trappings and inherent values of those you were here' not such a ridiculous sentiment. I am particular cultures. Paterson exudes a different vigorously cautioned, however, by one of my friends, heritage, a different mood. There's no ignoring a not to be taken in by this urban sleight of hand. It is a color change so drastic that it calls for a double take. trick of the sun and the water; Paterson really is an White is no longer a major part of the street scene. ugly city. Maybe that's not it. Perhaps what white people there The transformation from the quasi-rural tranquility are here don't seem white. Colors flow and blend, so of Ringwood to the mini-city atmosphere of Paterson that they neutralize each other; the streets become is amazing. I had expected a clear cut and easily common territory. recognizable dividing line between suburb and city. Traffic stands frozen before the bridge. Everyone Instead the change is gradual, like wading into water on the street's got Friday afternoon smiles and red instead of diving. Heading east on Hamburg eyes. They amble in comfortable fashion. The little Turnpike, I crawl my way with the rest of humanity, kids out of school run, as always. They run between hitting the brakes more than the gas. Turnpike is an and around older gray guys clanning on the corners. anachronism for a road that is a linear parking lot. There is a balance to each other's different reactions This afternoon the road is crazy with traffic, so to the day. I pass by a funky entrepreneur who's set there's plenty of time to watch suburban North Jersey up shop on the tailgate of his old Dodge station roll by. Wayne has real rolling hills and open spaces wagon, dented and scarred in urban automobile beyond the malls and shopping centers that stick close fashion. He's got hand painted signs pushing rock salt to the highway. Land of the upper middle class, split and toilet paper for a song. No customers at the level houses, manicured lawns, and not a few moment, so he's slouching on the tailgate taking Cadillacs and Mercedes. There's a comfortable Thunderbird with a soulful face that waits patiently feeling of space; gracious existence. Suburbia is a for a mad rush. A few more blocks and the infamous word coined with Wayne in mind. A left turn off the projects loom into view. Huge, red, boring buildings Turnpike and before I can file Wayne away I'm in built upon land that supported another era's weight. Haledon, cruising down the main drag. Now, an People are hanging out like they're waiting for overwhelming feeling of density; a lot of people in something to happen. Nobody seems to be heading in very little living space. Quick change, you turn a any particular direction. Next to one of the buildings, corner and good-bye elbow room, hello row houses. near the bridge, two building cranes have lowered Laundry lines crisscross the alleys like giant webs, their necks to the ground. No doubt waiting out the and packs of kids cluster on the sidewalks weekend until Monday morning when riders will masterminding the weekend. again mount them and attempt to head off a slow The borderline is not subtle. The crossroads are urban death. I take a backward look at the projects electric with transition. By my route, Haledon ends before turning my attention towards the sunset Passaic and Paterson officially begins at Burhans Ave., where River. There's a little black girl on a fifth or sixth a traffic cop is busily playing games with the cars. floor balcony. She's riding high on one of those 6 TALKING WOOD rocking horses with coil spring legs, slowly and another era, a Paterson they won't relinquish. rhythmically taking in her Paterson while the fading The strip from Market to Main and down is day paints her thoughts. Crossing the river, heading animated. It's a just-cashed-the-checks atmoshpere. for action Main Street, I wonder if she sees the same The downtown paraders aren't falling headlong into river I see, Picture Postcard perfect. Has anyone told the retailer's arms. They just want to promenade, not her yet that Paterson is ugly? buy. Everyone unconsciously falls in step to the blues Shopkeepers are firing up the neon to ward off harp of a guy hanging out by the old Meyer Brothers approaching dusk as I pull into a by-the-hour parking building. Funky but casual. Street wise and probably lot on Cianci Street. I make my way on foot across street poor. The sounds banking off these old the macadam. Immediately I sense a city rhythm Paterson buildings is a eulogy for a city going to it's that's unlike any I've experienced before. I've knees. Paterson looks old, but heady with heritage. touched ground in New York, Philly, Newark, Old brick, worn stone, outdated cornices; we're even New Brunswick, and at the moment there is no talking horse and buggy architecture. The street beat comparable feeling in my city memory. Every city is still alive. Someone forgot to tell the physical has its' own distinctive street beat, its' music Paterson. All along Market and Main the first floors counterpart. New York's got disco, Newark's got its are inhabited by the inescapable, indispensable funk, Philly's got soul. This city runs to 6/4 blues merchant. The second and third stories give me the time. Passing Local 248 of the American Federation chills as I check out the skyline. Empty, boarded, of Musicians on Prospect Street; is there somebody in black; I can't shake the cliche image of empty sockets there who can play me a few riffs of Paterson? in a grinning skull. There's a lot of history here, While making my way to Market St. my camera- deeply rooted tradition. What the hell is happening or at-hand friend is besieged by a couple with cries of did happen to account for all the silent windows and "take my picture". As he obliges them, I watch a empty real estate? lady across the street engaged in what looks like a Nothing empty about the street. The usual city daily ritual because her mannerisms are natural but sounds assault me; traffic, record stores and choreographed. She leans out of a second story window, dressed in gray, gray hair hanging wild, framed in clapboard. She's calmly shouting and gesturing in Italian to a woman on the pavement in black orthopedic shoes, white anklets and a long black overcoat. The woman on the pavement punctuates her gossip partner's monologue by periodically rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up. The one on the second floor interrupts herself only long enough to work up a chiding for the masons and other laborers who walk into and stagger out of the Tulip Club Topless GoGo Bar. She gives them hell and they wave her off dramatically, without looking up. Both parties in this sketch smile. Her gaze drifts across Prospect St. and finds my eyes. She instinctively spots me as an outsider. The woman on the ground doesn't turn around, but waits patiently, eyes skyward for the continuing saga. The lady of the second story contemplates, takes a moment to catalogue me, then resumes her dissertation, seemingly happy to have fresh grist for her mill. The gray paint on her clapboard world is peeling. On the corner of Market and Cianci two ancient Italian gents sit on folding chairs, their backs to a warehouse wall. Staid, impervious behind enormous groomed and waxed mustaches. Traditional faces that don't flinch as I pass their line of vision; sentinels set to guard JOHN BAUMGARTNKR SECOND ISSUE, 1979 7

Not everyone's smiling. There's more than one bad ass dude who struts an unwavering line I'm forced to step aside for. These guys faces are stoic in anger and hate and dope. Darting pupils give me the message: 'don't mess with it man!'. Are they born with these eyes? It's got to be an achieved art. The young kids' eyes are not like their older brothers'. They travel in gangs and try to look super bad but their small fry eyes are energized and curious and wide and creative. What or who teaches these young eyes to douse the spark and smoulder with hate? A kid, about eight or nine, slouches in the doorway of a record store peering out from under his Yankees cap at the people who pass. He's putting on the stare like he's looking for a sucker. Obviously a fast learner. I walk up to him and smile big, hoping his big brothers aren't watching. He gives me that sucker stare. I strike a street attitude and ask "What is happening, my man?" He lowers his eyes and smiles real shy and just says "nuthin". I walk on but look back; he's got his face on, practicing to be bad. A guy done up in black satin, gold chains and high heels spots me a block away and drills a hole in me with his eyes for the whole block. We walk a collision course. I match him eyeball for eyeball. We close in. Adenalin pumping. Why does this man hate me? Is it me, something I represent, or am I just a transistors putting out street vibrations, the high convenient scapegoat for his inner city frustrations? pitched pitches of the independent businessman We stop about two feet from each other. Still eye to without license on the corner. A separate sound eye. His face is immobile. Will he cut me with all asserts itself; a sound, at first part of the din, these people around? I've got nothing against him, separates and becomes distinct. I identify it. It but sure would like to know what he's got against me. surprises me. It's laughter. I hit him with a carefully enunciated drawn out, "que I pick up on the atmosphere and it hangs very pasa". He's shocked, at least shocked as much as his loose. People having a good time smiling to each attitude will allow. His eyes squint wider, and his other, and sometimes at me. Mothers with children mouth draws into a sarcastic smile. He indicates the before and behind them call over their shoulders to street and building with a slow sweep of his hand, each other, heave with laughter and shake their heads and carefully enunciated, slowly drawn out, he says at the inimitable comedy of the child. Young black "Fucking nada, man. You dig? Nada." He turns kids make a joke of everything, point and mock each abruptly and crosses Main St. My eyes follow him. other and strangers as they continue on the loose. He doesn't look back. He disappears around a corner Older dudes check out the women who glide by, occupied by an old gray building with a huge For leaning whispered half-serious innuendos in their Rent sign. Against a sunset skyline, hundreds of general direction. The chicks never miss a beat in starlings attempt to homestead the abandoned second their glide pattern, but they smile. The younger ones floor, zooming in and out of the cracks of boarded lose step and giggle self-consciously. Cutting down windows. They start to scream the way birds do at Main St. I get almost imperceptible flashes of day's end. The sound builds. Soon the screaming and greeting from perfect strangers. The subtle nod in my flapping of thousands of wings is all I can hear on direction, the arch of an eyebrow, even an occasional Main Street. mumbled "what's hapnin"; the universal technique "The only city on the East Coast worse than of one person saying hello to another in a slightly Paterson is Newark, New Jersey." Words spoken uptight almost anonymous urban fashion. with calm determination and seeming authority by 8 TALKING WOOD

Phil W. Phil is a security guard in downtown Paterson backs off a step and shakes his head, taking me in and commutes from Allendale every working day. He with a condescending smile. and I stand in the fading daylight next to his station "I wouldn't live in this place if you gave me fifty wagon on lower Main St. He holds court amid the grand a year, a townhouse and fed me like a king. downtown action like a self-possessed, self-professed Working here is bad enough. Why, I have friends Professor of the streets. He looks ten years younger who have refused jobs because they would have had than his certifiable seventy-five. Done up in brogues, to go in here. These guys are no shrinking violets gray slacks and Arnold Palmer golf jacket his image either. They're younger than me and healthy. I mean is of a man just gearing for Social Security, instead of the muggings, the car break-ins..." one a decade past the magic birthday. But, as he's I nod my head in mock sympathy, force feeding quick to point out, "the only check I collect is a his up-front hatred for this city. He warms to the paycheck." subject and hits me with observations and emotion I stop to rap with Phil because he is a curious full of venom, but tempered by clear and honest figure on the streets of Paterson. He isn't the only conviction. I listen to decades of living finally given a white person on the streets but he is the only relaxed forum. white person I see. The other white people I spot blur "Even on this street it's bad, and this is one of by in variations of paranoia on the hoof. Chicks with your safer streets. You won't find me here after dark frozen frowns, struck ill by disco fever—businessmen if I can help it. It's the kids under eighteen, even the with strides so fast and clipped they look like ones under ten. They learn real quick, they steal, they Olympic material—old men and women in a slow but throw rocks at people." wary stone face progression. Then I spy Phil standing "Anybody ever throw rocks at you Phil?" next to his car, calm, hands on his hips, like Paterson He pursues his lips, wrinkles his forehead and nods is his living room. I casually ask him how's Paterson, slowly, as if the answer were obvious, and dodging and he hooks me with his 'Paterson is only second to rocks in Paterson was as common as jaywalking. Newark' line. "The bad streets with the problem kids are "Do you like working in Paterson, Phil?" Paterson and Straight. They're the worst, by the He raises an eyebrow and asks if I'm some kind of bridge. Those kids are educated in one thing only: reporter. Afraid he might think I'm out to bilk him or breaking the law." otherwise rip him off I nod my head in a vaguely "Phil, did you ever get down to it, ever get positive motion and he sparks. personally involved in a kick-ass situation?" "You want a story? Well, I'll give ya a story He smiles and flashes his palms in surrender. alright." "I'm threatened everyday, but I'm a student of Phil is a country bred boy born and raised in New applied psychology. I could knock you out right now York State and transplanted to North Jersey by the faster than you could react, with one simple punch. I whim of 1920's American economics. Working for learned it in the service. But I don't have to use force. Curtis Wright Aeronautics, married, with a son, he If you can't talk your way out of any situation, then moved to Paterson in 1931. For a time he lived in an you aren't worth a damn, anyway." apartment on East 27th St. in what he terms 'a good "Then what the hell is wrong with Paterson, what neighborhood'. Phil animates, gesturing and snorting makes this situation seem so bad?" to questions about Paterson in 1931. "It's the people. These people are uneducated, "There were no problems like you have today. uncouth, and ill mannered. The people have changed You could walk down this street unafraid, take a since the thirties. They've come from South America, leisurely stroll and know nobody was going to bother Puerto Rico, Spain and the deep south of this country. you. People were different; they were proud of their You didn't have this situation at all forty years ago. city, their homes, themselves." Now I keep my eyes open, watch my back, and get Apparently that seems to say it all for him about out before dark." Paterson nearly half a century ago. When I press him "Yeah, but what about the noise and traffic for details he rambles or shrugs, as if these details are congestion, the dirty air, the dirty water, the petty lines in the schematic of his feelings. abandoned buildings? Don't these mean anything, The story Phil does have a few details about is of have any effect on you?" the here and now, the downtown Paterson, N.J. of He shrugs. 1979. I ask him again about working in the city. He "So what? A city is a city with those things. That SECOND ISSUE, IV79 9 stuff is in every city in every country in the world. appearances. You learn something everyday, don't That's not it, that doesn't phase me." you?" He points a self-confident finger at me and lowers Well, I've learned to walk furtively as I make my his voice. way back to the car. I've learned to fear those easy "It's only one thing, it's the element that's moved smiles I enjoyed at red sunset. What that old man said in. That's the problem. Look. Look around you, open might have been true for him, but I didn't see or your eyes, it's the element." experience any of his negativity today. Still, his I turn a slow 360. As far as I can see in the near voice echoes in my mind; it's part of my baggage darkness we are the only white people on Main now, I can't shake it. Fear is only the tip of the Street. When I come full circle to face him, he's on iceberg of ignorance, and fear is contagious. Cursing the other side of Main at a newstand buying cigs. I myself, I lock the car doors and check to see if the turn and face him. One more question. tapedeck, radio and camera are still where they "How long can you last; what happens to you should be. Turn the music up, a protective wall of when you lose that one crucial step, are just a shade sound will do the trick. more vulnerable?" In exodus, in the dark, an infinite length of tail He winks at me, points his finger at his temple, and lights form red stepping stones leading to the shouts across the stream of headlights. suburbs. Friday evening after rush hour, and most "I'm out. I'm packing my bags and moving to main arteries to most cities are jammed with party North Carolina next year. Ya see? You saw a balding traffic. As I wait for release into the capillary roads of old man, these clothes, an old car and thought this North Jersey, an occasional pair of headlights stabs guy's a nobody, doesn't know anything. And now the darkness, floating along and unobstructed into the look where you are. Look how much you've learned. night of Paterson. Remember one thing, you can't depend on

ALFRED M. PETERSON 10 TALKING WOOD

Paterson in Black and White BY ERIC KROLL SECOND ISSUE, 197V 11 12 TALKING WOOD SECOND ISSUE, 1979 13 14 TALKING WOOD

JOHN BAUMGARTNER SECOND ISSUE, 1979 15 Paterson Remembered BY STEVE KOBRIN

WHY WERE THE 'GOOD OLE DAYS' of Paterson days', Jimmy leaned closer and shook an emphatic good? What was life really like 'way back then'? I finger. decided to find out, to explore that nearly forgotten "We went to School Number Sixteen; that was world that lies like gold in the memory beds of those about a half-mile walk. Then we used to go to School people who lived through the city's early growth Number Nine for printing—that's probably a mile and years. In their homes, and on a visit to a community a half away. Then we had to go to School Eleven for center, several long-time residents and I returned to manual training; that was a mile and a half the other the Paterson of yesterday. way. Everybody just walked. In fact, it was nothing Jimmy LaBagnara and I brought the past to life in to walk three or four miles. his quiet, spacious living room in the Totowa section "We had a very tough school system years ago. of Paterson. Memories of his childhood were vivid The teacher was the boss. You learned your and far-reaching. subjects—reading and writing—and had respect for the "As a youngster, I was learning to be a mechanic. teacher. If your parents were called in, you'd better In those days, your mother had to get permission be prepared for a beating when you got home because from the man and ask him will he do you a favor and the teacher was always right. And in most cases teach the son some of the tricks of the trade. They they'd find out it was true. would teach you—you didn't get any pay. "And when we played in the street—occasionally, "If they thought you were half-way decent, you we would break a window. Your father would were gonna show up every day, they say, 'okay, I'll immediately pay for it. You just tell your father, 'I take him under my wing', and he'd start to teach you broke a window'. some of the tricks of mechanics. And if they like you "Many a time I had to fix my own. You go up to enough, maybe they give you a quarter on a Saturday United Hardware and pay thirty-five cents for a piece or something. There was no such thing as saying, of glass—that's a lot of money, for glass there—and 'how much am I gonna get', or something—'how take the window out, and putty—you learn to putty much do you pay a week?' He'd be doing you a yourself—and put in the piece of glass. It's part of the favor by teaching you the trade, by helping you get game-it's your responsibility!" started. Street games. Playing; enjoying yourself with the "In those days, when I was growing up, in people you live with. Putting aside the work in the grammar school, you worked a twelve-hour day. My shop, the factory, and the school. Amidst the clatter father used to work twelve hours, and a half-day on and murmur of the Father English Community Center Saturday. He got straight time for it. I remember him on Main Street, several neighborhood residents fondly going to work in Singac, on 21st Avenue in Paterson. recalled those times spent away from reading, Five miles, and when the trolleys weren't running, writing, and twelve hour days. he'd walk to work and back. Started off two and a "We'd go to church picnics once in a while. Up to half hours early. the mountains. We used to go to Oakland, which is a "Most of the people were that sturdy in those days. little farther. Then we used to go to the They couldn't afford to miss a day—that meant less mountains—bring the children to the mountains." As food on the table. You missed a day, you didn't get she sipped her tea slowly, I could see Lena Natoli paid determination and need. You had to do it or through her eyes climbing up and over years of many ELSE!" special times. His face shone and his voice rang with pride as "First Sunday in May, that mountain used to be Jimmy described the heartiness of the old city breed. loaded-loaded with people. They had a horse n' Theirs was a long, hard day—the children's, too. As buggy—from Lumbrusky's we used to ride along the he illustrated with his words the 'dear old golden rule canal and climb up to the mountain. Had some good 16 TALKING WOOD times up on the mountains—that was really our strongest; Dom recalled in vivid detail his childhood playground. We used to go up there and camp, up sport. over the bridge, and over the D.L.W. Railroad into "When we were kids, we did quite a bit of the mountains and stay there all day long." It seemed swimming in the summertime. The park was only a like the most natural thing in the world for Alex half mile from home, and it was city run. We'd be up Orsini to be sitting there and talking about those times there when it was available. in the mountains. "In those days, we swam in the river, but it was in "Everything was all around here. The mountains, like built-in cages, I guess you'd have to say. They the big lake up there, Barber's Pond. We used to go put those barrels afloat where you'd have to walk, walking in the park—they had bands up there. Up in and the floor would be two-by-fours and so forth and the lookout, down by the falls—they even had an so on, and that would be our pool. Just laid on top of amusement park up there by the falls. They had a big the river, and of course the barrel's holding it up. auditorium up there. Then you had one in Garrett That was the pool in those days. A little pool for the Mountain. kids, small ones, and one for the grown-ups—a "We used to go up to Glow Falls; they used to deeper pool." have a park up there. On Sunday, we used to take the Yet as Tony Confordi remembered back at the trolleys, and go up there for five cents, you know Community Center, sport could be useful, as well as what I mean? fun. "We used to get together at night and sing on the ' 'You know what we used to do when we were corners. Lot of these families used to have nice big young? Some guys used to walk by the yards, you know, in the back. Like a little park, with railroads—they come by and knock the coal off, so the benches there.. .A lot of these homes around here, we go and pick it up and save it for the winter. you know, they all had wells—make your own wine. Everything was like that, you see, you had to do it for You got together in the back yard. yourself. Your father used to go down and buy your "We used to have block dances; close the street leather for shoes. When they wore out, he used to up. And skating when they closed the block up." mend them." Tony gave a matter-of-fact nod as he Dom Trouse talked a great deal about those block spoke. dances and the other occasions when people got "When I was small, I used to go to the slaughter together to have a good time. We were chatting in the house. You go up there, the man would give me the living room of his airy, warm house in Totowa kidneys, the liver, the heart, and everything, and then Borough. A house that has endured a century of we'd go home and cook it. It didn't cost you nothing, changing lifestyles. Polished wood furniture, modern and it was good eating...Oh—you go up to West appliance conveniences. A screened porch, and a Paterson up there, you'd get fresh milk. There was winding staircase. Pure spring water from a jar in the butter and everything in there." icebox. Jimmy recalls the different chores and skills of the "They used to have a lot of bazaars and block young girls in those days. dances. All the churches—the Catholic churches "Girls in those days learned how to cook, learned around. All the high schools. We used to go around how to sew, sew their own clothes. And later on they to them all the time. Even in the school yards, they could actually buy patterns and sew their own dresses used to have them all. with patterns. So they learned a trade and worked "We'd have men with colored faces, and so forth. in some of the factories. A very ticklish They'd imitate and tell jokes back and forth. You'd trade—ticklish work; a lot of it was hand-stitching." be in a group with some particular dancing and Life in the home and in the neighborhood: survival, singing, and different songs—the old time songs. and also good times. Yet there was the WORLD, too, "Usually at the basketball games in our days, when and those events that brought you to your window and the basketball game was over, you'd have a dance. out into the streets. Dom recalls, "The war years—I You'd have an orchestra there, and there'd be was born 1915. I remember when they were drafting dancin' for a couple of hours.'' soldiers; they were down on the corners, asking The scenes drawn by these people were alive with everyone if they want to join. The army askin' to feelings that are still strong despite the many days that recruit soldiers. Just a block away from my house, have passed since those special times. Perhaps the around the corner. Callin'—someone comes up, the earliest memories of friends and family are the guy asks him if they want to join. SECOND ISSUE, 1979 17

"I remember some of the big fires in adventures—his first automobile ride. As the full Paterson—like Quackenbush, when that burnt down. memory came back to him, he grinned broadly and Main Street and Nelson Street. A big department shook his head with amusement. store—one of the biggest in the city. Six firemen were "It was very strange. In fact, my uncle bought an killed at that time-that was a biggie." old Chevrolet back in the twenties. And I can Alex also recalled the fires. In excitement, his remember him taking us to Rockaway Beach, or voice swooped and sprang as he relived those scenes. Coney Island—one of those places—and he went "They had horses on the fire engines—they used to around a corner too fast and the four tires came off! have a fire and the horses would come down out of High tires, you know—that's the way the automobiles the station on State Street. We used to watch were made. They weren't made too much for speed; them—they used to be in th'eir stalls and soon as that it was an event to go twenty miles. bell rings, they drop that harness right down on them "In fact, I can remember one of the questions and off they go!" asked us in grammar school was, 'how many children Sometimes ablaze and always changing, the world have ever been to New York City?'. There was about often held something to watch—and maybe to three of us that raised our hands in the whole class. experience. Yet it seemed to be 'out there'; outside People didn't move around much." the home, outside the neighborhood. A place to go to. As Alex put it; "We never had to go too far—we Jimmy remembered one of his earliest never had to go too far."

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JAMES LABAGNARA 18 TALKING WOOD Early Days of Flight AS TOLD TO STEVE KOBRIN

{Editors Note: Meeting Jimmy La Bagnara was an was too much flying and there was a minimum of experience. Steve Kobrin and I visited his home in expenses paid, you know, and we weren't buying late March to take some photographs for Steve's repairs from the services that had airports at the time, piece "Paterson Remembered". But the afternoon we did our own work. Mechanics joined the club, you became much more than just a photo session. know, there were graphics, and engine Jimmy's memories are colorful and lucid, and he is mechanics were members. Some of the top men in able to recount many of the remarkable events of his the country at that time, people who later worked on own life without pretensions, particularly his days as Lindberg's plane were members. There were well- a stunt pilot and flying instructor. We hope that some known people. of the 'flavor' of his thoughts can be conveyed in the words and pictures that follow.)

"I GOT A JOB AT WRiGHT's-that's Wright Aeronautical Corporation—back in the middle Thirties. I got my job as a baseball player.. .a baseball player and a soccer player. They were developing championship soccer and baseball teams and I tried out with several professional teams, including the St. Louis team in Florida, and they gave me a job as a ballplayer. That's how I got my job... "They started a flying club at Wright Aeronautical. Naturally, they were making engines and flying was a very important part of the thoughts of many people who worked there. A group of young people got together and decided to buy an airplane. You know, you chipped in so much money and started this club. We had a few of the test pilots at the time that were our instructors. They were testing airplanes and engines at Curtis Wright, which is now Caldwell Airport. "When I got my license, I decided that I liked it and every chance I got I kept flying. I got to the point where I got my commercial license, and then I got my instructor's rating, and now while this is going on, we had started this club. And a little field, which is up in Oakland now, it's in Franklin Lakes actually, it's right along the main road there which is known as Urban Farms now. The little strip is only about 1600 foot long...it was called Melton Airport, and that's where we learned how to fly. "The flying club consisted of about twenty members. Melton Airport finally was sold, nobody Nelson Airport wanted any flying clubs in those days because there Oakland,N.J. Jwne 193? SECOND ISSUE, 1979 19

"The problem was, as I mentioned, that no one lack of the cap on there, and the airplane quit at take- liked flying clubs in those days, so we had a chance off. to move to a little farm in Lincoln Park. There was a "I had no alternative but to clear the wires and just Greek, who was a very, very intelligent man, but he head straight ahead. We couldn't manuever either looked like a farmer. Actually he was a farmer, but way...We just kept moving straight ahead and landed he spoke very little English and he was getting old on this old barn. Just sunk right into it, and did very and he had a big celery farm there. He took a liking little damage. Most of the damage came from takin' to us and he says, "You know, I like to see young the airplane down. people get ahead," he says, "I'll sell you this land. ".. .1 used to fly Lou Costello whenever he was in You can start the airport right here on this property." the area. He loved flying. He lived in Paterson before It was very black dirt, right where Lincoln Park is he went out to Hollywood and became famous. He now. always used to plug Paterson every chance he "One time the field (in Lincoln Park) was muddy, got...Paterson, New Jersey. Whenever he was in the and it was a very small runway. It was a Luscomb area and he had somewheres to go by plane, why, he that I was flying and someone left the gas cap off would call me and I'd fly him either to the track, or a when they gassed it up. There were high tension lines charter somewheres. He was a great guy. He'd handle at the end of the field and I had a student with me. the airplane but he wouldn't fly. He was just as funny Taking off, the pressure was reduced because of the in real life as he was in the movies... "Another story, a particular story on flying that's very interesting is about a test pilot for Bendix who's retired now. He's well up in his seventies. His name is Royal Rider. He was a chief pilot for Wright Hying Service in the late Thirties when the government was giving these courses to anyone that was interested in flying and possibly going into the service...most of it was advanced work for people that already had a private license and they want to learn how to become a commercial pilot—a lot of acrobatics. ' 'So I was working with Wright at the time and was in supervision. I decided to take the course. I was working at Wright on the third shift and taking the Ineoln Park Airport course during the day. Royal Rider used to take you '***— point-landing o» roof, ,7 up and give you all types of manuevers—acrobatics, over hlfeh tension wires 5/11/** upside down flying and snap rolls, and I was thinking of one particular incident—if it ever happened today, what would people be thinking... ' 'We were flying inverted in this airplane. It was a Waco UPS 7, they called it. He said, 'Alright, just keep flying upside down, I'll tell you which way to go.' And I used to turn left, turn right, and I figured this is part of the game, this is the way you have to do it. So he says, 'Make a left turn, let down a little bit.' So we're coming in and he says, 'Alright, roll it out now.' So I roll it down and we were on a straightaway coming into a landing and only three or four hundred feet over the ground. He was guiding this thing upside down, around the airport, on a base lag roll-out... In verted flying, you see. Some pilot...Imagine someone getting that low today? Upside down? They'd have him arrested; everybody .La Bagnara & Lou Costallo would think he's crazy..." Cessna UG 78 June 17, 1950. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF JAMES LABAGNARA 20 TALKING WOOD

JOHN BAUMGARTN™ SECOND ISSUE, 1979 21 The Once and Future CitySi•**»l * BY ALFRED PETERSON

PATERSON USED TO BELONG to :? \m.~ZL...5: j^Lenape, when English was a foreign language in this revolution caught up with itself. New inventions, a T" changing demand, and an increasingly aware labor Inland. In the 17th century, the Dutch settlers trickled 4 jjjfinto the region now called the city of Paterson. force, resulting in those famous and devastating Silk ^Agriculture was survival and peaceful coexistence the Strikes of 1913; Paterson closed its eyes in fear and "¥, f*general run of things. Then on a pleasant July day in poverty, and its red brick spirit sagged with the j*' "^1778, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and a weight of a shattered dream and a shattered future. **" Grace George talks to seagulls. Sometimes they ^£ I handful of other Revolutionary heavyweights spread talk back. She and I are walking around the Paterson m *out a blanket and picnicked by the Passaic Falls; a Falls on a humid, misty spring day. The vapor from jib ^pleasurable respite from the nasty business of waging the thundering water is thick and spreads far, &»' ^Jwar. Then and there Hamilton dictated great things competing with the steam from the Allied Textile P 5 jtjfor the future Paterson. A planned industrial center. A mills just down river. The air is acrid with the -*Z Upragmatic solution to a young nation's war and unmistakable smell of industry. Grace is Tour **J ^independence needs. Something called the Society for Director for the Great Falls Historical District, where * aiUseful Manufactures was set up; private backers some forty-nine old locomotive, silk and textile mills i"2 '^bankrolling industrial experimentation. The are located. She is a sister to Paterson. Her family has JJ ^experiment worked resoundingly well. Throughout lived in the city for more than 100 years and she has .,*>: tgthe 19th century and the early 20th, Paterson was unshakable faith in its resurgence. Paterson is coming N| vgNumber One. Number One in steam railroad engines, back and the Historic District is the focal point. Sgi silk production, finishing, dyeing, textiles, Take a tour with Grace and me. We stand on thefC S, . submarines. New America. Here were jobs, and you old S.U.M. Hydroelectric Building directly adjacent^ ^didn't even have to have a skill. to the falls. From 1914-1968, this plant provided ^i j|Paterson's industrial star soared. Then the industrial energy to almost 4000 buildings. Now it stands idle, aS

JOHN BAUMCARTNER 22 TALKING WOOD

"hotel for pigeons" as Grace calls it. But rumors We head down from the raceway onto Spruce abound of a three million dollar grant to make the street, a street lined with old mill buildings and the plant operational to provide efficient energy once Rogers Locomotive Works. The outside of the Union again to Paterson. Turn your back on the Falls and Works mill is brown with soot and age, and some of you can see a large outcrop of exposed rock set the brick is crumbling. We climb a fire escape to the against a backdrop of mill buildings. This is what second floor. The inside is alive with activity. Kids remains of Morris Mountain. An entire mountain learning, teachers teaching. This is the Dawn Treader leveled for the brownstone of the buildings of a past school, a non-graded private elementary school; an Paterson. Now it has a commemorative plaque stuck example of the adaptive uses planned for much of the in it. Grace points back to the river. "She's really Historic District. There are tools lying about near running today." Indeed she is. The water is literally some windows, signs of restoration work in progress. shooting over the cliffs with the wild abandon of Since school is in session, we take ony a perfunctory spring thaw. "See all that flotsam and jetsam? look inside and then leave quietly. That's from upriver, the suburbs. The garbage doesn't start here. A river runs down. We're on the receiving end. It's getting better though. There are gold carp in the dam waters here above the hydroelectric plant. There's even perch and bass in the Passaic River now." As we turn away from the falls Grace waves goodbye to some of her seagull buddies and winces as she spies some kids throwing stuff in the river. We pass her small tour headquarters, the former field house for the electric plant, and cross McBride Ave. Up a small dirt incline and we stand upon the Upper Raceway. There is an upper, a middle and a lower raceway. These were a system of mill races—small canals to bring water from the falls into the industrial district to turn water wheels that Our next stop is the Rogers Locomotive building, provided power to the mills. The water still pulses one of Grace's favorites, and one that will prove to be through the raceways, but their wheels are inactive one of mine. She leads me around the back of the and the water runs into stagnant pools of inattention. Union Works on a short cut to our destination. If I There are large blocks of stone set at intervals in the were a mountain goat, the short cut would be raceway, waiting to do their part in the District's paradise. We pick our way around and over deep rebirth. mud, puddles and large chunks of concrete. When we hit level ground I look up and find myself standing in a great wasteland of rubble facing Market Street. It serves as a makeshift parking lot for workers of the restoration. Grace answers my question before I can ask it. "This used to be the Cooke and Grant Locomotive Works. They weren't torn down. Vandalism and fire leveled the structure in 1974." Deliberate arson in the Historic District? "No, just a lot of bums and hobos." We cross Market Street and walk through the gate behind the Rogers Building. This is the building that stands as the prime example of what restoration is all about. The brick is clean and visually soothing in its hand-crafted symmetry. Some of the windows are exact duplicates of the originals; large 20 over 20 Machinery of the now-defunct lights hand-made to exact specifications. I notice S.U.M. Hydroelectric Plant, Great Falls. large parallel ditches running out from the back of the SECOND ISSUE, 1979, 23 building and extending into the backyard space. but it was burned out last year." I look through a Grace fills me in. "Great care is being taken in the shattered window. Charcoal. Why? restoration; consideration to the past. Before any We head up McBride Ave. and Grace and I part rebuilding is begun, all sites are archaeologically facing the falls. "Look close. See that rock sticking "dug" and examined. There are even old tracks out of the falls on the left? Doesn't it look like a under the macadam streets of Spruce and Market face?" Amazingly, it's easy to make out a profile. where the great engines were carriaged to the old "That's Ommani. The Indians named him. It means Depot." Before we proceed inside, Grace greets Old Man-Of-The-Falls. They believed he was the spirit of Number One with a private nickname and inquires as the falls." Grace George bids me goodbye and turns to its general health. Old Number One is a 1910 and bids Ommani the same. She walks up McBride steam engine manufactured by the Rogers Works and Ave. I stay put. It takes me about fifteen minutes to reclaimed by Paterson. The engine sits on tracks in work up my courage. If Grace can do it, so can I. I the yard of the Rogers Works, waiting to do its part in look around carefully. No one's watching. I clear my throat. "Well Ommani, I guess you've seen a lot of changes..." Paterson's Historic District has attracted a lot of attention over the past fifteen years or so and will draw even more in the future. In the mid-sixties it was threatened with demolition because of the proposal to run a six-lane highway through its center. The Route 20 controversy was finally resolved and the district received a reprieve. The seventies have been a decade of consideration and action. The mill district became The Great Falls S.U.M. Historic District. A non-profit citizens group, the Great Falls Development Corporation, was formed in 1971 to promote the district and guide preservation and restoration. In 1976 President Ford presided over joining the past and present. Inside, the ground floor ceremonies designating the district a National Historic is filled with building materials, band saws, mortar Landmark, the first industrial district in the country to mixers, and a solitary workman on lunch break who be so designated. The eighties will witness a apparently decided to eat in historic ambience. Grace rejuvenated Historic District and downtown, more has been talking about the "spirit" of the brick all jobs and a new image.. morning. Now, running my hands over historic walls The key to the city's future is the pragmatic, I catch her meaning. You can feel the strength, the businesslike attitude of everyone involved in the care and pride of integrity in this four-story tribute to Paterson Craft. The restoration is doing justice to this heritage. Huge wooden supporting beams are being hand finished, the great bay doors rebuilt like the originals, even the new mortar matches the original. The Rogers building is a symbol and bellweather of Paterson's changing face. We leave too soon. Grace has an appointment. As we head up Spruce Street to her Tour office, I brush my fingers lightly over the Union Works wall. Curious how the texture of brick works on you. A lot nicer than stainless steel and concrete. Grace steers me across the street to a small quaint building on the edge of the Falls View Grill (Hot Texas Weiners) parking lot. "This is the Ivanhoe Wheelhouse. It used to provide power to the Ivanhoe Paper Mill using A Silk Warper, Pre-1900 water from the raceway. We had started work on it, Manufactured by Benjamin Eastwood Co., Paterson. 24 TALKING WOOD restoration, from the Director of Paterson's Division of Economic Development to the official restoration architect. A realization has been reached: people who spread themselves out in front of bulldozers to effect or halt change are outdated and inefficient. The first step in the restoration process was to get money, the best means to effect constructive change. An efficient Department of Community Development in consultation with Dave Stadtmauer, Director of Economic Development, met the challenge head on. In 1977 Paterson received part of a total of an $11 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Title IX grant. This F.E.D. grant is for a complete rejuvenation of the Great Falls Historic District. The city has also received a $4.2 million dollar Urban Development Action grant. The UDAG funds are primarily for new American way of life, and pragmatic restoration industry construction or expansion of present works along these lines. The goal is to make Paterson facilities. The UDAG grant is earmarked for the unique, to offer high quality consumer goods to Marshall Street-Dale Avenue industrial area, but it is people, to give them something they can't find in the F.E.D. grant to bring Paterson's past alive that their suburban boutiques and shopping malls. The has people enthused. general building scheme is for companies to The theme of the $11.1 million F.E.D. grant is manufacture and produce in the buildings' upper economic development, to encourage adaptive uses floors and establish retail outlets on the ground floor. for the mills and other buildings in the District. Soho These stores and shops would be consumer/art in New York City and Ghiradelli Square in San oriented. Plans for the Phoenix Mill, the oldest mill in Francisco are oft-mentioned examples of what the District, is an example of this thinking. A Paterson is striving for; "a fun and interesting place company is interested in setting up an Artist with drawing power" as Mr. Stadtmauer puts it. Foundation that would produce single edition silk Mayor Kramer puts it another way: "We don't want screen prints of "famous artists" on the upper floors these places to be pleasant, quiet buildings with and establish galleries on the ground floor. In purple ropes and little old ladies giving out addition, training for artists and some housing are brochures." The city is counting heavily on its ability good possibilities being considered. Negotiations are to favorably influence the private sector that it's good progressing optimistically to establish a winery and business to get in on the new Paterson. This approach retail outlet on the bottom floors of the Franklin Mill is logical, since much of the $11.1 million is being on McBride Ave. Also in the works is a "very good, used to establish interest bearing accounts to make high quality restaurant'' on the top floor of that available low interest loans to business and industry. stately old mill. The Restoration of the Rogers Locomotive Works is Paterson is showing good faith to business by in essence an example for potential developers and adding even more incentives to invest in its past and the business community. In this period of inflation future. Plans call for tying in the restoration work and rising interest rates, these loans are very with the rejuvenation of downtown Paterson a few attractive. Should a developer invest in one of the blocks away. The whole District is to be refurbished District buildings, the city picks up tax ratables in the to encourage pedestrian use. A strip of publicly- bargain. owned buildings connecting the District with Paterson has recognized a simple fact of economic downtown are to be renovated and their facades life: profit is the motivating factor in the restoration restored. Streets will be paved with brick, trees venture. Historic preservation has undergone a planted and 19th Century style street lamps installed. transformation in the last four years or so. "Pure" In July, paving and various public improvements will restoration a la Williamsburg, Virginia is not the be started on Mill Street and Van Houten Street. It'll intended goal, rather a process geared towards good be nice to see people strolling in Paterson instead of business sense and a sense of heritage. Business is the rolling right through. SECOND ISSUE, 1979 25

With all this level-headed business sense being Sandy showed me some drawings that anticipate applied to Paterson's resurgence, I thought it would the District after its facelift. The drawings illustrate be all too easy to lose sight of the aesthetic value of the future of a section of blocks bordered by Market the Historic District and perhaps make the same and Cianci on the 'downtown' side, and Mill and Van mistake that Paterson made before. But this time the Houten on the 'historic' side. It is a perfect example loss of Paterson would not be accelerated by mere of the "symbosis" Sandy refers to. The illustration inattention and abandonment, but by a more overt connects both sections of town with a pocket park of force: insensitive urban renewal. My fears were trees, brick walkways, elaborate and functional street allayed by Sandy Polsak, who is serving as chief lamps, and a scattering of small shops and boutiques. architect for the restoration. "Restoration is a Sandy spoke of another area that the restoration is subjective process. I don't have any blueprints to go aiming at. "We're trying to establish housing in the by, because they didn't use blueprints back then, at District for a couple of reasons. One reason is that the least the way the term blueprints is used today. So, restoration will establish 1250 new permanent jobs we have to involve ourselves in recognizing we have and these people will need a place to live. Another to make sensitive changes to buildings and still reason, and perhaps indicative of Paterson's future, is retain the original flavor. As of now, I am the sole the recognition that people are moving back to the commission, but soon we will have a historian, an city. The suburbs don't work for them for one reason engineer and a person from the business sector. So or another. For example, the plan we have for the there will be a nice balance. What we're trying to do Essex Mill on Mill Street." Plans for the Essex Mill is establish a symbiosis between the Historic District include seventy loft units for living. It will all be and downtown. We don't want a mere tourist market rate housing, which means that the city will attraction, an exact clone of the original, but we are not be subsidizing any of it because "cities make certainly going to keep as much architecture extant as terrible landlords." The Department is counting on an we possibly can, while we simultaneously serve influx from the suburbs and even New York City for business needs." $275—500 a month units. Sandy says that the 26 TALKING WOOD increased light in the District and the elimination of the psychological aspect of crime will help this influx. "We've got to counter the image of crime. Many people don't realize that in Paterson crime is a perception and not a reality. Paterson's crime rate has "...Paterson is decreased the last three years in a row." A guardian of the Historic District's integrity and a beginning to stir. great influence in the restoration process is the Great The process of reawakening Falls Development Corporation. Tippi Krugman, will not be fast...but Executive Director, heads up a dedicated staff and works out of a small restored building on Maple Paterson's been given a Street that used to be the Conduit House for the nudge and is stretching its S.U.M. hydroelectric plant. I talked with Tippi one afternoon about Paterson and its future. She gave me muscles." some specific examples of what is in store for the Historic District. "Well, I guess you know that the Rogers building is being restored. We hope to have it serve as a combined museum and cultural arts center. It will also house offices for the Book Processing Bay doors of the Division of the Paterson Library. Besides the Dawn Rogers' Locomotive works. Treader School in the Union Works mill, we see an electronics firm moving in to set up 'clean rooms' to Corporation have a very cooperative attitude. There assemble small parts, and perhaps a craft studio and are sensitive people working in the Department of workshop on another floor. The Upper Raceway will Community Development." be landscaped and restored as an interpretive Tippi recognizes that the $11.1 million is intrinsic historical park. It's also a lovely place to eat lunch in to restoration and that it makes things happen. But nice weather. There's a possibility that a Public when she speaks of Paterson's rebirth, she talks about Information Center will be housed in the Ivanhoe people. "Paterson is a gritty city, a proud city. We've Papermill Wheelhouse. It was gutted by fire last fall. always had a mobile population. People come in to We received a $17,000 matching grant, so we'll this city and work hard to rise above. They want to rebuild." send their kids to college just like you or me. We've An example of the logical approach to the survived fires, strikes, riots and abandonment; now restoration process is the plan for improved pedestrian we're getting back on our feet. When people 'made and vehicular flow from McBride Avenue to Ellison it' they used to leave Paterson. Now, we have folks Street. The historic Thompson and Ryle houses will returning to the city. Main Street and Broadway has be moved across the street and the road aligned. Later become an artists' community in the last five to seven the houses will be restored for adaptive use, an years. Many artists from the city and outside the city appropriate move since the District is so accessible are looking for space to work and live because they via Route 80 and Route 20. In a sense, the elaborate recognize the spirit of the place. People make highway system that served to accelerate urban Paterson happen. People and pride." exodus is now an inadvertant blessing, helping to Paterson is attempting to pull off an urban Lazarus convey suburban traffic into Paterson's new life. scenario. The city's not really dead, just sleeping; The Great Falls Development Corporation makes waiting for the moment of revival. Paterson has been sure the new life remains in harmony with the old. slumbering so long you might think it's afflicted with Tippi said, "We have a good working relationship dropsy. But look keenly, Paterson is beginning to stir. with the Department of Community Development. The process of reawakening will not be fast; Anything they have planned with the restoration tomorrow's city will look the same as yesterday's. passes under our nose for scrutiny. I suppose we do But Paterson's been given a nudge and is stretching have the influence to veto, or at least make a fuss its muscles. There are dedicated people in this city about a decision that we feel is not a constructive who believe in its future and have put their money attitude towards preservation. But that's highly down on Paterson; what was once a long shot is now unlikely anyway, since the Department and the an increasingly safe bet. _____ SECOND ISSUE, 1979 27 28 TALKING WOOD

Paterson, You're Back

They tried to strip you bad lip you but Paterson, you're back. They tore down your buildings for parking lots they tried to pave you under but like the green grass that rises between cement cracks, Paterson, you came back. They called you a ghetto, a stilletto heel in Sweet America. They said your streets were unsafe and your neighborhoods dying but you didn't buy it cause Paterson, you're back. They said your people were tired and your businesses burned out but up from the ashes you flew to survive the attack, and Paterson, you're back. Bubbling like the Great Falls brewing like expresso on Cianci St. lit up like Main and Market majestic as City Hall old glory with a new story you've been uncovered rediscovered Paterson, you're back.

ILLUSTRATION BY GERARD LITTLE Angela Costa SECOND ISSUE, 1979 29

Song Children downtown curse us in Spanish thinking we dont understand, or fuck us if we do. Their small hands, light-brown and sudden, Homing reach into On the lower main the street's dark street corners, of the city south drawing out I find my feet by accident. their lives and ours. The sidewalks push back, hard truth of the Customs House scale John M. Baumgartner upsetting a balance I've never found. The Friday flocks of children step around me and take the town.

Starlings fill the blindered sky, deeppool blue between the building's upper floors vacant of color. They make brief homes in the eaves. Their small shadows are lost where the night precedes itself in the eaves.

John M. Baumgartner 30 TALKING WOOD ^RECORDS 4. _,.„ RECORDS • TAPES • CASSETTE

JOHN SAUMGARTNER SECOND ISSUE. 1979 31 North Jersey Live BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER

THERE IS A SONG out on the airwaves now being interpretation or direction. And, as such, it is plagued heard by almost everyone with the increasing by the same "inadequacies" and enlivened by the frequency that is the trademark of Top Forty AM same "joys" found in life itself. Amen. American radio, a song that, like its predecessors Limits, style, mainstream, impressions, cash, joy: over the last twenty years, is graced with the magic popular music. To say that it is everywhere is to 'Bullet' of music biz infamy. It's movement on the assume that readers of these lines have been asleep charts, the growing momentum of a sure shot, pushes since the Great War. Never before have we been along and like a gyre upwards portending acclaim and confronted with, entertained by, or had access to such royalties. But there is a difference between this tune a quantity of sound—from guitars screaming out of and the others of its commercial ilk: this tune says '69 wide-tired, high-rise Camaros rumbling slowly up something. The difference between George Gershwin and down the boulevards of every hamlet in Jersey and Barry Manilow. The song is "How Do the Fools to my uncle's radio rasping soul music from his Survive?" by the Doobie Brothers and there is a line second-story window. (The difference being that one in it that says a great deal to me about musicians of them buys a record or tape almost weekly. My working in this area, and throughout much of the uncle does not.) Recorded music, or 'canned music', country, no doubt. "...They have stars they don't which more aptly describes a good deal of it, is have wishes for..." Even taken in one of its literal distributed today in every package conceivable to the senses, it tells of something that is within our view American mind. Most of the real gems seem to but sadly not within our reach, earshot, or actually insinuate themselves in our deepest knowledge. Something like the many small pockets of impressions of ourselves and of our lives and reoccur honest music being made today and all without with the power of uncanny timing...and many of the enough people really listening. real stiffs seem to make a million dollars. Taking a few steps back, it seems that the No, I am not getting to some stratospheric musicians who begin their careers pushing on the sociological explanation of a condition that has been limits of whatever style or form they are working in apparent to both players and listeners for years. To are, more and more, being swallowed whole in the discover why a song becomes a hit is really only to mainstreams of the music marketplace, a place all too hear one part of the harmony. To see where and how often sapped of its energy and stripped of its soul. In the sounds are created is to somehow be in touch with the course of conversations with a number of the source. "To see the development of a tune", as musicians practicing their craft in and around Passaic Tony Argo puts it. "To get out from under all the County, one gets the distinct impression that the cash hype," as drummer Ray Monte asserts, raising his value of the players and their audiences for the most eyebrows in relief. part determines the sound that finally emerges. It has Live Music. In our area it's almost as available as a been an affliction of music since even before the time tank of gas and, in some of the most unlikely places, of Bach's difficulties with the Town Council of it excels like the purest grade of fuel—piano lines that Leipzig over the performance expected of him for the hum in our minds for days, guitar riffs that seem to monies being paid. In recent years, the sums of bring home an idea that had missed us entirely up money have reached fantastic proportions, like so until that point, brushes swishing on a snare drum much of what we have created or become heir to. with the same rhythm in which our blood is pumping. That is the point that jazz-keyboardist Tony Argo Live Music. It is just as real, and just as erratic, as tries to make above the din of the dinner cash register the moods of our country. Like the spring sky it is in in an interview that follows—popular music is, at the constant flux, changing in a maelstrom overnight. least, a reflection of society, and at best, an Live music. Perfect, because it is very much alive. It 32 TALKING WOOD is out there being made and remade in lounges, bars, those doors out of your mind, and relax into this." saloons (the distinctions are subtle but nonetheless The ice-cubes in every glass tinkle in sublime real), clubhouses, backyards, firehouses, cafes, accompaniment. When the song ends, running off concert halls, airports, bus and rail terminals, parks, after the rainbow thoughts of the piano-player, the street corners, basements, rock palaces and garages. people scattered about the tables and bar look around Live music. Unlike many of the art forms being at one another with faint smiles of recognition, like practiced behind the closed doors of the artists' those who have visited the same places in some far- studio, we are privy to an important element in the reaching travels. creation of music. The next move is ours. Song follows song, ranging over various hybrid Live music is, in one definition, a loosely arranged jazz forms, fusions, things called jazz-rock, funk- group of musicians milling around the dimly-lit stage jazz, with healthy doses of bop and soul added. Most of a slouching-toward-obscurity jazz club in West of it recalled the energy and feel of rhythm and blues, Paterson called Three Sisters. An average-size bar on rethought and rearranged, spontaneously; "for your McBride Ave., it seems to pass in and out of favor listening pleasure," as Ferry later mocks. Familiar according to occasional appearances by the Heath lines are extended in innumerable directions, as Brothers, pianist Roland Hanna, or some such other though their flexibility were being tested, and new jazz luminary. During their engagements Three themes surface to take their place. Sisters joins Gulliver's, its counterpart up the road, in With an off-the-cuff manner characteristic of this the ranks of those places featuring some state-of-the- type of date, the musicians dig into the catalogue of art players outside the swirling urban cocoon of New tunes locked in each man's head, looking for York City. And two places in such close something that they can all play on. This is music's proximity—inconceivable. equivalent to the pick-up game in basketball. If the When the Sisters, whose numbers have diminished players are obsessed with displaying their individual over the years, are not sponsoring 'names' like those talents, no matter how considerable they may be, the mentioned in their place they make the stage available game breaks down into a schoolyard circus run-and- to local musicians, moving in one direction or another \ shoot affair. But if each of the players are talented on the ladders of critical and commercial mobility. \and have a sense of the communication and respect And so for the four men assuming their positions that are the lifeline of any ensemble, then, as the man on the Sisters' stage for an eleven o'clock set on a-^ said, magical things begin to happen. Sunday night in early March. Outside, the rain and At the end of the set on that Sunday night magical fog reach through several layers of clothing in the things happened. There had been a longer than usual space of a block. Inside, the soft red glow of the silence between songs, as the musicians hunted for lights, echoed in the tinted candles marking each one more piece they could all feel comfortable with table, and the ethereal sounds of a bass string being and could not find it. With a comic book light-bulb of plucked tentatively in tuning catch everyone up in the revelation, Ferry, a free lance guitarist and, at 25, room's relaxed aura; the typical movie rendering of a already a veteran of almost every stage in North jazz club, compleat with lingering smoke. Onstage, Jersey, said, "How about 'Rainy Day'?" and before pianist Jerry Kavarski, guitarist Brian Ferry, bassist the words registered in the form of chord changes in Lou Mono and drummer, ad-hoc bandleader and the other players' minds, added, "I'll do the intro. part-time comedian, Ray Monte, finish tuning, nod to Just jump in after me." And he set out. What Monte's inaudible suggestion for the first tune, pause, followed was a four-minute introduction that seemed and begin playing. The sounds seems to first fill the to explore every harmonic possibility of the old player's minds and, like a tide, spill out into standard, revealing a strange tension through all the their fingers and feet and onto their instruments-and melancholy. Then, abruptly realizing what he was then to those waiting at the tables. supposed to be doing, the guitarist turned to the The opening number rains down in deftly-worked others and quietly said, "I guess that's about it. You scales on the baby grand and settles into a light Latin can come in now." The rest of the number gave the rhythm bounded by sparse, sliding guitar phrases and other players a chance to respond to his ideas with a a rock steady bottom end. Much needed music confidence afforded them as listeners. promising the warming light of spring. Everyone in Their playing made no reference to Sunday night, the room is put at ease as though they had been the weather, the poor lights, the slim drinks, or the told—"Take a deep breath, put everything beyond small crowd. It spoke instead in facile funk rhythms SECOND ISSUE, 1979 33

and unfaltering arrangements of bass, guitar and parking is free. piano. Live music and live musicians, taking a loss The rest of the set emerges as a recital of songs and on a Sunday night of jazz, gaining a few hours on influences spanning four decades. Along with some larger aims. Live Music. Cinderella are drummer Joey Cass, veteran of It is stuck away in a cool, dark, standard cocktail assorted studio, Catskill, lounge and pop dates, most lounge in a Quality Inn on Route 17 in Hasbrouck notably as drummer with the Four Seasons; and Heights. Unexpectedly, it is again jazz music. But organist Tony Argo, composer, teacher, serious, yet here the sound seems to tread lightly at first, as unpretentious artist. They have been playing Tuesday though on unfamiliar ground. Like a solitary bottle of nights at the Quality Inn for more than half a year, vintage wine, it is given a brief gesture of respect by but their relationship as musicians and friends goes the double-knits lining the bar, who soon return to back to the late Forties when Cinderella and Argo, talk of transactions and rising prices, draining their both residents of Lodi at the time, met at a boarding glasses with the fervor of a much-needed antidote. house in Troy, New York, where they were playing at Gradually, a small handful of people gather around different dates and just happened to cross paths. several tables near the center of the room and make Talking with them during their break, it is as themselves comfortable in the inviting sublety of the though they are trying to extend the rhythm of the last music. It is coming from a trio in the midst of the red number to include their words and gestures, trying to sea of tablecloths. There is no particular lighting on piece together their varied thoughts about music in the players. There is no stage. There are only three rapidfire fragments, compelling in the style of a shadowy figures behind a set of drums, an organ and carnival barker or a gospel preacher— a guitar conversing like the other groups of people in "The audience is really the spirit of the music, but the room, or any room like it, but with a vibrance and we can only touch them with a fragment of what fluency that Romantic Languages often take on we're doing. So that fraction has to say it all." outside their native lands. The language that these "It's like sex. If there's an acceptance, it's all men are using rings with a distinct bop dialect that there." overshadows the small group of listeners without "I think there's a resurgence in jazz right now..." effort. There could be no one else in the room. Or "...Players have gotten a lot from rock-and-roll there could be a crowd of thousands. even if they won't admit it." As the number ends, a musician friend tells me that "Still, a good jazz player can play rock but riot the the guitarist, Joe Cinderella, has been experimenting other way around." with a new guitar over the past year and he thought "Since jazz is an art form, though, it doesn't really that the sound was really starting to come together. matter if it goes in and out of vogue. It's always "He's using a seven-string that's tuned to thirds so present... any way, all contemporary music is he's able to sound like a four-part sax section. Really influenced by jazz..." wild." And so it is. A surprisingly full and sustained "A problem today is that a lot of groups lack sound for a string instrument, comping behind the sincerity...As for us, we're not trying to make any lyrical phrasings of the Hammond B-3 organ with a profound statements. We're just trying to be honest." voicing more common to the punctuation provided by "We started out playing strictly Be-bop but we're horns. Almost better than a sax section because, in expanding that because the sound is always changing the kind of control that Cinderella possesses, all of and we have to keep up or try to stay ahead of it." the players are of the same mind and just that tight. "It's getting kind of hard to find a place to do this. His ideas reflect much of what he has learned playing I may buy a club myself. I'm tired of having the axe numerous record dates and touring extensively over over my head...It's like casting pearls before swine the years, with credits ranging from Charlie Parker on sometimes. I haven't met a person out there, in the down. And his ideas are brand new-born on a audience, who hasn't been progressive, but I sure Tuesday night in a motel on Route 17. have met them in the business." The music is of a quality that attracts its ' 'The most gratification comes from playing by appreciators to an hour of 46-3-80-4 mayhem getting yourself. You don't have to look good." into New York and then to large outpourings of cash Fast reactions to unasked questions. An energy for small elbow room in some converted beanery to level that cannot be let too far down between playing. see so-and-so on the such-and-such for about forty Might get lost. Might be changed. Certainly too hard minutes. Here it is, on our side of the river and the to slip in and out of. It is playing. But it's not acting. 34 TALKING WOOD

The players are the characters themselves. Live "Glendale Train" and with Bluegrass, in varying music. degrees of accuracy and accomplishment. But the Picked up again as the whole room and everyone in energy is always there and the feeling that these guys it spin off into Wednesday unaware since the sound can play an audience almost as well as they play their and the feel are still the same—together. A short, instruments, and, generally, that is real well. They squat, sandy-haired man comes out from behind a take considerable pride in being a good 'bar wooden planter that's bulging with plastic green, clips band'—no small investment of time and a saxophone to the strap around his neck, and dives discipline—and well they should. headlong into the middle of the first tune of the last "I've been in about twenty bands," estimates set. He blows loud and long blasts, making some McKeown, "and Marty was in a lot of them with me. room for himself in the thick of what he hears. It is a I don't know how many bands, like ever since I was difficult time, but the possibility is there. fourteen...and there was no Bluegrass around here. Someone leans over and says, "Word has it he And Irish? Nobody was doing Irish music. It didn't used to be an outrageous player but he had to have all exist. So we've come in and tried to do what nobody of his teeth pulled...totally lost his embouchure." So was doing.'' he got himself a new set of choppers and he's trying Well "doing what nobody was doing" has become to do it again. Live Music. a comfortable way to make a living for the Mountain It is a band called the Moonshine Mountain Boys Boys. They find themselves today, a little over three from Butler in a place called Bullwinkles' in years after they started out on their own, turning Riverdale. Country-Bluegrass and a stompin' down offers of gigs that other musicians would gladly hollerin' crowd, done up in the latest Sears Stay-Prest take. They work five or six dates a week, steady, and Western Wear and cowboy hats that they were they can take vacations when they feel the need. embarassed to wear two years ago. But now that Comfortable. Nashville and Austin call the shots in fashion...it McKeown explains the changes that preceded all of might as well be Riverdale, Tennessee. The leather this—"We weren't going anywhere, that was and denim trappings don't get in the way, though, substantial, you know. We were typical. We were an because it's a live crowd and this is their music. everyday rock-and-roll band. Nobody would know us If you can make your way past the throng clinging as something unique... to the bar. If you can just slide around the pool table, "At least when we went Country we were looking idle tonight, serving as a couch for a couple of guys for a segregated audience. We were looking for a who probably can't stand anyway. If you could only certain few, people that like Country Music really make it a little further—just slalom your way around like it. People that don't like it don't go to hear it. So these beams and then past the pinball machines. when we turned over we weren't trying to appeal to Okay. Now if you look toward the back wall there, everybody. When you play Top Forty, when you play over this guy's shoulder, you can see them. that junk, you're appealing to the masses...when we See?...Yeah, the Moonshine Mountain Boys. It switched over we weren't typical, like every other sounds like three or four people, doesn't it? I was band. So that's what we pursued." kind of surprised myself to find only two of them up It is what they must continue to pursue, and have there...a lot of sound. No doubt about it. some of our support in the doing of it. They have No doubt that Danny McKeown and Marty put more than a few people in touch with the whirling McKernan can fill up a room with energy, most of it black humor of Irish music and given to others a taste positive, in no time at all. In fact, like any good of the Cajun fiddle flavor. But the audience has to be diversion, time is suspended entirely. McKeown's responsive to some degree, a difficult thing to do furious frailing on the banjo and McKernan's balance while in the grip of Jack Daniels' dreams, howling for of guitar-picking and bass pedaling are the only "The South's Gonna Rise Again" in the middle of a reminders of passage. You suddenly find yourself in Celtic ballad. McKeown and McKernan frequently league with "The Drunken Sailor" and "The Jolly accede some control of the music's direction to their Tinker" fixing to jig like a "Lark in the Morning", audience, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes under or like the folks up front doing their little Blarney pressure (North Jersey cowboys can be insistent). It dances in ever-tightening circles. seems only fair, in turn, to give them the room and a Traditional Irish jigs and ballads are shuffled with light shove toward further pursuits—some more of 'commercial tunes' like "Casey Jones" and their own compositions building on the Irish and SECOND ISSUE, 1979 35

Bluegrass forms?-and hope they can find a way of Disco. The first and last word in Big Money, Big stretching the bounds of their music to the point Names, and Big Sound. The music that has one out of where it can speak to some of the "mass audience" every six Americans dancing regularly. We either do about the things that really matter to them, and not it, put it down, or try to ignore it (nearly impossible necessarily in the same old language. in these days of Studio 54, Cher, "Stayin' Alive", The Moonshine Mountain Boys have taken some spike heels, and mirrored-balls). It has made short big steps on their own toward a wider appeal. To work of folk and blues and has threatened rock and date, they have recorded and distributed their first changed jazz in terms of their standings on the charts album, "Pickin' in the Bushes", they have played in and in many of our hearts. The music of the TV bars and even a few concert halls in this area, down at generation—after all, disco is very much the visual the Shore, and on 'The Island', and they are now experience as well—disco has been annexed by white readying to promote their second album, "Irish people today as a palatable expression of soul similar Moonshine", some of which was recorded live at to the way that Fats Waller was accepted in the Bullwinkles' and has already appeared in a cassette Thirties and Forties as an expression of the blues. It version. They are not under the wing of any PR hype- seems to have a headlock on the music industry and, artist, so they are still accessible. But if they are to as the Bee Gees explode onto the scene with another grow any further in their vision and technique, their sure 'platinum' record (indicating a million units of audiences have to grow with them. Bullwinkles' on sales), there are no signs of its letting up. Yet. Tuesday nights. Live Music. But if you care to look closely enough you'll see And a live crowd who, as the Boys were shifting that there are some signs of wear. Not really in the the music into high gear at midnight, began to chant hostile reactions elicited from its many detractors. It's "Disco Sucks" in a frenzied kick-your-ass-if-you- coming from within and can be seen in the bored don't-agree crescendo. Banging of heavy mugs on bedroom eyes of a woman halfheartedly shaking her tables. Why? Anger? Disgust? Fear? shoulders in rhythm with the heavy-handed bass lines

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN BOYS 36 TALKING WOOD booming from the wall of speakers at the Stage Door "Okay, I guess." 23 in Little Falls. Friday night in a place like this is a I explain to him that I am there doing some waiting game and it's almost midnight and she is background work for an article about live music in the getting tired of waiting. The 'Live Music' just doesn't area. cut it tonight. "Well, maybe you should talk to the manager over It is coming from the three women onstage. They there." are barely visible through the mirrored columns, "Do you work for him?" reflecting everything in a hundred directions, totally "Yeah." blowing one's sense of perception. (How big is this "Often?" place, anyway?) The group is called First Choice and, "Seven nights a week." well, this really isn't the entire band. You see, the "What do you think about what goes on here?" musicians have been replaced by a TV soundtrack "It's Okay. Everybody's having a pretty good time "for optimum Disco Sound." So the girls are going I think." to go through their inanely-choreographed paces amid "Ever have much trouble here?" sudden waves of dry ice 'fog'. "No." The woman at the bar responds with eyes that say "How do you like the music?" "No. I really don't think so." "I like Disco. I like it better than rock, anyway." One of the singers counters with "Hi. I'm So- "Is that right?" and-So. I sing lead and I'm an Aquarian." "Yeah, they have rock here Monday through "Well good for you, honey." This time she lets Thursday. It gives me a headache. I like this music her eyebrows do the talking. "And I'm bored stiff." better." "We're so happy to be here in Wayne, New "What do you listen to when you're at home?" Jersey, singing for all you people." "I listen to 101, you know, Oldies, Rock-and- "Great," mutters the woman under her breath, Roll." before she finishes her drink in one stinging draught Of course. and leaves alone, eyes riveted on the door. The advent of rock music 25 years ago, as we are A cheap shot at live music and, more often than constantly reminded in this anniversary year, not, it is the same case at other discos in our area expanded the definition of live music. It has seen today, with DJs as the last human connection to the more of the struggle with disonance in its relatively music. Real dance bands are rarely found outside the short life than any other form of music in a circuit of ethnic firehouse-get-togethers and suburban comparable span of time, with the possible exception cocktail lounges. Disco is touted as the modern of classical music in the early part of the century. revolution in Dance and yet it has broken one of the Live rock music in the metropolitan area has seen and oldest bonds in movement, the bond between the recorded those changes first hand, as well as the movers and the moved. countless hurricane changes in the commercial arena, Now if there had at least been a rhythm section at and it has survived. It may live up to a cop's jibe of the Stage Door that night, with one of those righteous "headache music." It may be in tatters. It may be bass players...and maybe a small horn section, with a harder for it now to keep up with other forms of sax player who could light up the room once in a music. But it's still alive. while. That would have done the trick. It would have At Mother's on Route 23 in Wayne, one of the kept one beleaguered lady in the club and put her eyes longstanding 'premier' rock clubs in New Jersey, live at ease. It would have enabled the people to move rock music still happens five nights a week. On around a little, letting them go wherever their hips Thursday nights it is home to a band named saw fit to take them. A dose of the old primal dervish Kinderhook, themselves veterans of years on the East would have done everyone a lot of good, maybe taken Coast rock circuit, with a sound that is hard and tight, some of the singles-scene edge off the place. Disco is driven by a wave of well-placed guitar lines. Their Dance. Dance is Live Music. Therefore Disco is Live brand of rock incorporates healthy doses of country, Music. Or should be. blues, and jazz influences and, with that, they are On the way out of the Stage Door I stop to talk to able to pull off incredibly faithful renderings of most the Rent-a-Cop who, as custom has it, is standing any tune that is hot on the FM 100. That is well and next to the bouncer and the cashier at the door. good and, given the size of Mother's, it makes for a "Hi. How are you." I ask. fairly comfortable evening of listening or dancing (the SECOND ISSUE, 1979 37

crowds here are not what they are rumored to be). Can we really expect any more? If we can wait long enough Kinderhook can answer that question with a staggering "Yes." It happens at some point well into their sets, usually toward the end. Somewhere between a static version of a Jackson Browne tune and an obvious number by the Allman Brothers these guys will pull out an original like "On the Run" and, with it, shake off all the cobwebs of familiarity and take off to a place of their own creation, a place in which they are convincing and potent. It is another kind of live music. Not just some bread-and-butter stuff. This is the meat of the matter. Occasionally, they will stretch out and do several of their own songs in quick succession and they are probably among some of the best moments in the performance of music anywhere in Passaic County. It's too bad that the pacing is so fast and offhanded, like a semi-conscious apology for not playing those old familiar tunes. There is no damn apology necessary! What is needed is a steady flow of original music from the musicians working among us and an open response to it and...... And I fly off the handle thinking about two musicians that I met only a short while ago, who are probably setting up their equipment in some club in Berlin as I write this. Berlin, Germany. Europe. Hoping to find a few live ears for their music and maybe make a living doing it. Tired of too many years seeing the doors close on avant-garde music in this country. Like the doors had closed on some of the artists who nurtured live music from Big Band to Bop to Contemporary Pop. Live music. Whether we acknowledge it or not, it is with us in uncountable ways. In the classrooms of our schools, in the determined faces of three young recorder- players attempting their first quartet with an artist who brings them her music weekly. It is in the local Legion Hall, in the wrinkled brow of a tuba-player with the Firemen's Band trying to read one set of charts with two other musicians. And it is in a near- empty jazz club in West Paterson, where four men divvy-up thirty dollars for a night's work. Live Music. Will it keep happening here in all of its many true faces? Or will it happen somewhere else, where we can only read about it or wait for the record to come out? Guitarist Brian Ferry and Bassist Lou Morro Live Music. At Three Sister's 38 TALKING WOOD

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF TONY ARGO SECOND ISSUE, 1979 39 A Conversation with Tony Argo BY JOHN BAUMGARTNER

At 49 years of age, keyboard-player Tony Argo has to. If it does take you over you'll love for it and your not played Carnegie Hall. He has never been a guest frustration is part of the love. Because anytime you're on the 'Tonight' Show. His compositions have not searching and you're creative you have to be been recorded by Tony Bennett or Sarah Vaughn. He frustrated in order to seek new horizons and improve. has not been offered a television special on any of the You always want to play a better chorus. You always major networks. But, if all of that were to change want to play with more feeling, a more meaningful tomorrow, I don't think it would essentially change idea. That's what you strive for. And playing with a the man. group, it becomes even more sensitive because you Of course, he wouldn't mind getting some of the must be sensitive to the people that you're playing recognition that will occassionally make a great artist with. out of a good one. But he is also aware that such JB: Which is the difference between music and any recognition has been severely stifling to many other art form, a major difference anyway. Would commercial players. So he is content to pursue his you say that it's just easier for people to keep their goals at his own pace, to be the only link with 'live own heads together while they're struggling, while music' for many of those who go to hear him play, to they're just trying to make ends meet, to have more bide his time. You see, he simply loves to make of a sense of immediacy to the music? Rather than to music, and considers himself fortunate to be able to get out with long range goals and try to realize them feed his family doing it. and get frustrated more and more. In the interview that follows, he compares the TA: From the outside looking in, the person that isn't various elements of music to the different aspects of a a musician or an artist would say, looking at the child's life. They are often very fitting comparisons. complete picture, you know, that was some struggle! And he draws one more analogy along those lines— Maybe even if the artist would look at it at the end of "My relationship with music is kind of like a his career, he would say, 'yeah, that was some child's familiarity with the cracks on the sidewalk in struggle.' It's really not a struggle if you love it. You front of his house. During the time the child grows know, there are obstacles. But your love overcomes up, he has explored that sidewalk to the point where the obstacles. Because you really wind up doing in he could tell you where every line and crack is. He life, I believe, what you want to do. We must be feels like it's his own little world. That's how 1 feel getting more from it than it's taking from us, about my music..." otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. I think it's just like a parent telling a child, since JB: Do you think its going to get any easier for young the parent has gone through the obstacles in life, 'be- jazz musicians working in the metropolitan area not to ware of this, watch out for that, watch out for this.' get frustrated or fall out somehow? But the child doesn't think of these things. He can TA: I don't think that anyone plans to be an artist. handle it because he's enjoying life as he goes along. They may be motivated by music and the desire to So he just can't look at it from the obstacle point of play, but they don't plan to make it a career. They view. may make plans. But the fact that enables them to be JB: How much do you think that it has to do with the the professional artist is that the music overcomes fact that in music, in playing out as you do for most them... of your livelihood, the gratification, the audience As I said to you in the club the other night, we gratification, is almost immediate? The fact that don't decide that we're going to spend the rest of our there is some acceptance or some response to your art lives playing music. It's a decision that comes from every night that you go out to play, as opposed to playing...the playing part takes you over, if it's going someone who's painting or someone who's writing our

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THE BUZZARDS'LL NEVER GET YOU THE FREEWAY RUNS FROM COAST TO COAST DONT FLY THAT HIGH WITHOUT A CARE " THEY DONT FLY THAT HIGH ——— DONT GIVE A DAMN ZZZI I THE SNAKES'LL NEVER HARM YOU, HONEY YOU FALL AND FALL AND FALL AND FALL J - THEY DONT CRAWL THAT LOW YOU FALL BEHIND " CANT MAKE IT THAT LOW YOU'RE LEFT BEHIND THE DOGS'LL NEVER TRACK YOU THE PACE WILL PUT YOU RIGHT AWAY THEY DONT ROAM THAT FAR LOCK YOU UP THEY WONT TAKE IT THAT FAR AND LEAVE TODAY SO YOU BLOW YOUR WAY RIGHT OUTTA THERE BUT YOU'LL FIND YOUR WAY BACK HOME FROM THERE LACE UP YOUR SHOES IN YOUR SHOES BREAK-NECK HIGH-TOP RUNNIN' SHOES BLACK BROWN BLUE WHITE RESCUE SHOES 42 TALKING WOOD where the response might come every few months. improvisation is a form of composition, But as far as TA: Life is a balance. We have it one way. The writing compositions, I would say that I've been painter has it another way. We have an immediate doing it for about twenty-five years. response, so that's a plus. But it's also a minus JB: Can you put your finger on what it was that made because it's gone after the response. Whereas the you want to compose rather than play someone else's painter has the finished work. He can always show music and get the immediate gratification and make that composition. If we play a beautiful composition some kind of emotional impact? What made you want or a beautiful chorus we're really saying something, to go one step further? You say that it's a sort of ego but we have no proof of that because after the thing, but it's not only that. Is there something else applause it's gone. We're only as good as our last that makes you want to put your ass a little further out performance to an audience. But if you paint on the line? something and it's worthwhile or it has any merit, it TA: Well, I think that composition gives a more stands up forever. Unless you record the music. honest picture, to yourself, of where you're at. You JB: But even then, it's a different kind of response. don't have to come up with an idea spontaneously. It's different in the sense of intensity. It's It'd be more like the artist, you can seek the notes, spontaneous. If you're hearing a jazz musician you you can do a lot of erasing. When you play out you appreciate the fact that it's spontaneous, that it's can't do that. It gives you the opportunity to seek out being made right there and within five minutes it'll be ideas and tones that are deep within you. And this is a gone, the sound itself, the physical aspect of it. Is way of documenting your emotions as a painter would mere any comparison between those two levels, in because you have to prove it in your composition. your opinion? Do the painter and the musician arrive It stems from love and it stems from ego. It's a at the same place in terms of a real deep sincere combination of both. A musician's ego or an artist's response? ego is a different kind of ego. It's like there are these TA: Assuming that the artist and the musician-artist two different levels—on one level, you are in direct have the same temperament, the same emotional competition with what your contemporaries are output, I think that the musician would be more doing, and on the other level, you're in competition gratified spontaneously from the acceptance because with art itself. That's the healthy level because then he would get a more immediate response. Maybe the you can really be true to your ideas and of the painting would be a long play, spread out. influence and not say to yourself, "well, this is making it and this is going to impress someone today ...Maybe if the artist shows his painting for the because it's hip or it's modern or somebody will first time he doesn't get a spontaneous applause, as a really like this idea.' musician would get playing a jazz chorus. Maybe one reason is that the painter's audience didn't see the When you're in competition with art your shallow development. Whereas, in a jazz chorus, the audience ego is shattered because there have been so many is catching the song from the beginning. That's great artists before you in history. You say, important. 'Well, let's not try to do something too profound and just do something that's honest and sincere.' And it JB: But you, as a composer, are aware of both types may wind up being profound. of gratification: immediate and not so immediate. How do you deal with that? JB: How much of your composing and/or playing is self-expression and how much is communication, the TA: I think it gets into an ego thing, too. I know that difference being self-expression without a thought to if I do something musically worthwhile I think I who might be hearing it and how they might react to would choose having it down on paper or recorded, it or a need to express yourself in a way, as you were rather than playing a great jazz chorus that wasn't saying, to find something new out about yourself or recorded and no one can ever hear it again. I'd like to to document the changes you might be going through. have proof of something that I did if I feel that it's worthwhile. TA: As far as my playing and my composition goes, I compose and play from a very selfish point of view. I JB: How long have you been working at composing? play for my own expression and I feel that that's the TA: I was always a composer type of a musician. I best I can give to the listener. Whether it's a good was always seeking to take a melody that was performance or bad, it's the best that I can give at that established and to improvise on it, in the sense that time. It's the only thing that can make me happy SECOND ISSUE, 1979 43 because I think that it's a difficult thing to try to reach putting down a very soulful player because the soulful someone by playing what's current or in the trend player doesn't have that much technique. So it's a because even if you reach them you didn't say paradox. The person that's listening, that's seeking, is anything. You didn't say anything musically. You're diluting his own objectivity instead of listening for just proving that you can converse with them. what's good. JB: Do you think it's necessary that you can't say I've heard guys putting down Oscar Peterson, anything worthwhile? There are those rare moments saying, "Well, he's outdated." But that's like saying of balance in a given musician when he can say that God is outdated, you know, because he's old. something honest to a mass audience. How can someone say that, how can they say that his art is outdated. It may not be the current trend. I think TA: That's a difficult question because...usually a good analogy might be—say, your grandmother when these people gain acceptance, the people who was trying to give you a message and she might give are accepting them have been programmed one way it to you in a broken English; but the message is the or another to that kind of feeling. So is the person important part, not how it's given to you. really being truly successful artistically or is it the I was talking to a guitarist last night, some young programming of the audience that is giving him his guy who's been playing around and he named about success? forty players, you know, trying to flex his musical JB: Well, that brings us to an even smaller number of vocabulary. And in the forty players that he named he people who are doing things that may be honest, may told me what he didn't like about each one and they be the most sincere statement that they can make, were all heavyweight players, you know, like Phil who are being accepted by a mass audience and who Woods, and Peterson, and Chuck Corea. And I said maybe are doing some new programming of their to him, "You know, you must be a giant to be able to own. That seems to be really narrowing it down. detect all of these shortcomings, not to find anything TA: That's true...and I think that sometimes our trio good." And he got my message. But he was really does that. depriving himself of learning because each one of these dedicated artists has devoted a lifetime. So he JB: That was apparent to me the other night in the may fall short in a certain expression, in a certain kind of people who were there. When you go to a concept, but he has developed the one that was strong place like Gulliver's you find a 'jazz crowd'-who for him. Why not take advantage of that and listen to are either the students of people playing or students of that. You're cheating yourself if you don't. music in general or people who have to be there It's a matter of ego. If you p\it someone down it because 'Phil Woods is at Gulliver's and I have to see him to be a jazz fan.' But the other night at the makes you feel a little bigger, a little smarter. Quality Inn I didn't get a sense of that—the group of JB: I'm sure that you frequently run into the student music intellectuals who analyze solos like you might who's at the opposite end of that. Who might have take apart the engine of a car. picked out five or six players that he tries to emulate to the point that it gets stifling. TA: There are so many different levels. It's all in the attitude of the listener. Lots of times the players TA: I think that every good player has to be themselves, the student players, the professional motivated by another good player. I think that that's players, will come to listen to a jazz group and lots of important. It's the same as learning your vocabulary, them, I feel, are on the wrong track and I constantly you know. In order to extend upon what they meet one type of musician, and I find it to be did—hopefully you can try to just reach what they did predominant in this, and I find it to be a turn-off if the player's a great player, like a Charlie Parker or because it's really stopping his growth. It seems that a someone like that. In your mind, in your fantasy, you lot of the musicians who do listen, maybe to protect want to be an extension of them, you want to progress their own ego, try to find fault. further. And you can't possibly do that until you For example, I've found players that didn't have a understand him completely. So I think that it's very great technical facility, velocity, but who maybe were important to have someone who can motivate you, soulful players putting down a person who has a lot of who can inspire you. I know I've had. velocity or technique or facility because he's trying to JB: Who would you name for yourself? stress the point of whatever his forte may be. And I TA: ...oh, I guess Charlie Parker...Oscar found that the person who has a lot of technique Peterson...The people that I named before. People 44 TALKING WOOD

that I've felt turned-on by. Sondheim. JB: How important do you feel it is for a musician to JB: How about as far as your composition goes, be aware of what they did and to try to make some would you name the same people or does it extend application to their own music? further? TA: Well, Debussy really opened up our school of TA: No, it extends further. It's a different harmony, it's the harmony that we play on. It's very thing...You know, I write lyrics also...I've had some important...I could give you all their works, but I demos recorded by the London Philharmonic, a few know enough of the sound to know what the sound is. of my compositions. I write in the same bag as like So I'm influenced by the sound. It's like sitting here Johnny Mandel, Michel Legrand, those kind of and if we hear a sound that turns us on we'll want writers. That style, although I like to think that it's to know who the composer is. If you're a musician also a style of my own. But I write very melodically. you'll have to know, so that you can study it or Composers who have influenced me would be analyze it. It's just a matter of being turned on and Tchaikovsky, who was a very melodic writer, and saying, "Hey, what is that? I like that. I like the Bartok was a strong influence in terms of progressive sound of that." playing and an ability to analyze harmonies... JB: How about your thoughts on the state of But getting back to the idea of programming for a commercial jazz today. I'm thinking of what you said minute, another point that's unusual, I think, is that the other night about jazz as an art form that can't be when a group gains some acceptance.. .That is, an gauged by what's hip or what is in style currently artistic group, with fine musicians, and they do some because as an art form it just is and will be. For recording work and it is accepted by the public, they instance, how many people are being played on RVR now become a commercial group, not wanting to. But (jazz radio station in NYC) that have developed their they're making money for the record company with a music to the point where it is art and not simply pop? certain sound that sold and the record company usually dictates that the same sound be used again. So TA: I would say...you know, it's tough to give a you'll find a group that was growing no longer can percentage, but from listening to RVR I would say grow because they're locked into what's selling, that they're playing about 25 percent good jazz. The they've become successful at achieving a certain rest of it is a conglomeration of rock, psuedo-jazz sound. effects, sound effects. All creative, but a lot of it is very pretentious. They sound like they were done on JB: Do you think it's something that is more seperate tracks rather than some sense of spontaneity. predominant now than it's been in the past with the People that know, know. People that feel, feel. music business having grown to the point that it has? JB: Do you think that some of those distinctions are TA: Not really, I think that it's always been the case. shaped to some extent by Disco? I remember talking to George Shearing's manager a long time ago—and it's such a drag because he's such TA: Disco music is a drag. It's okay as just a happy a creative player, commercial, but creative—and his kind of sound or as something for people to dance to. manager was telling me that it's a shame that all the But it's a non-thinking kind of music. That's not to songs that Shearing was famous for, "Lullaby of say that great musicians haven't played disco, Birdland", "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and excellent musicians are used to record disco. But songs like that, that every time he played at a college what does that mean? It's all one tempo, it's all one or anywhere they had to play those tunes. They sound. If you play one song after another it all sounds couldn't get into new things because people were canned. Its effects are plastic. always demanding the old tunes and that was it. Let's say you are a serious composer, someone will You're locked in by success. say, "You know, I heard a tune by Paul Anka or It seems that a lot of the groups that I know were Barry Manilow and that's a great tune. He sold two more creative before they gained their public million records." And I'll say, "I really don't acceptance. consider that a great tune." They'll say, "Then why did he sell two million records" and he'll look at JB: You mentioned a few minutes ago that me and say, "How many records have you sold of Tchaikovsky and Bartok were considerable influences your tunes?" And I'll say, "I didn't sell any. I mean, on what you're doing... my tune is not even on the market." Then he'll say, TA: Ravel also, and Debussy... "Well", how can you put someone down that's SECOND ISSUE, 1979 45 successful?" I said, "Because he's not necessarily we use the word dissonance. Let's say different. artistically successful. Why do you assume that, just Some people think of dissonance as being wrong or because I'm a composer and he's a composer, we're harsh. Some of the things some musicians are doing working on the same level." are different, maybe inventive in a different way. So Two entirely different levels. They shouldn't be they're obvious, you know. You look at them and compared. Not to take anything away from him or say, "Hey, what the hell is this? It's not the normal me, the levels just shouldn't be compared. One is an sound. So these people do gain attention. They either artist and one is a commercial artist. Hopefully, he's fall flat on their faces or, if they're good and they writing with integrity, so he's an artist, but a have something to say artistically, they make noise. commercial artist. If it's business, it's business and if it's art, it's art. They cannot be mixed. Someone can JB: Getting back to your own work, do you play sell an artistic work. But the artistic work was done many of your own compositions with the jazz trio? first as an artistic work, then sold. TA: I don't do any of my own things with the jazz A friend of mine gave a good analogy and that trio. When I play solo I usually play some of my own is—the music business is the same as the toy business. compositions. The toy company will find out what age children JB: Can you tell me what direction your composition receive the most gifts and who buys them. Let's say is going? Are you content with doing the it's six years old. And let's say the toy is the blocks compositions and going out and sharing them with with the holes and the pegs that you hammer in. people that same night or week, or are you trying to Okay, so this is what the toy manufacturer produces. get further with them, get more exposure for them? So now, the record manufacturer and the producer are in the business—to sell. So it's a toy business for them. What age group are they selling the most TA: Well, I've just been working on a catalogue, a records to? 14, 15, 16. What is the capacity of a library of my compositions rather than trying to go 14-, 15-, or 16-year old musically? What have they out and sell. You need a great deal of money to felt? What is their emotional capacity? What can they produce your own things and you need some sell to them? They can sell them exactly what they're availability to give people access to your music. All selling—"Macho Man", bullshit tunes, bullshit of the major artists are receiving tons of money from tunes. everybody and it's a paradox in that sense. Even though they're looking for material, they get so JB: Do you feel that it's been different at any other swamped with it that they have to depend on a certain period in music? That they were not necessarily few people who have track records. bullshit tunes? I also find it very interesting that when you go to a TA: There have always been bullshit tunes. But now publisher with an original composition, he'll say it's amplified because of the media. It's always been. something like, "You know, it's good. But it's not But that's one of the great beauties of music—because what's happening today." Then if you turn around music is life. Whatever we find in life, like the and write something and go to the same publisher, or inadequacies, we find in music; and the joys, we find maybe a different publisher, and you write something in music. It's a balance. in the style of 'what's happening today', he'll say, You need the consonance and the dissonance. It's "It sounds too much like what's happening today." so important. Music that doesn't have dissonance, JB: In which case you kick the walls down... dissonance as the tension, consonance as the release of the tension, music that doesn't have dissonance TA: Exactly. So the only way to really do it is to would be boring. That's why all of the nursery produce your own material so you can produce it the rhymes, again for children, are all consonant. way that you want it. Usually the producer will do a song and he'll say that he wants it faster or slower or JB: Historically it seems that the changes bearing the in some different treatment and there goes your most impact come out of the most dissonance. composition. You didn't feel it that way. Maybe TA: Sure, you know why? It's because...well, you today he'd try to make a disco tune out of it or know, no one ever mentions that Rembrandt is in. something like that. So the best thing to do if you That would be it. If you come in with a sound that no have enough faith and money is to produce your own one is hearing, it might be dissonant to you in a and have a finished product and then sell it or try to certain way at the time. We have to be careful how sell it. But it takes a lot of time and money. 46 TALKING WOOD

JB: Is that the way you are trying to approach it? very secure as a musician with my own art when I'm TA: Yeah, that's the way I'd like to do it. As I said, I with people that comprehend. But when I'm with have four demos that have been done by the London people that I don't feel are at that level of music, I Philharmonic. Robert Farnon did the orchestrations, feel that they look at me like a person that's having and I think he's one of the greatest orchestrators in fun in a nightclub playing, or playing a party...like the world. So right now I have the demo tapes but I I'm not doing anything serious. How can I be doing really don't have the availability to get them out and anything serious playing for a bunch of alcoholics? around to everybody. You know, how serious can I be? But I feel like I am serious. That's the difference. JB: Would you consider taking them to a large record And when they come to hear me or see me, they're label, with all the risks and frustrations involved in friends and they smile and they say something funny that? and I'll tell them a joke and they'll say that I tell TA: Well, the tapes that I have now are a finished funny jokes. It's really an outlet.. .keeps me from product. So they wouldn't alter them at all. They cracking up. Really. It's my way of getting around would hopefully put them out the way they are. and getting through the evening. JB: Where does your composition begin? With the When you're playing in a club, especially when sound of a particular artist or does it start with the you're doing a single, and I do a lot of single work, idea for a melody? you're like a target. People can talk to you and they can say whatever they want, request tunes that are TA: Both. I look for a phrase and I find a sound for it just the opposite of the mood that you're trying to immediately and I write words and music as I go create in the room. Some people are obnoxious. You along in phrases. I don't write the music first and then can't escape them because, when you're playing, it's the words. I take them along together and I keep not like jazz night. If you're playing strictly jazz you singing the phrase, hearing the voice of an artist, not can be a little indignant if you want to if somebody's my own...Tony Bennett, I think, has a great concept acting up and say, "Hey look, this is jazz. We're of music.. .a lot of heart. I think he has a better choice selling this as jazz. There's a sign outside that says of material then most singers. I like his sound. That's that this is jazz. So don't ask for "When Irish Eyes where it's at. are Smiling" or "O Sole Mio",...you know. It's not JB: How many compositions have you done? that kind of scene. TA: In my life I must have written God only knows But when you're playing in a nightclub the club- how many compositions. 300. 400. Only 20 or 30 of owner wants you to please his audience. So I try to which would I consider as finished product. play everything, even if it's a commercial tune from "Annie" or "A Chorus Line" or something like that JB: Have you done any composing in different forms? and I try to play it with the same intensity that I More extended pieces, instrumental pieces or would play with on a song that I love the most, with something more involved? that kind of a feeling. But here's where I can't TA: I've written some Ave Marias. I've written some completely be involved with what I'm doing like on a classically-oriented piano selections. Actually for my jazz night. I have to look out like with a periscope to son, who was taking piano lessons. So I wrote some see what the audience reaction is. If there's a little lull piano compositions for him. in the room I'll play a quicker song or with a lighter I sit down at the piano with no purpose, no plan. I tempo. Or if they're too noisy and no one's listening just plop my fingers down on some notes, trying to maybe I'll play something to get them out on the find some sound and see where it takes me. That's the dance floor, so I don't really have to get involved fun of it. It's like taking a day trip. musically. You know, something like that. JB: Some of what I'd like to do in this piece is to So there's a lot of serious thinking that goes along explore a little bit of the musician's lifestyle. Not with the survival of playing a commercial job while necessarily the sensational aspects of it...more along you're still trying to be an artist at the same time. the lines of how you feel you are viewed by your Your next-door neighbor comes in and sees you and neighbors, how they see your profession. he thinks that you're having a ball. And it's part of your job to make him think that you're having a ball TA: Sometimes I feel like Pagliacci, you know, because that's what the image up there is. And it's a misunderstood. Maybe it's a feeling of self- funny thing because he gets to know you that way and conciousness, maybe it's insecurity in a way. I feel SECOND ISSUE, 1979 47 you find that even when you see him next door, in the balance between consonance and disonance. Where yard, you're acting the same way. You know, it's an you have a plus, you have a minus. I think that they extension of the image that you've created for him. have plusses in that they have more people now to JB: Have you ever had a day job? relate to. Great people. For example, years ago there were fewer people to relate to and then they weren't TA: No. Never. modernists. They were excellent players, but they JB: Have you ever come close? weren't modernists... TA: No, luckily. I've neyer been out of work. Also, now musicians are getting more jazz courses at the conservatory level. So they have a plus in that JB: It's also a matter of perseverance I'm sure. direction. TA: Yeah, and ulcers. When I was 19 I was touring But I think that the minuses have to do with their with the USO camp shows. I played with the different impatience. It seems like they're just too impatient. featured artists at that time playing for the troops like We didn't have the same kinds of activities to distract Peter Lorre and Ray Milland. I played in Alaska and us, you know, we had our instruments in our hands the Aleutian Islands, Germany, Iceland, Greenland, and that's all. We weren't running here and there, France, Panama, Puerto Rico... and the TV and this and that. We were thinking of JB: When was this? one thing—the instrument that we played. TA: '49. Yeah, I've done that. And I've played with A lot of these kids seem to want like a magic pill. the Kirby Stone Four which was a popular group. I You know, like you take the pill and you know all opened up the Fountainbleu with the Art Moody your chords. A lot of them don't have the kind of Orchestra. I was with them for a while. I wound up patience that it really takes. You know? with mostly commercial groups...that was because I I think that they're ahead of us intellectually in was using the accordion at the time. I was the house terms of where we were at the time. I think if they accordionist at the Latin Quarter for years. But, in the can harness that...and, well, some do and they really meantime, I was doing jazz workshops in the modern become profound at an early age. Some kids are accordion. But I had to take commercial gigs in order really like, shit, unbelievable. to survive. Then I bought the Hammond Organ. But no matter when in history, or now or in the future, the sensitive person always comes out. The JB: When was that? When did you start playing talented person always comes out. Maybe they're not professionally on the organ? recognized but the talent is always there anyhow. It's TA: About 20 years ago. like with baseball. A great baseball player is a great baseball player no matter when. Like if Babe Ruth JB: And after Art Moody at the Fountainbleu... was playing today he'd be a great baseball player. TA: Well, I played with mostly commercial groups Don't you think? after that. I played all the hotels, played quite a bit I hope I'm giving you something worthwhile here. around the city. I had my own radio show from the JB: I'd really be interested to know, if your career Dewitt Clinton Hotel in Albany. That was about 23 ends and you find that your tunes haven't been picked years ago. up by everyone, if your compositions remained a very Since then, I've done some TV dates with the private thing for yourself, how would you feel? Kirby Stone Four and with some other groups...I did Would you consider that ultimately there was some an accordion album, a jazz album, called "Jazz success there because you did what you wanted to do? Argosies" for Savoy Records. Joe Cinderella did the arranging and I had some heavyweight players on the TA: I think that I'd feel exactly that way. I feel that if date. I had Pepper Adams, who's with the Thad we're speaking of the toy business, I would like the Jones/Mel Lewis band now, Charlie Persip on drums, tunes to make money so I wouldn't have to scuffle Ernie Royal on trumpet, Hal McQusick and Jimmy and my children wouldn't. They could have life Buffington...a lot of great names. Joe Cinderella was easier, I like that idea. I think that I would enjoy also playing guitar. recognition for what I am doing in music more than just the money, you know. I think that's really what JB: Do you have any particular feelings about young any musician wants, the recognition. musicians today as players? I was never motivated by money in my life. It's TA: I have to go back to the thought that life is a amazing that I did make money. 48 TALKING WOOD

JB: In a way, it's amazing to hear somebody say that. tonight" or "It was good tonight" or whatever or TA: But I don't use the fact that I don't think I am "The club-owner was a pain in the ass". motivated by money to cop out on my And you'll say, "Well, what are you doing? Are responsibilities. I still want my children to have the you studying?" And the guy'll say, "Gee, I'm so best. I want to have the things that I like too. I want frustrated. I am frustrated. I don't have a minute to to have a nice house. I want to have....whatever. You study. I don't have any time. I've got my day gig, know, it's much easier to be a martyr when you don't and I'm working weekends. I don't have any time to have any responsibilities. I thought that I was a devote to my axe. It's really a hassle." And we martyr when I was 18 years old. I wasn't a martyr. I started out at three o'clock and at seven o'clock we're was just a person that didn't have any responsibilities. still in the diner. You know, he blew four hours. And it really wasn't that important, but his dedication So you can have so many views and they could be wasn't that strong. the exact opposite of many other people's views. You can make stands. I remember one musician telling The bottom line in creativity is when you're alone me, "I'm going to move to the city. I'm getting a and not feeling good....It's like if you're a writer and storefront and I'm going to have my little workshop you sit down and you don't feel like writing. But you there and practice the drums there because I'll really have the discipline to go ahead and write although be in the environment and I'll really get to play." you may not feel like it. You're doing it...those are And I said that it doesn't matter where you are. Why the times that pay off. can't you be in a palace with chandeliers? If you have JB: They probably become some of the most the love and the dedication, do you really have to satisfying. have those other things? TA: Right. And how many times do you turn yourself Like at the time, Dizzy Gillespie was wearing a around....like "I motivated myself." It's fantastic to goatee and every trumpet player that I saw was have that kind of control over yourself. wearing a goatee. You know, it's a funny thing because when they were on the stage playing or when JB: Although, I don't really know if it's available to we'd get off the stand they'd say to you, "Well, I'm everybody or if it's right for everybody. giving up a lot of money playing jazz because I love TA: Well, I think of certain composers, like Gus jazz and I want to do my own thing." And I'm Kahn and another guy he was writing with and they'd looking at the goatee. What they really wanted was go to the city every day, check in at the office at acceptance, not necessarily for their own playing but eleven o'clock and check out at four. That's it. just for acceptance. They're very successful, whether they feel like it or Or someone will say, "You know, the guy's really not. I mean they could lay back and retire on their a great jazz musician. You know, he even used to residuals. They just go in and do it. That's the extent have a hot plate hooked up in his cold-water of their discipline. That's it. Discipline. apartment and he's really, you know, a martyr." And The paradox is that great sensitivity sometimes can let's say that the guy really was a talented musician. create an emotional imbalance which is contradictory But then he'll go up to the bandstand and he'll play to discipline. That's why people that are very the exact ending that was in vogue at the time or a successful sometimes aren't the warmest people in the certain harmony that everyone else was playing. He world. But they have discipline. It's like, how do you was sacrificing his family and himself so he could do have both? The discipline and the sensitivity. I was his own thing. He wasn't doing his own thing. studying with a teacher that told me that when you're You know, another funny thing about some extremely sensitive you're walking on a very narrow musicians — this just came to mind — it's like a lot line and it's very easy to fall to either side. So of musicians are inspired at three o'clock in the sometimes the person who's given credit because he's morning, they're going to do great things. I have a successful is really a person who didn't have too name for those kind of musicians — diner musicians. much to offer. But who had one way to go—the The reason that I call them diner musicians, it's a discipline. little joke, is because how many times have I sat in a JB: As you were saying before, a matter of balance.. diner with some musicians after work and we're sitting there and rapping, you know, like "How did TA: That's it. You can't fight that. You can't fight the gig go?", "Ah, okay." or "It was a little dull nature, human nature. ti£U) Lift ?LEA-JfS •7

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ILLUSTRATION BY GERARD LITTLE SECOND ISSUE, 1979 .51 Broken Nose, Be-Bop, Blue BY DON DELO

TUESDAY NIGHT like a lot of Tuesdays. Men together days in a row some producer Shit tells me to give it like men many places. Dreamers like anyone else. up. Give it up! They tell me it sucks. Can't sing, But like nothing else, they play jazz... can't write, can't play. Magine? Give it up? It's free. Piano thunder rolls, a drummer smiles. There's a I'm humble, and I lose. You know what I mean. Two distance. Release, releave, relive, relief. A break. weeks hard work, wake up one morning humble, two Like nothing, they play jazz... weeks gone, lost. I...Well, anyway it's Europe "It was Mrs. Fly, third grade. She was the real time...You know?" thing. After two years of nuns, I met Mrs. Fly, you Lean piano, heavy drummer. Long sounds prolong know in Brooklyn, a stick hitter. I remember. looks. The black end of blue blends at the peak of a Definitely made the difference, that's where it triangle above the two music points. Unproduced started." freedom laments through a baby grand ugliness of a "Castration?" frustration that feels good to get rid of... Any way. Love affair drummer to his piano player. Taking it Away... to the white lights. Cost: the pain of travel, the ignorance of tourists. Technical smile Pianist to A chief characteristic of this courage is Percussionist. New ground. Glad to be going that it requires a centeredness within our own together. Energy rush. Power build. Orgasm smile. being, without which we feel ourselves to be a Like they play Jazz... vacuum. The "emptiness" within corresponds to "Disco is black and silver." an apathy without; and apathy adds up, in the "I see short, quick, arrows of color." long run, to cowardice. That is why we must "Sticks feel like melted butter." always base our commitment in the center of "Try to let people hear something good. Please, our own being, or else no commitment will be man, sit down. Let me run some culture by you. ultimately authentic—Rollo May Sorry, I have to go home and Musak." "I was nineteen. Smart-ass junkie. This old dude Voluntary Slavery.—Roland Kirk took me home. Home, like I've never seen. He showed me to the piano. I started to warm it up, and Return. Slow flourish to a soft ending. Silence. he and a friend just played to my warmth. Twenty Silence. Smile. Smiles. They play... minutes, bleeding cuticles, bruised fingers and I "Whenya' leavin'?" said.. .you know what I said, was that good? He just "About an hour." smiled and lit up his horn for another blow." "No, no, the country?" "First time?" "Oh, the twenty-second." "First time I saw it...nineteen...but I saw it. The "Have to go?" cool breeze." "I guess." Coffee. Coffee. "Just another place?" Tickle the keys. Wander the keyboard. A mood "Just another place, man, just a place. I played surfaces and calls to the cymbals. Splashing cymbals everyplace here, you know, my homeland, you to piano scale runs. Runs. Face wrenching, shoulder know?" bobbing, teeth clenched, head back runs. Full speed. "Fourth of July is just another gig?" Top of their game. Fresh wind. Unleashed. A golden "Right...Right. Maybe Europe can still hear it, earring dances in its lobe. The space around the music you know. Something here is tightenin'. It's like expands. Contracts. Blends. Dissolves... rejection. The sounds've got to be played, but it They play Jazz... works best with wide openings." "When you meet people, do you wish there was a Pin hole in the Tuesday Balloon. February's flat- piano around?" note black bites. "Yeah...that's good, yeah. Another way of talkin' "Good luck." right? Wow, right? Egomaniac, right? Me in the Yeah—smile. center. It's crazy though, man. Some weeks seven Jazz. 52 TALKING WOOD

across the old bridge women leave the woods with skirts full of wild mushrooms

e. durling merrill

along the river a racoon eats fresh mussels and leaves the pearly side up to face the moon

e. durling merrill SECOND ISSUE, 1979 S3

Crowsong Crows on the ice edge "=^\ caw at winter's dying temperament and ride off on fingered wings.

Crows have returned here early, singing the simple pain of a cuckold on finding his house gone cold.

Crows circle the lake like sad music— Dvorak and Ma Rainey whirling, then end the set on a birch limb.

Crows remember the Junegold sky and their strong black shadows gliding low clouds on the still water.

Crows find no real comfort in our world and our homes shuttered tight and waiting on the sun's return.

Crows wait without ambition, but to hear the empty trees relief over the steel'd heart of the earth

John M. Baumgartner

ILLUSTRATIONS BY DEANNA FOSTER 54 TALKING WOOD

Photograph above and photographs on pages 55 and 56 by John Baumgartner from the memory book of Marx Abigail Ryerson. These are just a few examples of the com- plex calligraphy and illustrations found throughout the hook SECOND ISSUE. 1979 55

Art and Ancestry

BY ROB STUART

I FIRST MET MARGERY RYERSON at The Barn, Ring wood Manor State Park, on the premises where her great-grandfather, Martin J. Ryerson, had once the Park. Deanna and I perched ourselves on tall owned the Ironworks. Miss Ryerson is a white stools, Mary sat in a chair, and Miss Ryerson contemporary portrait painter. On this occasion, as a sat on the couch with a box of papers she had pulled member of the Ringwood Manor Association of the out for the interview. Arts, she was giving an art demonstration; painting a "Now what is it you would like to know?" she still-life of apples and oranges. I was fascinated how asked. she spent most of her time painting the background, I began to ask questions about her family to get the and I wondered if she ever would get to the fruit. Ryerson background straight. Then at last, with a few brushes of red and orange, "The Pompton tie would be of interest to you, the fruit emerged. She had painted from the periphery wouldn't it?" she asked, nodding at the first issue of to the center, and the center was all the more Talking Wood also lying on the couch. She proceeded dramatic from her background work. to sketch an outline of the family members on her On a more recent crisp March day, blue sky and father's side. They lived in Pompton until the bright sun, I drove into the city with Talking Wood Ironworks were sold in 1853, then they moved to consultant, Mary Veitch, and Deanna Foster from the Newark. CETA-funded Artistree Project in Ringwood. We had A police siren outside intruded upon the sanctity of an appointment with Margery Ryerson at her a remembered past. I blinked and saw again the Gramercy Park residence, a studio loft in the Arts presence of a living artist, as contemporary and as Club. I had written asking permission for an interview quick as the expressions from her portraits—children and she had responded with interest, suggesting what ready to speak, posed easily and naturally in bright might go well for a Talking Wood article. She had clothes, poised for the next moment. seen a copy of the first edition. Deanna asked her about her studies with Robert Her studio fit my image of a classic artist's loft, Henri and Charles Hawthorne, and about her career though I had only movie images to go by. Canvases as an artist. Miss Ryerson explained she went into lay stacked against the walls, tables piled with books portrait painting to make a living at it. She did not and letters, worn brushes, a couch, a sink, walls hung want to earn her way at something else and paint with more paintings, sculpture—all added color and when she could. As a young woman she had taught character to the room. A large window overlooked math, but soon turned to painting full-time and she's 56 TALKING WOOD at it still. "An artist becomes known who sticks with poem dated "Ringwood, 1843," and here an it," she explained—"where there's a history and a inscription from Miss Ryerson's grandfather, Peter, development to the work. The trouble is women don't to his wife upon leaving for the Civil War. It proved stick at it, so the public less often buys them, and to be his farewell, for he was killed in battle. therefore the art galeries don't carry women early as The late afternoon light softened the feel of the much as men." room—the paintings, the tables, books and letters, "What would you like us to write about?" Mary and Miss Ryerson herself seated on the couch. She asked, looking up from her notes. wore a large woolly red sweater in the chilly loft—as "I'll tell you what," Miss Ryerson responded, and red as an apple, I thought, recalling the first time I she turned to the papers beside her. "Here are had seen her paint at the Barn. She looked at us speeches of my father's, David Austin Ryerson, when from over the top of her glasses when she spoke, blue he was a student at Rutgers, and here is my eyes also soft in their expression. She laughed easily, grandmother's Memory Book. I think this would do and I associated her quick wit with the alert faces for some working over, since your magazine is about from her portraits. "There are moments in our the Pompton area." She handed the papers, one lives," Robert Henri once said, "there are moments by one, to Mary and me, then to Deanna, and we in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. poured over the fine script. The Memory Book which Such are the moments of our greatest happiness." had belonged to her grandmother, Mary Abigail Miss Ryerson's family papers spoke of her past; she Ryerson, contained poems written by family and herself and her art spoke of a present happiness friends, like a very fine autograph book. Here was a reaching for still greater knowledge in the future. SECOND ISSUE. 1979 57

Portrait by Margery Ryerson "My Aunt," oil on canvas, 50x30. Ryerson finds that part of the pleasure of painting someone you know well is seeing how the subject begins to look like other members of the family. As she worked on this picture, she could see her father and grandmother in her aunt's face. 58 TALKING WOOD SECOND ISSUE, 1979 59 60 TALKING WOOD

(Editors note: Spring is trying to get outside as much as we can to kick out the doldrums of winter. Warm sun. Warm earth. Gardens. Mim Green, who lives up near the Wanaque Reservoir in Ringwood, sees organic gardening as the only sane route to take for things to take root The following article about the mint plant is the first in a series dealing with 'companion planting' as a viable and enjoyable alternative to pesticides and herbicides. We have also included a chart on pages 62 and 63 that should prove to be useful to those who would like to know how the plants in our gardens can complement and support one another. Good gardening.) SECOND ISSUE, 1979 61 Companion Planting: Mint by Mim Green

Against the warm, sheltered south-facing wall, This habit offends "neat gardeners". To me it the first green rosettes of mentha is a blessing. Peppermint, sage, thyme, piperita (peppermint) appear March 20th, give rosemary, spearmint, basil, hyssop and or take a week. pennyroyal are the great protectors in the This wall is about seven hundred feet above vegetable garden. They discourage the ants, sea level in the Ramapo Mountains of north aphids, cabbage worms, mosquitos, flies, flea New Jersey, near the Wanaque Reservoir. If beetles; and if you plant peas, lettuce, beans the weather is good, mint will continue to and cabbage in an area where you have mint offer pleasures and protection through as well, you can munch on the mint while you December or to a killing frost. For the work, break a few stems to expose the gatherer-freezer-dryer, the leaves are available fragrance, and refrain from chemical sprays! all winter. Here are uses for mint: In the bath. In tea. In Basil, lemon balm, spearmint, hyssop, lemonade. In fruit salad. In lamb dishes. In bergamot, rosemary, nepeta, lavendar, salvia, potpourri. The near eastern restaurants make thyme, oregano, pennyroyal, apple-mint and a lovely appetizer by finely chopping some ornamentals like physostegia are all peppermint and sprinkling it on a sliced members of the mint family. They have square cucumber and yogurt salad. The French believe stems and the flowers have uneven lips. The that a tisane of herbal tea after a gourmet name for the group is Labiatae. Nepeta is dinner is the truly civilized drink. I have made catmint or catnip. Bergamot is also known as fresh mint tea that my guests prefer to coffee, monarda, bee-balm, horsemint, oswego tea. It but you can add mint to coffee or hot is abundant in this area, and all through the chocolate and get happy results. highlands in open spots. Lavendar clusters There is a way to candy mint leaves, but grow on shrublike masses of delicate leaves to since it uses refined sugar, it will not be as high as three feet. Like the stem end of included. clover blossoms or honeysuckle, you can sip a Peppermint has long been used as a sweet nectar from each tube of the bergamot medicine. In particular cases of digestive cluster. It has a strong spicy fragrance, and so disturbance the soothing effect was does its' sister the red monarda didyma, who pronounced. prefers the moist and shadier richer soil of Now, if you hike or sunbathe or garden brooksides. The wild fistulosa of the sunny when the biting insects are out for your flesh, roadsides has a color range of whitish, pink try a technique that helps me. Make a solution lavendar or purple bracts. The best feature of of crushed basil and rub it on your skin and bergamot is that it brings bees to pollinate around your eyes to ward off the gnats. It has fruit blossoms. to be frozen basil, which is easy to do. (The Peppermint and spearmint are herbaceous fresh leaves aren't available till later in the perennials. They have "pinked" edges on summer.) Take the basil leaves, wash them, elongated oval leaves that grow in opposite put them in a plastic bag and freeze. Take out pairs, one on each side of the "square" stem. the frozen bag and bang it on a hard surface. They are rampant growers in good soil and the The brittle contents will crumble. Dissolve a long shallow roots send up a main stem at handful in warm water as needed. It works! every inch as they spread through the patch. Have a good growing season. CoRN • SONFLOw.

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NATURE'S NATURE'S NATURE'S REMEDIES REMEDIES REMEDIES SECOND ISSUE, 1979 65

collected by Barbara Morgan and Frankie Van Dunk

Herbal Remedies and natural healing are enjoying a renaissance in these health conscious days. In light of the increasing concern and awareness about our bodies and how to keep ourselves healthy, we thought it would be interesting and perhaps bene- ficial to look in our own backyard for those magic herbs and plants. Barbara Morgan and Frankie Van Dunk of the Talking Wood staff let us in on some intriguing and sometimes amusing natural remedies still used by people in Upper Ringwood; reme- dies over 200 years old, passed down orally over the years and still a health bible to some of the older folks. Self health probably started as a necessity to counteract the high cost of official M.D. ministration. As Frankie Van Dunk says "it's something we had to do. If we didn't have enough money to go down to the drug store and buy it, we did it ourselves." Modern medicine has eliminated the need for many of the old cures, but there are still some tried and true natural healers that people swear by. Frankie's mother used to work with doctors but will never go to one because "she thought that nature healed better than science, that's all." With herbal remedies, seeing is believing. Frankie again on his experience with a baby's teething season: "Like with Eric Wilkins. My mother went in the woods and got the bittersweet, brought it back and cut it in about quarter-inch lengths, threaded it into a necklace and tied it around the baby's neck. It helped...he's about a year old now and he doesn't have any trouble cutting his teeth." Of course the older true believers are dwindling. The younger people are relying more and more on doctors and the drug store. Barbara Morgan explains it like this: "If you can't take your baby to a pediatrician for a shot, then you're not with it." We offer some of the more interesting and proven remedies still being used today. Seeing is believing.

We would advise some discretion in the use of these remedies, as some might be unfamiliar to you. Consultation with a person knowledgeable in this area or with a good field guide, such as A Guide to the Medicinal Plants of the United States, (Quadrangle, New York), is recommended before using these self-health tips. 66 TALKING WOOD

Asthma, Sore Throat or a Cough Cut up two or three bulbs of Indian turnips and put the pieces in a quart bottle, then fill up with a good whiskey. The bottle will bear refilling with whiskey several times. Indian Turnip Plant description: A small perennial with two stalks of three leaves each and third stalk topped with a green tubular "pulpit" and a covering hood turned down over the pulpit. In the fall, the pulpit stalk has dense clusters of vivid scarlet berries. Where it grows: Swamps, bogs, and damp woodlands. What is harvested and when: The root in spring and fall, plants as needed. Other uses: The corns have been grated and boiled in milk and the concoction used to treat coughs and tuberculosis.

Jaundice Fill a quart bottle one third full of chipped inner cherry bark. Add a large teaspoon of soda and fill the bottle with whiskey or brandy. Take a large dose three times a day. If it effects the head unpleasantly, lessen the quantity of bark. Black Cherry Plant description: A tree that grows to 100 feet in height. The dark black bark is aromatic. The leaves are shiny, smooth, two to five inches long with finely serrated edges. Long drooping clusters of white flowers are followed by clusters of round, black, bitter-tasting berries. Where it grows: A wide range of habitats throughout the East Coast. What is harvested and when: Bark at any time, fruits in late summer or fall. Other uses: Diarrhea, colds, measles. A warm tea was given to women in childbirth and also used to relieve pain and muscular soreness.

Teething Take a branch of bittersweet and cut it in small pieces. String the pieces into a bead necklace and tie it around the child's neck. Bittersweet Plant description: A twining plant up to 25 feet in length. The leaves are two to five inches long and one inch wide. The flowers are small and green. Where it grows: Dense moist thickets, fence rows, waste grounds, road sides. What is harvested and when: Root bark in the fall. Other uses: The bark of the root has been taken internally to induce vomiting, to quiet disturbed people, treat venereal disease, and to increase urine flow. As an ointment mixed with grease it has been used to treat skin cancers, tumors, burns, and swelling. SECOND ISSUE, 1979 67

Fever Boil snakeroot, make a tea and drink up. Snakeroot Plant description: This perennial grows to two feet in height. It has an erect stem and heart-shaped leaves that come to a point. Brownish flowers rise from the base of the stem. Where it grows: Rich woods, forests, and woodlands. What is harvested and when: Roots in the fall. Other uses: The earliest use of this plant was based on the belief that it could protect a person from poisoning. The finely powdered root was combined with white wine (one part root to three parts wine,) and used to induce sweating in the treating of malaria. The root was also used to treat types of fever, small pox, and pneumonia, and applied as a poultice on open wounds and skin ulcers.

Cough Fine chop several cloves of garlic, enough to make two poultices one quarter to one half inch thick. Spread the garlic evenly on a soft cloth, then place a thin piece of cloth on top. Apply a poultice to the bottom of each foot. Grease the child's feet with vaseline or lard before application to prevent blistering of the skin by the garlic. Cover the foot with an old sock so the poultice stays in place overnight. You will smell garlic on the child's breath the morning after the application. Garlic Plant description: An annual that grows as high as twelve inches, arising from a bulb made up of several bulblets. Where it grows: Roadsides, pastures, fields, open woods, glades, and waste grounds. What is harvested and when: Entire plant when in flower; bulbs in the fall. Other uses: A fresh poultice applied three times daily for snake bite, hornet stings and scorpion stings. The bulb is browned in honey and butter and eaten for kidney and bladder trouble. For toothaches, the bulb is pressed against the gum.

Poison Oak Make a strong decoction of the leaves or bark of the common willow tree. Bathe the affected parts frequently. Willow Plant description: A tree that grows to 75 feet in height with spreading, drooping branches. The leaves are one and one half to four inches long, narrow and pointed, with finely toothed edges, green above and white below. Where it grows: Rich low woods, roadsides, shores and streambanks. What is harvested and when: Leaves during the growing season, bark anytime. Other uses: Brew a tea of leaves and bark to reduce fever. The bark has been used as a tonic in convalescence and for treatment of diarrhea. ILLUSTRATIONS BY FRANKIE VAN DUNK 68 TALKING WOOD

From an April

Again the forest exhales. The soaring larks lift the sky up with them, easing the strain on our shoulders; the empty day can still be seen through the branches- but after long, rain-soaked afternoons comes the sungold light of a new season, pursuing all the wounded windows across distant facades with wings timidly beating.

Then it becomes quiet. Even the rain falls softer over the stones, quiet and shining darkly. Every sound hides entirely away in the glistening eye of the brushwood.

-from Rainer Maria Rilke Book of Pictures, I -translated by John M. Baumgartner SECOND ISSUE, 1979 tit

THE SKY the sky - petal of a rose at dawn - aegean blue at noon - eggshell porcelain at dusk — an ocean of swirling sun-tipped waves at midnight - a wind-swept snow-drifted land - the mind is enriched by its perplexing variety - the spirit is extended and amazed by its enormous singularity e. durling merrill

In Aries *, Spikes of forsythia impale the raw air. Bloodsteam hangs in the trees. The slashing rain only quickens the earth.

Jim Ryan 70 TALKING WOOD

The full moon call; Down to the river to stop on razor edge and break down banks of sorrow and fine silt the years. Liquid Lover push my past beyond lunar humor, shed the sad salt of a too familiar season.

Alfred M. Peterson

Ramapo April Greengold haze around the bony larch on the south face shore of the Wanaque, Stonetown willows dangle yellowgold, silver catkins puff to gold angora, redgold crowns the early maple, colors hum against a slate grey sky rehearsing for the full-voice May Day Concert.

Miriam Green SECOND ISSUE, W9 71

Equinox

Damn, damn the season's simple turn! The earth tilts in the dark and winter gets its sudden, mindless spring One glib surprise of green and I sprout like a shy, delighted crocus. What use is my fury?

I want my woman rippling in tight jeans, naked to the waist, flashing the white insides of her arms and running, like me, to seed.

Jim Ryan

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MIM GREEN it* ILLUSTRATIONS BY LOUISE ARGIROFF SECOND ISSUE, 1979 73 The Watching Place BY LOUISE ARGIROFF

It was as though the crocus had given a secret signal for the whole earth to wake up."

IT WAS SUNDAY AFTERNOON and Alexander was When they were finished, the rocks were about ten beginning to feel downright fidgety and even a little feet apart and formed a square near the edge of the cantankerous. woods. For three whole days the sky had been drizzly and Mother straightened up and rubbed the dirt from grey. her hands. Then she smiled and said, "There! That's The ice on Parkin's pond had long since melted a watching place and it's for you." away. ' 'What is a watching place? What does it do?'' The last patch of snow in the yard had shrunk until Alexander asked. it was no larger than a small tablecloth. But his mother just went on smiling and said, The ground was too muddy for baseball or "Watch it and you shall see." wrestling and the trees were too wet and slippery for Alexander sat down on one of the rocks and climbing. watched for a long time, but nothing happened and Alexander was tired of pasteing and coloring and the only thing he could see was mud and the brown looking at books and television. In fact, he was bored twig sticking up in the air. He watched in the drizzly with all his toys and games so he just stood at the rain until it was time to go in for supper.. .but nothing window with his nose pressed against the glass and happened. stared outdoors...feeling fidgety. He watched on Monday...and nothing happened. Suddenly he felt a hand ruffling the hair on top of He watched on Tuesday...and nothing happened. his head. It was his mother, who had been busy all By Wednesday Alexander was so tired of looking day. It seemed as though she always had a million at the mud and the brown twig that he didn't go near things to do no matter what the weather was like. the watching place. "Lets go for a walk in the yard," she said. "There On Thursday he decided to take one quick peek, is something out there I think you might like to but everything was the same inside the square of have." rocks...except...he looked closer. In one corner They put on coats and hats and boots and walked something small and round like the pointed end of a around in the rain for awhile. Mother seemed to be green crayon was poking up through the mud! looking for something. Finally she stopped and said, That evening at supper he told his mother and "Well, here it is." father about it and asked them what it was, but they Alexander looked as hard as he could but he didn't just grinned and said, "Wait and see." see anything but a skinny, brown twig sticking up in Alexander watched every day now. The little green the air and mud, mud, mud. pointy thing poked itself up higher and higher. The "Now we need four rocks," his mother said, "big green part split into leaves with a big fat bud shaped ones...about as big as we can carry." like an egg in the middle. Finally, it burst open and They found four big rocks; so big that Alexander was a beautiful flower. He was very excited and and his mother had to push and roll them into place. called his mother and father outside to look. They 74 TALKING WOOD

seemed to be happy about it, too, and told him the room for one more thing, a whole forest of toadstools flower was a crocus, the first flower of Spring. grew up overnight right where the crocus had been! After that, all kinds of interesting things began to And the night after that a beautiful black and yellow happen in the watching place. It was as though the spider moved into the watching place bag and crocus had given a secret signal for the whole earth to baggage! She must have worked very hard for when wake up. The brown twig didn't look dead anymore. he found her in the morning, she was sitting in the Tiny green bumps began to swell along it's skinny middle of her brand new house waiting for breakfast branches. The mud began to disappear under a soft to come along. Dew drops sparkled on every inch of fuzz of grass, which popped up everywhere like little her silvery web and Alexander thought it looked as green whiskers. Dozens of violets pushed their way pretty as any flower he had ever seen. timidly through the earth, then stretched their leaves Before long, the watching place was overrun with like little hands on long thin arms toward the warming visitors and tenants. Bees and butterflies hovered over sun. At the foot of the brown twig, a dandelion every blossom gathering nectar and pollen. appeared, spreading its narrow jagged leaves in a Caterpillars and beetles of every color and size came lacey circle. to dine on the juicy green leaves. A fat, brown toad But best of all was the clump of fern Alexander moved in under the fern and spent hours in the warm found one day hiding behind one of the rocks. Each sun snatching flies and bugs out of the air with his wooly, grey frond was curled into a tight circle...like sticky, long tongue. An army of ants set up camp a clock spring...and unwound itself a little bit every under the toadstools and Alexander never tired of day. watching them march back and forth, loaded down The flower of the crocus withered and died, but with bits of food for storage in their underground violets now bloomed in its place and two golden house. umbrellas had opened over the dandelion's lacey The days passed. skirt. Even the rocks had begun to grow coats of September came and Alexander now spent his green velvet moss. mornings in kindergarten. When the buds on the brown twig finally burst The sun set earlier and the air grew crisp and cool. open, Alexander saw that the shape of the leaves, The flowers in the watching place withered and which had been folded up inside the buds, exactly died. Their leaves shrank and turned brown. The matched the leaves on the tree outside his bedroom leaves on the little maple tree turned orange and red window. He knew then that the brown twig was really and gold, then dropped to the ground covering the a baby maple tree. watching place under a blanket of beautiful colors. It seemed now as though the watching place had a Caterpillars wrapped themselves in thick silken surprise waiting for him every day. Plants with leaves cocoons. The toad burrowed under the roots of the of every size and shape began to pop up all over the fern and closed his eyes for the long winter sleep place. Some were long and thin, some were fat and ahead. round. Some were smooth and shiny and some fuzzy. And then, Alexander looked out of his bedroom Some plants, like the goldenrod, grew almost as tall window one morning and saw that snow had as Alexander and others, like the clover, stayed close fallen in the night. His watching place, the rocks at to the ground. In fact, by the time it was warm each corner, the fern...everything had disappeared... enough to go swimming, the watching place looked' except the brown twig which stood guard like a like a miniature jungle. sentinel in the white snow, waiting for spring to Then, just when Alexander thought there wasn't come again. SECOND ISSUE, 1979 75

' 'Dew drops sparkled on every inch of her silvery web and Alexander thought it looked as pretty as any flower he had ever seen." 76 TALKING WOOD SECOND ISSUE, 1979 77 Watching the River Flow BY CYNTHIA LIGHTBODY

"WATERSHED WHAT? What the heck is a Watershed Getting to know the parts of the whole...the cities, Watch?", you say. The Watch has conjured up as the plains, the highlands, the people who live here many different pictures as people I've asked! now, the people who lived here long ago, following "...Is it like sitting in a ranger tower watching the the flow of the river...watching, observing, feeling woods?" the recurring patterns and cycles of the natural "...Sort of like birdwatching..." environment, enjoying. "...Sitting by the water waiting for something to So we say, "Come and watch with us." At each happen, but I'm not sure what..." watch a portion of the watershed is scouted, and sites "...I'm not even sure what the watershed is." picked for observation. There is something for Geographically, the Passaic Watershed is an everyone...a multiplicity of directions, depending on amoeba-shaped area stretching from Monroe, New the participant's own orientation and perception. York southward to Millington, Mendham and The area abounds in history and geological Summit, New Jersey. It is the catchbasin for diversity. rains...having the distinction of being one of the ...Walking along the cliffs, touching the stone, you wettest regions in the United States with regard to can sense how it once was...the upheavals and average precipitation. The Highland area of the basin changes in the earth during glaciation.. .the smooth stretches from the western and northern reaches of the rocks from the lava flows that cooled slowly, forming basin to where the Pequannock, Wanaque and the Watchung ranges...the water snaking and swirling Ramapo Rivers meet at the base of the Ramapo in patterns, making pictures, singing of life through Mountains. This area is mountainous and largely the ages in its endless pursuit of the sea. rural. The Central Basin is flat and oval-shaped, ...Closing your ears to the sound of cars and stretching from Millington north to Little Falls. The airplanes and factories and hearing only the swirling low-lying land bordering the Passaic River is largely water and rustle of trees and perhaps envisioning the composed of fresh-water swamps and flat worldview of the native peoples. Perception of time meadowlands. Its' cultural character is mainly was based on lunar cycles. Just as the rest of the suburban. The Lower Valley is flat and urban, animal kingdom, and the plant kingdom as well, densely populated and highly industrialized. respond to the waxing and waning of the moon, so The Passaic River itself, interrupted in its leisurely did a people more closely attuned to the natural southward journey many centuries ago by the debris rhythm of the universe. The new moon is a time for left in its path by the receding glacier, now flows feelings, a time to be still and let the sounds and northward, bends, cascades and returns southward in smells and aura enter into an open and receptive its course towards the sea. consciousness. The quarter moon is a time of fact...a A place rich in history. A place inhabited for time to take in physical reality, to glean objective centuries by a folk who walked quietly through its knowledge. The full moon is the time for future...as woodlands, who lived and flowed in Harmony with in nature where primitive animals mate by the full its' cycles and seasons. Inhabited now largely by moon, where seeds germinate more quickly when those whose feet feel only the concrete beneath them, planted by the full moon, where our more instinctual who have perhaps not yet experienced the touch and ancestors held rituals and councils by the full moon, feeling of the natural landscape. all to insure a future for their species, a direction for And so the Watershed Watch was born. the days to come. So, too, we can look at the The purpose of the Watch is to get the feel once watershed, sense its beginnings, see where it is now, again of our natural environment, developing a and plan for its future...a future that involves living harmony of sorts...a compromise if you and surviving within our industrial society. will...between the concrete and the natural landscape. Moderation. Conservation. Interrelationship with, 78 TALKING WOOD

instead of destruction of, this land. The watch is also a time for pure enjoyment: hiking the cliffs and valleys, capturing it with your camera, writing poetry, lying on the grass and watching the butterflies, eating a sandwich while gazing at the ripples and currents and recurring patterns of the water. The current watch meanders along the portion of

the river between Little Falls and Clifton. "Scouts" :: : ...-•• ::j . " y . •'.-.."", ^ ^;..- ' will be at each site to answer any questions. Our "scouts", Vernon and Steve, both well-versed in botany and geology, also just dig the watershed and make it come alive. One rainy day Pat Garbe, our archaeological consultant, and I trekked along with Vernon to some of the sites scheduled for the next watch. It was fun. We ferreted out nooks and crannies hidden along the industrialized span between Beattie's Dam in Little Falls and the Great Falls in Paterson that the passing motorist would never suspect were there. We climbed the rocks, felt the moss and lichen growing on them, watched a pair of ducks bathing in a calm pool below the :i hidiv k-ivcen itic and "now"" Ihviv is .1 loelini: nl «.oniinuii\ Come in \\w W .Hashed (.oine .iiul rm *- --•*

VISITORS OF TIME

The gJ.5fflffiCl^offiiffest.1. » An old treeitumpYeThembew 4trlieti le«R/eS»- Tumbled rocks along a river.Jjank, * .* Carried~away with time.!.^' - - ^' . ^-s. A hollow acorn shfcil. .„ -*." No tree. • ""• - .. " ;-•

An old shoe. - i-Maryann K SECOND ISSUE, 1979 79

Watchung High

At one time or another, most of us have traveled down Hamburg Turnpike southeast through Wayne towards Paterson. Traffic-is usually heavy and needs our attention, but next time you're in the vicinity of Preakness Shopping Center, try to glance toward the left to a range of mountains off in the distance. You'll be looking at a stretch of "High Hills" called the Preakness Mountains. They, in turn, are part of a longer chain of mountains called the Second Watchungs which extend southward from Oakland to Bernardsville for 48 miles in a half-moon configuration. Their origin alone is interesting enough. Due to volcanic activity over 200 million years ago, a series of lava flows were initiated over the land. After cooling down, the end product was a very hard, dark rock called basalt, so durable that it has been favored for construction purposes. Look for rock outcrops on either side of Hamburg Turnpike as it eventually takes you through these mountains and down into Paterson. You'll understand why this basalt is commonly called "trap" rock, from the Swedish word for 'stairs', because of its step-like appearance. The Watchungs have been worn down over the years by climate and glaciation. Although they are, for the most part, privately owned, they largely remain in a wooded state even today: people tend to settle in the valleys first. Different stages of plant succession are present there, from pioneer or "me first" species of lichen, moss, birch and aspen trees, up to the more advanced stands of hemlock, beech, maple and oak. All of this plant life in association with the soil, combines to provide a very important function for us here in the Passaic Watershed: the capture and slow release of rainfall for our use, and a contribution to the makeup of our local climate. Next time you take a drink of water, think about that. If you proceed onto Belmont Avenue in Haledon and head up toward North Haledon on the other side of these mountains, start looking up slightly to the left, after reaching the vicinity of Dorothy Drive. You'll soon notice a hilltop, partly barren of trees due to exposure from man and nature. Appropriately, this peak is called High Mountain, having the highest elevation in the Preakness range at 885 feet. From its summit, it offers an unobstructed 360 degree view of the surrounding topography, with the Highlands in the west and north to the lower Piedmont Plains in the south and east. Most of the High Mountain area is presently owned by the Urban Farms Real Estate Agency, but preliminary plans have been made by the Passaic County Parks Commission to purchase 1600 acres for a county park, a great idea for the preservation of part of this important area. If you want to reach the top of High Mountain, continue on Belmont Avenue until you come to Glen Avenue. Make a left here and proceed straight ahead until it turns onto a dirt road. Park your car and follow this road on foot and it will take you to the summit. Although this area is private, responsible hiking alone or in small numbers is generally tolerated. If you have any questions about the Preakness Mountains, please contact me at the offices of TALKING WOOD, 125 Wanaque Ave., Pompton Lakes, or call 835-3959.

Steve Garrison 80 TALKING WOOD

Talking Wood invites you to For $10.00 you may become a subscribe to future issues and sustaining subscriber which includes Watershed Watches. For $5.00 you all our publications and the will receive our quarterly magazine satisfaction of knowing you are not and monthly supplements giving you part of the problem but part of the fresh information about the place in solution. which you live. SUBSCRIPTIONS

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Please make checks payable to: Talking Wood, Inc. land mail to Talking Wood, Post Office Box 364, Pompton Lakes, N.J. 07442 PASSAIC RIVER WATERSHED

TALKING WOOD Living in the Passaici Watershed

REMEMBRANCES FOR REFERENCE We asked some of our grandparent generation, Do Not Take From This Room folks with a glint in their eye, to tell us what they remember about living in this place. RESOURCES Whether it's the waterfall at Paterson or the windfall profits tax now before Congress—money, political power and energy have always been linked. REINHABITATION Something new under the sun. It could be tried. Here in the Passaic Watershed.

1900 Ringwood Public Library 30 CanniciDrive Ringwood, New $ 973962

THE PASSAIC WATERSHED:—Catchbasin for rains that in full public view. People are paying attention to the current come chest high each time we go around the sun. The shift in weather patterns and trying to imagine this land in gathering ground for the river system looks like a single cell long term biological continuities. There is a concern for find- animal. There is an indentation between the headwaters of ing roots, maintaining kinship systems and learning to live in the Pequannock and the Ramapo, as if pushed in by the place rather than be tossed about by the illusions of an inflat- winter storms from the Great Lakes. There is another in- ing global economy. People are growing in a willingness to dentation between the headwaters of the Passaic and Newark take part in the necessities and pleasures of life as they are Bay, as if the watershed were pushed in by the summer and uniquely presented by this Watershed rather than curse this fall thunderstorms and hurricanes from the tropics. This is no area and look for Utopia elsewhere. desert. There are no broad grasslands here. Here the bio- We see these changes as part of a process of caring for our sphere lives in terms of its woodlands. To live in the Passaic life in this land after its disruption and injury, of taking Watershed is to live in a falling leaf forest. responsibility for the habitat that we hold in common. We call This woodland works with the waters. On a hot summer this process reinhabitation. Talking Wood is about the rein- day a mature tree will heave a ton of water into the air. As the habitation of Passaic. sun shifts south and the trees can no longer bear their water burden, they let their leaves go as nutrient and ground cover against cloudbursts. Budding again in the spring, the trees Reinhabiting Passaic starts with a feeling for the combi- will share the water burden with the river. Each time around nation of factors that constitute die uniqueness of Passaic. the sun, leafing toward the light, letting the leaves fall. The sense that arises at the Great Falls:—that Paterson could Leafing toward the sun, letting leaves fall. be restored and learn to live a life resonate with the richness of this Watershed. Daydreams that come while watching the Over 500 Generations of human beings lived here before river,—daydreams of the Atlantic salmon returning to spawn Europeans came from across the ocean. We know little of again in the Passaic. Fantasies that come while walking in their life in this Watershed. We know they did not destroy the these woodlands,—fantasies that generations to come could woodlands. Trees would be killed by bark stripping to clear walk here among five hundred year old trees as natives land for planting and sometimes fire would be used. But for once did. This feeling that comes to us when we take the the most part natives would wait and take only trees that were time to talk with old timers who have a sense of this place. standing dead and dry. Free of its water burden, the wood We're publishing oral history, remembrances, poetry, geol- spoke in swift flame to all the warm blooded gathered round. ogy photos:—anything that resonates with the firstness of Talk story into the night about life in the sun. Passaic. Only twelve generations of new people have been here and Secondly, we are interested in particulars. Specifics that there is serious trouble. Deforestation for the iron furnaces of tend to undo the quality and feeling possible here. An asbes- war, deforestation for urban charcoal, thousands of houses tos dump on the upper Passaic. The cluster of leukemia cases built on floodplains, wetlands abused, industries that foul in Rutherford. Paint sludge in the Ringwood Mines. Auto- habitats, housing developments that disable the Watershed, mobiles and highways that link us to a global monoculture fossil fuel machines that pollute air and water. The habitual indifferent to place. The history of our cities. This broken- destruction of this woodland Watershed is catching up with hearted life. That divorce. The harshness of the job economy. us. Among people living here there is a growing realization The nuclear threat. The energy crisis. The brutal facts of of this stark fact: If we destroy our environment, we destroy living here. That which resists our efforts to be resonant with ourselves. the life of this place. That which must be struggled with. In the face of this realization people in this region have The secondness of our situation. been making changes. There are urban areas now green with Thirdly, we are working with generalizations that might houseplants. Runners and hikers are suddenly common enable us to develop different habits,-habits in keeping with sights. Outdoor photography, organic gardening, solar energy the long term biological continuities of this region. We have experimentation, wood burning stoves and interest in local no easy recipe. We have questions and a strategy. Questions history are all on the increase. Mothers in Bloomfield have like how we can rethink industrialization in terms of appro- been fighting for access to the river for their children. People priate technology? What place does native American tradition in the lake regions are fighting sewers and questioning have in the future of this region? What is the maximum growth. Native Americans in the Ramapos are reclaiming number of diverse species this Watershed can carry? How their tradition. Voters in New Jersey said "yes" to 200 can we develop the positional intelligence proper to this part million dollars for the Green Acres Program. Paterson is en- of the planet? The strategy is a relational practice that could gaged in a serious program of restoration. The Passaic River enable us to know this Watershed in a new and watchful way. Coalition effectively blocked a huge dam project and the We want to become fully alive as members of this biotic com- Army Corps must now conduct a major study of flood control munity. We want to make peace with the life of this valley. TALKING WOOD

Volume 1, Number 4

PASSAIC WATERSHED The entire gathering ground for the Passaic River system. TALKING Nobody's quite sure whether it's fiction or fact —but the story goes that Talking Wood and his friend Naked Bear spent their lives walking WOOD these woodlands, visiting every tribal village they could find. During their visit, when the time was right, Executive Editor Naked Bear wouid carefully unwrap a set of Paul Ryan wooden plaques with pictures carved on them. The pictures, or pictograms. were stained with red ochre and were known as the "red score" or Editor "Walam Olum." While Naked Bear showed the Jeffrey Rothfeder score to the villagers, Talking Wood went into a trance and spoke of the history and migration of Managing Editor the tribes. Everyone paid close attention. They Cynthia Lightbody understood that what he was talking about had to do with the continuing survival of the people.

Editorial Assistants This issue is about survival. Patricia Garbe, Anne Jones, Barbara Mor- gan, Madeline Morgan, Michael Perks, Renee Rucker, Frankie Van Dunk

Environmental Researcher Steve Garrison

Art Director Contributors Claude Ponsot Margot Miller Steve Miller Lori Charkey Eva Reirha Production Manager Bonnie Freer Marky Sills llene Greenfield Juan Gonzalez Mead Stapler Mim Green Tomm Tomanek Gary Hayden Production Staff Gary Hill Officers Anne Jones, Barbara Morgan, Michael Perks, Bethany Jacobson Frankie Van Dunk Celeste La Penna Roy Skodnick Hilary Lightbody George Tukel William Lindsay Richard Van-Lenten Business Managers Kenneth Lumpkin Nancy Zimmerman Patricia Garbe Renee Rucker

Distribution and Sales llene Greenfield, Manager; Patricia Garbe, Madeline Morgan, Michael Perks, Frankie This is the last issue of Talking Wood magazine that Van Dunk has been funded by the U.S. Department of Labor under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act through the Board of Freeholders chosen by the people of Passaic. Talking Wood believes that the task of understanding, restoring and reinhabiting this woodland watershed is proper labor for people living in Passaic. While the oppor- tunity for this project was provided by the Board of Chosen, Freeholders, the editors of Talking Wood are solely Cover Design by Claude Ponsot, responsible for policy and content. Chairman, Department of Fine Arts, Talking Wood is produced at the Pompton Lakes office of Talking* Wood, Inc. and" typeset at Quick Print and St. John's University. Graphics House, Rt. 6, Mohegan Lake, NY. and at Cover Art - "Indiana's Dream", work in Impressions, Rt. 23, Riverdale, N.J. progress by Claude Ponsot. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of Talking Wood. Copyright© 1980 by Talking Wood. We continue to add to our network of contributors. Send Note: The Hammond Tablet first published in all correspondence to: Talking Wood Talking Wood, Volume 1, Number 3 on page 6 P.O. Box 364 was a contribution drawn by Ed Lenik from a Pompton Lakes, N.J. 07442 photo in the archives of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 REMEMBRANCES Recorded and Edited by Cynthia Lightbody

Arthur Van Gelder - Ramsey Marky Sills - Wayne Charles Scanlan - Paterson Arthur Riedel - Pompton Lakes Florence P. Tate - Warwick Reverend Horace M. Cole - East Orange Catherine Conlan Bradshaw - Chatham Township Stella Usinowicz Garrison - Ringwood Edith Popjes - Saddle River and Midland Park George Reger - Ringwood Herbert Krueger and Clifford Ryerson - Vernon

20 RESOURCES 22 Three Mile Island by Nancy Joyce and Jeffrey Rothfeder Nancy Joyce is a former staff writer for the President's Commission on Three Mile Island 27 Indian Point by Lori Charkey 31 Passaic Watershed Energy Study by Steve Garrison and Jeffrey Rothfeder Water Article by Patricia Garbe

42 REINHABITATION 44 Relationships by Paul Ryan 56 Practices for Living in Place 56 The Rattlesnake and the Squirrel - Kenneth Lumpkin 57 A Cabin Log - Don Delo 58 Woodburning - Gary Hill 61 Knowing the Trees - Steve Garrison 66 Planting for a Longer Season - Miriam Green 67 Homesteading in Paterson - William Lindsay 69 Home Energy Conservation - George Tukel and Jim Ryan 74 Working with Waste - llene Greenfield 79 Directory 92 Talking Wood—Our Own Survival 94 Haudenosaunee Statement to the World Reprinted from ROOTDRINKER 4 Remembrances Remembrances 5

ARTHUR VAN GELDER MARKY SILLS CHARLES SCANLAN ARTHUR RIEDEL FLORENCE P. TATE REVEREND HORACE M. COLE CATHERINE CONLAN BRADSHAW STELLA USINOWICZ GARRISON EDITH POPJES GEORGE REGER HERBERT KRUEGER CLIFFORD RYERSON BRANCES Recorded and Edited by Cynthia Light body Illustrated by Mim Green

II he young are discouraged about living in this place. A daughter out west with three young children and a marriage an trouble will not return to her parents home in Passaic because she has trouble breathing here. A twenty-two year old will come home to Clifton only for brief visits—"Just too many people to live here." A sixteen year old in Pompton Lakes chided by her mother not to eat junk food replies, "What's the difference? We'll probably ail die of cancer any- way." She has read the high statistics on cancer in Jersey and has heard predictions of skin cancer for one out of three people in twenty years because of the weakening ozone layer. The anthropologist, Gregory Bateson, tells this parable about people and places. Bateson lived with a tribe in New Guinea that built their houses on stilts. When they wanted to crap, they simply pulled a board from the floor and did it. One day Bateson asked them what they do when the shit piles up to the floor. "Oh," they said, "We simply go someplace else and build another house." In terms of the problems of this Watershed, such a parable holds tempting advice. And for some of us, probably the better part of wisdom is to leave. But the degenera- tion of the biosphere is not like piling up shit. It's more like cuts and bruises on the skin of an apple. Healing is essential if we are to avoid rotting to the core. The young hardly know this place well enough to care about healing. The TV and the times have estranged them from the local landscape. So we asked some of our grandparent generation, folks with a glint in their eye, to tell us what they remember about living in this place. 6 Remembrances

before that, so that a lot of history has passed on it. But the nearest neighbor in the days when the first house was built was in Oakland. The original house that the Van Gelders had had a straw roof on it. And the Indians lived down by the pond. The family went all the way to Oak- land by horse and wagon, and they got buttermilk—big things of buttermilk—and when they got home the roof of the house was on fire. So the Indians helped them with the buttermilk—they had to throw the buttermilk on the fire, to put the fire out. That's an old story that's always been passed down. I'm sure it's accurate because each guy remembered it and told about it. Henry and Mary—that was my grandmother and grandfather—were born about 1842. When she married my grandfather, they moved into the old homestead. And I remember Grams. Grams died in 1930. She used to tell me some great stories, really good stories. She heard President Lincoln speak. Grams would spend two weeks with each of us. She went two weeks everyplace, which might seem a little cruel, but it wasn't, because everybody welcomed her with open arms. She was a great woman. The older I get, the more I realize how great she was. So everybody always welcomed Grams. I "So the Indians helped them with the still remember Grams, sitting there. Whatever the season buttermilk—they had to throw the buttermilk of the year, if it was Grams turn to be with you, she was on the fire." there. It might be Christmas this year or it might be Fourth of July the next, but she took turns coming around. My mother's parents were dead by the time I was around. So I only had Grams. ARTHUR VAN GELDER Ramsey "She was a great woman.

e lived at a pond. Van Gelder Pond. It was I wish I had had a tape recorder when my father and named after all the Van Gelders, because the mother were around, because they could tell me some W old homestead was right on the pond. It hap- great stories. But at the time nobody was interested. pened that my family was willed the property, about 75 Didn't matter. You know, you just let it all slip away, acres, and the old homestead. My father's two brothers until it's too late. got other land on the other side of the pond and down in This letter is about the pond up there. And the woman town that used to be camping ground for Indians. So who is writing this is my cousin's wife. when my sister and brother—who are older than me— "We heard there has been a suggestion put before when they were young, they had all the Indian things the council to change the name of the Van Gelder they had found; the arrow heads, the tomahawks, and all Pond to the Elinor Dater Pond. With all due respect to this kind of stuff. It was of no value in those days. No- Mrs. Dater and her work, we, as a Van Gelder family, body paid any attention to it, so over the years it all got resent this movement. You will perhaps understand lost. Then we had an unfortunate case. Our old home- when you read the following history of the Van stead burned down and all the old, wonderful relics that Gelders. The Van Gelders came from Holland and we had up there all burned up. lived in Brooklyn in about 1675. They then purchased My father's favorite story was this: you see, the house or leased land from the proprietor in the early 1700's. I always lived in, what he called the old homestead, was This land is now known as Ramsey. They built homes built about 1794 and it burned down in 1928. But that all around the pond. A map entitled Ramsey and was the third house on the property. And the original Mahwah, showing houses and roads prior to 1800, house, a lot of my family lived a long time and they were shows the Van Gelder homes built in 1712 to 1720, able to talk to people who were born 80 or 90 years one in 1735 which burned, another in 1750, still an- other in 1765. One home still stands on West Crescent Avenue and one burned down in 1928 and was rebuilt. The History of the Van Gelders by Arthur Pine Van Proceeding page: Henry and Mary Van Gelder at the old Gelder may be found in the New York Public homestead ca. 1894. Photo courtesv of Arthur Van Gelder. Library." Remembrances 7

I was the last Van Gelder to be born in the old home- wasn't profitable. It wasn't because they were guilt stead in 1911. And the Indians always camped around stricken or anything. It just wasn't profitable. the pond. Because in those days it was a big pond, when I'm aware of how short a time we've been here be- I was a kid it was 13 acres. We used to spend the whole cause I listened to my grandmother talk. She saw the winter skating on it. There's only a little bit of water left. Indians, you know. And of course her folks practically And all through here you will see Van Gelders were lived with them, so that shows you how short the span of here—the Indian camp sites and so forth. And by strange America really has been. We think we're such a big coincidence this house burned down and my family had deal. Our nation has only been here as a nation for a it rebuilt, and then during the depression we lost it. All couple hundred years. We're newcomers to this world, our property, two houses we had built, all of it gone, almost. They talk about the emerging Third World, well, lost. we haven't emerged that long ourselves. In those days we had a farm, and we raised every- Map of Van Gelder Pond, Ramsey >'"*""' thing—Mom made her own bread, made her own cake, Oak Street made her own pies, made everything. I was brought up on Sunday you had either chicken from the backyard or you had pot roast if you felt flush. And that was the meat for the week. In between the week you ate bacon that they did up themselves or ham that they had smoked themselves. Or you ate beans—had a lot of beans—baked beans every Saturday night. That ndian Campsite was a big deal, chicken or pot roast on Sunday. The rest of the week was bread and jelly or, of course, we always had canned fruits. Oh my God, cellar full of canned Van Gelder fruits. 1765 I often have to laugh when I think of the nonchalant way the oldtimers kept their food right down in the well or in the "vittle box" in the cellar. And I can clearly remember when you bring the stuff up, there was mold I believe that this map was printed one time by a on it. Paid no attention to it. And I remember cans. Mom fellow who also is interested in oral history, a fellow by canned hundreds of cans and jars of fruit mostly. So the name of John Y. Dater, Jr. from Ramsey. He owned you'd open it and you'd say, "Did that open easily?" the Ramsey Journal. "Yeah, kind of easy." Well, that makes you smell it. We kept old papers over the years in an old tin box. You smell it and it had to smell pretty bad or otherwise There was an old bill of sale for slaves in there. The Van you ate it, you know. Now today they worry so much Gelders had slaves and I suppose many of the oldtimers about botulism ana all, I don't know how those old- up there had slaves. I think a lot of people, especially the timers survived. Truthfully, I think the reason a lot of younger generation, has forgotten that slavery was all them lived old, is you had to be tough to live old. Those over around this area. But the reason the North freed the who weren't tough or who were unlucky, they died at 3 slaves was because it wasn't profitable. It was profitable months old, 6 months old, 5 years old. But the ones who down South where they had big, huge plantations, where were tough, they lived a long time. they got all the free labor to plant cotton and so forth. But up here, you know, how much farm can a guy have? You raise some apple trees and so forth, and it wasn't "Slavery was all over around this area." profitable. So it started with slaves. In fact, I'll always remember that old paper. It made me feel so bad when I We had a thick stone wail in the old homestead, and it read it, when you realized what they did to people. They had plaster on the inside, and we had a fireplace in the were selling this slave for 20 pounds or $20 or whatever living room. And then we had a stove—a pot belly it was. It said, "A light-skinned female, with scar on stove—in the dining room. We had an oil stove in the forehead, answers to the name of Mary." That's the de- kitchen to cook on. That was the heat. You didn't use the scription, that's the way they sold them, just like a dog living room, only on certain occasions if you had or something. That was upsetting. I thought that was company or something, you'd have the living room fire terrible. But it's surprising how few people realize that going, otherwise the only heat going in our house was there were slaves. My father used to take me around the pot belly stove. So the kitchen and the dining room when I was younger to show me the stone walls that the were always warm. When I was a little kid my bedroom slaves had built on the farms. That was one of the chores was downstairs, but when I got older it was upstairs in a that they did, to build stone walls. And he showed me room off the attic. And it was just like living outdoors, some of the things his father had taught him and his except it didn't snow in there, that's all. Cold! And what grandfather. None of the Van Gelders whom I know of you did at night, you heated the bricks up in the stove. had slaves. But at one time not only the Van Gelders, but You probably heard about that. You'd wrap them in most of the oldtimers had slaves. As I said, they freed flannel, and you'd get undressed downstairs, then you'd them because they didn't have enough for them to do. It race upstairs with the bricks, put them between the 8 Remembrances

sheets, and then you'd climb in the bed. Oh God, were how my father had to live, you know, how he had to those sheets cold! When you'd get up in the morning— work—struggle and all. His brother was a carpenter, his you'd wait until you were called. They wouldn't call you uncle was a carpenter, everybody was a carpenter. But I until they had the fire going. Then you'd come tearing wanted to go to work in an office. I wanted to go to New downstairs with your clothes in your hands and you'd York. I got out of high school when I was 17. I went to dress in front of the thing. On Saturday night you got New York in 1929 and got a job in A.T. & T. and worked your weekly bath in the kitchen. Get the kitchen good there in 1929-32.1 witnessed the crash in Wall Street in and hot, you know, and your mother and father would go 1929 and that was something to see. We were only 17, out and draw the water. They'd heat it on the stove, then 18, 19 years old. We used to go down there and watch they'd pour it in the bucket, and you stand in the bucket the people. It would be black with people. And I can still and get your weekly bath, whether you needed it or not! see this woman come up the street toward us. She was Of course there was no plumbing. If you had to go to the pulling her hair and tears ran down her face. She was bathroom, y6u had to walk down the path about sixty screaming, "What am I going to do! What am I going to feet or more. It seemed like a mile on a cold night, and do!" People lost everything overnight practically. you didn't spend much time in there, I'll tell you. You'd Jumped out of windows. You hear people say now that be surprised how fast you could go the bathroom. I they don't know if they did jump out of windows. Not always tell my wife, Flo, there are a lot of things in the number that you might hear, but there were those modern day living I could do without, but the one tiling who did. I came to the street one day shortly after some- that I appreciate is indoor plumbing, I could do without one had just jumped, and it was very unplesant, let me indoor heat and indoor water, I can do without electric, tell you. But there were people who lost everything. Not but I like indoor plumbing. only lost everything of their own-—some of them were lawyers who had invested all their client's trust funds in the market andJost all of that, too. It was a very trying time for people who were in financial trouble. As young "We think we're such a big deal—we're people we just thought it was exciting and then, oh, then newcomers to this world." the real Depression started to hit about 1931. I lost my job in '31 or '32. We all did. They just closed the thing You walked to school all winter and they didn't have down. They didn't close A.T. & T. down, they closed snow plows. So you'd be walking through real deep our department down during the Depression. Then my snow, seeing that it was a lot snowier in those times. I al- ways remember Mom and Pop telling me, "If you get "Oh God, were those sheets cold." real tired, don't sit down. Keep going.'' You were afraid to sit down, you'd freeze to death. And it seems silly now, because those things don't happen, but in those father lost his job, my brother lost his job, my brother-in- days it could very easily have happened. It was a long laws, two of them, both lost their jobs. There was walk and you had bitter, cold weather. I don't know how nobody working in the family. We still had our home they could send a kid out in that weather, but they did. and the farm and we could raise some things, so mostly There was more sense of kinship then, you stayed we kept eating O.K. There was no relief then. We never close together, you had to work, there was no money. got a nickel of relief or anything. I don't know of any of My father worked on another farm, and they had low pay our family who ever did. There wan't any such thing as of course. In those days you were almost a slave. Almost unemployment. slavery, complete drudgery. Now I often wonder how, in Well, then we lost our home, both homes, and had to the olden days, Pop could stand it, but he did. When he start from scratch. We built—my brother and I and my came home, if the rest of the family hadn't done it, Pop father—we built a two-car garage and anytime anybody got a little money we made it a little larger, we added a little bit, 'til by the time we all got working again, my 'You had to be tough to live old.' mother and father had a nice home. It was small, but a nice home. Oh, those were rough years. We never went hungry-—well, we were mighty close to it—but we had to do it. So you see, everybody more or less tried to stretched things, I'll tell you. But it pulled the family do the things you had to. All we burned was wood in the together. If it happened now, I think people would fall stove. So you had to chop wood and you had to pick the apart. vegetables, you had to work in the garden. I can always There's a difference in people today. We never knew remember my oldest sister and my mother, shelling about unemployment insurance, we never knew about beans all day long, canning, you know. I worked out in relief, we never knew if we were going to lose our home the garden with my brother. The big thing was the maybe tonight. The guy who took our home was just Sunday meal. Flo and I still do it. Then the family would waiting for us not to be able to renew the mortgage. always be together, and you would have your nice big There were people who did bad things then, too. But the dinner. people in general, all they ever knew about was work Then the Depression started. I graduated from high and sweat and struggle. That's all my father ever knew. school in 1929 and I went to work in New York. I saw They didn't have any of the good things they have today. Remembrances 9

All they knew was work. Most of them never got more pened in Paterson, that was a long way away. than ten miles away from home. It was a very small There were some cruel people, they had the upper world and there were no radios, no television. By the hand, some of them were cruel. And then, of course, time you read the news, something had happened some- there were some wonderful people. I'd rather remember where else. It was like in another country—if it hap- the nice ones.

CHARLES SCANLAN Paterson My father was an undertaker at the turn of the century. We rented a storefront. Funeral homes were not like we have them today. The average undertaker in those days was in a store. But most burials were held in private homes. There was more of a personal feeling about funerals. I wish they never got into the funeral home business because it only added a much greater expense for people. Although in those days undertakers had more work to do, going back and forth to the house and carting the dead bodies and caskets and so forth. It also gave people more time in their grief to be in their own home. You didn't have the professional pallbearers as you have them today. And in those days when a person died the menfolk would take off from work if they were good friends. It wasn't like it is today, you can't take off unless you're a real close friend or relative. Everybody took off from work and helped each other.

"People riding by at night could see lights in the upstairs windows." MARKY SILLS Wayne

There's a favorite story oldtimers tell about the Preak- ness ghost. Berdan Avenue started at the Hamburg Turn- pike and then came past this house. It was a dirt road and went up into the hills. I think it stopped a mile or two be- yond the house and people used to talk about the Preakness ghost. This a/ea was called Upper Preakness. In one section of this road, horses would spook or farmers would lose a wheel off their wagons in that particular spot. They would have to blame it on some- thing! Years ago I think it was a great sport to talk about something that was unexplainable. Gertrude Demarest Luks lives in a house on Fairfield Road in Wayne originally built in 1762. When she was a little girl her grandfather told her the reason their house was torn down and rebuilt was that it was haunted. People riding by at night could see lights in the upstairs "Then there was more, I call it love, windows. The house was taken down and rebuilt in 1850 real love." by John M. Demarest. She said they still have ghosts Then there was more, I call it love, real love, every- there. She hears them once in awhile upstairs. body had for each other in the family when death When we gave our slide lecture to the third grade occurred. Beside the relatives, all the neighbors would classes, a little boy asked, "Was there a river close by?" be coming in with a ham they'd baked or send in food of Gertrude said, "Right across the road, the Pompton different types, cakes and meat; and the wakes were held River." And he said, "I'll bet it was the reflection of the for two or three days, but everybody chipped in and tried moon in the water making those lights shine in the to help each other. It was more of a—what would you window!" call it—a better feeling there that does not exist today. 10 Remembrances

ARTHUR RIEDEL Pompton Lakes

There used to be a big steel factory here by the Pompton Falls but it was destroyed during the 1903 flood. The dam was made from brick then. The flood washed it away and this whole area was under water. Pomptom Lakes got a reputation for being really stinky then—there was a lot of vegetation under the lake water. Once the dam was broken it was all exposed—all the weeds and muck. As soon as the sun hit it, it really started to stink. We had no federal aid in those days. The townspeople from all the surrounding towns pitched in with money and we rebuilt the dam. It took about two years to build. In town, coal was more satisfactory than wood stoves for heat. But this is after World War I, after the early 1900's. Before World War I there were a lot of people who used wood. Everybody had their woodlots up on the hill and these woodlots consisted of an acre or two. And these woodlots belonged to somebody living in town who gave people the privilege of going up and cutting wood on it. It would always replenish itself. "Everybody had their woodlots up on the hill.'

REVEREND HORACE M. COLE East Orange We had no electricity, just kerosene lamps. Electricity was in but we didn't have it. One of the reasons was we couldn't afford it. You had to be a lawyer to afford elec- tricity. There were a lot of horses and mules around before cars came in. There was a man that lived next door to us and he was a strange fellow. He was an elderly man and he drank heavy. He had a mule and he used to go out— way out there to Prospect Street. At the end of Prospect Street there was a big feed store, and next to the feed store there was a saloon. He'd go by there and he'd have too much to drink. He'd get in his spring wagon and the mule would bring him home. He'd be lying in the back of it. Marly a day I've seen that mule come in down Rhode Island Avenue with no driver. In the back was Mr. F waiting for him to bring him home. In those days the best of our activities were church centered. And of course that's where we went. Morning, noon and night. The fellows went there to meet the girls. And the girls went there to meet the fellows. We had a great deal of fun. Yes, indeed. Well, World War I didn't effect us too much because you didn't realize too much what was going on. Now we have knowledge of everything that happens. We just got a little bit here and a little bit there. What we found in newspapers. And the thing affected the lifestyle of the people by no means. But then around the year 1914-1915 "The doctor said, 'You have appendicitis,' an epidemic of flu broke out and that did affect the life- and charged me fifty cents." style of the people. It was terrible. We had an awful lot of deaths. By no means did they panic. But it was very sad because some of them had friends, roommates and Remembrances 11

parents who passed. Friends always helped out, but they side?" "No. What do you mean, is it lightning outside? were afraid because the houses were quarantined. They It's a beautiful, sunshiny day." And I went on out and quarantined a lot of houses. forgot it. Later on I came in. I said, "You asked me if it I do recall how I got my job at the drugstore. I was 16. was lightning outside." She said, "Son, I was sitting This was about the year 1917-1918. I was working in here and a light flashed. And out of the light came a Newark at the Hearst Furniture Company on Market voice." And she said the voice said, "Many snags shall Street running an elevator for eight dollars a week. And I hang thy foot, but none shall hold it fast.'' Five years developed this bad pain in my side. So I came up on the before she passed, her foot was healed, completely trolley car to Main Street and Oakwood Avenue to the healed. doctor and he put me on the table and pressed my side. I I became an optician in 1943. I was 42 years old. I don't remember when I really decided to become a "You had to be a lawyer to afford electricity." minister, but for a long time I've been very religiously inclined. In 1956 I was ordained. I don't believe in the jumped off the table, it hurt so bad. He said, "You have resurrection of the body. 1 believe in the resurrection, but appendicitis." And he said, "Here, I'm going to give not the resurrection of the physical body. No, I say you a note to go to the hospital." And he charged me there's got to be a better way. Like the banks say—there fifty cents. So I went over and I dare say he said first go must be a better way! home and take a dose of castor oil. It's the wrong thing Well, maybe I found it. And I prosper. Now I worked to do nowadays, but I did. And at the East Orange awfully hard and I was 47 years old before 1 could save Memorial Hospital they operated on me. Of course it enough money to pay down on the house. Working every was a city hospital and I didn't have to pay anything. I day, night and day. The work I was in was the picture- was there for six weeks. And when I came out of the framing business. I worked for Mobil Oil Company. hospital I had a drain in my side and I didn't have a And to make a long story short, they broke a picture and nickel to ride home. Now they don't let you out of the they told me to take it out and have it framed. Instead of hospital like that. I'm walking home from the hospital that I took it home and framed it. It was so good that down Central Avenue with this drain in my side, and I after that I did all the picture-framing work for them. stopped in this drugstore to rest and get a glass of water. The man asked me if I wanted a job. I told him yes. So When I had started working for Mobil, I wanted very that's how I got the job in the drugstore. badly to be a salesman for them. They told me they We boys had to help around the house. My mother couldn't use me as a salesman because I was black. But I was crippled. She had varicose sores on her legs and they must have been a pretty good salesman after all, because were very, very painful. This one thing I want to men- I sold them my picture-framing business! tion to you about. We were living in a cold water flat and So it worked out very well and I did a very nice busi- 1 must say my mother was not a fanatic over religion, but ness with Mobil, you'd be surprised. she brought us up in a religious home. And one day she I've really had a very busy life, and I mean I enjoyed was sitting by the stove in the kitchen and she was it. I look back sometimes and I wonder how I did it. I'm bandaging her foot and I came in the house to get my 78 years old. I still bowl on Wednesday nights. Yes, I'm baseball glove. She said, "Horace, is it lightning out- still enjoying my life. I really am.

the roads. It was safe then just to walk along the roads. FLORENCE P. TATE There weren't all the cars whizzing by. Warwick Fifty years ago there was an active hiking club in the Village. Many of the people were early people. They laid out the Appalachian Trail around here. They'd hike One thing that was nice sixty years ago, fewer people the trail regularly to keep the brush cleared out. About had cars and they used them less than they do now, un- less someone was sick. Everybody walked. And it was pleasant to be walking then, too. Not just on Main "/ used to love hiking in the woods." Street, but everywhere. You'd always meet people and stop and talk along the way. Many people who grew up here remark on the fact once a month they'd have an all-day hike and we'd all that they can walk the length of the Main Street today help keep the trail in repair. My family was active in and not meet a soul they know! this. I went on many of those. They were always nice I used to love hiking in the woods—there are no any time of the year. Snow never stopped us! And there woods anymore—they're all built up. Or to walk along always seemed to be a lot of snow then! 12 Remembrances.

CATHERINE CONLAN BRADSHAW Chatham Township I remember on Sunday mornings when my father was home it would be pancake time for the ten of us. They had one of those big iron griddles and he would take the lids off the stove on one side and put that on there and he'd beat up those pancakes. I can see him standing by that stove, you know, flipping those pancakes and bringing them in with syrup. At Christmas, of course, we were a big family and we couldfl't afford to, have anybody else down. My father and my brothers would go out and get the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was always put in the same spot. My mother would sit up nights with the popcorn on the string and those cornucopia things. And we made, when we were growing up as children, the beads you used to put up. We made most of the things for our Christmas tree. I don't know whether it was more fun for children then, but it was very, very exciting. I can remember not being able to sleep at night. It was always so cold upstairs. You were so glad when you could get down in the morning to "The stream danced and sparkled in get warm. It was fun—the gang of us were there. We the sunlight." would all get an orange. That was once a year we got an orange in our stocking, and a few toys. But my mother saw that each one got something when we were little. I remember I only worked one or two days a week. I can And as we grew older I suppose it was clothes that we remember how we just lived off the land. It was a case of, were looking for. It was a big Christmas dinner with just ' 'What do you want tonight? Do you want stewed toma- the family and then maybe later there'd be cousins or toes and applesauce or apple cake and sliced tomatoes?'' someone came in. But it was out sleigh riding if there Apples and tomatoes stick in my mind because they were was snow, or skating after dinner. If you were little your plentiful at the time. There was no welfare, there was no brothers or sisters pulled you on the sled. I think that was money. My mother just had to struggle with each one of the biggest enjoyment of our lives, when you just get us. My brothers worked on the WPA in the swamp. We did everything, everything and anything to earn a dollar "Sunday...would be pancake time for the ten so we could have hamburgers maybe one night a week. of us." So we knew what it was like not to be able to buy a stick of candy. those things on and get outside and go skating or sleigh I remember a patch of woods up behind my mother's riding. We lived outdoors practically all the time in the place with a stream running through it that was so clear summer and the winter when we could. and sparkling—it was like entering a fairyland. The We went through the Depression, which was a very stream danced and sparkled in the sunlight and there was hard time. My father had died and there were ten of us. always fresh watercress growing in it. Wild grapevines My youngest brother was ten years old. All of us lost our hung off the trees and we'd swing on them. This jobs. My sister Anna was the only one who worked. And is home.

STELLA USINOWICZ GARRISON We had a boarding house. But when we first moved Ringwood there, it was this great big huge house. We only lived on one side of it. y father came over from Poland. My mother fol- My mother and father used to be hosts to mine lowed him. He told her to go back to Poland— officials. She knew how to entertain even the bigwigs in ishe was too young to stay. But she cried and the mine department. 1 remember Mr. Crockett, the M 1 won my father over. Then they were married. She was superintendent. Sometimes some of those big shots came only sixteen at the time. —where would he bring them? To our house. My mother We lived in Ringwood near the mines. Nobody actu- would set up a nice table and different kinds of food. Of ally owned their home there, you just rented. The mines course, he would, pay her for that. She just seemed to owned the houses. It was really mines all around us. We know how to do all these things. lived near the one big one. They called it Peter Cooper Then my mother was still alive. She died when I was Mine. eight, and left some little ones, younger than me. In fact, Remembrances 13

my youngest brother was only two. We were ten that worked there. They came because there was work children—seven boys and three girls, so there was really there at Ringwood Mines, and some of them did go a gang of us. We grew up in the so-called boarding home for the holidays. Some lived in Pennsylvania. I house. We had our own private living quarters on one don't know where some of them did live, but evidently side, and on the other side the men who work in the they had means of transportation and they would go for a mines, they had their own rooms, their own sleeping few days. But those who did remain, we didn't exclude quarters, and had nothing to do with ours at all. In fact, them. They shared the holiday festivities and they were they were not allowed to go beyond the kitchen because happy. I know they had plenty of good food. Especially that was private, that was ours. around the holidays, we always had extra special things A lot of them were just people who migrated from one and Polish bologna and cabbage rolls and different things place to another. Actually you didn't know too much of a like sweet-filled yeast breads and Polish croellers, potato background of any of them. Some said they came from dumpling soup—which is something else, delicious, Pennsylvania, some from a mine up near Dover some- where. They came from all different areas. They didn't "/ remember the smell of hickory wood." care to disclose too much about themselves and more or made from the good part of the broth—and beef and less kept quiet. Some of them were Polish-speaking vegetables with home-baked bread. My mother always people and some of them, Russians. made sweet breads around the holidays, some with We didn't eat with them, they had their own great big cottage cheese, some with prune filling, and some with dining room, they ate in that. We had our own kitchen apple filling-—and pierogies. and dining room. That's where we ate, apart from them. I remember she made this special kind of cake that Not that we meant to segregate or anything like that, we was very good. I think it had a lot of eggs in it and butter, just felt that that was their part and the other was ours, because everything didn't cost as much as it does now, because that was our private living quarters. My father and you used a lot of it. You just didn't spare anything. I hired a cook to cook for them. My mother didn't do all remember as a little one I used to have to go down in the that herself. We had help, who cooked and did a lot of basement or well cellar, whichever you want to call it, the laundry. and we kept our flour stored down there. It used to come The miners more or less took care of their own things. in great big barrels. You bought sugar in big bulk like We just supplied the clean room and fresh towels, and of that, potatoes, everything was bought in large bulk. Of course they had plenty of good food. Soup that really course, we were a large family and then we had all those stuck to your ribs. It was simmered on the back of the miners to feed. I remember every time I had to go down stove. They had good substantial meals and plenty of and get flour, I somehow managed to fall in the barrel good home-baked bread. and come out looking all white and they used to call me The miners participated in the holidays. Some of them "biale monke". That's white monkey in English. It went home, some that had homes, like the younger men seems funny, all these things are coming back now that I'm talking about them, but we did have very nice sur- roundings and I had a very happy childhood. And we had all these good things to eat. We only had one bike in the family and the boys got it in good shape and one day I got real brave and I thought, "Oh boy, I'm going to ride that bike." Well, you know what happened when I got it. I ran into a neighbor's fence and bent all the spokes in the front wheel. And I think my brothers were ready to tar and feather me! I never took the bike again. I took it without their per- mission, you know, and that's what made me feel so bad because I damaged it. My father had a- butcher store in Paterson for awhile after my mother died, to support the family. He came home on weekends. Gosh, you never saw so many kids so happy to see one father. We almost killed the poor guy before he got in the house. Then we'd take his car keys and hide them to make sure he wouldn't leave us right away. He had to get up early in the morning and go to Paterson before we woke up because he had all these kids crying, "No, Daddy, don't go, don't leave us." It must have been heartbreaking for my father to leave. But we had a lot of happy times. I can't say that we didn't. In the summer the boys played ball. And I "Every time I had to go down to get flour, I remember as a young girl, we had a ball park, and they somehow managed to fall in the barrel." had sort of a raised platform. That was for the musicians. 14 Remembrances

There was always an accordian. We had picnics and your cooking, you couldn't put it on, then go off everybody brought their own food, or they were spon- somewhere to see what somebody was doing, you know. sored by the church and they sold refreshments. If the fire got too hot you just burned everything, so you Sunday we used to go up and climb the mountain 'til just had to be careful. The stove has these little round we reached a certain big rock near the top. I was always lids that you lift up and you can cook anything you want. afraid to go near the edge, because it seemed to be such a Each burner is kind of fed individually. You had a little big gaping hole. The boys would throw stones in and iron poker than you used to lift the lid so you wouldn't they would hit water in back of the mineshaft area there. get burned. Of course the handle of the poker would get But then the mines were in full swing. The place really hot and you would have to use a pot holder or something buzzed then, you know. Now and then we used to have like that so you wouldn't burn yourself. dancing on Saturday nights. I did a lot of cooking after my mother died. I was like We had church groups or baseball clubs, or different the little mother, I just automatically had to learn to cook ones like that. And when they wanted to earn a little and do other things. It was nothing for me to bake twelve more money they would run a little affair. I remember lemon meringue pies on a weekend. Because my the admission was only fifty cents and you always had a brothers all wanted a fourth, you didn't cut it in sixths or cakewalk. Somebody always made extra layer cakes and eighths. Then you didn't have th& modern conveniences like today. All the lemons were squeezed fresh, strained "It was nothing for me to hake twelve lemon to get all the pits and seeds out! And all the pie crust I meringue pies on a weekend." had to make! I remember the meringues. That was a tedi- ous job to beat up all those egg whites, and my brothers all you'd have this crazy cakewalk. That was a sort of a took turns beating. BuFTt was well worth it, because it dance too, and then you had to walk a little bit. Whatever was a feeling of self-satisfaction to know that I was couple stopped near the person who was holding the doing something for them that they liked. And it was a cake, well, they won the cake. That's what they called treat on Sunday to have homemade pies. I made other the cakewalk. kinds of pies too, but lemon meringue seemed to be one We used wood for a lot of cooking and heating. I of their favorites. remember it was so neatly piled in the cellar and all the I remember using heating irons. We used to have these way up to the rafters. The boys were always cutting it old-fashioned heating irons, they had a little finger you and they used to measure it by the cord. It was cheap and snapped on the iron and then you tried it out on a piece of abundant in the woods. Besides providing heat for cook- waxed paper. When it didn't scorch the paper you'd ing, it helped you keep warm. Of course, in the snow it know that you could actually iron clothes. Getting home was murder, but somehow you managed to live through from school one day I found out that we had electricity. it. Oh, what a good feeling that was because it was such a My father installed the furnace on the other side of the nuisance to iron all the clothes for all the family. house, because we had such a huge house and it was an We didn't have any electric refrigerators, so for refrig- awful lot to heat, and whatever heat managed to get up- eration we had a big hunk of ice and we used a pan to stairs, that's all you had. There was no heating upstairs. catch the water. My father always thought of ingenious We used to have these big feather ticks you'd get under little ways to dispose of little problems like that. He during the winter and they felt so good and warm you managed to hook up a pipe to the refrigerator and have it just hated to get out from under them. I remember we coming out, then he made a little hole through the wall, had a kerosene stove. It was a round, upright thing, and all neat and everything, because he was a carpenter, you had to have a pan of water on it to keep the moisture cabinetmaker by trade. And this water would drip out on in the air, like humidifiers do today. But we did heat the outside, so if you ever forgot to empty the pan, there with wood and at night they banked it with coal to keep was no problem. Anything like that, any little conven- the fire going all night long, because who's going to stay ience that would make things better for me, because he up all night, you know, to keep a wood fire going. And knew I had a lot of work to do. you. sort of conserved on coal, but you used a lot. During I'll never forget when the Depression came in 1929, the day it was no problem oecause there was always because my dad came to us and he saidwe would all have somebody to throw on a log. But then you had to keep it to tighten our belts because soon we were going to need at a minimum because it would get overheated, jiio it because all of the miners were laid off, and we you had your little problems. wouldn't have too much income. And that's when the Cooking on a wood stove could be pretty hot in the boys decided to cut wood and anything they could to summertime, especially baking. We tried cooking in the earn a couple of dollars. They cut cord wood all day. All early morning. I remember the smell of that hickory they got was fifty cents a cord, which was nothing. wood. And you just learned how to regulate the oven. Of There was a lot of work in cutting a cord of wood. You course you didn't have any thermometer or anything, but burned a lot of wood then because you couldn't afford if you did enough cooking and any baking you more or other heating materials. less sensed the feel of the heat. And the oven was hot I remember we ate a lot of soup and that it was a good enough to bake anything. Like the homemade baked thick soup. And then they cooked what they called plate bread or the cakes and pies. You just had to stay with meat. I guess that was a cheaper cut of beef. And you Remembrances 15

simmered that with vegetables and you got a good rich when the women had any darning or anything, they soup, and rye bread with butter. You ate what they called would pick somebody's big shady tree to go under and pot cheese, it is known as cottage cheese today. Bread there was always somebody with a baby in the carriage pudding. And of course we depended on what we grew —it is needless to say there were large families then. in the garden, all you saw was canned stuff. I remember They'd do their mending and crocheting or whatever when you saw all the canned stuff on the shelves in the they had to do while rocking the baby carriage and still basement, it was a good feeling. Vegetables and berries continue with their work and catch up on the latest that we picked, we canned whole and made jam—black- gossip and the news and come home in time to make berries, raspberries, and we had our own apple tree. supper for their family. We were sort of like one big Then we used to go to a place they called Vale's Place. family. Everybody knew everybody else's business. It's located somewhere, I guess, back there in the woods. Really there wasn't anything that we kept from anybody. I wouldn't know how to get to it now. But we did.find a And the women were very neighborly then. If the mother lot of berries there, particularly blueberries. We called was taken sick, or if she had a new baby, all the women them huckleberries then. Yeah, and picked apples and would come. They'd help take care of the mother and the sometimes we'd find a large peach tree. Bring that home baby. You didn't go to the hospital then. The babies and make applesauce and peach jelly. I remember all the were all born at home. They had a midwife, plus a cans and mason jars, and that stuff looked so good on the doctor. Doctor Shippee was the only one I knew of then. shelves. You really appreciated it in the wintertime, be- He started, then his son followed in his footsteps. He's cause we'd eat it then.. not alive anymore, either. And they all helped to make Remembering the good times we had then, families sure there was food on the table when the father came more or less stuck together. Wherever the parents went, home from work and that the children were taken care the children just automatically went. And I remember of. People really cared about each other then.

There was a little country school with four grades in one room—about eight people in one class. I was in the EDITH POPJES third grade when we came to this country. But I had to Saddle River - Midland Park go back to the beginners' class because I only spoke Dutch. And that's where I learned the language. When there's a new child coming to school, we kinda take 'em in really today, but in those days kinda they razzed at you and said, "She comes from Holland, you know," and "She's Dutch, you know," and they stand looking at you before they take you m. There you stand all by yourself. You think, "Yeah, who am I going to play with?" you know, so they're kinda a little rough. Nobody told us about Halloween when we came here from Holland. We didn't know, you know. And here stood people in front of our door with things over their heads. They scared the heart out of us! Putting chains on top of poles and so forth. Well, finally my uncle in- formed us that they had this once a year. "Don't get ex- cited, don't be afraid.'' But it was news to us. We never experienced anything like Halloween. My father opened the door and, ooh, he threw his arms up. He didn't know what to make of it! When we moved to Midland Park a few years later, the vegetable man used to come by. They had a dry goods man come around to sell dry goods and everything by truck. Had trucks with bells on and they sharpened scissors and saws and picked up rags. They knocked on your door to see if you had any rags, and they would "Nobody told us about Halloween." weigh them for you in the basement. But today you don't see any of that, really. That's how a neighborhood We came to the United States in 1920, the ninth of would get together, when a truck of vegetables would October, and settled on a farm in Saddle River where my stop on the road, and all the neighbors would come out mother ran a boarding house. The menfolks worked on and see what they needed, and have a chat with neigh- Eckert's Farm. bors at the truck, and then all go back in the house. 16 Remembrances

GEORGE REGER away. They found they couldn't manage much more. It Ringwood is a sad story, it's not nice. But before that the Camp was good. When the refugees came over, everybody who heard about it came up here because it was cheap here, you know. They didn't have money, so that was a good jilade to be, to go on the weekend or on vacation. And so People told me not to come to America—it's going that is why we finally had such a big crowd up here. downhill. Then I read a poem on the back of a Swiss I remember the old Nature Friends telling me how calendar—it talked about how the eagle has to fly—I they would get off the train in Haskell and walk out to stood up, threw my arms out and shouted, "/ am going Camp over that way when this road wasn't built yet. Be- to America!'' fore they started building the reservoir, they had to get I met a friend, a German friend, who first brought me off in Haskell and walk up all this way. It took two and a to Nature Friends Camp in Wanaque. The camp first half hours to walk. started a long, long time ago. I started to come up in 1932. At that time it was very good. Because of the De- pression people didn't have the money to go further "Those who didn't want to be thought of as away. So they came up to the Camp where it was cheap. radicals were getting scared." At that time they also didn't have the cars. Later on when the cars came, it all became different. About the time when the War (World War II) started there would be a From what I've been told by the old Nature Friends, crowd up there of about 2000 people or so on the week- there was trouble before. The people who built the Camp end. And then it became less and less because when the —there were people who had been here in good times, people are working again they had the money to buy cars who had come over when it was still possible to make and then they didn't only want to go up to the camp— money. And they did make money, but they're still Nature Friends who came up to the Camp and spent a lot of money on the Camp, who would buy things and bring it up to one another. They had the money. But then, after the First War that was a different kind of people who came over. They had become Communists through the War, and they were radicals. And the oldtimers didn't like it because they were the people who had the money. They were maybe Socialists, and even more than that, more rightwing than that, and they didn't like the new- comers and the newcomers didn't like the old ones. They said they are faggots and all kinds of things, you know. And so, they would probably straighten it out again and became good again. And then after the Second War more people came over, and again a lot of them were Commu- nists because of what had happened in Germany, Aus- tria, and Switzerland—the Nature Friends were mostly Germans—Germans and Austrians and quite a few Swiss, but not that many because Switzerland is a little country. The Swiss were usually not Communists, but Socialists because they were in the workers line and they knew that the Nature Friends are inclined to be on the left. Anyhow, they were all for the working people. And \ so, when these people came over after the Second World War they were not only Communists and Socialists, a lot of them were Jewish. When these people came over, they did not know how hard the Nature Friends worked '/ am going to America!" to build this camp up and more or less some of them just took advantage of it. There was a group who wanted to form an organization—a union—against the Nature Friends—against themselves really. And that was re- they spent their weekends and their vacations and wanted sented because the old Nature Friends, they wanted to to go see things farther away. Just like I did, too. The build up the Camp and these wanted to come up to have a camp went down and down and down, you see. nice paid vacation and control the Camp on top of it. There was no swimming poo] at that time when I first And so, finally the government put its fist down on came up. There was just a little bit of a pond by the them. It was either you do what we tell you or else. And entrance which has since been filled up. Then the a lot of them, the old Nature Friends who had families political radicals came up. The Friends started drifting and had a bungalow here, were getting scared. They Remembrances 17

were getting scared to lose their jobs. So they were "If anybody comes in here he'll lose his goddamn against the radicals, and the government was also against butt. I am going to chop his head off." the radicals. Then Germany and Russia went together. And that was the feeling the way it was after the First And that brought the police here. So every car that came World War again. That is the curse! So it only can create up here, the numbers got put down. So then those who bad again. didn't want to be thought of as radicals were getting The Nature Friends originally built all their own scared. They were getting scared to lose their jobs and bungalows. Just four walls and a roof. And there was even to lose their bungalows and what is the family also those that didn't have the money to build them. So going to do and so on. So then it came (bangs his fists to- the others knew and at that time they would build the gether to denote fight). The surrounding Ringwood bor- bungalow—usually a friend or relative, themselves— ough—you know what happened, the crosses got burned and they didn't want any strangers in there. So they of down. Ya, and another thing the people around here, the necessity came to build a dormitory. And at the dormi- oldtimers, didn't like the Negroes coming up here. I was tory there was all of those that was called the radicals. getting older then and I didn't go up anymore. Everyone And so, there was a bungalow here, a bungalow there, else my age had built a bungalow. I was over fifty and I and those that had to sleep in the dormitory didn't like it. had nothing. I wanted to build my place, too, and I They were the better off ones in the bungalows—hah didn't have time to go up there anymore. So finally we hah—that's humanity! dropped out. Where the people mostly all got together was in the mess hall. In the evening, you know. But there was a ball field and there was quite some activity there, you "The crosses got burned down." know. And there was a tennis court, but even before the tennis court was built people came up also in the winter Ya, it was after the First World War, it was so bad, and that was the real old Nature Friends who would want those that was called the radicals, they wanted a lot of to come out here also in the winter. people to come to make money to build up the Camp to In the summer more and more people came. make it a real labor movement, a progressive labor It wasn't organized like a club or anything. It was just movement, and to hold speeches around nere and to edu- the Nature Friends. There were people here, like Clara cate the people for the labor movement. And the others, Schmidt, the Langs, the Meisners, I don't know more some of them, the ones who had accumulated money, anymore, they spent a lot of time just working on week- they didn't want to,go with that, they had a bungalow ends. They spent a lot of time... .But organizations, that here. Those that they called the radicals wanted people to was only when bigger crowds came up. Then there come up; there was not enough room anymore in the would be announced, "Tonight somebody's here to dormitory for them to sleep. So they would go around speak," you know. Then we'd come together. and ask the bungalow owners to take people in to sleep. I stayed at my bungalow at Nature Friends Camp up And one man was standing in front of his door with an here and I was so happy with this. I fixed it up nicely and axe. then I worked for the people around.

HERBERT KRUEGER whatever you wanted. A lot of people did all their shopping there. Then he had a back room and a big CLIFFORD RYERSON round oak table, nice chairs. And if anybody stopped in Vernon town and needed a meal or anything his wife would go back and cook. He had eggs and bacon and so forth, and she'd make them. In those days you'd be able to get home fries and buckwheat cakes. It was delicious. This "Farming used to be a way of life up here." is a beautiful place to live. It isn't that I'm sentimental. I just like to reminisce once in a while. Mostly old farmers, but they were very hospitable. If you broke Krueger: There was an old general store here in town down on the road you never had to worry because one or when 1 first moved here. He was in business for fifty another would ride by and he'd take you home. years. You could go there twelve o'clock at night and he One thing that I'd like to tell you—a local family here would still be open. And if anybody came to town and —the Woman drove the children down to get the school- had a problem, or needed gas. he was there to see to it, bus on Route 94. I remember it was a very cold, windy seven nights a week. day out—I heard the fire whistles blowing—and when Ryerson: If you needed batteries for your flashlight she went back her whole house was up in flames. They on Christmas Day. you could go down there. didn't have insurance. The sons of these people were in K: Damn right! And the general store was open seven Hamburg High School and each year they always had a days a week—from six in the morning to eleven at night. field trip to Washington, D.C. And that year they had You could go down anytime and he always gave you saved two or three hundred dollars, and some boy got up 18 Remembrances

in class and made a motion that they didn't go on the trip were any boys growing up who were old enough to be of and that they give the money to these people. All the help, they were instructed to go over and see what they men in town, farmers, carpenters and whatever, went could do for him. There was never any money ex- over there and they put up a bungalow the family could changed, it was all right from the heart. To tell people live in. Then the Grange Hall had a big party and every- that today, people would find that hard to believe. But I body came. Everybody 'brought pots and pans and dishes saw it work....They were the nicest people. and everything else and in no time they were back in R: I have an old book here that records all the births their own home again. Today if you don't have insur- and deaths. It goes back to 1848. There were a lot of ance, you're out of luck. This is the way the people used farmers, colliers (which were miners), tanners. to live up here. K: Trappers, too. During the winter a lot of the boys And then if you had a farm, when it got to harvest time would go out in the woods to trap—when there was no they would get together and maybe three or four men other work around in the winter—and make enough would come over and help you and they'd get all the corn money to get by selling furs.

R: My grandmother's birth was one of the last ones re- corded in this book. My family actually came out here from the Pompton area in 1785. I get a kick out of looking at this book—at looking what people died from. I know that sounds like a peculiar thing to say, but here's what I meant about this book. Here's one guy who died from "mortification". Heh heh! I wonder what that was about. Here's one who died at sea...this one died of "spasms"—I guess he forgot to breathe! They inter- viewed one guy one time who was ninety and they asked him what he attributed his longevity to. He said, "Number one you gotta keep breathing!"...Dropsy, nerve spasms, neuralgia, inflammation on the brain. I would say this, looking through his book in 1848 - 1878, that people here then were, ten-to-one, farmers. Nearly all of them are farmers. Farmers, laborers, car- penters, merchantile, shoemaker, soldier, farmer, lab- orer—these are listed in the deaths. Here's a lawyer— they didn't have many of those in those days. Some of these you can't really read what they are. This was "They had a cracker barrel...and a big written by several town clerks and some of them didn't pot-bellied stove." go too far in school and spelled things the way they sound. Mulewright is spelled wrong. Laborer is spelled wrong. There aren't that many miners here really, I in. Then tomorrow you'd all go to another farm to help. thought there were more. I see one got killed in a mine in This is how they helped one another. That's where you Sparta. That must have been the Edison Mine. In my saw friendship, that's where you real close thoughtful- own family, 1 recognize about half a dozen different ness of one another. And today it's gone because we ancestors in this book. We lost population because iron have so many people from outside moved in—when I mining stopped, so the people disappeared from the say outside I mean other towns and so forth. And the mountains. newcomers were never brought up that way, they didn't K: My next door neighbor used to tell me that when live that way. But we still have a few oldtimers around she was first married her husband used to take her by and they still do things for each other. horse down to the old railroad station, which is now a R: The philosophy has changed with the younger gen- delicatessen, and they would board a train going to eration. Not necessarily the younger ones only, the older Easton, Pennsylvania. It would cost them seventy-five ones, too. Farming used to be a way of life up here. cents to go there and back and within that seventy-five People didn't always agree. They had arguments just like cents was their lunch included. The railroad would everyone else. But when help was needed, differences furnish their lunch. And she said they would go and do were forgotten. their shopping and whatever. The stores would always K: If a man was ill and he couldn't work, the other deliver their packages over to the railroad station. Once a farmers would be up there and they'd milk for him in the month the railroad would do that—that was a regular morning. They'd take turns. They couldn't always be excursion in those days. The women would all go on that there but they'd work out something. So you could be in day and really looked forward to it. Can you imagine, the house taking care of your husband, and you wouldn't seventy-five cents'? have to worry because they'd see to things. They'd even R: A lot of the community activities were church see that the milk got down to the creamery. And if there centered.There was also the grange. There were several Remembrances 19 -

local musicians and they'd get together to play for square the running. She was a nice person. But he was funny— dances. Whenever a new barn was built, as soon as it Dick—never saw him with his hair not combed prop- was finished the people and musicians would gather erly, or I guess if his shirt got a little dirty in the morning there and there'd be a square dance. They didn't need too he'd put a clean white shirt on for the afternoon. You much of any excuse to have a party! know, very clean. And they had the cracker barrel. You K: Cliff, how long was Dr. Uptegrove here? When could go and take them out if you wanted to. And a big did he die? It must have been just before I came up here. pot-bellied stove—the oldtimers at this time of the year, R: I'd say 1936. He was a great doctor. He was a family doctor and his practice covered probably an area of twenty-five miles. They had prizefights here then. "At harvest time they would get together and There were all kinds of advertisements to play it up, and help bring the corn in." they had local guys fighting. Dr. Uptegrove used to fill up his car with kids—all us boys—and he used to take when they got cold, they'd go down for three or four us down to see them and afterwards buy us sodas. On the hours and they'd sit. You'd go m there seven o'clock in way down he'd make two or three stops to see patients. the morning and some of them would be sitting around Even when he got sick—he died of cancer—he took care there, smoking their pipes and talking. That was their of his patients, rie was a real old-time country doctor. If recreation. Maybe about ten o'clock or eleven they'd go people couldn't pay him, they'd give him food and on home because their wife was getting dinner. I tell that to my grandsons and it's hard for them to believe thai K: Dick Wallace ran the general store. And he was people ever lived that way. They're so used to running in something! He would dress up—he always had a nice tie and turning the television on. and shirt on. His wife Ethel was a schoolteacher. But it R: This area isn't very productive for farming. Most was funny, you would go in—and they had the counter of it is rough ground. A lot of the farming was dairy. with all the canned goods arranged. And he'd say, There were very few farmers who made their entire "Mrs. Jones, what can we do for you today?" while he living with crops. slapped his hands together. He'd always slap his hands that way. So you'd say, "Well, I want this, I want that" As farming declined, recreation increased. That be- —you'd name maybe four things. "Ethel!" She'd have came our industry, so to speak, and that's our industry to come from the back room. She'd reach up and get it now. We have about seventeen lakes here. It began in the late 1920's, when the first lake development was started. In 1960 we had more houses than we had people! They were mostly summer people. This has become much more of a resort community since World War II. More lake communities were developed. It didn't really change the town that much. We were glad when they went back after Labor Day. That's when most of the houses were summer cottages. There wasn't much ri- valry between the native kids and the summer kids be- cause actually they didn't mix that much. The lakes were private communities and you couldn't swim in there, so there was very little contact. The first year-round people who lived there were older people. Now, of course, most of them have been converted to year-round. And people are demanding services. People want to do things that require laws and ordinances to regulate what they do. There was more live-and-let live in those days than there is today. Now you need a permit for everything. I built a house twenty-five years ago and • the only permit I had to get was for a well. Now people have to pay six or seven hundred dollars just for these permits. "I didn't really find any place that I liked I think World War II was what really made people any better than right here." "world travellers" Boys who had never been much more than five miles away from home suddenly started travelling all over the country—sometimes the world. I and put it down on the counter. He said, "Is there any- travelled to a lot of places all around the United States, thing else that you want?" You'd say, "I want —." and I didn't really find any place that I liked any better "Ethel!" And she'd have to get that. Then poor Ethel than right here. I don't know, maybe it was because I would come and wrap the things up and he'd say, was young. I would say that I enjoy life when the pace is "Thank you very much," and that would be it. He was slower. I haven't caught up with the way the pace is always cleaning his fingernails. But poor Ethel did all quickening here today! 20 Resources

RESOURCES THREE MILE ISLAND INDIAN POINT PASSAIC WATERSHED ENERGY STUDY

One day Washington and Hamilton had a picnic by the Great Falls. Hamilton explained to Washington how the central government could gain control over the restless colonies by assuming their debts. The debts could be paid by taxing the products manufactured with water \7\ power from the Great Falls. Washington went for it.

Paterson

I I. PASSAIC WATERSHED

+4 A

9 Resources 21

Indian Point

Whether it's the waterfall at Paterson or the windfall profits tax now before Congress money, political power and energy have always been linked. And we, the living, pay. But the price is getting too high. There is a quiet terror that underlies our dependence on the nexus that brings us the non-renewable resources of oil, gas and nuclear power. It's no longer only a matter of polluting rivers and high cancer rates —the spector of a nuclear melt down at Three Mile Island or Indian Point raises the very possi- bility of evacuation. You can't live in a place wasted by radiation any more than you could live in this Watershed if the glacier returned. In this issue of Talking Wood we bring you the first Passaic Watershed Energy Study. What we did in this initial study is simple. We asked this question: how many people could live here with- out oil, gas and nuclear power. Answer. If by conservation we cut our use almost in half, two thirds of the people here could be supported on water, wind, biomass, wood, solar energy and photovoltaics. If there are breakthroughs in solar technology, it may be possible to provide energy for all inhabitants. 22 Three Mile Island

' 'There is a high level of radiation in the reactor room, but no off-site release," the PEMA duty officer was told. Mile PEMA, the coordinating agency for state emergency efforts immediately contacted the Bureau of Radiation Protection (BRP), the state agency charged with inter- preting the technical reports from the plant and recom- Island mending actions such as warnings or evacuations to PEMA. Bill Dornsife, BRP's nuclear engineer, called Three NANCY JOYCE and JEFFREY ROTHFEDER Mile Island for a report, but the phone lines were jammed. He left his name and home phone number, and waited. The return call from TMI came at 7:15 A.M. At first he found the message reassuring. ••H he official explanation is that several water Dornsife was told that there was an emergency on- I pumps stopped dead at four in the morning on site, there were high levels of radiation at the plant, but • March 28 at the Three Mile Island nuclear the reactor was stable and being cooled normally. TMI | plant. The stilled pumps set in motion a week- officials said that there had been a small accident in- long accident and a longer period of press scrutiny, pub- volving loss of the cooling liquid around the reactor lic demonstrations and official investigations of the core. They assured Dornsife that there was no release of nuclear industry. It was as if the alarm that sounded that radioactivity into the atmosphere. morning also triggered a spotlight. In October a report But in the background Dornsife heard an order for was issued by the President's Commission on the Acci- TMI personnel to evacuate one of the plant's auxiliary dent at Three Mile Island. buildings. The report, after a six-month study of all aspects of the It was at this point he realized, "This is the biggie." accident, called for the abolishing of the Nuclear Regu- By 7:24 still higher radiation readings were measured latory Commission (NRC), charging that "the NRC is so in the reactor containment building; a general emergency preoccupied with the licensing of plants that it has not was declared. given...consideration to...safety issues." Meantime, PEMA staff had alerted the three affected In addition, the President's Commission found evi- counties—York, Dauphin, and Lancaster—to gear up dence at Three Mile Island of poorly trained operating their civil defense and emergency preparedness agen- personnel, failure by the utility and its supplier to act on cies. Also, Brunner Island and Goldsboro in York known safety problems, and inconsistent information County were placed on evacuation alert. provided to the public. But gearing up was difficult. Local officials had no The report concluded: "Nuclear power is by its very accident response plans to turn to. There was a state nature potentially dangerous....Given all the deficien- plan, Annex E, but it was incomplete, outlining in ten cies, we are convinced that an accident like Three Mile lines for each category the emergency responsibilities of Island was eventually inevitable." state, local and county civil defense offices. Considering that conclusion, the question of how well In fact, at one point during the accident when a fed- communities near nuclear plants are prepared to respond eral safety official reviewed Annex E he called the state to emergencies brought on by accidents has taken on a plan "very inadequate, very brief, and without sub- dramatically increased significance. stance." A close look at the Three Mile Island incident shows Indeed, a case of closing the barn door long after the that not only were there no comprehensive emergency or horse is down the road. Supposedly a federal agency, the evacuation plans ever formulated for the 20-mile zone Disaster Assistance Administration (DAA), had already around the crippled reactor, but during the accident in- reviewed Annex E before it awarded the state a $250,000 fighting and bungled coordination among all involved grant to implement it. But the DAA hadn't. The plan's levels of government—the NRC, federal cabinet and actual contents were never studied for feasibility, but safety agencies, and state and county officials—ham- merely checked that all recommended points had been pered attempts to develop such plans. covered. An examination of testimony and research collected Thus with no plans of any weight to rely on, munici- by the President's Commission yields a behind-the- palities in the Three Mile Island neighborhood began scenes view of the events of Three Mile Island; the putting together their own scenarios for implementing a picture is one of mostly unprepared officials and their five-mile evacuation. agencies wending through their own confusion. They could not have known that by Friday, the NRC would recommend a 10-mile evacuation or that by the Here's the story: weekend, the NRC would suggest publicly that a 20-mile It was 7 A.M. Wednesday, when the Three Mile evacuation might be necessary. Island shift supervisor notified the Pennsylvania Emer- gency Management Agency (PEMA) of an emergency in It was nearly 8:00 A.M. when Governor Dick Unit 2; the plant was shut down, he said. Thornburgh and Lt. Governor William Scranton were Three Mile Island 23

notified of the situation at Three Mile Island. The Gov- sible. Six counties, instead of four, were involved and ernor concedes that his first thought was evacuation. He 30 more counties would have to provide some kind of held off. assistance. Six hundred fifty thousand people, thirteen Scranton took on the role of spokesman for the state hospitals and a prison would have to be handled. during the first day of the accident. The leaping of the evacuation figures was clear evi- The Governor's office was mobilized to seek out the dence that a cherished philosophy of the NRC—and its facts about what was happening at TMI. This would predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission—had prove to be a difficult task. Conflicting reports from backfired. Metropolitan Edison, the plant's utility, and the NRC, as This philosophy, which is embedded in the NRC's . well as political squabbles and breakdowns in commu- construction and licensing requirements as well as its nication interfered with a smooth flow of information. inspection procedures, holds that practically no off-site More than once, the Governor admits, he was on the emergency planning is necessary because of safeguards brink of a mass evacuation order because he was unsure built into the plants themselves. Federal regulators have he knew what was really going on at Three Mile Island. operated on the belief that on-site emergency back-up By Wednesday afternoon, Lt. Governor Scranton dis- equipment makes an accident with off-site impact highly missed Metropolitan Edison as a credible information unlikely. As a result of this attitude, the federal govern- source. The utility insisted at its morning press con- ment has done little to require extensive off-site emer- ference that off-site radiation releases had not occurred gency planning. despite the fact that Scranton had announced, from other The accident preparedness formula the NRC uses in- reports, that, in fact, radiation had been vented. corporates the notion of a low population zone. The way Further, later that day the utility persisted in with- it works is an applicant for a construction permit must holding information by not notifying the Governor's convince the NRC that emergency plans are available to office of additional early afternoon radiation releases, protect those residents who would be harmed by massive calling them "normal ventilation." radiation doses in the event of the worst possible acci- Scranton asked Met Ed Vice-President John Herbein dent that could be imagined. In the case of Three Mile to explain why no radiation releases were reported Island those residents live within two miles of the plant. during the utility's press conferences that day. Thus, two miles is TMFs low population zone. Emer- Herbein said, "It didn't come up." gency preparedness for residents living outside of this And by Thursday the NRC's reliability crumbled. At radius was never considered. Thornburgh's press conference that afternoon an NRC Confused and ill-prepared, county and local civil de- agent, Charles Gallina, repeatedly declared that the fense officials were frustrated further when they were cut danger was over for people off-site. out of the information network on Friday. On that day "But after that press conference the thing began to the director of PEMA, Oran Henderson, who had been deteriorate badly," the Governor recalled later. attending the Governor's press conferences, was told he would no longer be needed at these briefings. State, local, and county officials, struggling with the County officials, deluged with calls from citizens who evacuation question, were growing more confused. On were hearing alarming and conflicting news reports, con- Friday, NRC experts recommended that a 10-mile evac- tinued to seek information from PEMA; the state agency uation begin. They reconsidered when it turned out that had none. ! their recommendation was based on erroneous infor- By late Saturday, the county people rebelled. One of mation. the television networks ran a story that the hydrogen Over the weekend, with the hydrogen bubble in the bubble had exploded or was about to do so. Angered, reactor looming larger both figuratively and literally, local State Senator George Gekas placed a call to the NRC chairman Joseph Hendrie, who credibility was Governor's office. Thornburgh was too busy to talk. sustaining increased attacks, finally conceded that a 20- Gekas then called Scranton's office and delivered an mile evacuation was being considered. ultimatum. If the lieutenant governor did not appear with, For PEMA and the various county and local civil more information on what was happening at Three Mile defense offices the ever-increasing evacuation figures Island, Dauphin County would order its own evacuation posed tremendous problems. at 9:00 the next morning. In the early hours of Sunday, Within five miles of the plant there was a popu- the lieutenant governor telephoned, urging the county lation of about 25,000 people and two nursing homes. emergency officials to sit tight; he promised to visit at The County limits were such that all evacuees could be 10:00 that morning. moved and'sheltered within and by affected counties. When Scranton appeared in the basement of the But if the evacuation radius was extended to 10 miles, Dauphin County Court House, where the lifeline for the coordination with other counties as well as an increas- county's emergency operations was located, he found ingly complicated allocation of resources would be re- what he described later as "a bunker mentality." The quired. A plan of this breadth, which would cover tired civil defense workers, on alert for three days, faced 136,000 people, three hospitals, and nearly 20 nursing with a mass evacuation that seemed overwhelming, were homes, was never drawn up. desperate for information. And when the NRC recommended a 20-mile evacu- Scranton told the workers that he would make every ation plan local officials found the task almost impos- effort to insure that PEMA received information and 24 Three Mile Island

transmitted it to them. to base any health recommendations—facts that at this It never happened. The information flow did not stage were not flowing in its direction. improve; the morale and effectiveness of the Dauphin HEW was uneasy about the Nuclear Regulatory Com- County emergency preparedness and response system mission's ability to make decisions that would affect continued to founder and never recovered. public health. John Villforth of HEW's Bureau of Radio- It was on Friday, with evacuation numbers and radi- logical Health said, "The NRC's credibility may not ation release reports being bandied about like chips at a have been that good." high stakes card game, that the federal safety agencies One Presidential adviser, remarking on Califano's rec- stepped in. ommendations, said, "There was nothing new in this Representatives of the Federal Preparedness Agency, memorandum." The White House wanted to leave evac- the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration and the uation and public health decisions to those at the site. Defense Civil Preparedness Agency appeared on-site or At the Saturday White House meeting in the Situ- at county headquarters to coordinate information releases ation Room, federal Three Mile Island participants gave and evacuation planning. Later on that day the White status reports on their agencies' activities. House added its presence. An official of one of the safety agencies involved with A meeting among representatives of the President's evacuation said, despite all local indications to the con- staff, the several safety agencies, the Department of trary, that the six counties involved were in "good Defense, the Department of Energy and the NRC was shape." Within the 10-mile zone, five counties could held early that afternoon. Jack Watson, an aide to evacuate in three hours, one county would need four President Carter, was put in charge of the White House hours and within the 20-mile zone, an evacuation would effort. It was agfled that Harold Denton of the Nuclear take about five hours, he said. Regulatory Commission would be the single spokesman When the HEW representative, Richard Cotton, at the site for technical matters, while Governor Thorn- pressed his department's views as outlined in the Cali- burgh would handle public statements about evacuation fano memo, he was rebuffed. Jack Watson said that he plans. had read the HEW statement and was aware of its recom- Notably missing from that first meeting were the mendations. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) Although HEW was asked to send professionals to the and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NRC Incident Response Center, communications be- But both these agencies, fearing that the public health tween the two federal departments continued to be impact of Three Mile Island would be lost in the strained. HEW officials claimed that no true HEW-NRC bureaucratic shuffle, moved on their own. consultation ever occurred, although some information There was a perception at these two agencies that the briefings took place. And HEW had to press for these. federal effort might appear to be full of conflicts of Richard Cotton recalls: "The NRC only responded in interest. It was felt that the Department of Energy's response to continual telephone calls, requests, and responsibilities are too closely linked with radiation re- exploration as to what they were doing and how HEW search and monitoring and nuclear technology develop- could, in some sense, review and comment on it." ment. Also, it was recognized that the NRC has tradi- An example of the distance between the two depart- tionally had a pro-nuclear image. ments occurred Saturday evening and Sunday. On Satur- An EPA official said, "We began to recognize that... day evening NRC Commissioner Victor Galinsky told an the data which the NRC was releasing...was really HEW representative that the NRC staff would be work- Department of Energy data....And...there was an un- ing through the night to develop evacuation options. The spoken feeling that...there ought to be independent radi- next day, however, Galinsky announced that nothing ation monitoring up there; independent from the view- new had been produced that could be submitted to the point that it was not tied up with what.. .the public might health officials for review. characterize as a pro-nuclear cabal. You know, DOE, In fact, the NRC did make a paper available on this NRC, and the utility." subject Sunday afternoon, but only to the White House. On Saturday, HEW Secretary Joseph Califano sent a The President's staff explained that the document was memo to Jack Watson of the White House. Two recom- not ready for HEW earlier in the day; but the health mendations were made: first, that firm assurances be people were not given the report at any time later, either. sought from the NRC that the reactor at TMI was being Moreover, the plans for evacuation that NRC pro- safely cooled, and if those assurances were not forth- duced in that report had little substance in reality. The coming, the White House should recommend an imme- scenarios presented contemplated two-mile precaution- diate evacuation to the Governor. At the very least, ary scenarios. But by this point, all local officials were Califano continued, the population within 20 miles of the feverishly working to produce plans centered on mul- plant should be notified publicly and officially that they tiples of five-miles specifically because of public and should be prepared to evacuate on as little as six hours private statements made by the NRC. notice. The second point Califano made was that the NRC needed to consult with HEW and EPA officials before Although the people living near Three Mile Island deciding what to do with the crippled reactor. One knew little of the official maneuvering, they knew of the reason for this concern was HEW needed facts on which confusion. It sifted through the cathedraled phalanx of Three Mile Island 25

participating local, state and federal agencies as incom- River at Buchanan, New York. Three plants, situated on plete and contradictory information. the Ramapo fault, in the shadow of the most densely In many ways it was a desperate time for residents of populated area in the country. Twenty million people that part of Pennsylvania. Uncertainties abounded. They live within 60 miles of the plants. were unsure of the exact nature of the hydrogen bubble Unit 1, built in 1962, was closed in 1974 because it in the reactor, whether an explosion was imminent or was found to not meet federal safety requirements. Unit not; unsure of which agency was supplying credible in- 2 is operated by Consolidated Edison and Unit 3 by the formation; unsure of whether they'd already been sub- Power Authority of the State of New York. jected to harmful levels of radiation from the reported Although nuclear plants have a 17-year history on releases. Indian Point it is only recently that the wisdom of having By Friday, with the accident still not under control, a nuclear reactors in such a high population zone, in terms good deal of voluntary evacuation began. The health of both health and evacuation preparedness, has been risks were growing too great, and the answers were not seriously questioned. forthcoming. But the words in official statements were A recent study by the MITRE Corporation found that sounding more frightening. the safety risk for people living in the vicinity of Indian On that day, NRC officials were recommending im- Point is 100 times greater than for those who live around mediate evacuation. PEMA and the Dauphin County the average plant. emergency preparedness director were alerting citizens Speaking before the President's Commission on Three of the possibility of an evacuation order. Various local Mile Island an NRC representative, Robert Ryan, called schools and colleges began closing. The Harrisburg it "insane" that the Indian Point plants were built where evening newspaper carried a report that the state's na- they were. And Charles Luce, chairman of Con Ed, has tional guard was being readied for a possible alert. And admitted publicly that Indian Point's location was Governor Thornburgh's office first advised people with- ill-chosen. in a 10-mile radius to stay indoors with their windows But Con Ed defends the continued operation of Unit 2 closed, then suggested that women and pre-school chil- contending that, as yet, there has not been a major acci- dren leave. dent. One evacuation figure, released Monday for the 20- However, what is left unspoken in that statement is the mile area, was put at 200,000. pattern of poor and unsafe performance that has plagued . Locals were left to their own devices in deciding the Con Ed reactor, a pattern recounted in NRC docu- whether to evacuate or stay—but these devices were ments. never part of the public consciousness before. For instance, Unit 2, which carries a "barely ade- As Mayor Paul Doutrich of Harrisburg recalled: quate" rating from the NRC, has had 146 unscheduled "Before (the accident) Harrisburg—the people there, shutdowns since 1976—one almost every 10 days. The the government—thought of Three Mile Island as four NRC/Unit 2 records show numerous safety violation smoke-stacks out in the Susquehanna River that provided notices that had to be repeated three or four times before some employment to residents in this area. There was action was taken, multiple leaks in pipe welds leading absolutely no preparation, none whatsoever, nor was throughout the coolant system, and at least one fire that there any considered. I've lived in Harrisburg all my life broke out because of an oil spill in the plant. In all, the and never did I ever hear anybody even mention the Unit has a record that prompted an NRC representative thought of preparation for an emergency at Three Mile to say at New York City Council hearings earlier this Island." year that Indian Point could not, under current standards, And for some, the decision was an agonizing one. One get an operating license. young mother remembers wondering what her children In some ways, though, more shoddy than the plant's were thinking as other frantic mothers appeared in their performance is official and community preparedness for classrooms to whisk away their own children; were they evacuation or citizen safety in case of an accident. Com- wondering why their mother had not come for them? placency rules, not unlike the sort that pervaded Three And one woman, after falling into shock, fled to her Mile Island's environs before the accident. native Sweden to escape the mental trauma of Three Indian Point's "low population zone"—the NRC sta- Mile Island. tistic that measures the amount of miles evacuation The words of the personal conflict and pain behind the would be necessary in the event of the worst possible accident were expressed in this recollection made by a accident—is six-tenths of a mile; therefore, safety pre- Londonderry woman: paredness beyond that distance has been largely ignored. "What if we can never go back? I can't bear the A spokesman for Westchester County, Representative thought. Can you possibly imagine the magnitude of Richard Ottinger, said the only emergency plan that facing the possibility of losing everything and never exists covers one hundred residents of Buchanan, where being able to go back, ever? We had to face the possi- Indian Point is situated. bility that we were left with nothing but our lives, and The supervisor for the town of Ossining, just south of those were in serious jeopardy as a result of exposure to Buchanan, said that under present preparedness and the unknown levels of radiation for over two days." surest conditions evacuation "could not be achieved for The spotlight shifts. To an area northeast of Harris- days." burg. To the Indian Point nuclear reactors on the Hudson No evacuation or emergency plans exist for New York 26 Three Mile Island

Nuclear plant at Three Mile Island.

City, according to Robert" Hogan, deputy director of the moted NRC chairman Joseph Hendrie to the status of City's Office of Civil Preparedness. commissioner and replaced Hendrie with John F. And in New Jersey, Jerry Horton, director of planning Ahearne, a current commissioner. In addition, for the state Office of Disaster Preparedness, said, Mr. Carter asked the NRC to absorb safety questions and "Evacuation is not the answer...Evacuation can be official emergency preparedness into its licensing easily carried out. You can bang out maps real quick. procedures. You don't preplan stuff like this. It's worthless." The President said he felt the country needs nuclear power as a source of energy, and told the NRC to reorder The final word is from President Jimmy Carter. In its house, sullied by the Three Mile Island accident. early December, after reviewing the recommendations of Since the accident, there's been a hold on all operating his Three Mile Island Commission, he responded. and construction license applications for nuclear plants. The President rejected the recommendation to abolish Finally, President Carter asked the NRC to begin licens- the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Instead he de- ing plants again within six months. Indian Point 27 Indian Point

LORI CHARKEY

There was no such thing as an atomic power plant when Michael McGarry first went to work for the Con- solidated Edison Company thirty-three years ago. He was hired in April of 1946 as an electrician for power generation maintenance, and for years McGarry's nor- mal work week consisted of making mechanical repairs on electrical equipment in New York City's power sys- tem. Not until 1973 was McGarry asked by his super- visors to volunteer to enter the containment building at Con Ed's Indian Point nuclear plant to perform minor repairs. Being a confirmed optimist about the newest source of electricity—and offered financial and promo- they were going to put the atom to use for peaceful pur- tional incentives as well—McGarry could hardly refuse poses. But now you see, after awhile you realize that the the offer. people who say they are going to put atomic knowledge But the huge twin domes that one sees from the Hud- to use for peaceful purposes—they said they were going son are built strong for a reason: the reinforced steel and to be able to generate electricity so cheap, that it concrete ' 'hold in'' the collective radiation coming off of wouldn't have to be metered—they said a lot of things. about 80,000 radioactive fuel rods. In the years follow- Then all of a sudden you realize—some of us feel—that ing his first stint at Indian Point, what McGarry learned they're going to put atomic power to use regardless of of this radiation and its effects upon his fellow workers how many people they kill in the process, because it's a not only curbed his attitude about the benevolence of real money-making enterprise. nuclear power as an energy source, but caused him to So some of the people who have been around it—and defy orders and refuse to enter the containment building we see what's been happening to some of the people we on the grounds that such a job posed a threat to his work with—we sort of resent that there is a possibility health. The refusal resulted in McGarry being fired. As that we could work around it, picking up less amounts of of this interview (December 14), he had been reinstated radiation. But nobody's interested to protect us. All they by the company following lengthy arbitration. want to do is protect their investment; they want to get the jobs done; they want to get the units back on the line; they want to be able to make money. MM: Almost everybody in the electrical industry felt, You see, let me put it to you this way. When I first "Wow, atomic power sounds like it's going to be a big worked in the containment area, it seems they needed improvement and the technology is basic." But you volunteers for a few days. The way they put it to me for a understand the propaganda they were giving us—that call like that was, "We have a job up at Indian Point. If 28 Indian Point

you get burnt-out (worker's slang for an exposure to are not getting the amount of volunteers they want or radiation above the federal limit) in the first day, you they need, somebody decides, "Hey, I got an idea, let's will get guaranteed two other days of working twelve change the procedure. Let's force them into going in hours a day at another location." there." So this is my first experience in going to Indian Point. LC: Right, they make it compulsory. As a volunteer I received no physical examination, I MM: Now this you cannot do from what I gather. I received no lecture. I go into this area where a man mean, personally I think that they cannot do it to me be- points to a pipe, and he says, "You see it here on this cause I feel that my health is far more important than me television screen? You go over there, pick up the jeopardizing my health for my salary. So this is where I grinder, put on your goggles and your gloves, and you was fortunate enough to say, "The law says that I don't grind until we tell you—we'll call you and tell you, have to go in there. I don't want to go and I'm not gonna 'come out of there.'" So I'm out there five minutes and go." So then it comes they fired me. all of a sudden I hear them yelling and whistling, and I LC: There's not exactly people volunteering to do this turn around he's talking, "Get out of there, get out of work. there." And I walk over and says, "What's the matter?" MM: Oh, definitely not. You see what our problem He says, "Well, you're burnt-out. Go down to the is, over the last so many years there's a couple of people locker room now." I say, "So wait a minute. You say who have passed away. And these people who had I'm burnt-out, give me the number (of millirems of passed away, had worked up at Indian Point. And when radiation received)." "Oh it's not important. Just go they had worked up at Indian Point, they just knew that down to the locker room and don't worry about it." So they had made certain mistakes. When they allowed this is my first experience with what's normally referred themselves to get overexposure—they had put their arms to as a burn-out in a nuclear power plant containment in the fuel pool water, which is considered very radio- area. active—and these people who had made these mistakes LC: Did you know how much you got? are now dead. . MM: No, I certainly didn't. LC: Did they die of cancer? LC: Then they never monitored you— MM: Yes, they died of cancer. And because they died MM: Well I had a badge on.* But I didn't know when of cancer and the cancer could be related to Indian Point, I looked at my badge, I had no indication whatsoever as you know, it's not too hard to add two and two and come to if it was up near the maximum. The maximum at that up with four. time was 2200 millirems. LC: Yes, I know. Do you think that this kind of thing LC: What year was that? is played down? MM:sl973. But again, 1974, they needed volunteers MM: I would have to say yes, because my union says and me being a dope, I volunteered again. And this time, to me, "Hey, wait a minute. You're talking about three when I went in this night, they wanted somebody to take dead people. Can you prove that?" Let's be realistic, if a look at a piece of equipment. I says, "Alright, I'll you have three dead bodies and these three people died go." And when I get up to the white room, I go to check of cancer, and these people were working up at Indian in, the guy checks my badge and says, "Oh, hell, you're Point—and one man when he was told—he's from the burnt-out." I says, "I'm burnt-out! Nobody ever told carpool and they don't want to lose him from the carpool me. Then give me the number (of millirems of radiation —so they say, "Now, Leo, your count is getting kind of received)." He says, "Don't worry about the number. high. Why don't you just leave your badge in the Try to forget about it." locker." Well listen, I'm telling you the truth. LC: You didn't feel like going into the containment LC: They would advise that to someone they knew—? again? MM: It's sad to say, but at Con Ed these things hap- MM: Well now, wait a minute, what is this radiation? pen. Now the foreman who told the guy, "Why don't Do you know? Everybody I speak to—no one knows. you leave your badge in the locker?" didn't think that But my wife, who works for New York State Dis- the man would get that much radiation—that this would ability, says, "Why do you want to go into an area like lead to his death. But you realize the foreman wanted to this where there is a very strong potential for a cancer keep this man on the job, because number one, he's a causing condition? You don't need to endanger your pretty good worker, he does what he's told, no argu- health at this point in life. You don't need the money. Do ments; number two, he's driving this carpool and these me a favor, in the future, don't bother working. No more other men to and from Indian Point, he's making every- volunteering." So I says, "O.K. If this is what you thing what you would say run smoothly. So when he sees want, this is what I will do." Comes 1978, now all of a his count is getting kind of high, the suggestion was sudden they need volunteers, and, because they feel they leave the badge in the locker. This fellow didn't have too much respect for knowledge of radiation so he complies *Note: The badge that McGarry talks about is the device with his supervisor's simple remark. worn by nuclear plant workers to measure radiation LC: What was the year that he went ahead and did exposure. The workers cannot read the film badge; it this? must be put through a developing process. The utility MM: Seems he was doing this back, I would have to keeps a record of exposure for each worker based on the say on this, I don't know exactly what year, but it might badge's readings. have been as far back as 1973—it might have been Indian Point 29

further back than that. But now all I want you to under- man, when I came to this group, he was taking the physi- stand is, when you don't have any respect for radiation, cal examination for Indian Point. They give the em- then you do these, if you want to say, foolish things. ployees who are volunteers, they give them a physical You know, usually when you make a mistake, some- examination every two years. And in 1977 they tell him, body's got to pay for it. But nobody likes to make a mis- "Hey, Ralph, guess what? You know you can't go up to take and pay with their life. Indian Point anymore, because now you have the Medi- LC: Sure, and this man didn't connect the two, did terranean blood disease." In other words, his white he? corpuscle count is a little high. And most of the Italian- MM: Unfortunately, he didn't. The only time he American people whose white corpuscle count is high started to connect the seriousness of this was just pre- they say, "Oh, you must have that Mediterranean blood vious to his dying. I had spoke to him on one occasion. I disease.'' This man, who had been taking physicals up to didn't know he was that sick. I mean he didn't want to 1975, comes 1977, they now tell him he has a Medi- come right out and admit that he was gonna die in a short terranean blood disease problem. This man accepted it, while. But this friend of mine who would see this fellow but a short while later, in 1978, he's walking around, eat his lunch and then run over to the G.I. can and he doubled over, and it seems he can't find out what's would start to heave up his lunch along with blood- wrong with him. He gets to wasting a lot of time. He tinged fluid. And, you know, you think the man's just finally gets a doctor to recognize that he's had bone sick, and then he says, "Oh no, wait a minute, I've got marrow cancer. So they cut out three vertebrae, and they a very bad condition. You know, I don't have too much send him home from the hospital on December 24, 1978, and they tell him he should be back to work by February, that he doesn't need any chemotherapy, he's gonna be fine. So I see him at a dinner last year in April and the man is still walking around with a walker and he's still not fine. And apparently in June or July 1979, they bring him back to the hospital and they operate on his prostate and his testicles and they remove them because they were cancerous. So now the man is feeling much better but the company retired him officially as of November. The man's something like fifty-three years of age. ' But you see what I'm trying to get out to you, this man had received, to my knowledge this man—when he was working up at Indian Point—he'd received the normal dose every year. He only received the normal doses when he would work there. He did nothing wrong in the way of making foolish mistakes while he was up there like these other people. This is what my question or contention is. You see, here's a guy who did not make any mistakes. All he did was work there and work within supposedly the limits they say are safe. LC: Did he ever get his full dose for the year in a few minutes or hours time? 1866 wood engraving of present Indian Point site as viewed MM: No. No. He would go up there under a quarter. from Stony Point lighthouse. Now you understand when I use the word 'quarter'? They divide the year—; longer to live. One day I was up there at Indian Point and LC: Into four parts. You're allowed a quarterly dose I was running in and out of there and I thought it was of three rems, right? pretty bad. You know I made mistakes and that place is MM: A thirteen-week period of time. Correct. To my killing me." So he did realize before he passed away that knowledge—I'm gonna double check with him tonight when you think you're doing the right thing for your —but to my knowledge this man had never received any family—you need the extra money, you volunteer to high—real high—dose when he was in there. And he work at this place, you bring in a few extra dollars—but did what was just normal. And this man ends up with a little do you realize, in order to stay at this location, like cancerous condition after having all these physical taking your badge and leaving it in a locker— examinations every two years. I got a sneaking suspicion LC: You would have to make a sacrifice. that even if you just get the bare minimum that they tell MM: Yes, you do not get something for nothing in you you can get, you're still gonna end up with some this world. So the poor guy, it started to come home to kind of cancerous condition. him then he had cancer of the colon. And his cancer of LC: From what I've read, it seems like the radiation the colon was more or less the direct result of his over- is cumulative. It doesn't simply pass out of your system. exposure at Indian Point. MM: That's the point. It is cumulative. It just keeps Let me give you another illustration: I worked with adding up and then finally you receive that amount that this man, let's see, it was probably over 15 years. This triggers a cancerous condition in you, and where do you 30 Indian Point

Nuclear plant at Indian Point.

go from there'? ing sickness. He's vomiting. He's feeling lousy. He's LC: Well, how about if the monitoring was done by got all the symptoms of low-level radiation poisoning. an outside group? Do you think that you would be more And when he goes to the doctor, the doctor says, "Oh, protected if, say, OSHA would come in there, or the come on. You're a fine healthy young bolt. Nothing union itself? wrong with you except your white corpuscle count is a little high." This man continues, over a period of 30 MM: Well you're asking a question that right away days, he loses 40 pounds through this vomiting and when you mention OSHA, last year when the men everything like this. wanted to get an inspector into the Indian Point site LC: Was this the industry doctor or a private doctor? plant— MM: Well now, wait a minute. When you say indus- LC: I heard they wouldn't enter the plant. try doctor and a private doctor, this is a Con Ed doctor. MM: Well, the reason they wouldn't go in was be- This Con Ed doctor, from what I gather, these people are cause the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates the instructed to take your facts—your medical facts—and Indian Point plant and one federal agency does not go only give them to the Edison company. You don't get over into another federal agency's territory. You under- that much information from this medical doctor, from stand that OSHA says, '"Oh, no, we can't go in there. this Con Ed medical doctor. But the fact of the matter is It's already under the jurisdiction of the NRC." that this man has gotten to the point where he lost all his Now last year we had another fellow, Tony. Tony weight, etc., and he goes to his own doctor, who hap- went up to Indian Point in the middle of March. The pens to be a friend of his wife, and she happens to be a middle of March is two weeks before the end of the first Veterans Administration hospital doctor out on Staten quarter. You follow me? Tony was working in the Island who is in nuclear medication. And the first thing containment area and he receives a burn-out. The fore- that she does is she gives him a blood test and she finds man says, "O.K. Tony, come on outside on the turbine out that he has the first stages of a blood cancer floor. We won't send you back down to the city (the con- condition. tainment area). We're gonna keep you here. Tony stays on the turbine room floor for about a week and a half, a LC: And this other Con Ed doctor had said nothing? week and a half—it's now April 1. The foreman comes MM: This other doctor only said, "Look there's noth- over to him, he says, "O.K., Tony, we're into a new ing wrong with you except your white corpuscle count is quarter. Go in there now and you can do some of the a little high." work you were doing before. So Tony, he goes in there. LC: That usually means that you have some kind of cancer or you're at least on the way to it. LC: Can I read you something now? I have this from a MM: Ah look, you know and I know, after a while Health Education and Welfare report on radiation ex- this is the way these people operate. They don't want posure. It says this: you to know you have got a serious problem. Well this Several unions representing reactor workers have fellow Tony went back and he found that he had, they argued that the standard should be based on a run- took a bone marrow test, sees he's in the conversion ning quarter (instead of a calendar quarter). One of stages of a bone marrow condition. Now this fellow is in their concerns is that workers could conceivably the process of trying to sue the company. He's got receive their full quarterly dose late in one quarter problems. But at least this man has been told by his and early in the next—i.e. six rems in a few days doctor that the type of blood condition he has is only due time—if high exposure tasks.were grouped near the to low-level radiation. And you see what the company is end of the calendar quarter. going to say, "You can't prove it." They've always got MM: That's what I'm leading up to. So this fellow a gimmick. The company always has some kind of gim- Tony goes in there, couple of days he starts to get morn- mick so they can get you with your pants down. Passaic Watershed Energy Study 31

wind, wood, biomass, and solar heat and electricity —can provide. PASSAIC In order to maintain a consistent measure we con- verted all amounts of energy into British Thermal WATERSHED Units or BTU's. A BTU is the amount of heat re- quired to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. ENERGY Some notes: • Planning based on energy use and needs in the Watershed has, thus far, been largely ignored. The STUDY gamut has been run from housing developments strewn on floodplains, where ecologically sound energy tree farms could have been planted, to new STEVE GARRISON and JEFFREY ROTHFEDER master plans dealing with the abundance of solid WATER SECTION by PATRICIA GARBE wastes that do not have any provisions for an ener- gy return to local communities. In many ways, mu- nicipalities have hindered the development of some of our most vital energy resources. • Population is a major factor in the Watershed. t is true that some habits are harder to break than This area is more densely populated than Japan. In others. But it is also true that you can't break a 1970, 1.8 million people lived in the Passaic Water- habit unless you doubt its value and know how its shed and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that pattern operates. Much of the complexities of the currently population is 2.4 million. That figure is Iwhat we call the "energy crisis" could be unraveled expected to grow by 40% by the year 2008. With by understanding the habits that were formed with that kind of growth, energy sources of any kind, the easy promise of cheap oil, coal, gas and now whether renewable or non-renewable, will be hard nuclear power. Following this idea through Talking pressed to carry the burden. Wood conducted the first Passaic Watershed Ener- • Because most of our readers are in the resi- gy Study in an attempt to assess how much energy dential sector, we charted residential energy use we're using and the possibility of replacing' our de- into current, future before conservation, and future pendence on depletable fuels with a transition to after conservation (Tables IV, V, VI in Sources). A renewable indigenous Watershed resources. comparison of the commercial/industrial sector to This is an extensive survey of current patterns of the residential sector in terms of percentage of total energy use in the Watershed and an educated pre- energy use looks like this: diction of how these patterns will look in the future. We predicted on the cycle of one generation, 28 years, to 2008. While projecting to 2008, we at- Industrial - tempted to provide some solutions to our bulging Commercial Residential energy use by describing various alternate energy technologies—renewable resources—and conser- Current 52% 48% vation practices available to us that can alter our present habits. 2008, before 50% 50% conservation Graphically, this is the breakdown: Table I. A quantification of total current energy 2008, with 51% 49% use in the Watershed. Total is the sum of three conservation sectors: residential, commercial and industrial. Table II. A forecast of total energy use in the Watershed, year 2008, if population growth con- The Passaic Watershed Energy Study is de- tinues as expected and present energy use pat- signed to be a foundation for the local transition to terns hold. renewable resources. The conclusion is inescap- Table III. The Targeted Goal. A scenario of ener- able that the kind of technology needed for this gy use in the Watershed, year 2008, after conserva- transition is already here. As Modesto A. Maidique, tion practices are in place. Our research found, and a solar expert at Harvard put it: "What stands in the all major recent studies agree, that energy savings way are institutional barriers, plus a lot of bad of at least 40 percent can be expected by insulating habits." old and new homes, lowering thermostats three Our first article, Water, is an overview, from colo- degrees, plugging energy leaks in industries—in nial times to present, of waterpower in the Water- sum, closing our energy holes. shed. We took the historical approach on this one to In each article of this section we built into the show how a renewable resource has already func- Targeted Goal (Table III) the contribution that the tioned successfully within the energy system in this the renewable resource in the Watershed—water, area. 32 Pasaaic Watershed Energy Study

Table I. Total present energy use in Watershed for residential, commer- cial and industrial sectors. Total use - 259 trillion BTU's. Space Heating 166 trillion BTU's Water Heating - 21 trillion BTU's

Other Air Conditioning - 3 Appliances - 3 Clothes Drying - 7 Cooking -10 Lighting - 9 Refrigeration - 5 Miscellaneous - 4 Total -41 trillion BTU's

Industrial Machinery - 31 trillion BTU's

Table II. Total projected energy consumption for the year 2008 for residential, industrial and commercial sectors in the Watershed, before conservation. Total • 325 trillion BTU's.

Water Heating - 25 trillion BTU's Space Heating 208 trillion BTU's

Industrial Machinery - 39 trillion BTU's

Other Air Conditioning - 4 Appliances - 4 Clothes Drying - 9 Cooking -13 Lighting -12 Refrigeration - 6 Miscellaneous - S Total 53 trillion BTU's

Water Heating -15 trillion BTU's

Other Air Conditioning Space Heating - 3 117 trillion BTU's Appliances - 3 Clothes Drying - 5 Cooking - 9 Lighting - 9 Refrigeration - 4 Miscellaneous - 4 Total -37 trillion BTU's

Industrial Machinery -19 trillion BTU's Targeted Goal Table III. Total projected energy consumption for year 2008 for residential, industrial and commercial Year 2008 sectors in the Watershed, after conservation. Total - 188 trillion BTU's. Passaic Watershed Energy Study 33

Table IV. Total present energy use in Watershed for residential sector. Total -125 trillion BTU's.

Other Air Conditioning -3 Appliances -3 Clothes Drying -7 Space Heating Cooking •2 88 trillion BTU's Lighting -3 Refrigeration -4 Total 22 trillion BTU's

Water Heating 15 trillion BTU's

Table V. Total projected energy consumption for the Table VI. Total projected energy consumption for year 2008 for residential sector in the Watershed, the year 2008 for residential sector in the Water- before consevation. Total -156 trillion BTU's. shed, after conservation. Total • 91 trillion BTU's.

Space Heating 110 trillion BTU's Other Space Heating Other . Air Conditioning -4 66 trillion BTU's Air Conditioning -3 Appliances -4 Appliances -3 Clothes Drying •9 Clothes Drying -5 Cooking -3 f 73" Cooking -1 Lighting -4 Lighting -3 i 20%! Refrigeration •5 Refrigeration -3 Total 29 trillion BTU's 1\ Total 18 trillion BTU's

Water Heating Water Heating 17 trillion BTU's 7 trillion BTU's

Conserving residential energy is a two-fold process. First, existing inefficient buildings and appliances should be upgraded for efficiency. While at the same time, planning for new developments and houses should include passive solar orientation and design (See Solar) as well as structures that use the minimum possible energy; energy efficient appliances can be purchased whenever an old one is replaced. RENEWABLE RESOURCES The distinction between old and new buildings is important because with passive solar design the energy conservation potential of new con- struction is much greater thah the savings from improving old con- Watershed Energy Projections for the Year 2008 struction. Still, the space heating requirements of any house can be reduced at least 30 percent by adding storm doors and windows, ceil- WATER 3 trillion BTU's. ing insulation, caulking, and weatherstripping. With floor, wall, and 2 percent of total energy needs. additional ceiling insulation, the energy savings can go to SO percent or 8 percent of total electrical needs. higher. These energy conserving improvements are generally cost- effective today, and will be much more so by the year 2008. WIND 2 trillion BTU's. 1 percent of total energy needs. 5 percent of. total electrical needs.

The following agencies were consulted during the research for the Passaic WOOD 5.4 trillion BTU's. Watershed Energy Study: 3 percent of total energy needs. City of Paterson, Division of Energy 8 percent of home heating needs. Institute for Ecological Studies, Virginia New Jersey Department of Energy BIOMASS (Methane) 22 trillion BTU's. New Jersey Forestry Service 11 percent of total energy needs New Jersey Solid Waste Authority 25 percent of residential energy Paterson Archeology Lab Public Service Electric and Gas SOLAR (Heating and Electricity) 6 quadrillion BTU's. United States Army Corps of Engineers 27 times the total energy needs. United States Deprtment of Agriculture Technological breakthroughs United States Department of Energy and improved local land plan- United States Energy Research Institute ning will be necessary to harvest United States Weather Service this huge amount of energy. 34 Passaic Watershed Energy Study

PASSAIC WATERSHED ENERGY STUDY Of the seven watersheds listed in the 1894 N.J. Geo- logical Survey, the Passaic produced the most hydro- power to run its industries. The abundance of water WATER power available in the Passaic Basin is directly related to the topography of the landscape, particularly with regard to the great drops in elevation from an average of 900 Throughout colonial times the Passaic River Water- feet in the highlands to sea level in Newark Bay. shed was an attractive region for establishing settle- Two of the most powerful rivers in the western area of ments. The alluvial valleys offered rich farmlands, and the Watershed were the Pequannock and the Rockaway. fast-moving rivers and streams provided ample water According to engineer Mead Stapler, the Pequannock power to establish mill sites. could provide the most horsepower with its drop of In 1894 the New Jersey Geological Survey listed 216 1040 feet in 25 miles and an average fall of 42 feet per mills in the Passaic Watershed powered by water wheels mile. At one time there were 28 mills along the Pequan- which provided 23 million BTU's of energy yearly. The nock, but by 1900 milling operations on this river and kinds of mills served were: grist and flour, saw, wood its neighbors ended abruptly because the upriver res- turning and paper products, fabrics, rolling mills, ervoirs reduced their flow. forges, iron works and machinery mills. Vestiges of The single most powerful point in the Passaic Water- ; these water-powered industries can be seen today in the shed is the 280-foot wide waterfall known as the Great factory dams, ponds and old mill buildings as well as the Falls in Paterson. There the Passaic stream bed drops 63 remnants of water wheels, turbines and other manufac- feet with an average of one billion gallons of water cas- turing machinery scattered along the banks of the Passaic cading over it per day. River and its tributaries. In 1791 Alexander Hamilton submitted a national plan The water wheel was the primary mechanism for of industrial development to the New Jersey legislature. transforming running water into power to operate ma- As a result, the Society for Useful Manufacturers or chinery. Power was obtained from the impact of water S.U.M. was formed to finance and build factories in the on short horizontal paddles which caused the wheel to state. Various industrial site proposals were reviewed slowly turn on a shaft. Attached to the shaft was a sys- and S.U.M. engineers narrowed the field to Little Falls tem of gears to attain the higher speeds necessary to and the Great Falls. The surveyor, Cassiner T. Graver, activate the factory equipment. reported to S.U.M. that the Great Falls, with an eleva- Two kinds of wheels provided most of the early water- tion of 104 feet above tidewater was equal to the power power (See Illus.). The undershot wheel was commonly needed to drive 247 undershot wheels; whereas the used by colonial millers because it could be placed di- power of Little Falls was equal to only 78 undershot rectly in shallow running water and did not need a water- wheels. fall or dam as did the overshot wheel. The overshot type The Great Falls at Paterson was chosen and a res- was the most picturesque and efficient but required a ervoir built. The first cotton mill was in operation by great height of water or head. Head is the distance water drops to the point of impact against the wheel. Complete dependence upon hydropower had its prob- lems. Stream flow was erratic. Drought stilled the wheels and flooding could wipe out a whole river bed of mills. And in the winter months, ice prevented the wheels from turning. Water The problem of icing was solved by the invention 3 trillion BTU's during the 1800's of a horizontal wheel known as the tub wheel. The water feeding into this wheel was drawn through pipes below the ice level of a stream or pond. Although the tub wheel was inefficient, it was the pre- cursor of the turbine invented by Fourneyron in 1827. Turbines began replacing the water wheel because they produced more energy with greater efficiency from the Targeted Goal - Year 2008 same head of water.

1794. The mill employed 105 people and was the largest WATER WHEELS west of the Hudson River. S.U.M."s plans took a major step forward with the Water wheels and water turbines continued to operate development of the raceway and hydraluic power sys- into the early part of the twentieth century. In 1908, a tem. Designed by Pierre Charles L"Enfant, the French- report of the National Conservation Commission of man who planned Washington D.C., it represented the Developed Waterpowers found 209 wheels and turbines first application of sophisticated engineering principals still operating in the Passaic Basin. Their total output for utilizing water resources in the Americas and re- was 35 million BTU's yearly. mained an efficient system for over 100 years. Passaic Watershed Energy Study 35

Essentially, the raceway was a three-tiered system with the mills on each tier passing water channeled from the river over a wheel or through a turbine. This same water was returned to a tailrace in which it was col- lectively channeled to fall to the next lower level in a ECS E FLOUJ PftOM COWT0.01. 22-foot head. After the same water successively turned & AT three tiers of factories with separate tailraces, it was returned back to the Passaic River.

Tub Wheel PAD cues Constructed of wood or iron, this was a high speed wheel for driving grist mills and grind stones without the necessity of gearing. It was easily enclosed in the shel- tered basements of mills for winter operation, a great advantage over other wheels. This was the granddad of the modern water, steam, and gas turbines.

By 1840 S.U.M was operating along the raceway sys- tem approximately 35 mills and factories using about Undershot Wheel seven million BTU's annually. Finally, by 1850 the A low speed, low efficiency wheel with a three to four water power potential of the raceway system was fully foot head, it was used only where a high dam or fall of developed and every available space was occupied. water was not practical or possible. It was very wasteful Due to the ever-increasing demands of industry, aux- of water. The power was obtained from the impact of the iliary steam engines began to supplement water power by water on paddles. the mid-I800's. Steam power, unlike water power, was portable and did not tie factory locations to water sites. The first mill to convert entirely to steam in Paterson moved away from the raceway complex in 1854. 70-80 % GATE &AT£ Nevertheless, water power continued to be used by FLUME mills located along the raceway system and the 1894 Geological Survey reported that S.U.M was utilizing a BUCKETS net five million BTU's annually. General use of water power for mills went out by 1920.

HYDROELECTRICITY

Hydroelectricity is a cheap and non-polluting source of power which was produced at various points in the Passaic Basin. In 1914 S.U.M. built a hydroelectric plant at the foot of the Great Falls. Public Service Electric and Gas Company ran the facility until it was decommissioned in 1969. The pumping and filtration plant run by the Passaic PlTTO Re County Water Commission at Little Falls is the only U-AT5R EROSION- point where hydroelectric power is generated today. The Overshot Wheel commission installed four hydroelectric generating units in 1932 which still produce 75 percent of the power This wheel was the most efficient and least wasteful of required to operate the plant. water. It was low speed, but the larger the wheel, the In 1979 the Department of Energy allocated $18 mil- greater the power. It required the highest "head" or height lion for the development of hydroelectric facilities. of water, which usually meant a high dam or waterfall. Nationwide, much of this is intended to be spent on Easily damaged by ice, it was strictly seasonal. This wheel was the most popular for grist mills, machine improving old facilities. shops, and factories where many shafts and machines John Topalian, director of the Energy Division of the must be driven efficiently. It was certainly the most city of Paterson, has been the driving force behind ob- picturesque of the wheels. taining the initial $1.32 million funding from the Depart- 36 Passaic Watershed Energy Study

ment of Energy to reactivate the old S.U.M. hydro- Hydropower accounts for about eight percent of the electric facility. electricity generated in the United States. Water energy In 1978, a feasibility study put the cost at $8.8 experts assert that by expanding existing hydropower million to revive the plant. The study recommended the units and adding turbine facilities to the nation's large replacement of the four old turbines with more efficient dams another eight percent of present electrical use machinery to double the plant's kilowatt capacity. could be generated. Topalian expects to begin construction on the project A forecast of hydropower potential in the Watershed in January 1980 and have the facility on line by the fall is difficult to make. Hydropower is site-specific. Exten- of 1983. sive on-site analysis would be required. However, ener- "It's hard to determine exactly how much energy the gy workers feel that the hydroelectric potential in the plant is going to provide specifically in terms of Pater- Watershed is vast. son's use, because the electricity will be going back into "In planning an energy program, one of the elements the Public Service Electric and Gas grid," Topalian said. you have to look at is what are the indigenous resources "But I can tell you this. We'll be saving Paterson 70,000 to the region," John Topalian said. "We don't have any barrels of oil annually, and that's absolutely a lot of oil." oil or gas in this area. What we do have is an abundance He added that the plant will gross over $2 million in of hydroelectric power.'' its first year of operation netting Paterson close to $1.5 For this study we consulted federal and state Depart- million. ment of Energy officials as well as water energy experts to gauge the hydropower potential for the Watershed. He said that the revitalized facility will serve as a Our conclusion, using a conservative estimate, is that model pilot project on the national level in the govern- hydroelectric power could provide three trillion BTU's ment's effort to sell the idea of reusing defunct hydro annually in the Watershed by the year 2008. This facilities as an energy resource. amounts to two percent of our Targeted Goal.

The Passaic River was diverted from the Great Falls during construction of hydroelectric plant in 1913. Photo courtesy of Gerry Livitsanos. Passaic Watershed Energy Study 37

PASSAIC WATERSHED ENERGY STUDY to windmills due to dense residential, commercial, and industrial development. In the Highland area, however, which comprises 509c of the Watershed area, with its WIND scattered homes and isolated industries, wind could be utilized effectively. For energy purposes, wind is divided into two gen- Although commonly not thought of as a form of solar eral types. The frequent, more consistent air patterns are energy, wind owes its existence to the warmth of the called prevailing winds with speeds ranging from five to sun. Uneven heating of the atmosphere causes divergent thirteen miles per hour. Less frequent patterns are the pressure areas which are balanced out by shifts in air energy winds which move at higher speeds, generally 13 flow. Wind is this subsequent air motion. to 23 mph. Wind behavior varies depending on the shape and Current windmill designs can handle winds from six contour of the terrain over which it flows, as well as ob- to twenty-two mph, but an average windspeed of at least stacles, natural and man-made, in its way. For instance, 10 mph is necessary to make it economical. Optimum ground roughness or irregular surface relief affects wind power conversion occurs when winds move between 12 velocity and direction. A steep slope facing the approach and 25 mph. of the wind will cause air to move faster and more There are some important considerations peculiar to smoothly up the hill with increased turbulence at the wind to be taken into account when planning to harvest crest. And faster air flows are created when long valleys, its energy. formed by glaciation and rivers, channel wind currents Among them: into smaller areas. • The actual power available from the wind is pro- To many the notion of wind as a source of energy is a portional to the cube of the windspeed. When wind- romantic, nostalgic one fostered by abandoned barns and speed is doubled the result is eight times as much rusted windmills as backdrops to interstates, but govern- power. Thus assuming a 10-feet propeller, spinning ment scientists and energy experts see wind as an im- at 10 mph, provides 120 watts of electricity, at 20 portant piece in the overall picture of harnessing renew- mph it would provide eight times that or 950 watts. able resources. Some wind energy experts predict that by the year 2000 huge windmills dotting the American landscape will generate 1 percent to 4 percent of the country's elec- water • tricity. And Department of Energy (DOE) official. Dr. Bennett Miller, said that of all the forms of renew- able energy under research, ""the earliest real impact will come from wind." Wind The DOE's Rocky Flats Plant in Golden, Colorado is 2 trillion BTU's testing both small—one to one hundred kilowatt—wind turbines and massive machines that resemble airplane propellers with a rotor span the length of a football field. These systems consist of a tower, generator or alter- nator, voltage regulator, blade, storage system, and a converter to change direct current to alternating current. Targeted Goal - Year How much electricity can be generated from wind depends on the properties of specific sites. As such, total • Power output is proportional to the square of the energy is hard to measure for the Passaic Watershed. diameter of the propeller. Double the size of the However, for the purposes of this study we are using a propeller and th©aer powe2008r ^"*outpu* t will increas-*^ e by a wind energy projection based on a consensus of govern- factor of four. Thus while a 10-foot diameter blade ment forecasts and alternate energy experts. Accord- might produce 120 watts at 10.mph, a 20-foot blade ingly, we are projecting that windpower could provide would produce roughly 480 watts at the same wind- two trillion BTU's of electricity annually in the Water- speed. However, a larger blade is not always better shed by the year 2008. This is one percent of our because adequate spacing must be provided. A sys- Targeted Goal. tem with a 25-foot blade requires about one acre of There are wind installations at such diverse locations land. as Montclair State College. West Milford High School • Anything in the path of wind can impede its velocity and Ramapo State College. Although electrical output at and cause turbulence. Towers should be 20 to 30 West Milford has been sporadic, generation at Montclair feet above any surrounding obstructions within a has been significant — about 300 kilowatt hours per 300 to 500 foot radius so that undisturbed air can month. The average home uses 250 to 750 kilowatt reach them. hours per month. Windmills would be hard pressed to provide energy The Lower Valley Region or southeast portion of the for the utility-owned electrical plants in New Jersey. Watershed, encompassing such cities as Paterson. Pas- Public Service Electric and Gas Co. experimented at saic and part of Newark would generally not be suited their Burlington Generating Station in the 1930's with 38 Passaic Watershed Energy Study

Public Service Electric and Gas Co, experimented at It appears that the best applications for wind gener- their Burlington Generating Station i the 1930's with ating systems in the Watershed will be residential elec- the Madras System which was used on sea vessels for trical cooperatives, as well as industries and schools in electrical generation. They concluded, and still do, that less densely populated and isolated areas. windspeed and land area are not sufficient to run con- ventional power plants. Wind utilization for electricity depends on a number Still, despite utility reservations, wind power is be- of factors: individual site evaluation, amount of elec- coming a force to be reckoned with. Energy experts trical need, and economic priorities. praise a new system that comes from the North Wind Perhaps unlike Cervantes' Don Quixote, who in his Power Company in Warren, Vermont which supplied famous chivalric quest carried out a demented attack on the Jacobs 2 kw system used at Ramapo State College. windmills in 16th century Spain, current thought will It's called the HR-2, a 2 kw system which costs approxi- increasingly see windmills as functional servants in the mately $10,000 including a tower and storage battery. generating of a renewable energy.

PASSAIC WATERSHED ENERGY STUDY and chestnut oaks, hickories, American beech, sugar and red maple, birches and ashes-—all of which have high heating values. WOOD An example: a seasoned standard cord (four by four by eight) of white oak, burned at 50 to 60 percent effi- ciency, has the heat equivalency of a ton of anthracite coal or 232 gallons of fuel oil. At this rate it would take approximately five cords of wood per year to heat the average home. The forested area in the Watershed, yielding approxi- mately a cord per acre and 20 million BTU's per cord, could currently provide 5.4 trillion BTU's of heat yearly. This is three percent of our Targeted Goal for the Water- Moreover, the annual total of 5.4 trillion BTU's from wood is an extremely conservative figure. It is based on current forest and management conditions. Improved planning would greatly increase the energy yield. According to the state Bureau of Forestry, large scale forest management could increase wood energy produc- tion by 600 percent over a 60-year period. A Princeton study estimates that improved wcodlot management Targeted Goal - Year 2008 would raise their energy potential to about 70 percent of the state's current natural gas demand. Some alternatives for the Watershed: • Planting trees on small strips and odd-shaped patches of unused land. These areas, including util- Managed properly, wood can be a prime fuel for space ity right of ways, abandoned railroad beds and heating. Much less polluting than conventional fuels dried up canals, account for more than half the land such as coal or heating oil, wood smoke gives off almost in many towns. no sulfur dioxide. Wood ash is a valuable fertilizer for • Tree farms in the wet, low-lying portions of the soil texture improvement in backyard gardens and a raw Watershed which are prone to flooding. Red maple, material for products such as soap. sycamore, catalpa, and oak could grow well in these Once a conventional energy source in this country—a sites. By planting trees beyond a suitable buffer century ago it warmed 90 percent of America's homes zone, but on the flood plains, flood problems would and businesses—years of cheap oil and coal have rele- also be decreased. gated wood-burned heat into the category of quaint and • Energy plantations of short, rotational hardwoods exotic fuels like wind and water. A spokesman for the harvested every five to ten years, planted in closely New Jersey Bureau of Forestry said that prior to the placed rows. Trees such as catalpa, sycamore, pop- 1973 oil embargo, it was hard to even give firewood lar, ash and red maple which regenerate from stump away. Current conditions have changed all that. Today cuts are the likely choices. Since they are not being wood is a prized commodity. harvested for timber, full size growth of these trees The Passaic Watershed covers 935 square miles of is not needed. land. Of that, approximately 45 percent is forested. Ways of burning wood for heat and the kinds of wood Local forest communities consist mainly of red, white stoves available are detailed in the Practices section. Passaic Watershed Energy Study 39

PASSAIC WATERSHED ENERGY STUDY An agreement between local utilities and the Hoeg- anaes Corporation, a powder metal factory, made it possible to pass the methane through purifiers and BIOMASS compressors to heat the firm's alloy tubs. One million cubic feet of gas per day is being drawn from the landfill, 20 percent of Hoeganaes' energy Biomass, organic matter from plants or animals, is requirement. the oldest source of energy. Once thought of solely as A total of 2.2 million tons of waste are generated an- wood for fires, modern day considerations have ex- nually in the Passaic Watershed by both residential and panded the breadth of its definition to include such commercial sectors. Each ton of waste contains an aver- by-products as peanut shells, garbage, waste paper, age of 10 million BTU's of potential energy. Thus, dung, cattails, corn husks, and seaweed. 22 trillion BTU's of methane could be extracted from Plants act as solar collectors, capturing the sun's waste tonnage in the Watershed per year. This is 11 energy during photosynthesis at the bottom of the food percent of our argeted Goal for the Watershed. chain. The energy is released when the plant's ordered chemical structure is disordered by burning, fermenting, There are a number of methods for extracting methane chemical treatment, or natural biological processes. from decomposing wastes. For municipalities attempting Wood will be dealt with as a separate component of to dispose of wastes quickly, the construction of pyro- the Passaic Watershed Energy Study. This article will lysis units appears to be a good alternative. During cover extraction of gaseous fuel from organic wastes pyrolysis wastes are fast heated at 600 degrees centi- and garbage. grade in the absence of air, thus releasing methane in the process. Concentrated sunlight reflectors could be used to provide the required high temperatures, thereby making the pyrolysis units themselves energy efficient. From the pyrolysis units through existing natural gas METHANE pipelines, the methane could be transported to homes and industries to fuel conventional natural gas boiler sys- Methane, a low BTU gas, is generated by landfill tems, stoves, hot water heaters or clothes dryers. garbage or manure within two years after the waste has been deposited at a site. It can be substituted readily for WASTE MANAGEMENT natural gas in cooking, space heating, hot water heating, clothes drying, and utility plants. Recent events in New Jersey have added an urgency With the ready availability of wastes and the in- to the need for methane generating units. Officials creasing scarcity of dump sites, power suppliers and acknowledge that the state has a severe landfill problem. consumers are inevitably attracted to methane. Two All dump sites local to the Watershed are depleted. State examples: dumping grounds will be filled to capacity within five • Biogas, a Colorado utility, is harvesting the manure years. Garbage disposal is becoming more and more produced by 40,000 head of cattle at a huge feedlot expensive because wastes have to be carted longer dis- in Lamar, Colorado and converting the waste into tances. Moreover, often the only landfill sites available enough methane to power half the fuel needs of its are in rural low-lying, swampy areas with high water 50 megawatt plant. tables sensitive to toxic leachate from wastes. Under • In 1976, methane from a Riverton, New Jersey state mandate each county is currently devising master landfill spread to nearby farms, threatening crops. plans to deal with waste management. As an example, the Essex County Waste Management Program proposes hauling the county's wastes to a new water industrial park site, and powering the client industries' wind fuel needs with a powdered substance, Eco-Fuel, made wood from degrading the wastes. Essex County residents will receive no energy return from their garbage in this plan. In fact, residents can Biomass expect higher disposal costs to pay for construction of 22 trillion BTU's the industrial park and its resource recovery unit. A survey of the most recently released waste manage- ment plans from Watershed counties show that no county is considering extracting methane from wastes as an alternative. Although all the plans promote resource re- covery-—the harvesting of energy from wastes—a return Targeted Goal - Year 2008 of energy to the community is never considered. In most cases the energy harvested, usually in the form of pow- dered Eco-Fuel, will be either used for industrial parks or sold to outside industries. 40 Passatc Watershed Energy Study

PASSAIC WATERSHED ENERGY STUDY Active units are recommended for retrofitting (adding to existing) homes or industrial operations. But along with the installation of an active system, conservation is SOLAR necessary. As Henry C. Kelly, a solar energy analyst put it: "It's silly to install a piece of solar equipment on a house with broken windows." Simply by improved "We are not running out of energy. We are running weatherstripping, proper insulation, and the closing of out of cheap oil and gas." thermal leaks, 35 percent to 50 percent of a structure's Speaking is Denis Hayes, director of the Solar Energy energy use could be saved. An active system could pick Research Institute, the federal government's alternative up the rest of the energy tab. energy laboratory. He is talking about the possibility of harvesting energy—heat and electricity—directly from Passive the sun, an idea that is not exotic although for many years it has been treated as such. But reality is catching up in the form of simple eco- For new homes solar energy can be harnessed by de- nomics. Despite expected incremental price increases signing them to passively welcome the sun's radiation. caused by inflation for construction, design, materials The passive design is in the orientation of the structure to and labor, solar-replenished energy will at least escape trap solar energy and reradiate it as heat. For example, a the spiraling cost of recovering depletable energy forms building is built with a picture window facing south. such as coal, oil and gas. This allows the sun's rays in to be absorbed by a thermal In the Passaic Watershed there is an abundance of mass such as masonry in the floors and walls. The energy potentially available from the sun. The 935 thermal mass stores the heat and releases it through square miles of area in the Watershed receive approxi- louvered vents as it is needed. mately 350 langleys per square foot per day. A langley is To incorporate passive design into the plans for a new the unit of solar radiation. Each langley provides 3.69 structure, solar architects recommend maximum insula- BTU's of energy. tion and little glazing on the north side, large amounts of Assuming that solar space and water heaters can con- glazing on the south wall, outside overhangs to block vert 50% of the sun's radiation into usable energy, an solar rays in the summer when the sun is high, and the annual six quadrillion solar BTU's (six quads) are avail- planting of evergreens on the north side to break cold able within the Watershed area. According to our pro- winter winds and hardwoods on the south side for addi- jections, this is 27 times the Targeted Goal for the tional summer shade. Watershed. Passive solar designs have been shown to account for There are two ways to gather the potential solar all of a structure's energy needs if it is properly insulated energy for space heating and hot water heating: active and designed to retain heat. The cost of adding passive systems or passive systems. design to a new home should be no more than an additional 10 percent.

water ELECTRICITY wind wood The photovoltaic cell-—electricity from the sun—is on the threshold of widespread marketability. Us concept is biomass basic electronics, an off-shoot of the semi-conductor. Sunlight energizes a cell made up of minutely thin layers or wafers of selectively "contaminated!' silicon, releasing a stream of charged particles. In turn, the impurities on the silicon form a circuit for the particles to flow along, thereby creating an electrical current. The promise of the photovoltaics as an energy re- source lies largely in their ability to produce electricity Targeted Goal - Year 2008 on-site—in the home and in the commercial or industrial outlet; a decided advantage in terms of efficiency over nuclear, coal, gas or oil-fired plants with their distant Active power grids. The output of a conventional plant is only 30 percent of the potential energy in the fuel; the rest is In the early 1970's rush to embrace solar heating, let go as waste heat or impurities. brought on by the sharp blows of oil embargoes, active Photovoltaic technology has been tested and found heating systems were hastened on to the market. The workable in large- scale applications. First produced by name "active" derives from the fact that the solar roof- the Bell Laboratories in 1954, they have had widespread top collectors are connected to various pumps, valves use in the United States space program. But as a com- and switches—boiler-like machinery to drive the heat mercial entity for industrial and residential use, photo- through the house. voltaics are still far too costly. Passaic Watershed Study 41

A single-crystal silicon cell is currently priced at close extensive utility power grid network already in place it to $10 a watt. This means it would take $12,000 to buy would be economically foolish to construct a new grid enough cells to power a household toaster. However, to parallel the original one. But to be the link in this $10 a watt is less than 1 percent of the cell's price tag system the utility industry would have to redefine the when it was first introduced. And the federal government emphasis of its business and stress power distribution will expend through the Department of Energy nearly and management instead of power generation. Indeed, a $500 million by the end of the 1980's in an attempt to major organizational change for that industry and one inch the photovoltaic cell into the mainstream of the that will certainly have to be dealt with by all sides In a market. renewable energy transition. With government funding and private investment, economic research forecasts predict that the international market for photovoltaic cells will grow tenfold during the 1980's. For its part the Department of Energy hopes THE SUN AND THE CLOUDS its investment spurs the industry, through improved materials and mass production efficiency, to lower its While it is true that the amount of solar radiation will price to 30 cents per peak watt by 1990(1975 dollars). A vary depending on cloud structure, the effect that vari- peak watt is the amount of power delivered by the sun on ation has on harnessing the sun's energy is not that great. a cloudless day. The DOE estimates that photovoltaics Cloud cover and type as well as fog produce daily would become cost effective at 50 cents per peak watt. changes in the amount of the sun's radiation that gets With this kind of growth solar cells could start being through. But it is possible to receive almost as much used in the residential and commercial sectors by the radiation for solar energy use on a partly cloudy day as end of the decade. on a completely clear day. This is due to multiple energy With photovoltaics looming as a major producer of reflection from the clouds—an incremental reflection electricity, the question of the role of power utilities in that does not change the intensity of the solar radiation. the future comes into the fore. Scattered clouds—10% to 50% cover—at noon reduces As with methane distribution, which would rely on the solar energy to only 95% of the maximum possible. current natural gas pipelines, a photovoltaic cell system And broken clouds—50% to 90%—cause a reduction of would utilize the present electrical power grids but in a the sun's energy to only 80%. radically different way than they are now being used. In this study we cross checked the accuracy of our Many scenarios are possible. For instance, electricity information against at least two sources. Our sources as for a 10-home development could be provided by an well as additional back-up data and graphs follow. array of photovoltaic cells placed on one acre of land. Or Information on patterns of energy use and how re- photovoltaic cells lined the length of the median island newable resources affect those patterns are essential of an interstate could power the highway's safety lights tools for any future planning in the Watershed. and toll booth areas. This study is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In both of these cases power lines would be needed Other studies and information are needed. But one thing for the distribution of the electricity as well as the pos- appears certain: Renewable resources are available and sible storage of any excess electricity generated. With an will become more so as technology hones them.

SOURCES Portola Institute, Energy Primer: Solar, Water, Wind and Biofuels, California: 1974. Norman F. Brvdon, The Passaic River: Past, Present, Future, New Bruns- Princeton University, The Biomass Energy Resource of New Jersey; A wick N.J. Rutgers University Press, 1974. County by County Inventory, New Jersey: Center for Environmental Barry Commoner, The Politics of Energy, New York: Random House, 1979. Studies, May, 1979. Country Journal, Heat Equivalent of Several Common Firewoods, Vermont, James M. Ransom, The Vanishing Ironworks of the Ramapos, New Bruns- 1977. wick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1966. Howard J. Critchfield, General Climatology, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Rutgers University, Solar Radiation at New Brunswick, New Jersey Agri- Prentics-Hall, 1966. cultural Experiment Station, New Brunswick, N.J.: Cook College Bulle- Essex County, Solid Waste Management Plan; June, 1979. tin 833. Russell 1. Fries, Great Falls-S.V.M. Survey: A Report of the First Summer's Mead Stapler, Mills Along the Old Pequannock, Newfoundland, N.J.: Work, "S.U.M. Power Canals." Paterson, N.J.: Historic American The North Jersey Highlander, Vol. VII; No. 2, 1971. Engineering Record, in co-operation with the Great Falls Development Robert Stobaugh and Daniel Yergin, editors, Energy Future: Report of the Corporation, 197.1. Energy Project at the Harvard Business School, New York: Random Great Falls Development Corporation, The Great Falls: S.V.M. Historic House 1979. District Paterson, N.J., Paterson. N.J.: Tour Guide Booklet, 1979. Levi R. Trumbull, A History of Industrial Paterson, Paterson, N.J.: Edward P. Hamilton, The Village Mill in Early New England, Sturbridge, Carleton M. Herrick, 1882. Mass.: Old Sturbridge Village Booklet Series, 1964. United States Deprtment of Agriculture, The Timber Resources of New National Historic Mechanical and Civil Engineering Landmark, The Great Jersey, Washington, D.C.: Forest Resource Bulletin, 1974. Falls Raceway and Power System, Paterson, N.J.: Dedication Program, United States Department of Energy, National Photovoltaic Program Plan, May, 1977. Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, 1978. New Jersey Solid Waste Administration, Supplement to Rules: July 1, 1974 Cornelius Clarkson Vermeuie, Geological Survey of New Jersey, Vol. III. and May 1, 1978. "Report of Water Supply," Appendix I, Trenton, N.J.: 1894. Alan Ogaki with Jim Benson, County Energy Plan Guidebook: Creating a Martha and Murray Zimiles, Early American Mills, New York: Bramhall Renewable Energy Future, Fairfax, Va.: Institute for Ecological Policies, House, 1973. 1979. The Water Supply of Paterson, Passaic and Clifton as Operated by the Passaic County, Solid Waste Management Plan, June, 1979. Passaic Valley Water Commission, Mimeographed unpublished. 42 Reinhabitation

REIN 43

HABITATION RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICES DIRECTORY

Ei nergy is one thing, communication another. There is a theory that the extinction of the dinosaur was directly linked to the fact that it took seven minutes for a message to get from its tail to its brain. Not only is it nearly impos- sible for ordinary folks at the tail end of this huge central government to get a message to the top, but they have to contend with interfer- ence from the big guys. At a recent nuclear forum in Wayne a member of the "truth squad" financed by the big utilities was so disruptive that he was asked to leave. Later he was spotted taking down license plate numbers in the park- ing lot. To share an understanding and a life with others that live here. It seems such a simple thing. To know this place and live here. Where do you live? In New Jersey. Okay, but if you think that way you are locked into a mind set that begins with the thirteen original colonies and goes nowhere. Think of living in the Passaic Watershed on a woody spine of Pangaea, the last super continent on planet earth. Think of living in between precambrian rock and an ozone bubble weakened by man's industrializa- tion. We need to know this place in a way it's never been known. That means knowing each other in new ways. With this writing we invite you to consider a way of knowing that has never been tried before. Anywhere. Something new under the sun. It could be tried. Here in the Passaic Watershed. 44 Relationships RELATIONSHIPS

PAUL RYAN

hat God had joined together came asunder the incest taboo. Brothers cannot have sex with their before my daughter had been around the sun sisters. Fathers cannot with their daughters. Likewise, once. She lived with her mother who lived mothers cannot have sex with their sons. Nor can close W with a painter. I took her often. We played to- cousins have sex. gether. When she reached the babbling stage I read to her A Northern California poet told me he had talked to trom Finnegans Wake. She played with the words. eight or nine people who-had committed acts of incest. "...Kyra run past Eve and Adam from swerve of Bay None of them felt guilty. Shore to bend of littleJbeach..." "Yes," I said, "but what would happen if they gave Once upon a bright fall day at little beach she had me birth to children?" stand outside the gazebo, the little pavillion, "the The movie Chinatown involves incest. "My Sister, woman's church". While I waited, she went inside and My Daughter. My Sister. My Daughter!" is the con- prayed. After her prayer she led me to the parking lot, fused cry that comes from a father/daughter incestuous "the man's church". She put me in the corner, said I had act. The tllfferentiatibn in terms of cniiaoeanng oecomes to listen 'cause she was the preacher. I sat against the impossible, since there is a missing person. Instead of a fence while she strode up and down the parking lot bab- mother and a sister, there is one person who is both. That bling. Out of the babble came the words "God is Rela- leaves two parties, two relata—daughter and sister/ tionship." mother—where there should be three. The confused "What did ^qu say, Kyra?'' daughter cannot understand the difference between her- "God is Relationship." And the babble went on. self and her sister and herself and her mother be- When the sermon was over and I had supposedly cause there is no difference between sister/mother. In- learned my lesson, she took me back to the woman's cest confounds the kinship system by a reduplication of church. On the way we gathered an imaginary group of relata. "My Sister, My Daughter!" children, each carrying a leaf. All went into the woman's Look at the differences between children, parents and church to wait for God. grandparents in a family system that works. Children can bear no children. The mythic story of a girl-child born The word "retoionship" comes from a Latin verb. pregnant is not an account of actuality. In their actual few—I carry life, children are biologically free to pay attention only to ferre—to carry their own sense of life, they do not have to hold in mind tuli—I have carried offspring that need care. We can say that children are in latus—to have been carried position of firstness; that is, of freshness, of sponta- The word "dif/erence" comes from the same verb. neity, of being such as they are without regard for any The verb was used to mean " to bear" or "to carry" i other. Parents are in no such position. They must react to child. Your relatives are those you differentiate yourself the needs of their children, resist some of their care- from in terms of events of childbearing. Your cousin, free ebullience, contain their activities. Parents are in a your mother's sister's child, is the one who was carried position of secondness. A diagram will help. by a woman who was carried by the woman who carried the woman who carried you.

How can we relate? How can we organize Position of Secondness the differences between us?

Native - Kinship System

. atives in the Eastern Woodlands organize the dif- ferences between themselves in terms of the kinship system. The kinship system works through exchange. A man takes a woman away from a man (her father or brother) in order to have a child. The exchanged woman is available for childbearing because she is protected by Relationships 45

Grandparents, are in a position to contain the inter- ness. The differentiation obtains not in terms of child action between parents and children. Their understand- carrying but in terms that are wholly positional. A dif- ing of both the position of firstness and the position of ference in position makes a difference in relation to other secondness from experience enables them to balance the positions. We will return to this way of ordering dif- interaction between parents and children, to keep it from ferences. getting caught up in confusion. There is often a -special Tribal societies develop when the kinship system is bond between grandparents and grandchildren. The not confounded by incest, generations work out their grandparents, freed of the burden of interaction with the relationships, and other factors are favorable. Tribes world by the parents, can renew their sense of wonder establish patterns of communications that reinforce their and share the freshness of life with their grandchildren. basic social organization. For example, just as child- The grandparents are in a position of thirdness. birth involves the whole being of both mother and child so the healing ceremonies of the false face society in these Eastern Woodlands involves the whole being of both the healer and the healed. The most striking system of communication devel- Position of Thirdness—Grandparents oped by natives on this continent that I know of is the Position of Secondness—Parents • pulse drumming of the Southwest. As the musician Tom a i Ehrlich explains, the rhythm for their ritual is based on Position of Firstness—Children the heartbeat. The raising and dropping of the drum- stick is synchronized with the beating hearts of the par- ticipants. Night-long full moon rituals with such pulse drumming creates a common understanding that per- vades the entire organism of each tribal member. Communication is the creation of a redundancy pat- tern. The word "redundancy" comes from unda a The course of one's natural life is a continuous pas- Latin word meaning "wave". The image is of waves sage from the child's position of firstness through the breaking on the shore again and again. Always hap- parents' position of secondness to the grandparents' pening, each time differently, providing a common ref- position of thirdness. Hopefully, the grandparents posi- erent. So with the pulse drumming. The hearts of the tion of thirdness is blessed by healthy contact with loving living are always beating, each time differently. The children. I want to map the essential differences in this heartbeat supplies a common referent continuing from life passage by changing our diagram from three circles birth until death. The drumming ritual takes the heart- to one continuous tube that penetrates itself. beat as a figure of regulation for tribal life. It estab- lishes a redundancy pattern that all can share. When I took part in a heartbeat ritual with Tom Ehrlich drum- ming, the awareness of my heart beating carried for The Relational Figure hours after the ceremony.

Invader - Nation State 1. Position of Firstness The invaders from across the ocean were not organ- ized in tribes. They were organized as nation states. 2. Position of England, France, Netherlands and Spain competed for Secondness "The New World". By the time they hit these shores 3. Position of the nation state had a long and complicated history. Its Thirdness decisive struggle with the kinship system happened in Greece. There was a definitive shift from a matriarchal 4. Part society in which the ritualized event of birth meant par- Uncontained ticipation to a patriarchial society in which public speech and acts constituted membership. This basic shift found reinforcement in the communication modes. Ritual gave way to drama. The oral culture gave way to literacy. The story telling of Homer yielded to the categories of This figure gives us a clear understanding of rela- Aristotle. Later literacy was simplified and extended by tionships in terms of unambiguous positions. The three the printing press that visualized vernaculars for the positions are clear and there is but one part uncontained French, the Germans and the English; and strengthened connecting firstness with secondness, one part uncon- the one man, one vote arrangement through the ideal of tained connecting secondness with thirdness, and universal literacy. The nation state, imported from Eu- o"e part uncontained connecting thirdness with first- rope, with its civic and economic organization of our 46 Relationships

life, is clearly the dominant organizational mode on this No ongoing correlation between kinship and land- continent. scape has developed in this watershed with the notable The nation state works in terms of classifications, not exception of the Ramapo Mountain people. It's a com- relationships. Kinship systems are not encouraged. Nep- mon problem for the Eastern Woodlands. There are no otism clauses abound in state regulations. If anyone of Connecticutians or New Jerseyites the way there are your relatives is in a position of power in this or a Bretons, Celts and Basques In Europe. Twice in this closely related state agency, then you cannot have the century our young men have gone back across the water job. You are ineligible. The basis of choice in the state to fight on European soil. Immigrants understood the must be in terms of agreed upon classification systems. family feuds of Europe and fought. Part of my genera- People are not brothers and sisters, they are G-8 or G-11. tion's resistance to the war in Vietnam was that it had no The proper classification systems are arrived at and such resonance. But World War I and World War II did agreed upon by men sitting in congress and voting. One little to help us understand long term living in place in man. One vote. Who will go to war? Who gets welfare? this landscape. The land was looked at in terms of na- Who must retire from the work force? Who is eligible for tural resources for munitions, not in terms of biological CETA? Who must pay taxes? The answer to each of cycles. Iron mines in the highlands were reopened for these questions is a certain class of people, all those who both wars. Families lost their young men and their con- can be put in one to one correspondence with the laws tinuity. My grandfather was gassed in WWI and spent and regulations agreed upon by the cumulative choice of the rest of his life in and out of VA hospitals. He was those voted into congress. Sorting and dividing the popu- never reconciled with my grandmother in Bloomfield. lation.

Such sorting and dividing extends to the landscape. A large part of the reason the state has been so The state assumes eminent domain and allows its citizens successful is that an accommodation was worked out and other legal entities to buy and sell the land in terms with Christianity whereby the vitality of tribal emotions of lines on paper with little regard for the web of life that has been successfully contained. This took place largely exists in this Watershed and elsewhere. Passaic County during the time of the Roman Empire. Christianity is a was mapped out for the convenience of the business slave religion. The cross of Christ, so central to the emo- community, not because of natural boundaries. Only tional configuration of Christianity is a Graeco-Roman recently have we begun to realize that the system of torture instrument. It became central to the organization ownership and rights of exploitation supported by the of emotions and attitudes knows as Christian. "Not my state may be as destructive to the landscape as its laws will, but Thine be done," said Christ in his agony in the and regulations are to the kinship system. Our deeds of garden. And so Christians are disposed to subject them- ownership deal us pieces of land as if the land were a selves to authority. Contradictory commands within the puzzle that could be boxed and unboxed or a ware- family system were reckoned with by identifying one's house full of resources that could be bought and sold. suffering with Jesus; similarly with political struggles Such "property rights" are paralyzing our efforts to such as those in modern Ireland and Spain. The Church reckon with the ecocycles natural to the landscape diffused resistance. So powerful was the imprint of the regardless of ownership. Judeo-Christian slave morality on West that it was only revealed as exhausted in the last century by Nietzche in Consider this. There's a house in Wayne, the Coif ax The Genealogy of Morals. House. It's been in the family for eight generations. Eight. That's a rare exception. Real estate people in I am not talking off the top of my head. I spent four Wayne will tell you with glee that people there move on and a half years in a monastic order of the Roman the average every 3.5 years. When you move that much Catholic Church dedicated to preaching the doctrine of you can't possibly care for the landscape you live in. Christ's Crucifixion. Part of the obedience to the Sacred What happened to all the family farms in Wayne? Gen- Scripture they espoused involved cutting off your per- erations can care for a place, grandparents to grand- ception of the living environment so that you could children, in a way that "owners" cannot. Affection for preach the Word. I spent two years on the shores of Lake favorite places can be passed on. When a grandfather Erie meditating on the death of a man that occurred 2000 takes a grandson on a day-long hike to the Great Falls, years ago without ever realizing that Lake Erie itself was that's an event to be remembered for life. dying. This sort of appropriation of perception by myth- Part of the problem is that there's been a double ology is chronic in the West and increasingly dangerous. migration. Many people came from the countrysides of When I was a child the nuns said that the flecks of red on Europe to the industrial city of Paterson. Across the the white dogwood flowers were the blood of Jesus. The ocean and from country to city. The Dublin ghetto of reason the dogwood does not grow straight was that dog- Paterson was a different cup of tea for the Irish than the wood had been used by the Romans to crucify Jesus and familiar city of the Emerald Isle, or the farmland that had since then the tree refused to grow straight. Only failed to yield the critical potatoes. Similarly, the His- recently have I realized that the twisting growth of a dog- panics now in Paterson cannot but be confused by the wood has to do with a search for the sunlight slithering cement landscape that threatens kinship relations once through the tall oaks and maples. Leafing toward the sun nurtured in a variety of native ecosystems. to stay alive. Talking Wood. Relationships 47

Reinhabitory - Human Species oldest land formations on planet Earth. The seasonal fall of leaves, the butterfly cycle of fresh water lakes left It is (tempting to think that simply by working to by the last glacier, the storm waters from the tropics and restructure the kinship system and reorganizing the state the Great Lakes that find their way over the Passaic in terms of environmental law we could redress the Falls, migrating ducks and geese, sycamores by the balance between these two systems and reverse environ- rivers, muskrats multiplying, the possibility of the At- mental destruction. I think such efforts certainly should lantic Salmon returning to spawn at the foot of the Great be made by those in a position to try, but I do not think Falls; all of this is becoming part of our understanding such efforts will be sufficient. Let me indicate what I about living in this place. Out of this understanding ap- mean through two sorts of environmental problems in the propriate ceremonies to celebrate life here can develop. Passaic Watershed. While place specific intelligence and organization is Toxic Waste. Four out of five people you talk to desirable and necessary, I don't think that sort of organi- about the problem of recycling and taking care of toxic zation is sufficient. There are a host of difficulties in wastes in the Watershed will tell you there's nothing you human interaction that such organization does not ad- can do about it because the waste haulers are Mafia con- dress. What I want to present here is a way of organ- trolled. No serious investigation has been done—I tend izing our differences that does deal with many of the to think people have seen too many movies about the difficulties left out of the reinhabitory approach as it has Mafia—but for the sake of discussion let us assume that developed thus far. Others who agree on reinhabitation the allegation is true. As an immigrant group some Sicil- may well disagree with me on this. However, I think that ian kinsmen have maintained a viability living outside without the sort of backup that I'm talking about, re- the law of the state. It's common practice for immi- inhabitation could be reduced to rhetoric by the end of grants; many do it. Such an adaptation permitted them to the eighties. In the remainder of this essay I will ex- continue their genetic line on this continent, indeed in plain how I arrived at this approach, what the approach is this Watershed. But when their outlaw activity involves and what difficulties I think it resolves. the destruction of the environmental support system for their descendants, then there is a contradiction involved that cannot but catch up to a group of people known for their love of children. And I saw two insane little boys Who wept as they leaned on a Flooding. It's been over a century since government murderer's eyeball. bodies in the Watershed started studying and arguing about flooding. The Army Corps has been in on it But two, that is not a number! officially since 1936. Currently they have a $14 million All it is is an agony and its shadow. budget to do a five year study of what to do. The study It is the guitar when love feels its must be conducted in full public view by order of desperation Congress and nothing will be done unless a consensus of It is the demonstration of someone agreement is reached among the governing agencies in- else's infinity cluding the 112 municipalities in the Watershed. At a recent meeting in Oakland where many people vented It is a castle built around a dead man their frustration over the endless studies, the colonel in And the scourging of the new resurrection charge of the project said that he recently had to tell a that will never end. congressman there was no reason to expect a con- —Lorca sensus in 1985 when the $14 million study was com- plete. Competing constituencies in the Watershed would still be issuing contradictory commands as to what My father died of cancer at age 57 in Saint Joseph's should be done and, consequently, nothing would be hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, May of 1971. After he done. died I went to the Wallkill Valley above the Passaic Environmental problems in the Watershed such as Watershed and worked simultaneously on human inter- toxic wastes and flooding cannot be resolved in terms of relationships and our relationship to the biosphere. Sup- either kinship or state organization. The unit of survival port from the New York State Council on the Arts is not a specific kin group or a particular municipality. enabled me to work on these problems from 1971 to The unit of survival is a species-in-its-environment, a 1976 with portable video equipment. flexible species achieving interbalance with a changing I trained myself to do half-hour continuous tapes of environment. the environment in a Zen state of mind. I did a set of How can the human species organize? thirty-six such tapes dealing with earth, air, water, Certainly in terms of the positional intelligence proper plants, animals, and man considered in his technologies. to the diverse parts of this planet. People of the wood- I also did a year-long study of a waterfall that yielded a lands live differently than people of the plains or people vocabulary of over forty waterflow patterns. of the coast. Place specific. ,We live in the Passaic Doing video by myself seemed insufficient so I used Watershed on a woody spine of Pangaea, one of the video replay of human interaction to figure out ways If '•

48 Relationships

people could work together on ecological tape. I did 45 present the instructions for the traffic pattern in a flat hours of tape with people interacting in sets of three. I set: formal way, much like one presents a music score or a out to "invent triadic behavior", that is, behavior that cake recipe. This is because the ultimate interpretation of could stabilize long-term relationships between threes what I am presenting is not in the reading of the instruc- people. I had jrhOnch that came from an understanding tions any more than the ultimate interpretation of a cake of how Yoga and T'ai Chi had started. At a certain point recipe is in reading the instructions. For a cake recipe or in the history of Eastern cultures the meanings held in its a musical score the ultimate interpretation is the experi- mythologies of birth and death, hero stories and tales of ence of eating the cake or listening to the music. One paradise lost common to the symbol systems of tribal does not even attempt to describe the taste of the cake or cultures didn't work for people. Somehow there arose the musical experience. For the relational practice the these practices, disciplines that if taken seriously created ultimate interpretation is the living experience of the an understanding independent of symbol systems. Like relationships, which I -will not attempt to describe many others experiencing the death of a parent in this beyond passing on these comments by participants. One culture, I had found the symbol systems surrounding participant commented that when you finished the prac- death just did not work for the relationship I had with my tice you knew quite clearly where the relationship with father. Given the possibility video gives us of recording the other people stood. Another person said that when he and playing back our interactive patterns, I thought it did the practice at a public session his mind went back to might be possible to invent a relational practice that a dream he often had as a child. In the dream, his left could hold meaning apart from symbology. half was going down a tunnel and his right half was In addition to the video work I-did extensive reading in going up a stairs..The tension that was never resolved in the work of the American philosopher, Charles Saunders the dream was resolved in the relational practice when Peirce. Peirce is the little-known giant behind William the tunnel met the stairway. James and John Dewey. He died in obscurity in Milford, Pennsylvania where he spent the last thirty years of his The Relational Practice life studying and writing, sometimes in the attic to hide Draw an outline of the relational figure on the floor, from bill collectors. He is generally acknowledged as the making it large enough so that people can move through it. most original philosopher this continent has produced. The outer boundary of the parts uncontained should cor- In the 1860's Peirce was saying that Western Culture respond to the circumference of a circle with an eight foot had about another hundred years to go before it would diameter. The practice begins with each of three parties fall apart. It would fall apart because it was based on an entering a part uncontained. exhausted logic of classes developed by Aristotle. What The Relational Figure we need to survive, said Peirce, is a logic of relation- ships, not classes. Such a logic could provide us with the basic architecture with which to build a new richer understanding of living. Peirce spent his life clearing 1. Position of the ground so that such a logic could be realized. In Firstness working with video and Peirce simultaneously, I arrived at what I regard as the logic of relationships Peirce was 2. Position of after. That logic is wholly evident in the figure I used Secondness earlier in talking about generations. That's it. If you've 3. Position of understood that then you've understood the basis for the Thirdness approach to relationships I'm putting forth. 4. Part Uncontained The Approach - A Relational Practice In three-party interaction (ABC), the normal pattern is for two parties to combine against a third party so that one dyadic relationship (AB) is strengthened and the other two (BC & AC), are weakened. This pattern is based in part On our bilateral symmetry. You cannot look in four eyes at once. Some Chinese counter this tendency in conversation with the following technique: if A asks B a question in the presence of C, B answers the question as if C had asked it. The relational practice is a recurring intentional non- verbal interaction between three parties (ABC) that rein- forces all three dyadic relationships (AB, BC, CA). The core set of interactive patterns are presented here. A relational figure is placed on the floor and moved through according to the traffic pattern described. I will Relationships 49

Front and Back (the basic traffic pattern)

Front (oscillation) Any party can start moving back and forth, oscillating between the two other parties. The other two parties move to positions hi the parts uncontained facing the oscillator. If either of the other parties turns away from facing the oscillator before he/she turns away, it is that party's turn to oscillate. This back and forth move- ment is like in the child's game, monkey in the middle, only without the ball.

A oscillates

B oscillates

C oscillates SO Relationships

The Relational Practice - Front and Back (the basic traffic pattern)

Back (standing) At any point in the oscillation, the moving party in a part uncontained that is continuous with the position of firstness can move into firstness and face the wall of that position. The other two parties move respectively into secondness and thirdness and stand behind the party in firstness.

Whenever it seems appropriate, the party in firstness can move to a part uncontained. The other parties in secondness and thirdness do likewise. Oscillation can continue or parties can move back into firstness, secondness and third- ness in changed positions.

Flying and Holding each other. In the positions of firstness, secondness and In Flying and Holding the basic traffic pattern is repeated thirdness, sounds are made in accord with each position. with the following modifications. Movement in keeping with the sounds is also appropriate. Parties facing each other in oscillation simulate flying with An understanding of the positions needs to be kept in mind their arms. throughout the practice. A party in the position of secondness embraces from be- Position of Firstness: Spontaneity, freshness, feeling. Being hind the party in firstness. such as you are without regard for any other. The party in thirdness embraces from behind the parties in Position of Secondness: Resistance, reaction to the activity secondness and firstness. in firstness, struggle with firstness. Position of Thirdness: Moderation, balancing the inter- Soundings . action between firstness and secondness. In Soundings the basic traffic pattern is repeated either with A practice session is complete when all parties are in the or without the modifications in Flying and Holding. When parts uncontained and none wishes to oscillatcor go into oscillating, strong affirmative sounds are made while facing firstness, secondness or thirdness. All leave simultaneously. Relationships 51

The fecund minimum for establishing this practice is a the biological life of this Watershed and force us to set of six people, three males and three females. Such a evacuate. How will we do it? How could we avoid false set allows the participants to take part in all four triadic alarms? Could we act to restore the biological life? combinations possible to our bisexual species: MMM, Experience at Three Mile Island and with flood problems FFF, MFF, FMM. suggests we would be paralyzed. The core set of non-manipulative interactions pres- By linking up the relational practice with video, cable ented here is based on simple realities common to all TV and other electronic media a reliable communica- members of our species. We each have a front and back. tions system could be built based on shared perception of As infants, our arms will open in a backward fall environmental realities. Such a system would give us the (Moreau reflex), and contract with a loud noise (startle capacity to store and transmit information to future gen- response). The principle pattern of interaction Front and erations and the capacity to respond to real situations. It Back is based on the fact of our dorsal/ventral bi- would have an integrity free from the contradictions of lateral symmetry. With this pattern secured, Flying and language, and draw figures of regulation for a reinhabi- Holding transforms the Moreau reflex and the startle tory social order from the bioregion itself. response into a practice of symmetric flying and com- The system would operate in a way that is analogous plementary holding.Soundings introduces a variation to the reticular core of our nervous system. The retic- that allows the subtleties of voice and movement to enter ular core is the thing that decides whether you'd better the interaction. These modes can be considered core to a run or fight, whether you should wait, sleep or make non-manipulative interaction between three parties that love. The reticular core has evolved so that it provides an reinforces all three dyadic relations. Other modes could organization of many components each of which is a be developed or rediscovered and used in conjunction living thing that senses the world and tells others what with the patterns given here. it senses. Each of our lives operates in terms of a couple million of these nerve cells getting organized enough to commit the whole organism to act in a coherent way on a regular basis. Individual survival depends on it. An The relational practice would enable us to electronic communications system that used this rela- build a communications system based on tional practice at its core could provide inhabitants in the shared perception of the environmental Watershed with a similar survival capacity. The system realities we live in. would have a redundancy of potential command. What- ever the ecological situation "dictated" could be met by a range of ready responses rather than paralysis and The kinship system has enabled this species to trans- panic. Including participants from the various kinship mit genetic information from generation to generation. systems and classes of people would enhance the possi- Language as shaped by literacy has allowed the nation bility of consensus. state with its complementary religions to perpetuate itself over generations. Both the kinship system and the nation The actual construction of such a communications sys- state/church operate in terms of language. The child is tem in the Watershed through the use of video, cable told, "No, don't touch! That's hot!" The developing television, etc. could resolve some of the employment integrity of his perceptual system is stunted and his be- problems in the region. Just as kinship communicates havior is linked up to the verbal commands of others. primarily with the oral tradition, nation states with When the competing commands of other speaking organ- literacy, so electronic communication is the proper rein- isms become contradictory, the child's behavior can be forcement for ecological cultures. Fifty percent of the distorted in relation to other members of the species and gross national product is now tied in with the com- in relation to the environment. Extreme cases of such munications industry. As the heavy industry of the distortion are evident in some victims of schizophrenia northeast winds down and the chemical industry is in- who are paralyzed by hearing voices that issue con- creasingly challenged, such a project could train signif- tradictory commands. This paralysis in individual be- icant numbers of people in marketable communications havior has its complement in the species itself. Inhab- skills. Building such a system would be a much healthier itants in the area of Three Mile Island were paralyzed by enterprise for workers and communities alike than build- the confusing and contradictory information coming ing nuclear power plants. from different news sources and different government agencies. In a less dramatic way competing contra- The relational practice would encourage dictory commands about flooding in the Watershed leave long-term living in place. us not knowing what to do. Talk among people now beginning to face the music is The relational practice is what the philosophers call in- that the chemical waste problem will make the nuclear transitive. Transitive relationships are of this sort. The threat seem like child's play. It may not be possible to biggest child shoves the next biggest child. The next live in this place if chemicals waste our water supply. It biggest shoves the smallest child. The smallest child is not science fiction to think that toxics in this heavily does not shove the biggest child but goes out and kicks industrial place could, in effect, slowly "melt down" things. Intransitive relationships are like the child's 52

game; paper-rock-scissors. In this game each of three Tea-drinking ceremonies and care of bonsai trees are not children throws out a hand: flat for paper, fist for rock, common in Jersey. I think there is a correlation be- and forked fingers for scissors. Then they swat each tween high density and the ritualization of interaction. other on the wrists according to the formula: scissors cut Ritual allows caring relationships at close quarters. The paper, paper covers rock, rock breaks scissors. Watershed need not be a behavioral sink. Long-term living in place requires the capacity for in- There is another more formal sort of reason why I transitive relationships. The current transitive relations think the relational practice could offset the pressure of we have with each other and with the landscape such as populations. Population people work with large num- indicated by the statistics of moving in Wayne tend bers—statistics like those used by insurance companies toward the ignorant destruction of the landscape. and television networks in their pooling of political pref- erence. Large numbers allow statistical prediction and The relational practice would free the eco- are very useful that way. Statistical math is a well- system from the burden of human con- developed field. fusion about relationships presently re- solved through gift giving, market ex- Another area of math that is well developed is the area change, and political favors. dealing with equations. Equations allow us to understand sides very well: a = b, b = c, a = c. We can work the two sides of an equation with enormous sophistication. I drop a book on the street and go on. You come by However, in the area of from three to a hundred where and pick it up. Two separate events. I drop the book. The statistical patterns begin to operate, current math has not book is picked up by you. Lost and found. There is no been successful. Outstanding is the three-body problem relation between us. in physics. Physicists don't know how to think about the I want you to understand how I feel about you because relation between three bodies. They use equations to deal an ambiguity has grown up over the year. I select a gift, with two of the three and then cheat by using more equa- a book to give you for Christmas. The book I select and tions. The best understood system that deals with the the way I give it to you and the context of the ex- realm of three to a hundred is the kinship system. If I am changing of gifts at Christmas all work to describe and right about the logic of relationships, it formalizes our define the relationship between us. But the books and the understanding of this realm. I don't claim that the three- items of exchange have to come from somewhere. Trees body problem could be solved by the relational figure, are cut down for paper, etc. When people start buying though it would be illuminating to try. I am only saying cars for each other and competing in gift giving the toil that the statistics now used to account for human inter- on the ecosystem can become huge. In a similar way, the action wold have to be rethought if people took this rela- nexus of political favors and deals can also take a large tional practice seriously. toll. He did this for us, we'll do that for him; regardless of transgressing the ecosystem. He supported our pres- ervation of this marshland, so we will not oppose the The relational practice could stabilize an building of that dam he wants. organization of differences between men The relational practice clarifies relationships without and women. taking a toll on the ecosystem. I met a Persian in Spain. We hit it off, hung out to- The relational practice could stop the gether for days. One afternoon in Barcelona we got quite Watershed from turning into a behavioral drunk. He said, "In the last ten years, I have been all sink. over Europe. I have been with many women. I have seen many men and women together. Because men and Behavioral sink is a term coined to describe what women have not made it on this planet—finito—it's happens when rats are crowded in a small space. Popu- over!" lation people use the term to describe the effects of over- population on humans. With rats there were random fits and fights. Extreme withdrawal on the part of some. Schizmogenesis Natural bonds disintegrate. Mothers grew disinterested In the 1930's the anthropologist Gregory Bateson in their young. Abandoned them. In some instances, ate worked with the Iatmul people in New Guinea. The ten- the young. sion between males and females was so strong that The population in the Watershed is now 2.4 million Bateson wondered why the culture simply did not people. That's up from 1.8 million in 1970. Last year the explode. What the Iatmul had worked out was an elab- crime rate was up 15% in this area. Cancer rates grow orate transvestite ceremony called Naven that muted the apace of the deteriorating environment. Divorce doubled tensions by shifting roles at critical points. In studying over the last decade. Our emotional life sometimes re- the Iatmul, Bateson arrived at the notion of "schizmo- sembles a game of bumper cars. genesis." The word means "growth of a split". This Watershed is now more densely populated than Bateson saw dyadic splits as resulting from the cumu- Japan and it does not have a traditional culture with lative interaction between two parties. He identified two ceremony to fall back on and orchestrate the crowding. sorts of interactions that tended toward progressive Relationships 53

change. One sort he called symmetric, the other, com- "rival" male is generally inhibited by seeing the male/ plementary. People in a symmetric interactive pattern do female pair. When such a triad is put together the social similar things that tend to reinforce each other. Two behavior of the rival is inhibited while the social be- boxers standing toe to toe and slugging it out are in a havior of the pair is enhanced. In the presence of the symmetric relationship. Other examples of symmetric rival, the pair bond matures rapidly. The rival "out- interaction would be keeping up with the Jones' or the sider" is extruded in the process. armaments race. In Western society, the "rival" has been institution- People in a complementary interactive pattern do dis- alized as eunuch, celebate priest, and starving artist who similar things that tend to reinforce each other. An ex- threatens to run away with the possessed woman but hibitionist is encouraged by the applauding of a specta- could not afford to support her childbearing. The rival tor. Dominant people are encouraged by submissive female becomes the childless nun, the whore, or the people to be more dominant. The interaction between a mistress without property rights whose children are dependent child and a succoring mother can grow pro- bastards. The function of the triad is to reinforce the gressively monstrous. dyad, the third party is extruded in the process. Originally two parties may find in each other the possible resolution of a difficulty in relating. As they What is going on relationally? On the one hand you continue to interact, however, the differentiation de- have the schizomogenesis of dyads and on the other hand manded by the complementary or symmetric mode will you have a pattern of dyads extruding third parties. tend to distort the personalities of the participants. Dis- Two's company, three's a crowd, but two can be hell. comfort will follow. Ambiguities of interaction will Two is somehow incomplete, but three is inconsistent. accumulate as misunderstandings grow. Mutual resent- As individual organisms we make choices between in- ment toward the other as the source of the distortion compatible acts. You cannot both sleep and not sleep. enters. Jealousy develops as each sees overdeveloped in You cannot both fight and not fight. You cannot both the other that part of themselves that has been sup- make love and not make love. You cannot both stay and pressed by the pattern of interaction. No longer does the leave. Acts of choice are in the realm of individual resolution originally sought hold sway. Each party sim- control and individual survival. ply enters into a pattern of reacting to the emotional In a relational nexus, individuals make choices that in- reactions of the other party and the relationship moves volve other individuals. I will make love with this one exponentially toward a split. Facility in switching from and not that one. I will fight with this one and not that complementary to symmetric modes of interaction hold one. Consider this simulation of human interaction done in check the runaway of either mode. The trouble here, at a research center in California. Three people are however, is in developing reliable context markers to seated at a round table with partitions so they cannot see indicate whether the relationship is in a complementary each other. In front of each is a two-minute timer. Each or a symmetric mode. If A thinks he is helping B, but B has two buttons on the table in front of him. Only one thinks A is being competitive, pain and confusion will button will work at a time. Each button closes an electric result. circuit that includes getting time on the timer, a light, In the relational practice, complementary interaction and one other participant if he is also closing the circuit. takes place in the positions of firstness, secondness and The object for each participant is to be in contact for thirdness. Symmetric interaction takes place in the parts more than either of the other two parties. A choice must uncontained. The interaction keeps shifting back and be made between the other two in order to score. Only forth so that neither pattern becomes cumulative. Schiz- one dyadic combination can be scoring at any one time. mogenesis is precluded. A steady state of interaction By contrast with individual choice, relationship in- develops, like in the Balinese culture as described by volves the ongoing organization of difference between at Bateson. least two individual organisms. However, in a two-party interaction it is impossible for the two parties to under- stand and correct their relationship qua relationship with- The Relational Anomaly out the presence of a third party that interacts with both. In the triadic video studies I did, one pattern kept A understands how his relation to B differs from B's recurring: two parties combined to extrude a third party. relation to C, because A is in relationship with both B "Two's company, three's a crowd." It was clearest in and C and can compare. All three dyads are required in the instances where one party was blindfolded and the order to understand and organize respective differences. other two were sighted. What happened recurringly was When the mechanism of choice inhibits two of the that the two sighted combined against the blindfolded dyadic relations in a triad and extrudes the third party, it party and reinforced their relationship at the expense of leaves the selected dyad severed from the very relational the third party. interaction that would allow that dyad to balance and An experimental study with baboons in the fields of correct. This is the relational anomaly. To say it suc- Ethiopia revealed the same extruding pattern. There are cinctly another way; relationships are routinely sub- no "free" females in a baboon troop. The males possess sumed by acts of choice. the females and will fight to hold onto them if neces- This anomaly generates a cluster of partial solutions to sary. Much fighting is avoided, however, since the relational balance for dyads, among them risking peri- 54

odic interaction with an outsider that allows the parties in could also be used to regulate the propagation of the the dyad to renew their mutual choice of each other. In species. Certainly work on building and maintaining a effect, they are saying that whatever the ambiguity that snared perceptual system could proceed without sexual has grown up within out relationship, it is at least clear discrimination simply by organizing the work in accord that each of us prefers the other to the third party. with the four possible cases of triadic combination for & The relational practice presented above resolves the bisexual species: MMM, FFF, MFF, FMM. As for prop- relational anomaly by neutralizing the effect of choice on agation, that is a different question. relationships. Choice is exercised not between incom- The various restraints on triadic interaction inherent in patible acts nor between mutually exclusive partners but a bisexual species could not be arbitrarily overridden. between unambiguous positions. The unambiguous posi- There is a difference between ovulation and ejaculation tions are part of a figure or regulation that balances tri- of sperm that has consequence. Account must be taken adic relationship. No one is extruded. The relational of the fact that in any potentially fertile male/female practice consistently reinforces the complete set of dy- relationship a third party is implied. The desirable and adic relationships, AB, BC, CA. It does not reinforce necessary fusion that results in a fresh offspring would one dyad at the expense of the other two. have to be given proper place in a triadic social order. Pair bonding protects the possibility of a new generation Jealousy and it may be a grave mistake for any one generation to attempt to undo this mechanism for its own gratifica- If you attempt to shake hands with yourself in a mir- tion. Our American cult of youth could be reduced to the ror, the simulation will not work. The image the mirror absurdity of geriatric trisexuals with no young. holds is a separate reduplication of yourself. It is not It may be that the introduction of the relational prac- continuous with your self-perception, your integral sense tice as a means of developing shared perception, which of all possible body positions. The mirror image is a seems to me to now be critical to species survival, would spectral image, separate from your introceptive sense of only have indirect effects on the kinship system and self. It is by way of a spectral image in the mirror that we propagation. For instance, the incest taboo, exchange of first understand as children that we can be seen by women, and pair bonding could be maintained at the others, that what they see is distinct from our sense of same time a kinship system used this practice to clarify ourself. This spectral image becomes the basis of our relationships between and among generations. Grand- social identity, our mask, our persona. By means of this mother, daughter, granddaughter; Father, uncle, cousin; spectral image others can tear us away from our intro- Sister, sister, brother, etc.—all possible triadic combi- ceptive self, confiscate us and force us into alienating nations in a kinship system could engage in this practice. interaction. Stepfamilies could benefit. Watch two children playing together. Often the more On the other hand, if the kinship system were to be dominant child is the one providing the social persona replaced by a triadic community of lovers, the status of while the other is the onlooker admiring and reinforcing women as a class of people to be exchanged by men that persona. It is a master/slave relationship with the would dissolve. Such organization could, it seems, do master dependent on the slave for acceptible feedback to much toward freeing women from oppression. In a the persona. The slave, meanwhile, has not the feedback triadic social order women could enter and leave triads as and attention necessary to do spectacular things and freely as the men—they could not be reduced to pieces feeds vicariously on the achievements of the master, all of property. the while growing resentful at his. failure to fulfill There is no formal reason I can see why a completely himself. Both master and slave conspire to maintain this relational social order, a community of lovers, could not arrangement. Third parties are seen as threats to their in fact develop. Much can be learned from -experiments mutually reinforcing blindness. Each one's identify de- already tried. For instance, the Oneida Community sur- pends on the other. vived for 35 years without monogamy, breeding chil- In the relational practice the persona of the spectral dren. The way they did it was to have all acts of copu- self can be dropped. The practice works in terms of lation mediated by a third party. No one could be presence to each other while maintaining the introceptive approached directly, male or female. The constant go- self. There are no fixed identities as in the master/slave between prevented people from getting caught up in con- arrangement, since people take turns in the various rela- fusing schizmogenic relationships. tional roles. Because the persona is dropped during this Biologically, copulation is reversible capture. Let me practice it is important that the practice be done with explain. To stay alive, the human organism must capture clear thresholds of beginning and ending. The openness and ingest other living organisms. To capture other to others involved in the practice would make partici- living organisms the predator must undergo a discon- pants very vulnerable in normal social interaction. tinuity from self, must allow the self to be dominated by the image of another, must temporarily become the prey. Sexuality A temporary fusion with the prey is made possible by the predator's nervous system which enables it to dance It does not necessarily follow that a relational practice outside itself, to become something that it is not. The which could give the species a shared perceptual system human mammalian nervous system can be seen as such Relationships 55

an organ of alienation. Plants have no such organ with fact is that under such an arrangement with recornbining which to achieve capture. The capture process is at work triads, a community of only firstborn children would be in courtship and copulation. However, it is reversible. possible. Both parties can walk away from the act. I hope from what has been said that the reader will The morphology of reversible capture does not map realize that configuring ongoing triadic relationships that onto the figure of regulation for the relational practice. include sexuality is not something to attempt lightly. However, in a strictly formal way, reversible capture Those who simply count to three and jump in bed will could be accommodated in the gaps between the parts have difficulty sharing the toilet in the morning. The uncontained in the relational figure. range of human behaviors having to do with capture, Of the four cases of triadic combination, only FFM schizmogenesis, jealousy and the relational anomaly, as and MMF are capable of conceiving a child. In the case well as other things not now apparent, would have to be of FFM there would be no confusion as to who the pair reckoned with before a community of lovers could con- determining the firstness of the,child would be. It is only figure. My own sense is to get on with the relational in the case of MMF that the conception of a child would practice to share perception and leave the sexual possi- cause confusion as to who was the father. Moreover, the bility to later generations. way our bisexuality is set up, one of the two males is superfluous in nature's design. Another difficulty with The initial effect of an innovative practice is usually to this configuration is that the woman is without another allow the conservation of a traditional pattern. The crea- woman to exchange mother roles in a way that might tures who first learned to live on land were scurrying sensibly transform the situation in infancy. from dried up water holes to more viable water environ- Some of these difficulties could be resolved in a com- ments. Land was an obstacle to their desired habitat, just munity of lovers by reserving childbearing to the MFF as the deterioration of the biosphere is an obstacle to the triads. Since any one person could take part in more than perpetuation of family systems. Perhaps in like mariner, one triad, no one would be formally excluded from the the relational practice described in this paper could be possibility of parenthood. In this way an accurate record initially used to conserve the family pattern common to of the firstness of each newborn could be kept and all men and women. It might take a few generations of combinations encouraged that precluded weakening the using this practice to stabilize families and share per- genetic code by disallowing arrangements that tended ceptions before a triadic social order could develop in its toward the reduplication of relata. Another interesting own right.

Who, who will be the next man to entrust his girl to a friend? Love interferes with fidelities; The gods have brought shame on their relatives; Each man wants the pomegranate for himself.

—Pound 56 Practices for Living in Place

nant of the day seemed an excel- lent idea. PRACTICES "We will see just how smart this rattlesnake is," mused old bushy- FOR LIVING IN PLACE tail. "Rattlesnake?" The rattlesnake moved its head ever so slightly. "Rattlesnake, do you want to be THE RATTLESNAKE the richest rattlesnake, perhaps even the wealthiest creature in the AND THE SQUIRREL forest?" Eyes, sending out a green greedy glow, shot a chill up the KENNETH LUMPKIN squirrel's back and out his trem- bling tail. Passing down stories is part of living in "I know where there is so much place. Here is a tale from Song of Rama- gold, you cannot carry it away all at pough told to Kenneth Lumpkin by Max, once. If you leave here and come an old Lenni Lenape friend. with me, I will show you. It is not far from where we are." Many years ago, before the white him. The enormous head was fully man came in large ships from far The pile of nuts was growing, and erect now, and its tongue began to away, there lived in the forest a it was getting close to midday when vibrate hungrily. very industrious young squirrel. In the squirrel resolved to stop gather- "You know where this gold is?" fact he was the first one of his kind, ing and start transporting. As he ap- "Yes, I will show you gladly if therefore quite eager to prove just proached the gnarled oak he no- you'll just follow me, Rattlesnake." how energetic a squirrel could and ticed that one of the sticks at the "All right. We will go. But if you would be. bottom of his domicile was not real- are lying, I will eat you on the spot!" Something inside this creature ly a stick at all. It was coiled around The rattlesnake and the squirrel had told him it was going to be un- on top of itself, and although it re- traveled together up the mountain bearably cold for a long time and he mained perfectly motionless, the to the largest hemlock tree around. should make haste to gather all of squirrel could perceive two lidless "Where is the gold?" the food possible before it was too orbs that seemed to pierce right The squirrel pointed up to the tip late. through him. of the hemlock where the sun was One Autumn day the squirrel had The squirrel had never seen an standing directly overhead and awakened especially early and was animal such as this, but was in- said, "There. You must climb the making his way down the oak that stantly aware of some sort of dan- tree to retrieve it." provided him with shelter when he ger. Coming within a safe distance The rattler moved his terrible stopped short. The squirrel's atten- of the foul creature the squirrel in- gaze upward and soon a smirk tion had been diverted to the dawn quired, "What manner of animal are crept across his face. Expecting breaking, sending its fingers of you?" this to be a trick to get him up the golden radiance through the forest. To which the coiled stick replied, tree so his captive could make "I must complete a full day's work "I am a rattlesnake and I have good an escape, he cooly replied, in half a day so that I may enjoy the come to seek the shade of this tree "You must come with me so not to remaining hours." and perhaps eat you. You are new elude me." The squirrel agreed and The squirrel had toiled extremely to these woods and I believe I soon the two found themselves at hard up until now and he thought he would like to taste you before you the top of the giant evergreen. deserved a rest. He had never became the meal of the cat." "But how may I retrieve it?" taken the time to observe the pre- Now the cat had been revealed queried the snake. cious brilliance of the sun. to the squirrel some time before. He "You must stretch out on the last "I will cease when the yellow face had seen this monster along the limb and reach for it with your is directly over my head," he banks of the river—creeping, stop- mighty jaws," replied the squirrel, thought, and went about his busi- ping, pouncing on its prey with the now seeking to flatter the snake. ness as one possessed. swiftness of nothing he had ever The rattler coiled around the very Since the supply of nuts close at seen before. The squirrel was not top of the last branch and paused hand had long since been har- the slightest bit interested in being as the limb bent slightly with the vested, the squirrel's meanderings anybody's supper. To lure this rat- extra weight. He stretched out and brought him further and further from tlesnake away from his tree, con- snapped at the golden sphere but home into parts of the forest new to tinue working and save some rem- could not retrieve it. Practices - A Cabin Log 57

"I cannot get at it," hissed the where. I've traveled extensively in woods to save three hundred dol- snake. my bathroom. lars on heating oil. America drives "Stretch further," squeaked the 1 look into the lake. Meditation by forward in reverse. squirrel. the lake lets me relax when noth- Inside the logs Becca is cooking. Again the limb bent, but this time ing's bothering me and helps de- She knows nothing of my medita- it cracked slightly. velop my rock-skipping style. But tions. "Bob, you didn't put the garb- "I can't seem to reach it." I try. I stare. Unflinching eyes re- age out last night. Today is garbage "Further. Further!" quest answers from my brain. day, and you forgot." Becca has Once more the snake inched out Crossed wires, bad connection, not this way. She's incapable of eating and the limb yielded. Then—snap. in the mood. a morsel for days if "nuclear" is Both the snake and branch plum- I shake my head. Like hitting the mentioned in the first four pages of meted down the trunk of the great backspace key on a typewriter, I the New York Times. She breaks hemlock to the ground below. The return to my mistakes. out in hives over the devastation of snake writhed in his death agonies Ancestors quiver in my chromo- ecological certainties which will oc- as his rattle gave one last eerie somes and instruct the back of my cur in 2152 A.D. But Becca finds chatter. All was silent. six-foot body to curve toward the fires in the oven, permanently mis- The squirrel cautiously ap- water. I gaze. I contemplate the placing important papers, and my proached the carcass of the surly dark reflection of the mountain inability to make sense of my day- serpent. He sniffed once at the upon the water and try to ignore to-day movie small potatoes. corpse and then scurried down the the submerged shopping cart. I Sometimes you must ignore one mountain in the direction of home. gaze. I see myself scoring well in another to be compatible. We After all, the better portion of the the game of sufficient seriousness understand that no one is every- day still remained. concerning one's future for male thing to anybody. human beings in the thirty year I find a six-year-old version of bracket. Jed sitting in the living room. He is The lake adds charm to the area, the one decision I'm sure of; the permits a pizza proprietor to label one child we will have. "Hey, how's his parlor "Buena Vista," and adds it going, big time," I greet him and A CABIN LOG .dollars to real estate. But it is a Igok for attention, western lake and my eastern medi- "Hi," he says with some warmth tation is not working. The lake will and tunes me out for a televised, DON DELO not answer my questions. cartoon view of Spiderman. I appre- I return to the log cabin. Six ciate his independence and wait The sunset does a coloring job months ago a creative realtor took until our need is mutual. that demands recognition. I walk to my no savings, credit-less past as a I add another log to the stove. the lake near our log cabin to ap- challenge and found a mortgage The burning logs heat the building plaud the sun's performance. It company with a sense of humor. logs. The earthy smell and even proves human. Its ego responds to Now I live in the cabin of every heat of the decomposing wood my applause. Encore. Cauliflower B-movie romance, complete with oozes through the house and vi- clouds outlined in gold, crossing cathedral ceiling (which is no ceil- brates "home." through broadening, veil-like sun ing), loft (which is half an attic), and Eating, wrestling, playing, talk- rays. Curtain falls. Sun exits behind a floor to roof fieldstone fireplace. ing, bedtime. Tuck Jed in. An hon- the mountain. Its post-setting glow The cabin's former owner installed est "good night." I step outside to stains windows orange. The sky a woodburning stove which lowers put Jed's toys in the garage. The moves from daylight blue to even- the heating tab and makes the fire- outside spotlight intrudes on a sec- ing gray. Night's black fears whisk place useless and one of the tion of the night and accompanies away day's colors on the wings of world's great wall hangings. me while I clean. Jed's two wheeler moths. The audio distance is en- Gone are the days of the affluent with banana seat and high handle hanced by the howling of a sub- simplicity of the turned-up thermo- bars sits alone at the edge of the urban dog recalling wilder times. stat. Woodburning means wood driveway teasing me with its size. I Time is immeasurable shades. finding and wood collecting. Trees check for watching neighbors, jump As a city child I retreated to the no longer fall silent in the North on the bike and ride into the gar- bathroom to think. Now I go to the Jersey forest. Before a falling oak age. Peter Pan and I will never....I lake to meditate. This man-made gets near the ground, fifteen home- see my father putting my toys away lake is being destroyed by its cre- owners with status chain saws like and everything seems good, the ators. Sudsy, detergent scum cas- piranha at a feast Poulon and chain is unbroken. cades over beer cans on route to McCulloch the tree into bite-size Back inside, I enter Jed's room to the make-believe lake. The neigh- pieces. A neighbor bought a ten check his progress. His walls boast borhood septic overflow attacks. thousand dollar four by four to carry of Reggie Jackson and Captain I've come a long way to go no- his four hundred dollar saw into the America. Trying to hang pictures on 58 Practices - Woodbuming

the never flat walls of a log cabin is sidered—for a moment becoming Some individuals, sure of a long like decorating a wave. Jed's short, a long lost member of the family. term supply of cheap wood and sturdy frame rests with a peace I Less than 10 percent of the with a strong desire for energy in- haven't experienced in the twenty- people were depending on wood dependence, may decide to con- six years it's been since I was his for heat by 1940. Gas, oil, coal, vert to wood as a primary heat age. Rest allows his skin ultimate and electricity generated from source. Most people would rather softness. The room is busy with these had become widely available start on a smaller scale, heating dreams; Jed leaves and goes to at low cost and offered the con- one or two rooms with a small stove places where superheroes are real, venience of home delivery and or improving the efficiency of their but no one knows what dying central heating systems. Unfortu- fireplaces. Offsetting heating costs means. 'Mike' the bear sleeps be- nately, the quantities of these fossil by even a small amount can be a side him and keeps him company fuels—ancient plant and animal satisfying experience to those on these nighttime journeys. With- carcasses transformed by millions seeking sound alternatives. out Jed's help, I wouldn't remem- of years of intense pressure within New and classic woodburners ber the super worlds I went to when the earth—are limited. As more ac- are available in many shapes and I was six. I leave a room warmed cessible sources of these dry up, sizes. They vary in efficiency, oper- by the energy of my son. the cost of drilling deeper wells, ation, quality and cost. Modern Outside the cabin the living, leaf- mining larger areas, and attempting woodstoves have been improved less logs rest in the dark. Inside a to protect the environment from so that they burn longer and more soft yellow light glows. It's the time these operations will continue to efficiently with less attention. The of day to be a reader, a viewer, a increase until alternatives are found more popular airtight models are planner, a dreamer, a lover, alone. or until the fossil resources are expensive, however, and for some finally gone. purposes a simple antique or barrel Wood, fortunately, is a renew- stove will serve as well. Consider able and low-polluting energy the size and heat requirements of WOODBURNING source. A well-managed forest can the space to be heated, the cycle of provide a continuous, dependable use expected from the heater, GARY HILL source of fuel as long as the timber whether occasional, frequent or is not overcut nor the forest en- continuous, and the amount one is vironment harmed. Although willing to invest. The woodburner to A century ago more than 90 per- smoke may be visible when certain be chosen should be the one that cent of America's heating energy woods are burned, it is much less most closely matches your needs. was supplied by wood burned in harmful to living things than the fireplaces and sturdy iron stoves. invisible gases arising from the Fireplaces Families were drawn early to the combination of fossil fuels. warmth of the awakening kitchen Now that 99 percent of American Few fires attract contented close to the massive, glowing range homes are heated by non-renew- viewers like a crackling blaze on —coffee brewing on top and dry able fuels or the controversial split- the hearth when snow is falling boots below. Winter evenings ting of atoms, most people are feel- outside. The radiant heat energy might find the scene shifted to a ing the pinch and sharing a toasting the observer's front gen- crackling fire in the hearth, a black concern for the economic health of erally keeps his mind off the fact iron potbelly, or a nickel-plated individuals and the environment. that his rear is freezing. The prob- parlor stove. Ask any "old timer" Some are considering the solar lem with the fireplace is that the who has depended on wood for alternative and others would like to radiant energy is about the only survival. He or she might tell you heat with wood. heat warming the room. Hot gases that old stoves had personalities of The possibility of heating with from the fire are drawn directly up their own, eccentricities that sepa- wood will depend on its availability the chimney, wasting about 80 per- rated a particular heater from any in a locality. It will be most eco- cent of the heat released by burn- other. He may tell you about the nomical if the individual or the ing. Far more air is drawn up the intense sustained heat given off by family can cut, haul and stack the flue than is needed for the fire. The seasoned hickory or the subtle cordwood themselves. In some warmer air in the room is quickly scent of burning cherry; how the areas, it can be purchased from replaced by outside air leaking in supply of cordwood ran short dur- local suppliers. Prices vary widely; and creating drafts. Since air flow ing the coldest winter on record, or however, $50 to $100 is not un- into the fireplace cannot be con- of climbing onto an icy roof at mid- common for a cord of hardwood trolled, there is no way to improve night to save the house from the delivered to your doorstep in a rural its performance a great deal. sparks of a chimney fire. A lull in area. Two cords may be enough to Hollow grates may be used to im- the conversation and a wistful stare heat a small, well-insulated house, prove heat output of fireplaces. probably means that the ultimate while ten cords may not be enough These "C" shaped tubes cradle the fate of an old stove is being con- to heat a rambling, drafty one. burning logs, draw in cool air near Practices - Woodburning 59

the floor, warm it as it rises through Stoves are often described by the flow pattern of air and gases the tubes around the flames, and passing through the firebox. disperse a small amount of warm air into the room. Hollow grates will improve the fireplace's efficiency a UPDRAFT few percent at best. Extravagant claims should not be trusted. Steel fireplace liners are avail- Air enters the ash box and passes up through able for those who want to see a grate. Hot gases exit through flue above. their fire. These units are actually glass front steel stoves, placed in the fireplace flue opening. The steel box provides area for heat transfer to the surrounding room air and the glass doors reduce the amount of excess air sucked up the chimney. These liners will provide more heat than an ordinary fireplace but are expensive and still not as efficient as a stove placed within the room. Some fireplaces are equipped with a draft door, located in the floor, in front. The draft door allows incoming cold air to be drawn from the basement or from outside DIAGONAL DRAFT rather than through the living Air flows diagonally through fuel. Hot gases space. If your fireplace is equipped exit at a top rear. An air preheat channel with one of these, use it, but don't may be used to improve efficiency. forget to close it when the fire dies down. Air Preheat Channels *S- Non-airtight Stoves Efficiency 30-50%

Hundreds of models of non-air- tight stoves have been manufac- tured for over a century in all shapes and sizes. The class of stoves includes woodburning ranges, barrel stoves, potbellies and most of the antique stoves. A simple non-airtight stove offers good efficiency compared to the fireplace since a large area of the Gases are drawn through the flames for com- stove's cast iron or steel body is in plete combustion, and higher efficiency. The contact with the surrounding air. Air bypass door must be opened when loading flow into the stove can be controlled to prevent smoke from escaping. to a degree, using the flue damper Bypass Door in the stove pipe along with the draft control on the stove; however, air can leak into the firebox through seams and around the loading door. This makes it difficult to main- CROSS DRAFT tain an even burn rate without fre- quent adjustments. An excess amount of air is always drawn into the stove, burning up the load of wood faster than necessary, and generally will not hold a low fire through the night. The non-airtight 60 Practices - Woodburning

the floor of the stove from burning "S" - DRAFT out under high temperatures. If a lining is not provided, you can easily place firebrick or at least a Logs burn from one end to the other, like layer of sand or ashes in the fire- cigarettes. Gases pass through the flames for greater efficiency. box. Thermostatically controlled air- tights use a built-in thermostat to Baffle automatically regulate the draft. As the stove heats up, draft is re- duced, lowering the burn rate. As it cools, more air is admitted, increas- ing the burn rate and maintaining a constant heat output. These stoves work very well with a minimum of attention and can hold a fire for 12 to 18 hours depending on the type of wood burned. As the complexity of any system increases, however, so do the chances of a mechanical failure. An automatic damper stuck Air enters above fuel and is drawn down in the open position could result in through a grate, then up through the flue. overheating and damage to the Several large logs can be layed on and left stove. to bum down very slowly. A bypass door is opened when loading. Some of the airtight stoves use secondary air inlets. The theory is Bypass Door that unburned gases pass through 1 the primary fire so that flue gases DOWNDRAFT if could be reignited if mixed with the Bn proper amount of air. This has proved to be true; however, flue gases must be at very high temper- ^^ atures before a secondary burn is possible. Wood fires can reach these high temperatures only when stoves operate at a high burn rate. The feature is of no use during slow extended burns. is best for occasional use in areas dinavian stoves, such as the Jotul, A few stoves use built-in smoke where it can be checked frequently. Morso, and Sevea are being im- chambers to increase the area of A well made airtight might be the ported. The stoves may differ in heat transfer to the air around the perfect stove for the workshop, size, shape and design, but all are stove. Stoves with these chambers den, or country cabin. made with welded or tightly fit are often unique in appearance and seams and doors. Since air can high in efficiency. Smoke chambers Airtight Stoves only enter the firebox through fully can be custom made from steel Efficiency 50-65% controllable openings, the lire's drums or purchased ready-made heat output can be closely control- and hooked into any flue pipe When the decision is made to led and kept low but constant. above the stove. Some chambers keep a continuous wood fire burn- Some airtight stoves use manual are actually ovens and can be used ing as a defense against the rising draft control and some are provided for baking. cost of fuel oil, a more refined with automatic thermostats to regu- The useful heat output of any woodburner is called for. The air- late draft. When manual control is stove will depend on many vari- tight stove can be loaded morning used, wood is simply burned on the ables such as the type of wood and night, its draft adjusted occa- floor of the firebox. Since air cannot burned, the thermal efficiency of sionally, and it will do the rest. rush up through the fire, as it would the building, and the way the stove Airtights come in many sizes and through grates, a more constant is used. A large space can be shapes. Several good models in- burn rate is given and a fire can heated quickly by a small stove cluding the Rightway, Ashley, and easily be held overnight or longer. operating at maximum burn rate; Downdrafter are manufactured in Stoves of this type should have a however, it would need to be fueled the U.S. and several good Scan- cast iron or firebrick liner to protect often and care taken not to over- Practices - Knowing the Trees 61

heat it. While this might be accept- heating system is used. When dealing with trees, varia- able in a workshop which is heated Several types of combination fuel tion is one of the most important only occasionally, it would not be a furnaces have come onto the mar- considerations; it touches all as- practical way to heat an entire ket. These use two fireboxes; one pects of tree study. The overall size house continuously. On the other for burning wood, one for burning of mature trees will be different de- hand, a large fully loaded stove oil or gas and sharing a common pending on soil, climate, and ex- burning at a very low rate will slow- circulation system. When wood is posure to the elements. The shape ly cook tars out of the wood to be available the gas or oil flame is shut of a tree will differ depending on vaporized and deposited on the down by a thermostat. If, however, where it is growing. For example, walls of the stovepipe and chimney. the homeowner does not feel like eastern white pine, an evergreen This is not the most energy effi- hauling in wood during bad weather found in the Watershed, will have a cient rate of burn, it clogs chimneys or the wood fire dies out at four in large crown with branches extend- quickly, and increases the likeli- the morning, the conventional fuel ing almost the entire length of its hood of a chimney fire should the burner will kick in to keep the house trunk if grown in the open. But tarry deposit ignite. comfortable. The combination fur- under more crowded forest condi- One stove can often effectively naces allow a house to be left for a tions, its trunk is often clear of heat several rooms in a house. period of time at a minimum temp- branches for one-half or more of its When a stove is set up in a central erature without the water pipes length and its upper branches will area, connected to other rooms by freezing and does provide great be less widespreading. large, wide doorways, fairly good convenience. They are full scale Variation is especially evident in natural warm air circulation is pos- heating systems, however, and use the parts of a tree. The leaf of the sible. Where doorways are narrow a multitude of mechanisms and white oak has a characteristic or hallways separate rooms, do not automatic controls. The price of a shape but no two of its leaves fit the expect much circulation. A stove good combined system may be as exact same pattern. Flowers, twigs, should be roughly sized to the area high as several thousand dollars. If and bark are also variable. the commitment to wood is definite, it can heat effectively. In fact, the variety extends right if a longterm source of cheap wood Some stoves are rated in square into nomenclature. Each tree has a is available, and if a new house is feet of area heated under average number of common names drawn being fit or an old central heating conditions. These figures can be from the place grown (river birch), system replaced, the investment used as guidelines when deciding locality or region (eastern white could be well justified. on the best size to install, but may pine), use (sugar maple), distinctive still be less important than good Perhaps we have abandoned a feature (shagbark hickory), or judgement and the experience of practical and renewable energy adaptation from another language others who burn wood. source too soon. We will probably (chinkapin oak). One tree may have never see a large scale shift back many common names or share an Wood Furnaces to wood fuel for home heating or identical name with a completely Efficiency 50-65% centralized power generating. But unrelated species. Confusion is with the price of non-renewable avoided, though, because ^ach Wood may be used as a source fuels rising, trees offer a balance tree has a unique scientific name in of central heat for a home. When that is becoming more attractive. Latin which is recognized world- wood is used as the sole heat With their abundance, they can be wide. While all this variety can be source and several unconnected enjoyed for their beauty in nature frustrating to a beginner, it keeps rooms are to be heated, a central and as a self renewing energy nature study from becoming boring. furnace circulating warm air or alternative in the home. Knowing which tree is which in it- water to all rooms may be the most self can be gratifying, but it is only economical and convenient heating KNOWING the beginning to additional environ- system. Since the furnace is gen- mental knowledge. Very important erally located in the basement, a THE TREES is site indication. While some trees large quantity of dry wood can be can be found growing in many stored nearby; dirty wood and STEVE GARRISON types of areas, other trees are more ashes are kept out of the living specific in their cultural require- area. ILLUSTRATED BY ments. The homeowner may not wish to ANNE JONES The kind of tree can indicate gen- scrap his existing gas or oil heating Dendrology is a fancy word for eral soil fertility, soil texture (sand, system but to add on woodburning the study of trees. This includes gravelly, clay) and moisture levels. capability. A woodburning firebox learning their names, their relation- It may also suggest whether a soil can often be placed alongside the ships or "roots" developed through is acid or more neutral and whether existing furnace and hooked into evolution and their identification in an area is richer in sun or shade. the circulation system. This is gen- the field through their leaves, twigs, Certain species favor higher eleva- erally easiest where a hot water flowers, fruits, and bark. tions such as chestnut oak which 62 Practices - Knowing the Trees

grows on drier and poorer soil for- Ideally tree identification for be- > over area from logging, or burned- mations. ginners is best done with someone over sites. It is a pioneer tree—one Trees with like cultural require- knowledgeable out in the field. of the first of the larger trees to ments group themselves into asso- County and state parks offer identi- grow on sunny exposed soils, pro- ciations or communities in different fication as well as other environ- viding cover for younger shade- stages of succession. Succession mental programs. Twigs and leaves loving trees. But by doing so, it is the evolutionary cycle a forest can also be sent into county agri- spells out its own doom because its goes through. Over many years a cultural stations for identification. seedlings can't tolerate the shade forest's tree community changes The following are some basic tree which it is providing. Besides grow- until it reaches a climax or stable guides which can be used: A Field ing in small stands, aspen can be state. Guide to Trees and Shrubs by found scattered along roadsides or Knowledge of a tree's favorite George A. Petrides (The Peterson edges of clearings and lakes—any- place to grow is useful in land man- Field Guide Series); Fruit Key and place where it is sure to receive agement for both town planners Twig Key to Trees and Shrubs, sunlight. Several characteristics will and homeowners. For example, William M. Harlow, Ph.D; and help identify quaking aspen in the sycamore and willow trees along Trees, A Guide to Familiar Amer- field. Its simple alternate rounded with other types of vegetation may ican Trees, A Golden Nature leaves which come to a point are indicate wet bottomland sites Guidebook. attached on thin flattened stalks or where development should be re- Below are six common Water- petioles causing them to flutter in stricted. shed trees to start with. Like good the faintest breeze. Quaking aspen is also commonly called trembling "Don't fight the site", an impor- friends, they should be visited at all aspen. Its bark is cream-colored to tant rule in landscaping, many times of the year in order to watch pale green with dark blotches but times is broken. This can mean their range of variation. becomes dark brown and furrowed drastically altering an area to ac- Quaking Aspen— near the bottom part of the trunk as commodate a house where it (Populus tremuloides) it grows older. Twigs are slender, doesn't belong or planting trees reddish-brown and lustrous with where they won't grow to their best Quaking aspen provides an insight sharp pointed side buds that curve advantage. Instead, trees properly into the earlier stages of plant suc- back into the twig. Bigtooth aspen identified and placed accordingly or cession along with the recent his- (Populus grandidentata), a close left unmanaged can moderate tem- tory of a place. Because of its relative of quaking aspen, is very peratures and humidity around a growth habits, the presence of this similar in general appearance and home. A good stand of hemlocks quick growing tree in a particular site requirements and is also wide- will act as an effective windbreak area indicates disturbance—an spread in our Watershed. However, in winter to reduce heating needs abandoned agricultural field, cut- and provide screening for privacy at the same time. Because wood is being used more to supplement home heating, y- tree identity is important because different woods have different fuel characteristics. Deciduous hard- woods such as ash, white oak, .*»- sugar maple, red oak, and beech have high heating values per cord of seasoned wood as compared to i the softer aspens, cottonwoods, and evergreens such as eastern white pine and Norway spruce. Knowing which type of wood is which will not only help to build a V,:.,'. better fire but will give you the best heating value for your dollar. With T most of the area's forestland in private ownership, woodlots are being used increasingly as a source of fuelwood and timber products. Tree identification is basic to sound forest management of these wooded areas to avoid in- discriminate cutting. Practices - Knowing the Trees 63

its twigs are stouter with side buds that point away from the twig. Its leaves are larger and coarser along their outer edges. Its bark is also more of an olive-green but it is not often readily distinguishable from that of the quaking aspen. The aspens are not recommended as a garden specimen unless quick shade and screening are desired. They are weak-wooded and not a long lasting tree. Per cord of wood, quaking aspen (also called popple) is low in heating value at 12,500,000 BTU's. If taken by weight, however, it compares more favorably in heat value to the other hardwoods. It is good for kindling V . i, • and for mixing with other hard- woods and is easy to split and burn. Avoid using it alone in your woodstove while it is still green for it tends to throw sparks and smoke. It is said that in pioneer days, an extract from its bark was used as a substitute for quinine.

American sycamore— Platanus occidentalis American sycamore, also called buttonwood and planetree is easily , v spotted throughout the year and at a distance. Considered to be one of the most massive trees here in the J :-\ eastern United States, its cinna- mon brown bark peels off in large flakes like torn wallpaper exposing its whitish to yellowish inner bark. Its rounded fruit heads made up of many smaller one-seeded fruits called achenes hang singly from long stems attached to the branches like Christmas tree orna- ments throughout much of winter. Leaves are broad and fan-shaped with the ends of its stems fitting i. snugly over next year's buds. Twigs are dark, orange-brown, and con- spicuously grow in a zig-zag pat- tern giving the entire tree a twisted appearance. Fast growing Amer- ican sycamores can live up to 600 petition with other trees. It may be years of age, reaching heights of more is the only native sycamore used as an ornamental along with over 100 feet and diameters of up tree in our Watershed. Its trunk its hybrid London plane (Platanus to eight feet. Look for this tree on often becomes hollow with age and acerifolia). This tree is similar to moist fertile bottomlands especially was used by Indians for dugout American sycamore except that its along the floodplains of streams canoes. As a fuelwood, it has a inner bark is more of an olive and along lakes either scattered or medium rating for heat, burning, green or yellowish in color, and its in small stands. It is intolerant, how- and smoke. Avoid burning it green rounded fruits may be in groups of ever, and does not do well in com- because of its high moisture con- twos and threes. American syca- tent. 64 Practices - Knowing the Trees

V, •./•

Shagbark hickory— (Carya Ovata)

On a cold winter night, shagbark hickory burning in the woodstove can be the best of companions. As a firewood, it has the highest heat- ing value per cord of seasoned wood in our area. Our ancestors in of which are large and clustered on leaves are red when they first ap- colonial times favored hickory as a the end of the twig. Shellbarkjhjck- pear with leafstalks of the same fuelwood because of its great ory (Carya laciniosa) is very simi- color. In general, maples are our warmth and, since it burned bright- iar to shagbark but has seven to only area hardwoods with opposite ly, for its illumination. Indians made nine leaflets on a stalk and favors fan-shaped leaves. The leaves of a fermented drink called powco- wetter, bottomland sites. Hickory red maple are simple with three hiccora from its crushed nuts. usually indicates a fertile moist soil to five shallow lobes, whitened Identification of shagbark hickory in but may be found on drier slopes underneath. Its fruit, called a key or the woods is sometimes difficult. and ridges in the chestnut oak samara, has the shape of a horse- This tree belongs to an unstable community of higher elevations. shoe and also has a red color. It is genus so that hybridization be- Like the oaks with which hickory is readily carried by the wind, which is tween similar species often occurs commonly found growing, shag- one of the reasons the tree is so producing varieties with similar bark hickory needs sun when abundant and widespread. A good characteristics. A good field char- young and is slow growing. Hickory identification feature in the winter is acteristic is its bark, which while is generally not favored as a land- its reddish twigs with dark red buds smooth and gray on young stems, scape tree. Heat is 24,600,000 that have overlapping scales. Silver soon breaks up into loose strips BTU's per seasoned cord. It splits maple (Acer saccharinum) has which curl away from the trunk at fairly easy and throws few sparks. similar twigs but they have an un- both ends while remaining fastened Hickory burned green is great for pleasant odor when broken. The in the middle. This characteristic smoking meats. It has a good bark of red maple is smooth and will help differentiate it from other aroma when burned. very light gray when young but be- hickories such as pignut (Carya comes broken and darker as it gets glabra), mockernut (Carya tomen- older. The red maple can be found tosa), and bitternut (Carya cordi- Red maple—(Acer rubrum) in bogs, swamps, flood plains, and formis) whose bark is not shaggy better drained upland areas here in and whose twigs have smaller Red maple lives up to its name with our Watershed. Although it also terminal buds. Shagbark hickory grows on rocky, higher sites, it is has stout reddish-brown twigs with either twigs, buds, flowers, fruits, or leaves boasting red color during generally a good indicator of a wet large brown terminal buds over site and grows best in damp soils— one-half inch in length. Leaves are appropriate times of the year. It is one of the first trees to bloom in the it is also called swamp maple. alternate, with five lance-shaped October Glory, one of its varieties, leaflets on a stalk or rachis, three spring with reddish flowers that ap- pear before the leaves unfold. The is a good ornamental and shade Practices - Knowing the Trees 65 tree with brilliant scarlet leaf color in the fall. Red maple offers a good compromise lor fuelwood. It is abundant, easy to grow, relatively disease-free, a vigorous seeder and sprouter with fast maturity in 70 to 80 years. Yet it has a relatively high heating value providing 18,600,000 BTU's of heat. Its split- ability is rated fair and throws few sparks when seasoned. Because its wood is lighter than sugar maple, it is also called soft maple.

American beech— (Fagus grandifolia)

If you're confronted with a tree with someone's initials carved into its smooth, bluish-grey bark, it's a sure bet that it is an American beech. The words "beech" and "book" can be traced from similar Anglo-Saxon words. Tradition has it that early Germanic peoples wrote on wood tablets of this genus. In the field, look for smaller light-colored trees surrounding the base of the main with good strength. It is easy to beech—it is rated as an excellent tree, growing from its shallow root burn and split (it will season more firewood with a high heating value system. These sprouts along with readily when split) and throws few of 21,800,000 BTU's per sea- the parent tree tend to hold on to sparks. You'll stay warm with soned cord. many of their dead leaves through- out winter. The leaves are elliptical to egg-shaped with sharp incurved teeth along their margins. In winter- time its crooked twigs have long cigar-shaped, pointed alternate buds. Slow-growing beech is wide- spread in the mixed-oak, sugar maple and hemlock-mixed hard- wood communities in the Passaic Watershed. It is the only species of beech native to our area and the U.S. as a whole. It favors fertile up- land soils with soil surface layers that stay moist. As a young tree, it is very tolerant of shade so that it will grow under the canopy of other trees. American beech was used in colonial gardens for ornamentation. When grown in the open it needs plenty of room for growing because of its widespreading nature. Euro- pean beech (Fagus sylvatica), a relative from the Old World, along with some of its varieties in upright and weeping forms is favored among the beeches for land- scaping. Beech is a heavy wood 66 Practices - Planting for a Longer Season

PLANTING FOR A LONGER SEASON

MIRIAM GREEN

There is an up-and-down to gar- dening; digging down—pulling up, cutting down—tying up, bend- ing down—and trying to straighten up. The prices of March-April, Oct- -. .^j i.- • .• -- ober-November vegetables are all up-up-up and until they go down I'd rather bend than take a trip to the market miles away. There's a good uplifting feeling about stepping out- side to the sunny spot that slopes gently down to the winter sun, to pick a fresh salad just before sup- per time; to cut fresh parsley, bok choy, mustard greens and onion tops into a soup or omelet. r Here is a chart for planting and harvesting seeds, sets and bulbs that extends the season for fresh produce and saves energy by cut- ting down the need for car trips, are also characteristic, broken up freezing, canning, drying, and the White oak—(Quercus alba) into evenly spaced and rounded fuels and work-time involved. lobes that are moderately cut into Note: This is not a complete list. The sturdy appearance and long the middle of the leaf. The fruit In some areas there are other life of oak trees have made them of the white oak is an acorn which wild greens available that will not the objects of worship and admi- into the middle of the leaf. The fruit grow in a frost pocket 700 feet ration from ancient times. The white of the white oak is an acorn which above sea level. oak was the favorite oak of Ameri- is distributed for reseeding with the The chart relies heavily on per- can colonists and is one of our most help of the gray squirrel. These sonal preference and experience. important trees in the east. A slow acorns were used by Indians and That is why there are lots of spaces growing tree, some specimens live early settlers who made them more that can be filled with notes on indi- as long as 500 to 800 years and edible by boiling them in water to vidual experiments. grow to 150 feet in height. Because remove tannins. White oak with its The asterisks indicate plants of this slow growth, its wood is one deep root system will grow on many which will reseed if allowed to come of the heaviest and strongest of the soil types, dry or moist, but best to term. We still get ground cher- hardwoods. Oaks are notorious for development is on uplands with soil ries, bok choy, pepper cress, bor- extreme variability in their parts so that is deep and moist with good age and comfrey 10 generations that identification among them is drainage. It is one of the most removed from the original seeding. not always easy. However, a good abundant of the oaks in the mixed Asparagus is unlisted in the chart field characteristic for the white oak oak forest community in the well because it needs three to four is its white to ashy-gray bark, drained uplands of the Watershed. years to reach the cutting stage, but broken up into shallow irregular It is also found in the chestnut oak when it gets there....the fat spears scales, soft to the touch and easily forest community of the steeper can be cut from mid-April to mid- rubbed off with the hand. With slopes and ridges at higher eleva- June. It will also reseed, and every some practice, this bark will begin tions. Seedlings of oak grow poorly precious plant deserves a rich and to stand out among the other hard- in shade. Fires and timbering in our spacious place in the sun. woods in the Watershed. Its green- area have provided open condi- Rhubarb needs at least a year to ish-red to grayish twigs have small tions favorable for its development. reach the cutting stage: the timing rounded reddish brown buds clus- Well-seasoned white oak rates very depends on whether you plant a tered at the end. This clustering is a high in fuel value at 22,700,000 seedling, a cutting, or an older off- good indication that you're dealing BTU's per cord of wood. It's easy to shoot from the mother plant. Other with oaks in the first place. Leaves burn and split. factors include the amount of nu- Practices - Homesteading in Paterson c>7

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. PAR.A$Ct~/"""'*°°'"('AFTER- A HARP _ AMP BSCAROI-B' • CHICORY KALE M BK.6CC OJ-I .. SPROUTS trients in the soil, the sunlight, moisture, and space around the HOMESTEADING IN PATERSON plants. We sometimes can cut stalks in late April, if we pull aside WILLIAM LINDSAY the mulch at the first thaw. But our patch is in an area that stays frozen because it doesn't get enough early Since coming to Paterson thirty gram, under the direction of the spring sun. However, when the years ago, Carlos Pagan has main- Department of Housing and Urban crop is abundant, I freeze the raw tained a not very unusual dream. Development (HUD), has been stalks for late fall and use them with Like most people who find them- around since 1975. The purpose of apples in season. Most of the rhu- selves paying their hard-earned the program is to distribute homes, barb ripens with the peak of the money to a landlord each month, which have been confiscated by strawberry season, which is a love- Mr. Pagan has always looked for- HUD for defaulted mortgages, ly example of good companionship! ward to the day when he would be- to municipal governments who then Since there has to be at least one come a homeowner. Last summer arrange for local home owner- recipe in each article of the series, while reading a city-paid ad in a i ship. "Target neighborhoods" are let me offer this for Strawberry- local newspaper, he began to feel chosen based on the rate of aban- Rhubarb Compote: boil a cup of his time had come. doned housing, downward eco- apple juice or water to a cup of Buy a house for a dollar? Win the nomic trends, and feasibility of sugar while you wash and cut the opportunity to be a landowner in a preservation, among other factors. rhubarb. Add the pieces of rhubarb, lottery? Get a long-term loan at 3% Guidelines are established by HUD 2 cups (or 3 if you like it tart), boil to make repairs? It sure sounded for participant selection, choice of no longer than it takes to get ten- good to Carlos Pagan and about 30 sites, and rehabilitation costs. der. Pour the hot mixture over other applicants for Paterson's first Paterson's target area is the hilly, hulled, raw strawberries, (1 cup or Urban Homesteading Program. sprawling neighborhood of one and two). Serve with poultry, or in pastry The applicants were screened in two family homes known as the shells, or over ice cream or topped a series of interviews to determine Northside. Originally a mixed Eu- with yogurt. It also goes well with financial ability to participate in the ropean working-class neighbor- pork. If that is too tart for you, program. Pagan was judged eli- hood, the area has seen some sweeten it to your taste. We find gible and was picked in a lottery as changes as a result of the flight of rhubarb is sweeter in the first crop- one of the two recipients. the textile industry from the city. ping. The Federal Homesteading Pro- Blacks and Hispanics now form a 68 Practices - Homesteading in Paterson

majority of the residents. Many own and churches are still functioning, pairs." She adds, "Two houses their own homes and have middle and are conveniently located as won't make that much difference." range incomes. But home owner- centers for community organiza- Carlos Pagan lends support to ship has declined in the Northside tion. The Northside somehow man- Mrs. Nickelson's concern. Mr. in the last 20 years and abandoned aged to escape some of the des- Pagan, a widower with two chil- houses, absentee landlords, and tructive characteristics of Pat- dren, earns a modest income as a poverty-level residents have in- erson's industrial past. Facto- maintenance worker with St. creased. ries and mills are not crammed to- Joseph's School in Paterson. He is When some Talking Wood staff gether against stores and houses reluctant to accept the 15-year, members visited the neighborhood and apartment buildings, as in $20,000 loan at 3% interest offered recently, they asked directions from many of Paterson's other neighbor- through HUD to make the basic re- a Paterson policeman who was sit- hoods. pairs. "I want a small loan for ma- ting in a patrol car, just a few blocks The scope of the present home- terials," Pagan said. "I want to do from the Northside. "Oh, you don't steading program in Paterson is the work myself." want to go there," he said. When limited. After an initial public rela- Time limitations built into the they persisted he gave them the di- tions push, the program has been Homesteading Act may prevent Mr. rections but warned that they marred by a lack of progress. Al- Pagan from doing the work him- should be "very, very careful, it's a though advanced publicity indi- self. Homesteaders must move into rough area." cated that an attempt would be their new homes within six months. A walk through the area leaves a made to put ten houses up for The local housing code prevents mixed impression of almost hope- ownership before January 1, 1980, occupancy until all plumbing, heat- less decay side by side with the to this date only two houses have ing, roofing, and electrical work is kind of ambitious dignity that is been distributed and no repair work completed and inspected. In addi- common to a working class suburb. has even begun on these. tion, if the house is not completely Some of the homes have certainly Irma Gorham, senior planner for restored within three years, the seen better days. Foundations and the city's Division of Housing, ex- homesteader will not receive the sidewalks are rapidly decaying into plained that legal considerations deed to the property. rubble. But on almost every block and complications have slowed the If Pagan does accept the loan, there is at least one home that is program's development. "There the city will put the contracts for undergoing some type of repair, are a lot of procedures and steps the major repairs up for bid. Only and many of the houses appear we must go through in order to pro- HUD approved contractors will be neat and well cared for. tect the city's interests and the fu- considered. The area is a short walk from the ture property owners' interests. The There are other problems that center of the city and is close to transfer of title from HUD to the city Mr. Pagan has had to face in pur- both public transportation and and then to the homeowner is a suit of his dream of homeowner- stores. The neighborhood schools complicated process." ship. One of the regulations of the Ms. Gorham added that in the program required the securing of beginning of the program there fire and liability insurance before were some problems in getting ap- work begins. But the insurance propriate properties from HUD to company refused to insure the use for homesteading. The man- property until the house was oc- i_ ager for HUD's properties in Pater- cupied. Because of the housing son is a local real estate agent, code Pagan couldn't move in until Richard Hajjar. "We felt that the the work was completed. He found r,,fcLc. properties the agent (Hajjar) was himself caught between the city's showing us were too dilapidated." regulations and the insurance com- Ms. Gorham said these problems pany's policies. When asked about have been "straightened out". Mr. Pagan's predicament, Irma Gorham of Paterson's HUD ex- Orabelle Nickelson, an active plained that the problem has since community leader in the neighbor- been resolved through the assist- hood, feels there is an additional ance of her office. "We've dis- problem. Although Mrs. Nickelson covered that we have to meet with agrees that rehabilitating housing is the insurance companies now to a key to the survival of the North- explain the program and ask for side, she points out that "the their cooperation." people who would want to live in Carlos Pagan's future home is this neighborhood are not neces- not exactly a "handyman's delight" sarily the ones who can afford to Carlos Pagan, urban homesteader. —it's a handyman's nightmare. The take out a long-term loan for re- plumbing, heating, and electri- Practices - Home Energy Conservation

cal fixtures are either missing or destroyed. There is a large gaping hole in the roof. Most of the win- dows are broken and what exterior paint is left is falling off the build- ing. There is a mass of debris in the backyard that was dragged out of the house sometime during the transfer of the property from HUD to the city. And there's a wide, deep hole in the sidewalk in front of the building. Although Pagan has had to face the hardships of inflation, red tape, and bureaucracy in his attempt at urban homesteading, he clings to his dream. He is optimistic. Stand- ing outside his newly acquired house, Pagan pointed to an old but well-kept van parked at the curb. "It's like my car. It's a little beat up, but it's all mine."

House in the Northside which Pagan purchased through HUD's Federal Homesteading Program.

and watershed. For example, an HOME ENERGY CONSERVATION understanding of why energy con- servation is necessary and how and why it, works opens the door to: GEORGE TUKEL AND JIM RYAN • a lessened dependence on the utility companies and other (system of energy supply and) Houses are a familiar feature of While viewed from many different outside energy resources the local landscape. Some seem vantage points, houses, until re- (stabilizing availability) with a uniquely suited to the terrain, with a cently, have not been understood corresponding sense of secu- form and use of materials that re- as thermal environments. "How rity and lessening of fear, veal a sensitivity to the micro- well does the envelope (shell) of a • a reasonable financial invest- environment, climate and culture. house act as a resister to heat flow ment that will return more Others are so out of time and place from the warm inside to the cool money on the dollar over a that the visual impression left is of a outdoors?" is a question people period of years as opposed to junked car abandoned in the jungle. only ask today because of high other low-risk investment ven- Understood at an almost uncon- energy usage and rising energy tures, scious level by the people who in- costs. If the perception of the house • an individual and community habit them, they offer protection as a thermal environment is based effort at breaking vicious large- from the elements, a place where on a certain material necessity— scale economic and social personal and group histories de- the lowering of energy demands so cycles; the most obvious being velop and mature within a built en- the costs of "operating the house" increased inflation caused by vironment and a commitment of don't cut into hard-earned money; a foreign trade deficit which it- financial resources which could it offers house dwellers the oppor- self results from the flow of easily be the largest investment a tunity to re-situate themselves in capital out of the country to the person or family will be making. relation to their living environments oil-producing nations and, 70 Practices - Home Energy Conservation

• perhaps most importantly; loss is cold outside air moving into By cleaning, checking and replacing conservation, by reducing the house—infiltration. It occurs elementary parts (especially filters) and overall energy demand, lays through the cracks of the building by having an annual servicing of the the foundation for an energy itself, the openings cut out for the heating plant, the efficiency of the heat- future in which the Watershed doors and windows, and window ing plant can be increased, which re- and door joints. With any wind at sults in a reduction of fuel needed to population will be sustained by produce the desired indoor tempera- the renewable resources of all, cold air will wash into the in- tures. the bioregion. terior because of these openings. At present energy conservation Care taken in sealing these cracks Operation measures qualify for a 15 percent is the obvious solution. The cleaning replacement of filters can tax credit on the first $2000 Within this context, energy con- easily be done by the homeowner (or servation applications can be servicer). The tune-up should be done spent. (See IRS publication by a heating contractor. #903, "Energy Credits for Individ- ranked according to their potential uals.") The Senate has recently tor saving the most energy for the Appropriate Site Conditions approved a bill which would allow smallest amount of money in- This application is appropriate for up to 50 percent of energy con- vested. Implicit in the ranking pro- homes with oil, gas or coal heating servation costs as a tax credit, up cess is the life-span of the energy plants, but not for homes using electric to $1000. In addition to these tax conserving application, its initial resistance heating. incentives, there is a program cost and inflation rates which com- Service Checklist which provides free weatherization pare fuel inflation, general inflation, The following are typical procedures for to low-income homeowners who and possible alternative invest- servicing the three types of heating meet certain income requirements ments for the money being invested plants: or who are elderly or handicapped. in energy conservation. Call your local community action Using these criteria we ranked Gas Furnace agency for information. possible energy-conserving appli- A smart energy conservation cations into packages to serve as individual (Each Year) program should define those areas guides for homeowner installation 1. Turn off pilot light in summer. as budget permits. 2. Before relighting pilot at the begin- of greatest heat loss (based on the ning of the heating season, vacuum in- housing stock and construction side furnace to remove dirt, dust, etc. practices) and counter that heat Package #1 from heat transfer surfaces. loss with an effective and relatively No Cost/ Low Cost Service Technician (Every 3 Years) inexpensive technology. 1-Close off rooms that are not essential For the residential wood-frame 1. Check operation of main gas valve, during the heating season. regulation, and safety control valve. and masonry building in the Pas- 2-Have the furnace tuned up. 2. Adjust primary air supply nozzle for saic Watershed, we have to look at 3-Set-back the space heating thermo- proper combustion. the way heat moves through the stat at night or install a night set- 3. Clean thermostat contacts and ad- living spaces of the house and out back thermostat. just for proper operation. of it. The most understood and rec- 4-Turn down the temperature on the 4. Perform draft test to see if heat is ognized form of heat loss is through hot water heater to between "low" being lost up the chimney or if draft is the envelope by conduction (the and "medium" (120°F.) and insulate not enough to properly burn your gas. it. movement of heat energy through 5. Perform CO2 and CO tests to see if solids). As heat generated by the 5-Seal any cracks or holes in ducting fuel is being burned completely. systems where hot air space heating 6. Perform stack temperature test to furnace or boiler moves through systems are in place. the distribution system (ducts or see if stack gases are too hot or not 6-lnstall water conservation devices. hot enough. pipes) into the living spaces, 7-lnsulate ducts or pipes. energy will be lost because of the Oil Burner inefficiency of the heating plant, Heating Plant heat loss through the ducts and Efficiency Individual (Each Year) pipes to the basement or wall cavi- 1. Check for oil leaks. ties, and from the interior of the Description Most heating plants do not run effi- 2. Clean heating elements and sur- house through all exterior lacing faces. A soot deposit 1/8 inch thick surfaces. The greatest losses will ciently. Beyond being over-designed in the first place, they usually are not may increase fuel consumption by occur at the ceiling or roof because given the maintenance attention they almost 9%. of the pressure of the rising heat deserve. 3. Check to see if draft regulator moves and, secondly, through the win- freely. dows because of their low resist- Maintenance falls generally into two 4. Lubricate oil pump motor as per ance to heat flow. These problem areas: (1) What homeowners can do manufacturers instructions. areas are usually remedied with in- for themselves, i.e., replacing cleaning filters, keeping registers clean, and sulation, storm windows, and fur- Service Technician (Every Year) cleaning the fan blades that move the 1. Adjust and clean burner unit. nace tune-ups. air through the heating system; and 2. Adjust fuel to air ratio for maximum The other major cause of heat (2) an annual service tune-up. efficiency. Practices - Home Energy Conservation 71

3. Check electrical connections, espe- Coal Furnace lower indoor temperatures are appro- cially on safety devices. (At End of Each Heating Season) priate. This usually means the times 4. Adjust dampers and draft regulator. when people are sleeping at night, or 5. Change oil filters. Individual when a family is out of the house during 6. Change air filter. 1. Clean burner of all coal, ash and school and working hours. This directly 7. Change oil burner nozzle. clinkers. lowers the heating demand of the 8. Check oil pump. 2. Oil the inside of the coal screw and house and results in lower energy 9. Clean house thermostat contacts hopper to prevent rust. costs. and adjust. 10. Draft test to see if heat is being lost Service Technician Operation up the chimney or if draft is not enough 1. Adjust and clean the stoker. The operation of the thermostat re- to properly burn your oil. quires the user to: (1) set the upper 11. Smoke test to see if your oil is being Alternative Controls and lower temperature limits desired, burned cleanly and completely. and (2) determine the periods of time during the day/night for set-back. A 12. CO 2 test to see if fuel is being Description battery must be replaced every 5-7 burned completely. The purpose of alternative controls is years, as well. 13. Stack temperature test to see if to substitute or introduce a hardware stack gases are too hot or not hot component that will reduce the energy enough. demand of houses where fuel is being Appropriate Site Conditions 14. Check for sources of air leakage in- wasted by having the thermostats set There are two basic types of thermo- to the furnace. This can be done by too high. stats used in residential heating sys- using a candle and observing those tems. The first operates on 120 volts points at which the flame is pulled by Presently, this means replacing the and functions by breaking and connect- the furnace draft. All sources of air present thermostat(s) with one(s) that ing the line voltage that would allow the leakage should be sealed with a good automatically set back the desired heating system to operate. These ther- grade of furnace cement. temperature during specific times when mostats are usually found on oil-fired

lev VOLTAGE SETTING. VOLT METeK- 15-25 V.

BX CA.&LB 72 Practices - Home Energy Conservation

heating systems that were built and in- stalled before 1960. The second type of thermostat operates on low voltage (24 volts) and functions in the same fashion as the 120 volt thermostat. Presently, the set-back thermostat should be installed only on 24-volt ther- mostats. To summarize, set-back ther- mostats should only be used with con- ventional 24 volt, two-wire electric, gas, or oil heating systems. If necessary, test with a volt meter to determine voltage.

Information Necessary The number of thermostats (and their voltage) in the house must be known. Note that in houses with electrical re- (14-V , LoV VOLTA.C.& ONLY) sistance heating it is common to find several thermostats throughout the house. Water Conservation systems, in place, on the homeowners land. Description Operations Hot Water Heater Water, in a residential household, sup- Once installed, water conservation ports several primary activities. Cold technologies require no maintenance Description water is used to carry wastes from the by the homeowner. It is generally accepted that the heating home. Hot water is used for bathing, of domestic hot water can account for Appropriate Site Conditions laundering, dishwashing, and kitchen The installation of water Conserving de- as much as 15-20% of a household's uses. annual energy use. vices are dependent on the plumbing The direct economic benefits of water fixtures in place (see installation drawings). The actual amount of energy used is conservation lie in the reduced cost of water and the reduced energy cost to dependent on a family's water con- Dimensions Necessary heat the water for household purposes. sumption habits, the size of the hot Number of people in the household water heater in the house, and the amount of energy needed to heat the Indirect benefits lie in the preserving of Number of toilets water as a natural resource and in a cold water coming into the house (at Number of faucets with diameter of reduction in the cost of water as related approximately 55° F) to a temperature spouts of 140° F - 160°F and then to maintain to wastewater treatment (which usually that water temperature inside the tank. show up through taxes) or increased Number of shower heads with diameter The major standby heat loss is through longevity of the cesspools/septic tank of piping the jacket of the hot water heater even though it has already been insulated by the manufacturer. Installation of Water Conservation Devices Waste Removal/Toilet - Is the flush valve in working order? Operations Yes No Once installed, insulation requires no Water Dams New Dual Flush Valve maintenance by the homeowner. Bathing/Shower - Will the existing shower head accept a flow control device? Appropriate Site Conditions Insulation can be applied to either gas Yes No or electric hot water heaters. Note: In Flow Control New Low-Volume Shower Head the case of gas hot water heaters, care must be taken not to block air intakes. Manual Dish/Hand Washing/Faucet - Will the fixture or lines accept a flow control device? Note: The cheapest way to reduce domestic water heating costs is to turn Yes No down the thermostat on the hot water heater. Most heaters are set between Recommended 140 F and 160 F, but 120 F is more Flow Control/Aerator Flow Control to New Low-Volume Faucet than adequate. (Adaptor may be Fit Into Line Dimensions Necessary necessary) to fit (Not recommended Diameter of hot water heater into faucet since disconnecting lines in old fixtures Height of hot water heater may lead to leaks) Practices - Home Energy Conservation 73

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Duct/Pipe Insulation Description In any centralized residential heating system, there must be a way to deliver the heat produced by the heating plant to the different living spaces (zones) in the house. This is done by passing a fluid (air or water) through a furnace (if the fluid is air) or a boiler (if the fluid is water/steam) where it picks up the heat (through a heat exchanger). The heat is then carried to the different areas of the house through duct work (if air is the circulation medium) or pipes (if water/ steam is the circulation medium). As the air moves through the duct work or as the water/steam moves through the pipes, they can lose their heat, by conduction, through the duct/pipes. The purpose of insulating the ducts/ pipes is to reduce this heat loss. This results in the heating plant having to produce less heat to reach the desired indoor temperature and consequently less money is spent on fuel. Operations Once installed, pipe/duct insulation re- quires no maintenance by the home- owner. Appropriate Site Conditions 1. Duct/pipes should only be insulated in unheated non-living areas, such as basements or attics. Note: It has been recommended by some that in the case WORKING WITH WASTE of ducts/pipes lying next to an exposed uninsulated floor, the.t the pipes/ducts ILENE GREENFIELD be left uninsulated so the heat given off by them would rise and warm the floor (an area which is usually cooler than "Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one the rest of the room). It is advisable, though, to insulate both the floor and night suffocate in your own waste...This we know. The piping whenever possible. earth does not belong to man; man belongs to earth. This 2. For ducts/pipes to be insulated, they we know. All things are connected like the blood which have to be accessible: unites one family. All things are connected." A. Ducts that can be insulated will be normally found in the basement ceil- Chief Seattle, leader of the Suquamish ing and on the attic floor. tribe, Washington Territory - 1854 B. Water/steam pipes that can be in- sulated will normally be found in the basement ceiling. "One of our problems in dealing for better—the perception that most 3. In some cases, ducts for hot air sys- with ecology is that so much of the tems will be made out of a rigid fiber- material by-products of human ac- glass board. In these cases, do not population is removed from the en- tivity are useless is being aban- insulate over this type of duct work. vironment. We no longer know if doned. One person's waste news- we're helping it or destroying it," papers are another person's Dimensions Necessary says Jim Markstein, director of cellulose insulation. In fact, at least Length of each section of pipe to be Ramapo College's Alternate En- two-thirds of the material resources insulated ergy Center. that we now waste could be re- Length of each section of duct work to used without any important Waste be insulated (supply ducts only) changes in our lifestyles. Diameter of the pipe Waste is a human concept. In If you are a typical American nature nothing is wasted, every- your lifetime garbage will equal at Width of the duct work thing is part of a continuous cycle. least 600 times your own weight— Height of the duct work For better or worse—but probably most of which will have been con- Practices - Working with Waste 75

sumed, used just one, and then dis- Environmental and Economic study by the Newark Department carded. But as the cost of Benefits of Recycling of Engineering showed that waste extracting virgin materials in- paper and newsprint represented There are many environmental creases and dumping grounds for 35 percent to 50 percent (by benefits to recycling. For instance, so-called wastes become ex- weight) of all the municipal solid for every ton of newspapers re- hausted, wastes are increasingly Waste. Developed jointly by the cycled, 17 trees need not be cut being looked upon as an important Dept. of Engineering, High Impact, down. A tree that is not cut down commodity. the Office of Newark Studies, and or a ton of ore which is not mined with help from the Newark Rede- can be saved for future use, and velopment and Housing Authority, Recycling wilderness areas where these raw Project Resource presented a sup- materials are found can be saved New Jersey residents no longer portive work program in which ex- from further despoliation. have much choice about the dis- offenders could develop business posal of garbage. Landfills have Making aluminum products from and management skills while pro- reached saturation and the state recycled materials conserves about viding a service to the community. Department of Environmental Pro- 95% of the energy required in Five years later Newark Recycl- tection now recognizes the ecolog- making these products from raw ing has secured contracts to re- ical hazards in both land and sea ore which is mined primarily outside cycle office paper from 65 loca- dumping. In accordance with this the United States. Similarly, manu- tions, already handles more than recognition the state has mandated facturing one ton of newsprint from 500 tons of paper a year, and is that counties are to form solid old newspapers results in an en- emphasizing expanding its residen- waste districts and are required to ergy savings of up to five million tial collection program. Plans call prepare management plans. The BTU's or about one barrel of oil. for greater self-sufficiency and re- question these counties are grap- Recycling also provides econom- ducing the dependence on govern- pling with is how can they most ic benefits to municipalities and in- ment support while increasing rev- effectively recover both energy and dustries. Municipalities that recycle enues from the sale of recyclable valuable materials from solid are paid for materials they would materials. Centers for reclaiming wastes. otherwise pay to dispose of. Dump- glass and aluminum are now being ing fees are lower because the vol- Source Separation planned in cooperation with other ume of solid waste is reduced. community-based organizations. Several states have enacted a A stated goal of New Jersey's Project Director Donald Bernard recycling law litter tax which helps comprehensive program to deal sees opportunity in the business of support municipal and regional re- with wastes is to extract from the resource recovery, but acknowl- cycling programs by mandating that stream of garbage materials which edges that there have been other industries which manufacture prod- have been used once and can be times when the business of recy- ucts usually associated with litter, recycled to be used again, such as cling extracted much more than it such as packaging, set aside a glass, aluminum and newspapers. does today. During World War II, specified amount of dollars for the As it is planned these materials for instance, or in any time of great recycling industry. These funds are would be separated out at their necessity, nearly everything was then used to educate the public place of generation—the home, recycled or reused. There are par- about recycling and to provide re- office or commercial center. This is ticular challenges to overcome in ceptacles for waste in public areas. called source separation. After an urban area such as Newark, re- these materials are separately col- Some states require all automo- lates Bernard. Low income families lected their condition can be up- biles and boats to carry a litter re- or those poorly educated do not graded, if necessary, and recycled ceptacle in the vehicle. Such legis- value recycling high in their priority for use in the production of new lation has been endorsed by the list. products. American Public Works Associ- The state plan has a goal of 20% ation, the AFL-CIO, the Aluminum In East Orange, N.J., Sanitation solid waste reduction through the Workers International Union, Clean Superintendent Dominick J. operation of source separation pro- World International and 27 nations. D'Altilio says you can tell the kind grams. Currently, 45 municipalities of household by taking a good look Newark Recycling Incorporated in the Passaic Watershed have at what they throw out. The nature source separation programs, usu- Newark Recycling Incorporated and volume of trash also varies x ally on a voluntary basis. Citizen is an example of the growth pos- with the season. participation in voluntary programs sible in the relatively new area of The city has recently begun curb- ranges from 20% to 30%, a figure resource recovery. side collection of newspapers in that increases as convenience to Starting out in 1975 as Project contract with Newark Recycling the participant increases (i.e. curb- Resource, the program was funded Inc., but D'Altilio has gone further side collection). When mandated by the Office of Criminal Justice in taking advantage of available by an ordinance, however, partici- Planning and operated by former government funding for reducing pation doubles. criminal offenders. A municipal solid waste in his town. 76 Practices - Working with Waste

RECYCLING IN THE PASSAIC WATERSHED Materials Materials Town Collected Sponsoring Organization Town Collected Sponsoring Organization

Allendale P.G.AI, Boy Scouts (P) 342-8600 Mendham . P,G,AI Jaycees Girl Scouts (G,A1) 845-4700 Millburn P*,G Town 376-2030 p. Bloomfield Town 743-4400 Montclair P*,G,AI Town 783-5600 Bloomingdale G,AI Boy Scouts 728-8992 Youth Involvement 838-7155 Montvale P Fire Dept. 395-5700

Butler P Boy Scouts 728-8992 Montville P,G,AI Girl Scouts 538-4936

Caldwell P* Environmental Commission Morris Plains P, Fire Dept. 538-2224 226-6100 Carlstadt P Ambulance Corps 438-4300 Morris Township P,G Fire Dept. (P) 539-4880 Kiwanis Club 635-0809 Chatham P,G,AI Methodist Church 635-7740 (Jaycees) Newark P,G,AI Schools 733-8650 Newark Recycling Inc. 643-0400 Clifton P* Town (DPW) 473-2600 Ext. 13 Jaycees (G) Denville G,P,AI Town (DPW) 627-8900 Ext. 24 Iron Bound & Branch Brook Sr. Citizens East Hanover P,G,M,T American Legion 887-7145 City (P) 733-3834 Fire Dept. 887-5454 Boy Scouts 361-1800 Passaic Township P,AI Boy Scouts 278-8992 Girl Scouts 790-7560 Fair Lawn G Jaycees Ramsey P,G,Al Boy Scouts (P,G) 342-8600 Franklin Lakes P* Boy Scouts 342-8600 Girl Scouts (G) 845-4700

Glen Rock P*,G,AI Town 447-2555 Ridgewood P,G,AI,T Town 444-5500

Hackensack P*;G City 342-3000 Ring wood P* Town 692-7037

Hanover P,G,AI Fire Dept. 887-1000 Rutherford P* Town 939-0020

Harding P,G,M Town 267-2448 Saddle Brook P Boy Scouts 342-8600 Police Dept. 843-7000 Hasbrouck Heights p. Rifle Club Saddle River P*,AI Zion Lutheran Church 327-0655 Hillsdale P Boy Scouts 342-8600 Girl Scouts 845-4700 Upper Saddle River P* Boy Scouts 342-8600

Ho-ho-kus P,AI Girl Scouts 845-4700 Verona P Presbyterian Church 239-3561

Lodi P Boy Scouts 342-8600 Wanaque P Haskell School (Summer) Girl Scouts 845-4700 Police Dept. 835-5600

Lyndhurst G,AI C.A.P.A.B.L.E. 438-7057 Wayne G Town drop on Dey Road

Madison P,G,M Boy Scouts 361-1800 West Orange P*,G Town 325-4159 p. Maywood P Boy Scouts 342-8600 Woodridge Fire Dept. 939-0476 Lutheran Church of the Redeemer 327-0148 Wyckoff P Boy Scouts 342-8600 •Denotes recycling of particular material mandated by ordinance. P-paper; G-glass; Al-aluminum; M-metal; T-tin

Reynolds Aluminum Mobile Recycling Unit now pays 23c per pound and picks up recyclable aluminum at the following Watershed locations. For further information regarding Mobile Unit Stops, call toll free (800) 228-2525

Dover Two Guys, Route 46 West 2nd and 4th Fridays each month 10-11 A.M. Newark Ironbound Boys Club 2nd and 4th Fridays each month Providence & Reed Sts. 12- 1P.M.

Paramus Garden State Plaza 2nd Tuesday each month Rts.4East& 17 South 12- 1P.M.

Ramsey Interstate Shopping Center 2nd Tuesday each month Route 17 South 10-11 A.M. Practices • Working with Waste 77

Through the federal govern- ment's Energy Recovery Act, D'Altilio applied for and received a small Wood Conservation Grant. This allowed his department to pur- chase a log splitter, repair a storage shed and publicize the program. Trees fallen during bad weather, trimmings from the town's planned pruning program of 27,000 shade trees, and other excess wood scraps are collected, split and sorted for residents to use free of charge as firewood.

Montclair Organization For Conservation In Montclair, recycling became attractive after the celebration of Earth Day in the early 70's. Ten organizations formed the Montclair Organizations for Conservation (MOC) and voiced their desire to remain actively involved in some way. The commitment of the coali- At Montclair's Recycling Center, glass is sorted into clear and colored, then broken in tion was to recycle. concrete bins. Volunteer Director Jean Clark says that at the beginning of the Montclair's Recycling Program materials are more valuable to the project town officials didn't take it has always met its operating costs. community before being treated. very seriously. "They saw it as just Of course, having volunteer help You cannot separate a scrambled another job," says Mrs. Clark "But and using the town's employees egg. Selling recyclables at the there was little resistance and we and their own trucks for delivery of municipal level minimizes the num- were given a parking lot." recycled materials results in sav- ber of processes materials go Nine months later the volunteers ings. The sale of six tons of recy- through at a resource recovery got a packer truck and an employee clable newspapers enables the pro- plant before converting the mate- to operate it. MOC agreed to give gram to break even on its delivery rials into a completely different the revenue received for recycled costs; eight tons sold result in a product. Glass is a hindrance to paper to the town as a financial profit. resource recovery facilities. incentive, and keep the money re- Mrs. Clark estimates that $10 per "The savings translate into slight ceived from the sale of glass. That ton is saved in disposal costs and savings in taxes; there is a sense arrangement has been maintained an added $10 is acquired in rev- of satisfaction in knowing that one ever since. The money the town enues from the sale of materials. is coping with energy and environ- receives covers its recycling oper- Montclair presently recycles ap- mental problems." ational budget and the money MOC proximately 45 tons each week: 28- pays for the maintenance and pur- 30 tons of newspapers and nine Ways To Contribute chase of equipment. tons of glass. To Source Reduction Today 27 organizations volun- As most intelligent solid waste teer to help run the recycling management plans suggest, suc- Reuse: Many products are used center. Mrs. Clark says, "Anything cessful recycling operations rely on once and then thrown away. Often that tampers with the recycling pro- contracts with the recyclable mate- reusable alternatives exist. Buy gram would bring great public out- rials markets. In light of solid waste products and packaging which can cry. Although paper may be col- volume and available secondary be used again to improve our lected at the curb, 40% of the recy- materials markets New Jersey has environment. cled newspapers are still brought to been referred to as "a recycler's Buy: Refillable milk containers the Center on Saturdays. Recycling paradise." instead of paper or plastic throw- centers should allow residents as What does the resident get out of aways. Cloth towels and sponges many options to recycle as possible it? Says Mrs. Clark, "Everyone instead of paper towels. Reusable since some people just cannot here recognizes the common lunch boxes and recloseable sand- come during regular assigned sense in separating and selling re- wich containers. Second-hand hours." cyclables as raw materials. These clothing and furniture. Refillable 78 Practices - Working with Waste

SOURCES Denis Hayes, Worldwide Paper 23; Re- pairs, Reuse, Recycling—First Steps Toward a Sustainable Society, Wash- ington, D.C.: WorldWatch Institute, 1978. Industry Environmental Council, Legislative Analysis, Los Angeles: Committee of the Industry Environmental Council, (213) 380-7139. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Status of Recycling Pro- grams in New Jersey, N.J. Dept. of Energy. New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protec- tion and the Solid Waste Administration, Waste Not Want Not. With acknowledg- ment to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. New Jersey Dept. of Energy. Solid Waste: Its Energy Conservation and Produc- tion Potential, N.J. Dept. of Energy Master Plan; Final Policy Statement. Recycling Information Office. A Guide to Running a Recycling Project; May, 1977, Portland, Ore. Karen A. Wendt. Approaches to Source Reduction, 1975 Conference on Waste Reduction; April 2-3, Washington, D.C.: U.S. E.P.A., 1975. Newark Recycling, Inc. baler can handle up to 20 tons of paper every day. The following publications are available from: Solid Waste Information, U.S. En- vironmental Protection Agency; Cincin- cigarette lighters, flashlights and larger size containers. A "6-pack" nati, Ohio, 45168. razors. of tomato juice in 8 oz. cans re- General Solid Waste Management Infor- Share: Major appliances, lawn quires much more packaging than mation mowers, tools and newspapers one 48 oz. can of juice. Pump Third Report to Congress, Resource Re- with friends and neighbors. sprays instead of aerosol cans that covery and Source Reduction (SW- Save: Grocery bags and egg car- must "package" the propellant as 500) U.S. E.P.A., 1975. Order #448. tons for reuse. Writing paper, well as the product. "Two-sided" Fourth Report to Congress, Resource Re- envelopes and junk mail as scrap copying machines that conserve covery and Source Reduction (SW- paper—use the other side. paper. Stubby-shaped glass con- 600), U.S. E.P.A., 1977. Order #600. Wash and reuse: Aluminum pie tainers usually require less material Source Separation than long, narrow containers. plates, food wrappings, plastic David Cohen, A National Survey of Sepa- knives, forks and spoons. React: Consumers can practice rate Collection Programs (SW-778), Sell, trade or give away: Pos- U.S. E.P.A., 1979. Order #778. and encourage conservation. Pur- sessions you can no longer use, P. Hansen, Residential Paper Recovery: chase with source reduction in instead of discarding them in the A Municipal Implementation Guide mind. Ask retailers to stock and trash can. (SW-155), U.S. E.P.A., Environmental Pro- advertise good designs and prac- tection Publication, 1975. Order #486. Repair: Some products are tices. Choose stores that follow National Center for Resource Recovery, simply thrown away while they are source reduction practices. Support Residential Paper Recovery: A Com- still usable or reparable. Careful legislation to study and implement munity Action Program (SW-553), En- maintenance and timely repairs will vironmental Protection Publication. Order waste-reducing alternatives. Think #553. help your possessions last. You before you buy and before you dis- may save yourself money while you card. Sometimes consumers buy The following publications are available from: help the environment. or use more than they need, wast- The League of Women Voters of the Look for durability: Some prod- United States, 1730 M Street, N.W.; ing resources and producing un- Washington, D.C. 20036. Send orders ucts are designed to break and be necessary solid waste. prepaid. discarded within a short period of Curbing Trash, 1977, Publication #147 time. Buy with quality in mind, Consider: Do you need the 40(5 seeking extended warranties on product? Can you reuse it or return is There Enough Trash for Everybody? automobiles, appliances, furniture, it? Can you repair it? Can you 1978. Publication #255. 30c TV's and radios, tires, and watches. share it? Can someone else use it? Recycle: In Search of New Policies for Look for good design: Many Is it overpackaged? Are scarce Resource Recovery, 1972. Publication products can be designed to use materials wasted? Will it be useful #123 39pp. 750 Media Kit, Publication #163. $1.00 less materials and energy. Use for a long time? Waste Alert No. 1, Publication 608. 30c Directory 79 _

There are nine sub-basins in the Passaic Watershed, hach sub-basin surrounds a tributary of the Passaic DIRECTORY River. Water draining from the landscape feeds the lt W tOWards the Passaic River FOR LIVING IN PLACE the£nn int7o vNewar ?k BayJ . - and JnV^Vlfd ?ir?ctoIV' we «n only highlight a handful of the valuable and interesting things that are happening ,n the Watershed. We encourage readers TaMng Wood is compiling a Directory for people to make suggestions that will help our Directory grow living in the Passaic Watershed that is consistent with Information presented here includes arts and crafts our philosophy of living in this place. To encourage with an emphasis on wood, winter outdoor recreation concern about our life here and the Watershed that and some scheduled events at environmental educa- supports this life, we have organized the Directory tion centers If there is an omission that you feel is according to the natural geography provided by the significant, please give us a call at (201) 835-3959 or sub-basins. write Talking Wood Directory, P. O. Box 364, Pompton Lakes, N.J. 07442.

Ramapo

Pequannock

Saddle Rockaway

Whippany

Lower Passaic

i ~UB-BASINS OF THE PASSAIC WATERSHED 80 Directory

eign imports from Africa in- duces doll houses. For addi- Wednesday, they close a- clude wawa or samba from tional information call 274- round noon. Telephone is West Africa, African mahog- 9936. 482-6850. any, banak, and virola. Discovery Art Gallery and theater... Wood from Borneo is ramin in Clifton at 1191 Valley and apitong. The Center Road (telephone 746-2291) The Whole Theater specializes in architectural has exhibits by contempo- millwork. They have a dry Company at 544 Bloom- rary living artists, mostly field Avenue in Montclair kiln, sell to cabinet makers, American. Media includes is an extraordinary theater have a reputation for mold- painting, original prints, company that performs for ing, make picture frames, sculpture, and some crafts over 30,000 people each The Lower Passaic and consider no order too and fine arts posters. Fram- season. This group of profes- River Sub-basin small. ing, too. New shows every sional actors, directors and Old Mill Furniture Strip- month. Open Wednesday designers has been commit- ping at 11 Paterson Avenue through Sunday. ted to discovering new plays This sub-basin is the most in Midland Park (telephone densely populated. It in- Crane House operated and playwrites and bringing 444-1717) provides custom by the Montclair Historical this theater to the whole cludes parts of Newark and furniture stripping, repair the Oranges and extends as Society in Montclair has an community - including spe- work and refinishing. The 18th Century working kitch- cial services for the young, far north as Wyckoff and Old Mill process uses a bix the old and the disadvan- Midland Park. The water en. Craft demonstrations are flow on system as opposed often held at the country taged. For tickets or more in- from this sub-basin drains to dipping in a hot lye tank. formation call 744-2934. into the mainstream Passaic store on Sunday afternoons. Safe for veneer and inlay, The Israel Crane House River just before it empties the bix method is a cold sol- into Newark Bay. may be reached by phone at and towns... vent. Soaking in a hot bath 744-1797 and the Antique about wood... dip tank involves the use of Market number is 746- Great Falls Historical lye, caustic, or other dam- 9337. District is in Paterson Center Lumber, at 85 aging chemicals that are not Verona Leather on Mt. (telephone 881-3896). Fulton Street in Pater son good for wood. Old Mill is Prospect Avenue in Newark Grace George and volunteer (telephone 742-8300), car- open 9 to 5 Monday thru wholesales leather to shoe- William Moir give free walk- ries special domestic hard- Saturday. makers and cobblers. They ing tours of the historic dis- woods and high grade west- Wood Designs on Pat- do not carry leather for tool trict. These are usually about ern pines and cypress. For- erson 's Spring Street pro- stropping. Most days, except 1-1/2 hours long (depend- THE STOVE WORKS 309 broadway, hillsdale, n.j. We stock CHIMNEYS in all sizes, 666-2627 insulated, black pipe and elbows FIREPLACE ACCESSORIES AND LOG HOOPS

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ing on interest and stamina Montclair has outdoor Lemmerman's is on Th_ •, of the group) and are sched- skating for the municipality Russell Avenue in Wyckoff. ' Ve UPpf'r uled by appointment. The at Edgemont Pond, near Goffie Brook Park on River Sub-basin tour includes a visit to the Valley Road, and the indoor Goffle Rd. is in Hawthorne. Falls Area, the 1914 hydro- variety at Montclair Arena electric plant, the restored on Chestnut Street (tele- and more county skat- Rogers Locomotive Erecting phone 744-8806). ing at... Shop and the raceway sys- Newark residents may tem for water power. The skate indoors at the Iron- Dahnert's Lake Park in historical district has picnic bound Recreation Center Garfield. areas and a craft shop for which has public sessions Riverside Park at North those visitors who plan a and special hockey sessions Area in Lyndhurst. longer stay to enjoy the (telephone 733-3940). Falls. other municipal facili- some ice skating.. ties at... Branch Brook Ice Skat- ing Center at Branch Brook Memorial Park in Clift- Park in Newark offers pub- on (telephone 973-2607). cycling... lic programs and learn-to- The Park closes at 9:00 P.M. skate exercises. This is an A flag system is utilized. Lenape Trail Commit- Essex County facility. Ad- Elmwood Park floods a tee, Caldwell Branch Bike- This is the southernmost mission fees are about $1- basketball court at their way Committee, is at 39 sub-basin. It is where the $2 and rentals are about $1. English Avenue Park and Crystal Avenue in West Passaic River begins and You can get more informa- maintains dawn to dusk ice Orange (telephone 731- flows north until in Fairfield tion or make reservations in skating. For update call 797- 1765). The committee it turns around and contin- the leam-to-skate classes by 2640. hopes to establish a six-mile ues in a southeasterly direc- calling 483-5337. Disco Third Ward Park off Pas- bike path on a former rail- tion to the bay. The Great skating is available on Friday saic Avenue and Broadway road bed meandering Swamp in Harding Town- nights. Those interested in in Passaic is open until through Little Fails, ship is an important source hockey should contact 10:00 P.M. Hockey is limit- Cedar Grove, Verona, for the infant Passaic. Branch Brook for League ed. For more info call 365- Caldwell and Essex Fells information. 5500. (possible cross-country). some interesting places

OAK Fuji Cycle Center ofNJ.Inc. FARM •tQ^ff sortkptm,* on m, 17S) GARDEN CENTER We're proud to offer you a full line of healthy plants, trees and shrubs, and products to keep them flourishing. '••*•- Salurd^-IOAJft-BM 215 Route 17S 637 Route 23 Pompton Plains 835-6766 Also see us far your* 25% off all repMF labor until March 15. 82 Directory to learn about nature... coordinator, runs programs Long Hill Road which is Group packages exist, as in: greenhouse and aqua- particularly good for photo- well as a self-contained ele- Outdoor Education culture food production, raphy and observing wild- mentary education program. Center is at 247 Southern solar energy applications, life. For further information Group reservations must be Boulevard in Chatham solar energy at the Environ- contact the Refuge Head- made two weeks in ad- Township (telephone 635- mental Education Center, quarters at RD 1, Box 148, vance. Llamas, tigers, elk, 6629) and is operated by and a solar energy overview. Basking Ridge or by call- zebras, camels, sea lions, the Morris County Park ing 647-1222 M-F until leopards and more are wait- Great Swamp National 4:30P.M. ing for your visit. Commission. Wildlife Refuge near Somerset County Park Basking Ridge is a 5,800 Center for Environ- Commission's Envi- acre sanctuary for birds, mental Studies is on 621 cross-country skiing... ronmental Education Eagle Rock Avenue in Center is at 190 Lord Stirl- deer, beaver, and smaller Roseland and is run by the Morristown National ing Road in Basking mammals. A boardwalk trail Essex County Department Historic Park permits Ridge. The center is open through the wilderness is of Parks, Recreation and cross-country skiing. You daily except holidays (tele- open dawn to dusk seven Cultural Affairs (telephone can call the ranger station at phone 766-3489). Instruc- days a week. Groups con- 228-2210). Workshops for Jockey Hollow for infor- tion is offered in February sisting of larger than 10 February include photog- mation at 543-4030. or later for the following: members are asked to make raphy, archaeology and Lewis Morris Park is cross-country skiing, intro- reservations to avoid crowd- more. Nature hikes and films situated both in Mendham duction to animal behavior, ing. Movies and slides are are also scheduled. In the and Morris Townships. air pollution facts and find- shown on Monday-Friday spring the Center will spon- You can enter from Route ings, and a special air qual- 9A.M.-3RM. Reservations sor canoe trips on the 24. ity testing on Saturday, are required. Topics include Passaic River. Loantaka Brook Reser- March 15th. The Environ- marshland preservation^ Turtle Back Zoo in vation is in Morris, Chat- mental Education Center lead poisoning in waterfowl, West Orange at 560 North- ham and Harding Town- is warmed by solar heat. The the pros and cons of hunt- field Avenue (telephone ships. system features 135 solar ing, exploration of the Great 731-5800) has 750 inhabit- Van Dessei Parkin Fair- collectors and heat storage Swamp and others. A main ants. The Zoo conducts live field is planning to complete of 6,000 gallons of water. attraction is the Wildlife anirnal lectures covering a series of cross-country Mr. Paul Becker, the solar Observation Center off mals and their lifestyles. trails by the end of this year.

j

CROSS COUNTRY SKI'S FROM THE EXPERTS • Largest Selection • Competitive Prices • Free Waxing Seminars BOX 117, RIVERSIDE SQUARE. HACKENsSlCK, NEW JERSEY 07601 TeL (201) 488-3313 Directory 83

and skating..: Commission located on N.J. Woodturning Cor- Crescent Avenue in Wyck- poration is at 181 Lincoln Lewis Morris Park and off is visited by over a quar- Avenue in Fair Lawn (tele- Loantaka Brook Reserva- ter of a million people a phone 427-6650). Mr. Gil tion described above have year. Open year-round, the Ashworth is the manager of ice skating also. Wildlife Center has a self- this unique wood lathe guiding nature trail, outdoor works. They manufacture Passaic River Park on shelters that contain live na- single piece reproductions, River Road in Chatham and tive mammals and birds, an chair parts, spindles, and Passaic Townships. observatory and staff natu- columns up to 18 feet long ralists who provide edu- and with a 24-inch diameter. Memorial Park in Madi- cation programs and nature There is a minimum first son is off Rosedale Avenue study workshops for chil- piece charge of $8. The and includes hockey. Lights Saddle River dren and adults. Call 891- woodturning spins during are on till 10.00 P.M. and Sub-basin 5571 for a copy of their at- the hours of 7 A.M. to rest rooms are open. For tractive brochure and calen- 4 P.M. Monday through Fri- more info call 377-8000. The Saddle River orig- dar of events. day. They are also con- Van Dessel Parkin Fair- inates in New York State nected with Glen Rock field. Services here include and is joined by Ho-ho-kus bicycling... Stairs Co. who make cir- lights and rest rooms. Brook in the Dunkerhook cular stairs. Area of Saddle River Coun- Bicycle Touring Club of Third Stone from the Vincent's Pond in West ty Park. Saddle River in this North Jersey meets at Sun is on 300 Rt 17 North Orange offers ice skating. area forms the boundaries of 8 P.M. on the second Tues- in Paramus (telephone Ridgewood, Glen Rock, day of each month in the 265-5049). Rare shells, and planned walks... Fair Lawn and Paramus. Ramsey Public Library. For It continues south and joins more information about bike coral, agate, marble, mala- the Passaic in Garfieid and tours and membership call chite, etc. The art of cutting South Mountain Reser- and polishing precious vation will conduct planned Wellington. Harry Rutten at 327-7197 or Gene Marsh at 891-7456. stones is lapidary. A work- walks on weekends in Feb- shop runs about two weeks ruary. The walks are held wildlife centers... rain or shine. Call 228-2210 crafts... consisting of a half dozen for information. Bergen County Park one hour sessions. So not

m harmony with nature ,/^uaHea.ter Taste of Dawn 'natural food store"

Wood-Fired Hot Water Natural Groceries Our energy-saving, wood- camps, outposts, flred "demand" AguaHeater expeditions, serf-sufficiency, Herbs, Spices and Tea Blends delivers Urge amounts of Indian reservations, Amlsh Natural Vitamins hot water, using only communities, solar booster, kindling and wood scraps. greenhouse heater, Books, Juicers Cuts costs, saves money, agricultural, commercial and pays for Itself In less uses. Fresh Ground Flour than a year! Conserve energy and heat Much More Wood-flred hot water for your water the natural, homes, backup/conjunction energy-saving way.. .wKh a 110 Main Street, installation, cabins, hot wood-fired AguaHeaterl tubs, hunting and fishing See AguaHeater today at Downtown Butter INDEPENDENCE STOVE CO. 838-0287 1421 Union Valley Rd. West Milford, N J. 07480 MON. - SAT. 10 A.M. - 6 P.M. FRI. TILL 9 P.M. 84 Directory

only can you buy treasures East and West Saddle River Community Lake off Carol Way, a Pompton there but you can also learn Rd. Call 327-2196. Comly Road in Lincoln Plains artist is a graduate of to make them. Open Mon- Park has skating until sun- the Philadelphia College of day through Saturday right down. There is additional Art where she majored in next door to Ryder Truck skating behind the recrea- sculpture. Besides sculpture, Rental. tion building in Pine Brook she is an accomplished cal- Road. Call 694-1146. ligrapher, model maker, oil and ice skating... The Pompton North Cove off Parish and sign painter, and has Sub-basin Drive in the Mt. View section made plaster casts. Recently Saddle River County of Wayne and at Camp Kil- her sculpture was on display Park offers ice skating in The Pompton River be- roy Park off Rt. 202 have in Pequannock Township both the Ridgewood and gins where the Ramapo ice skating. Call 694-1800 and her animation artistry the Rochelle Park areas. River and the Pequannock for information. was credited on national Memorial Pool on the River come together in the television. Avenue of the Americas in northern part of Wayne craft supplies and The Ramapo River Fair Lawn has skating. Rest Township and ends when it classes... rooms are available, but no joins the Passaic at Two Sub-basin lights. Call 796-1700. Bridges. This is the smallest and most central sub-basin. Lee Wards on Rt. 23 in Wyckoff. There are three the Packanack Lake Shop- spots in Wyckoff for ice It is a sensitive area with wide flood plains, flat mead- ping Center in Wayne will skating. Behind the muni- have a variety of classes of- cipal building on Woodland owland and freshwater swamps. fered in February. Classes in Avenue, Turtle Pond off macrame and quilting take Clinton Ave. and Zabriskies four weeks. Six-week classes on Franklin and Clinton some ice skating... include cake decorating, tole Avenues. Call 871-7000 for (tinware) painting, and information. Lemmerman's, Sunset Valley Golf stained glass. Reasonable also in Wyckoff, is included Course in Pompton fees. Call 694-5304. in the Lower Passaic River Plains. Sub-basin. Greenview Park Pond Rt. 23 Artists Supply in Upper Saddle River al- off West Parkway in Pompton Plains. lows ice skating on a lighted Pequannock has lighted and artists... rink on Lake Street between skating.

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300 Rt 17N 142 Rt. 23N 43 Korvette City Paramus, N.J. Pompton Plains, N.J. Nanuet, N.Y. (201)262-7220 (201)694-7929 (914)623-1119

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This is the northernmost so that advanced carvers sub-basin. The headwaters share their experience with of the Ramapo River are in novices. Michael DeNike, di- TRED LIGHTLY ON New York State. The river rector. begins in steep slopes and YOUR WATERSHED mountain ridges. The Rama- po flows south from New Gary Hayden, Sign York and has many tribu- Carving, has attended the taries of its own. It flows in- American Carving School to Pompton Lake before where he was coached by joining with the Pequannock the critical eye of Mike and becoming the Pompton DeNike. Gary does residen- River. tial or commercial signs. For more information call 835- 7687. some downhill skiing a craft community... available in the sub-basin... Sugar Loaf Craft Com- munity is in New York. Sterling State Forest on Take Rt. 17 North and exit Rt. 210 in Tuxedo, N.Y. onto Kings Highway. Follow offers Alpine skiing. Call posted Sugar Loaf signs (914) 351-2163. from there. The Sugar Loaf Craftsmen have at Campgaw Mountain least a dozen shops display- Reservation has Alpine ski- ing their art. ing and horseback riding and is on Rt. 202 in Mah- a music center... wah. Call 327-7800 for in- formation about snow condi- Hastings Music Center BLUE HOLE CANOES tions. in the Berdan Shopping Center on the Hamburg Rugged, quiet and maintenance- Turnpike in Wayne, 694- free. All Blue Hole Canoes ice skating... 5999 will custom build wood-laminated electric gui- have our one-piece Royalex/ABS Monroe Pond in Mon- tars out of any variety of hulls. We mold them all at our roe, N.Y. on Rt. 17 N has wood you want. Hastings is one location in Sunbright to skating with lights provided. open from 10 A.M. to maintain our control of design, Call (914) 782-834L 10 P.M. Monday-Saturday engineering and quality. and 12 P.M. to 6 P.M. on winter camping... Sundays. Blue Hole Canoes are PROVEN river canoes. Advanced cruis- Ramapo Valley County ing and Whitewater designs. The Reservation on Rt. 202 in The Van Riper Hopper Mahwah. Museum at 533 Berdan standards by which all others Avenue in Wayne is a re- are measured. and on your own... stored colonial home. Its numerous artifacts are dem- Find out more. Walking News Inc. P.O. onstrated and described by Box 352, New York, N.Y. a resident guide. The Mu- 10013 sells trail maps of seum is open Monday, such hiking attractions as Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Greenwood Lake, New- and Saturday between ark Watershed, Ring- 1:00 P.M.—5:00 P.M. The wood, and more urban and following are annual activ- Appalachian areas. ities of the Museum that are free and open to the public: about wood... Saturday, May 10, Farm Day; Saturday, June 14, The American Wood- Crafts Day; Sunday, June Department TW carving School, P.O. Box 29, Town Concert (Pomp- SUNBRIGHT, TENNESSEE 37872 1123, Wayne holds in- ton Valley Spring En- teresting classes on a con- semble); and Friday, De- tinuing admission system. cember 12, Christmas Tree WRITE FOR THE FREE CATALOG! Students of all caliber and Lighting Program. For more ability are grouped together information call: 694-7192. 86 Directory

an archaeological The Wanaque River orig- winter program. Consult wilderness... laboratory... inates on the highland area their classified advertisement of West Miiford and Ring- or call 835-2160. Newark Watershed The Archaeological wood. Many lakes and Conservation and Devel- Laboratory at the Van Rip- ponds including Greenwood folk dancing... opment Corp. .Office on er-Hopper Museum in Lake and the Wanaque Res- Charlottesburg Rd. on the Wayne offers archaeologi- ervoir are a part of this sys- Call Mim Green 839- south side of Rt. 23 North cal hikes and excavations in tem. The Wanaque flows 9279. opposite Echo Lake Rd. the spring. Mr. Edward J. south and joins the Pequan- Five dollars buys a year- Lenik is director of the Lab- nock in Pompton Lakes round hiking permit good oratory and President of the and Riverdale. also for cross-country skiing. Archaeological Society of Maps are provided and trails New Jersey. He is available are marked and graded to to discuss your local archae- wilderness... ability. Watershed cross- ological finds. Call 694- country is open during day- 7192. Ringwood State Park light hours. Ice fishing is also Norvin Green State permitted with a valid N.J. Forest fishing license and an $8 Wawayanda State Park The Pequannock single or $12 family Water- Abram S. Hewitt Forest shed permit good all year. Sub-basin Phone in Newark 622-4521 There are extensive hiking or Newfoundland (West trails in these state forests. Forest and lakes dominate Miiford) 697-2850. With enough snow these the upper reaches of the areas are suitable for winter Pequannock River. The hiking cross-country skiing many lakes and the large additional winter and snowshoeing. reservoirs supply the Pe- recreation... quannock which carries this nature study... flow in an easterly direction Silas Conduit Park on through the ridges of the Ricker Rd. in Kinnelon. The Wanaque The Weis Ecology Cen- highlands and brings it to This is a county facility. Sub-basin ter on 150 Snake Den Road join with the Wanaque River Bubbling Springs on in Ringwood has a fantastic in Pompton Lakes. Macopin Road in West Mil-

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ford. The Woodworker on erson Township. This is Main Street in Blooming- part of Morris County Park dale is Bob Waltsak. His System, 285-6166 about wood... telephone number is 838- Tourne Park in Jeffer- 4424. Box makes carved son is also a county park. Knoll Park Center in Excelsior Lumber at signs, custom furniture, cabi- nets and wall units, and an- Parsippany. The park is 144 Hamburg Turnpike in open to non-residents. Butler (838-1515) has a tique reproductions. He will replace missing pieces on There are 2-1/2 and 3 mile sawmill and will cut logs to trails. There will be instruc- size. Excelsior also dresses furniture and does repair work. A self-taught crafts- tion in February for beain- and joins lumber and per- ning skiers. Call 334-8363. forms general millwork. man, Bob has been at it for The Rockaway four years. River Sub-basin They stock lumber for house ice skating... framing, cabinets and home crafts. Sometimes Excel- The Rockaway River be- Hedden Park is at Res- sior will purchase specialty and crafts... gins in the rural western part logs. of the Watershed and joins ervoir Avenue in Dover. the Passaic in Montville North Dover Elemen- The Potter's Place at 15 from its source in the high- tary School in Dover on Main Street in Butler, 838- Boweby Pond. This is for John Vroom, violin 0711, specializes in high lands. The Rockaway crosses the Ramapo fault at Dover residents only. Call maker, is on Green Pond fired, over 300 degrees, 366-5560. Road in Newfoundland stoneware which retains Boonton where it drops in elevation and flows through (697-3228). A retired heat or cold (good for cook- and framing... teacher from Passaic Valley ing or food storage) using the lower meadowland of Tech., John makes violins lead-free glazes. The potter, Parsippany-Troy Hills and Montvilie. Reliance Molding Com- and violas and will repair Carol Drish, offers instruc- pany, Dover, has been in and restore them. He uses tion through an 18-hour business since 1903 and in conventional Stradivarius basic course. As pupils im- cross-country skiing... Dover since 1937. They stay designs. He's done some re- prove they can rent studio in business by supplying pair work on cellos, bass space from her. An electric Majlon Dickerson Res- major retail chains with pic- fiddles and mandolins. oxidation kiln is on the site. ervation at Weldar in Jeff- ture frames. A factory outlet

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88 Directory

is open to the public and ice skating... the uplands and lowlands, "Patriot's Path is a par- custom framing jobs are ac- the hinterlands and urban tially completed linear park cepted. South American and Burnham Park in areas. In addition, the com- along the banks of the Appalachian woods are car- Morristown has no lights ponents of this inland water Whippany River from ried. Hours are 9 A.M. to on the pond so skating ends tree—water, wetlands, flood Mendham Township to 4 P.M. Monday through at dusk. A flag system for plains, valleys and gorges— East Hanover Township. Friday and Saturday from conditions is used. Call 338- provide us with numerous Upon completion the trail 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. Their 4300. amenities: drinking water, will link existing local, coun- phone number is 361-1300. habitats of fish and wildlife, ty, and national parks and prime agricultural land, open historic sites, as well as space and scenic beauty. several schools, community conservation... pools and playgrounds, pro- viding trails for hiking, cross- "It is no coincidence that country skiing, bicycling and most of our urban areas, his- horseback riding." The Patriots' Path, 50 per- toric sites and parklands are Friends of Patriot's Path are cent of which is currently situated along rivers. The headquartered in the historic open to the public, will be a lure of the river and ad- Speedwell Village in Morris- 27-mile long linear greenbelt jacent land has been, and town, a former iron works. The Whippany park cutting through the will continue to be, strong. They can be reached by call- Sub-basin heart of historic Morris However, the features of a ing 540-0211. County along the banks of river which once served as The New Jersey Con- the Whippany River, coordi- magnets are frequently de- servation Foundation is a The Whippany River be- nating the work of six Morris stroyed in the development private, nonprofit, statewide gins in the landscape around County municipalities. A process. organization supported en- a small lake in Mendham pamphlet published by The tirely by its 2,700 members. Township and flows from Friends of Patriot's Path, Patriot's Path is designed Its principal areas of interest the lake eastward through 300 Mendham Road, to prevent the degradation are saving open space from Morristown where it joins Morristown, N.J. 07960 of the Whippany River by undesirable encroachment, the Rockaway River in East says, "Our rivers are a uni- providing for recreational educating the public about Hanover. This is a small que, irreplaceable natural and open space uses com- environmental concerns and sub-basin characterized by resource, often referred to patible with the natural re- acting as an advocate of the rolling hills and growing sub- as an inland water tree, pro- sources and amenities of the public interest in environ- urban communities. viding a continuum between 'inland water tree'. mental matters.

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NJCF came into being in has an interest; it has en- chasing power of its land 1964 as an outgrowth of a thusiastically supported leg- fund. neighborhood organization islation to provide for a com- formed in 1960 to protect prehensive land manage- Other projects over the Friend of the Passaic the Great Swamp of Morris ment plan for the Pinelands, years have included a press Watershed, silk-screens un- County—a valuable inland at both the federal and state seminar on toxic substances, usual T-shirts with the en- wetland—from plans of the levels; it has cooperated with a two-day conference bring- vironment in mind. Avail- then-Port of New York Au- state officials to achieve ing together environmental able styles include "Save the thority to pave it over for improvement in water qual- and economic leaders to Pine Barrens—Let it Be" construction of a 10,000- ity and septic standards for seek agreement on common with encircled image of spe- acre jetport. the vast region, and it has problems, a seminar explor- cific endangered flora or continued to raise funds for ing the job potential of solar fauna species ecology sym- After its successful efforts acquisition of critical areas energy and a series of pro- bol over ocean life cycle to raise funds and gifts of in the Pine Barrens for even- grams in Newark, including graphic or rads eminating land, the group turned over tual sale to local, state or a study of the city's natural from a nuclear power plant. some 3,000 acres of land in federal government, as a resource base, development Price- $6 plus $1 shipping the swamp to the federal means of permanent protec- of a "portable" park across and handling for each. government as a national tion. NJCF currently owns from City Hall and an urban Order from Katie Stacy, 3 wildlife refuge and changed or controls over 4,000 acres gardens project. Larboard St., Beachwood its name to indicate the in the Pinelands. N.J. 08722. For bulk order broadened scope of its activ- NJCF's latest program is information and custom de- ities throughout the state. One of NJCF's oldest pro- in the area of farmland pres- signs, call (201) 349-8903. ervation, seeking ways to NJCFs largest project to jects is Patriots' Path. DOO date has been its effort to turn around the disappear- rescue New Jersey's vanish- NJCF maintains a revolv- ance of productive land and Vegetarian restaurant and ing wilderness—the Pine ing fund for use in purchas- to experiment with innova- lunch counter (with soft Barrens of South Jersey— ing property. When the land tive means of making agri- frozen yogurt) 9 A.M.- from unsuitable develop- is sold to a public agency, culture rewarding enough to 3 P.M., Mon.-Sat. Ciair- ment. Over the past five the proceeds are returned to act as an incentive for more mont Health Food Centre, years, it has worked with the fund for further acqui- farmers. 515 Bloomfield Ave. Mont- state officials to help un- sitions. Borrowing power of clair, N.J. Phone; 744- tangle ownership questions up to 90 percent enables For further information 7122. on land in which the state NJCF to extend the pur- telephone 539-7540.

INC.

Route 23 Pequannock, N.J. 694-7614 FO LIC DANCE GROUP GUNS accepfincf hen) rn&mberS FISHING TACKLE from 8: to 10- £M. at CAMPING EQUIPMENT STONBTQWN FIRE HO USE sToNerowN ROAD R./N6UJOOP, M. J. 90 Directory

Working ToHaLpEveryBodyMoveAroundBetter The "Personal Mobility Committee" concept is organization of citizens demanding more in- beginning to sprout in the fertile, environ- novative and imaginative conservation. mentally aware atmosphere of our watershed. Eventually, the air we breathe and the water America's current problem with imported oil we use and abuse may be a lot less polluted has suddenly made the ideas and activities because of the Personal Mobility Committee's of this young (2 year old) organization very activities--zany and otherwise. timely. Naturally, some of the Committee's favorite solutions to our problems are good Actively offering alternatives to, and poking old time practices like walking, bicycling, fun at, our society's wasteful and hazardous and carpooling. Others, like "muscle power- habits in transportation, land use, and ed commuting" and "neighborhood vanpools" everyday life is one of are new twists; and, still others are the main purposes of PMC originals. (For more details this fledgling write Jim Ryan, 42 Pequot, national, sa- Ringwood, N.J. 07456 or tirical call 962-4998)

Personal Mobility Committee, Inc.

WEIS ECOLOGY CENTER 150 SNAKE DEN ROAD RINGWOOD, N.J. 07456 (Off Westbrook Road)

Offering ENVIRONMENTAL mEDUCATION 120 acres with nature conservancy adjacent to Norvin Green State Forest Workshops in environmental education and survival Specially designed programs for schools and groups Lodging Open field with picnic & swimming areas Naturally good foods available weekends June-September Conference center facilities Applications for rentals of clean, quiet, spartan cabins Season passes available after 3/31/80 entitle.bearer accepted after 3/31/80. (Preference in rentals and to admission to grounds, use of sanitary facilities, pool, lodging bookings given to workshop/program parti- parking, notice of all special programs and workshops, cipants and others with environmental interests.) at a reduced rate.

Season Passes Individual — $50 Family — $75 Ringwood Residents and Sr. Citizens — 20% Discount FOR ALL INFORMATION CALL: 835-2160 Directory 91

Talking Wood is compil- ural geography of the sub- eventually into Newark Bay. and crafts with an emphasis ing a Directory for people basins. on wood, winter outdoor living in the Passaic Water- In this initial Directory we recreation and some sched- shed that is consistent with There are nine sub-basins can only highlight a handful uled events at environmen- our philosophy of living in in the Passaic Watershed. of the valuable and interest- tal education centers. If this place. To encourage Each sub-basin surrounds a ing things that are happen- there is an omission that you concern about our life here tributary of the Passaic ing in the Watershed. We feel is significant, please give and the Watershed that sup- River. Water draining from encourage readers to make us a call at (201) 835-3959, ports this life, we have the surrounding landscape suggestions that will help our or write Talking Wood Di- chosen to organize the Di- feeds the tributary, flows in- Directory grow. Information rectory, P.O. Box 364, rectory according to the nat- to the Passaic River, and presented here includes arts Pompton Lakes, N.J. 07442.

TALKING WOOD

The Craft Barn Talking Wood is proud to announce the publication Wheeler Rd. of a special issue entitled ALL AREA, edited by Roy Florida, New York Skodnick. Roy Skodnick is a member of the Board of Talking Wood and a Charles Olson scholar. Charles Tel. (914)651-7949 Olson (1910- 1970) was a member of the FDR admin- istration, the rector of Black Mountain College and author of The Maximus Poems. The Maximus Poems, are a proper successor to the classic Pater- Open every day except Mon. 10-6 P.M. son by William Carlos Williams. from mid March - mid January ALL AREA includes the following: - Pleistocene Man - an important Olson text that has been out of print. - Metalogue: Gregory Bateson/Paul Ryan - the editor of Talking Wood and the author of Steps to an Ecology of Mind in an extended dialogue.

- Mythos/Logos by David Finklestein, Professor and Director of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. EAMAPO VALLEY CENTER - Aransas: Axis of Observation by Frank Gillette, video artist and Guggenheim Fellow. NATURAL FOODS - Report on Alaska by Paul Metcalf. Paul Metcalf is the author of Genoa, Patagoni, Apalache and dried fruit afresh rawnuts-seds adwholearain^-renfletless cheeses many other works. He is also the great grandson of herbs^pice&WtedS'honeys-fresh whole gram bakery goods- diet" axis* n»crobiotics-fruit juices* nutritibnal suPHernenrS-5OdRs*iiihsmpooi Herman Melville. Vegetarian Sandwich-SalacHuice Bar - Report on the Sinai by William Margolis. William Margolis is a poet living in Paris who has spent extensive time in the Sinai with a Bedouin friend. , NEW AGE BOOKS - "The Projection of Archetypal Force onto Place," a HoMthlinackbsherblgy • yoga chapter from a dissertation on Charles Olson's use children's books • Country Wing skills • amerian inoian history sexuality ati Wth • ecology • science- psvcology- occult of Jung by Charles Stein. eastern thou(^t-mystia$m(chnstian'Cnines£-nebreiJ-2en) - Correspondence from Ken Irby. mind development - Poetry by Charles Olson, Jim Krell, Linda Parker 100 rt. 17 and William Margolis. SIoatsburg,N.Y. - Layout and design by Bethany Jacobson. Corner of seven lakes drive ALL AREA No. 1, will be available in March. Perfect open 7 days a week bound, 170 pages, maps and photos. $4.00 plus $1.00 10a.m.- 6pm- handling. Special $3.00 total price for Talking Wood subscribers. P.O. Box 364, Pompton Lakes, N.J. 07442. . „ 1914-753-2200 Limited edition of 1000 copies. I Sfj""**"'^ "• I r

92 Talking Wood—Our Own Survival

TALKING WOOD Our Own Survival

During the past 16 months the vehicle through schools and libraries throughout the Passaic Water- which Talking Wood, Inc. has disseminated much of shed and many responded with requests and pay- its gathered research and information has been in the ments for subscriptions. magazine Talking Wood, a project funded by the Individual subscriptions and retail outlet sales have Comprehensive Employment and Training Act increased. To date, close to $3,000 have been re- (C.E.T.A.) of Passaic County. ceived from these sources, half during the last six The trustees of Talking Wood, Inc. appreciated the months. 90 percent of the copies printed of Issue No. 3 opportunity to use these U.S. Department of Labor (September, 1979) have been sold. funds in order to accomplish mutual objectives. Skilled Talking Wood has received growing support from and unskilled participants have worked together to the intellectual community. The inclusion of biore- gain knowledge, experience, training and credibility in gional works by previously published authors many disciplines including environmental research, broadened readers' understanding of reinhabitory writing, magazine production, public relations and issues. Recently Talking Wood received a contribution business. of $3,000 to help support production cost for "All As taxpayers, our readers are entitled to know how Area", a special issue of Talking Wood dealing with these monies received from the government have landscape methodology. been spent and as friends, you ought to know where Although the amount of revenue received is minis- Talking Wood is headed. cule when compared to the cost of publishing four The amount granted from the C.E.T.A. program for quarterly issues—without salaries it costs $6,000 to the 18 month period through March 31 is produce just one issue—the income reveals a demand $204,415.20. After 16 months of operation, expend- for information of the kind Talking Wood supporters itures total $178,339.19. By percentage, this breaks believe in. And the response in letters and comments down into the following categories: from readers, businesses and public groups reflects a Wages 73.6 need for our new approach to living in this place and Fringe 8.9 warrants our efforts to increase circulation and to be- Rent 2 come more self-sustaining. One of our efforts toward Telephone 1.8 this goal is seen in the Directory which appears for the Supplies 1.4 first time in this issue. Magazine Printing Financially, Talking Wood, Inc. is in dire straits. To and Postage 4.2 print two more issues in 1980 would cost at least Equipment Leasing .9 $25,000, including minimum compensation for part- Staff Training 7.2 time employees. This would have to be raised from magazine sales and advertisements as well as member- In all, these expenditures provided employment and ship contributions. Additional funds will be needed for training for 19 persons and allowed Talking Wood, general information gathering and dissemination. Inc. to print four local-oriented magazine issues—320 Present Talking Wood, Inc. plans include a pro- pages of information on area history, archaeology, cul- posal to C.E.T.A. of Passaic County to fund a project ture, energy use, environmental issues and practices which would train and employ six people, and would for living in place. support continued research on water as well as meth- Since the first issue published in January, 1979, ods of communicating this information to people support for the magazine has steadily increased. through oral presentation and public discussion. Talking Wood has been distributed free to public Contact with the local videotape/cable network has Talking Wood—Our Own Survival 93

been made, and United Artists-Columbia Cablevision materials published throughout the year, and reduced has assured us of access to.their network to present rates on special offers (see last page of Directory about programs based on and developed by Talking Wood. forthcoming "All Area" issue). Staff members are involved in preparing proposals The trustees of Talking Wood, Inc. and the editors and applications to government agencies and other of Talking Wood magazine extend their thanks to granting organizations for operating costs, permanent those businesses who have advertised in our Direc- staff salaries and the continuation of research gather- tory. We encourage our readers to patronize these ing and dissemination. establishments and to support the Talking Wood net- And you, the friends of Talking Wood, Inc., are work in whatever way you can—be it a monetary asked to contact us about any leads you might have donation or a contribution—of raw data or publish- for funding to be used for magazine production, staff able materials, including art, photography, editorial operations and research. and Directory information. Individuals as well as groups may join the Talking Primarily, continue to practice in your own daily life Wood, Inc. network through membership (present habits that help develop a sense of respect for this Talking Wood subscribers are automatically con- woodland watershed. Think reinhabitation. Talk sidered members) by sending a contribution of $10.00 wood. Tell others about us. We need your support. If or more. Of course a donation of more than this you have suggestions, let us know what they are. Re- amount will be greatly appreciated! This entitles mem- member that all contributions are tax deductible. And, bers to access of any research data retrieved, a copy of thank you.

Post Office Box 364 Pompton Lakes, TALKING WOOD MEMBERSHIP FORM New Jersey 07442 I am interested in supporting reinhabitation of the Passaic Watershed. Please enroll me as a member of Talking Wood, Inc. and include me in your growing network.

Name. .Town.

Address Zip

Membership of $10.00 includes complete set of Vol. 1 - 4 issues (check here)

Please send the following past issues ($1.50 each)

Issue No. 1 Issue No. 2 Issue No. 3 Issue No. 4 # of copies # of copies # of copies # of copies

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Please send copies of "All Area" (available in March) special issue. Membership discount price - $3.00 each.

Total amount for Special Issue

In addition, please accept my contribution of $_ to help further your work.

Total amount enclosed 94 Haudenosaunee Statement

False Face Society mask; Iroquois. Photo courtesy of American Museum of Natural History. Haudenosaunee Statement 95

HAUDENOSAUNEE Statement to the World-May 1979

(The following statement was passed in the Six Nations chards, tortured and murdered Native women, and killed Council on April 29, 1979, as the beginning of an environ- every living thing in their path. mental statement of the Hau de no sau nee. It was first printed in AKWESASNE NOTES. Spring 1979 issue. They It was the intention of the U.S. armies in 1779 that the have asked that other publications and interested groups Haudenosaunee be destroyed to the last man, woman and give this statement the widest circulation possible.) child. To that end, they waged war against our civilian popu- lations, and it is clear in our minds that they were interested not merely in our political and military defeat, but would rest at nothing short of the total annihilation of all that exists of The Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Iroquois Confed- the Hau de no sau nee. We have survived that attack, and eracy, is among the most ancient continuously operating many more since then, but now we are seriously alarmed at governments in the world. Long before the arrival of the the events which have taken place over these two hundred European peoples in North America, our peoples met in years. council to enact the principles of peaceful coexistence among nations and the recognition of the rights of peoples Brothers and Sisters: When the Europeans first invaded to a continued and uninterrupted existence. European our lands, they found a world filled with the bountiful gifts of people left our council fires and journeyed forth into the the Creation. Even the soldiers in General Sullivan's army world to spread principles of justice and democracy which were awed by the country they had entered, a land where a they learned from us and which have had profound effects man could walk all day without seeing the sky, so rich and upon the evolution of the Modern World. healthy was our forest. It was a land where the nearest branch of the trees stood fifty feet from the ground, and the • This Spring marks the bicentennial of the Clinton-Sullivan trees were so great that three men holding hands could not Campaign, an invasion of our territories during the Amer- embrace them. Sullivan's soldiers' words record what we ican Revolution which was intended to destroy the would have told you—that the rivers ran so thick with fish Haudenosaunee as a people. In their wake, the American that sometimes even in wide streams a man could not see armies left a "scorched earth" path of frenzied destruction the bottom. through our lands, leaving behind only ashes as they re- treated from our territories. So fierce and malevolent was Everywhere the game was plentiful, and sometimes the this action, that they ravaged cornfields, girdled fruit or- birds darkened the sky like great clouds, so great were their 96 Haudenosaunee Statement

numbers. Our country teemed with elk and deer, bear and pean Way of Life would bring a Spiritual imbalance to the moose, and we were a happy and prosperous people in world, that the Earth would grow old as a result of that im- those times. balance. Now it is before all the world to see—that the life- producing forces are being reversed, and that the life- Brothers and Sisters: Our Mother the Earth is growing old potential is leaving this land. Only a people whose minds are now. No longer does she support upon her breast the twisted beyond an ability to perceive truth could act in ways teeming herds of wildlife who once shared this place with us, which will threaten the future generations of humanity. and most of the great forest which is our home is gone today. The forests were butchered a century ago to make Brothers and Sisters: We are alarmed at the evidence that charcoal for the forges of the Industrial Revolution, most of is before us. The smoke from the industrial centers in the the game was destroyed by sport hunters and farmers, most Midwest and around the Great Lakes rises in a deadly cloud of the bird life has been destroyed by hunters and the pesti- and returns to earth in the form of acid rains over the Adi- cides which are common this century. Many of the rivers rondack Mountains, and the fish life cannot reproduce in the flow thick with the effluence of great population centers acid waters. In the high country of the Adirondack Moun- throughout our country. We see that the "scorched earth" tains the lakes are still, the fish are no more. policy has not ended. The people who plant the lands that we have occupied for The fish of the Great Lakes are laced with mercury from thousands of years display no love for the life of this place. industrial plants, and fluoride from aluminum plants poisons Each year they plant the same crops on the same land and the land and the peqple. Sewage from the population they must then spray those crops with poisons to kill the centers is mixed with PCB's and PB's in the watersheds of insects which naturally infest their fields because they do not the Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes, and the waters are rotate crops or allow the land to rest. Their pesticides kill the virtually nowhere safe for any living creature. birdlife, and the runoff poisons the surface waters.

They must spray also the other plant life with herbicides, Brothers and Sisters: We are alarmed that a string of and each year the runoff from the fields carries these nuclear power plants are being built around our country and poisons into the watersheds of our country and into the that at Three Mile Island in the southern portion of our an- waters of the world. cient territories an "accident" has occurred which is of a type of accident which could hasten the end of life in this place. We are dismayed that a nuclear waste dump at West Brothers and Sisters: Our ancient homeland is spotted Valley (N.Y.) upstream from one of our communities is re- today with an array of chemical dumps. Along the Niagara leasing radioactive substances through our lands and into River dioxin, a particularly deadly substance, threatens the the watershed of Lake Erie. We are offended that the infor- remaining life there and in the waters which flow from there. mation about the nature of these plants is known only to the Forestry departments spray the surviving forests with highest officials of the United States, leaving the people powerful insecticides to encourage tourism by people seek- unarmed to defend themselves from such development, ing a few days or weeks away from the cities where the air and that the development of nuclear power is encouraged hangs heavy with sulphur and carbon oxides. The insecti- to continue. cides kill the black flies, but also destroy much of the food chain for the bird, fish and animal life which also inhabit those regions. We are seriously concerned for the well-being and con- tinued survival of our brothers and sisters in the Southwest Brothers and Sisters: We point out to you the Spiritual and Northwest who are exposed to uranium mining and its Path of Righteousness and Reason. We bring to your inherent dangers. The mining end is the dirtiest portion of thoughts and minds that right-minded human beings seek to the nuclear fuel cycle and has progressed beyond questions promote above all else the life of all things. We direct to your of whether or not the machinery involved is dependable. minds that peace is not merely the absence of war, but the Already vast amounts of low-level radioactive uranium tail- constant effort to maintain harmonious existence between ings have been dumped in cities and used in the building peoples, from individual to individual and between humans materials of dwellings and public buildings over a wide area and the other beings of this planet. We point out to you that of the Southwest. People have died, and many more can be a Spiritual Consciousness is the Path to Survival of Human- expected to die. kind. We who walk about on Mother Earth occupy this place for only a short time. It is our duty as human beings to Proponents of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle issue statement preserve the life that is here for the benefit of the genera- after statement to the people, urging that the nuclear re- tions yet unborn. actors are fitted with safety devices so sophisticated that a melt-down is only the most remote of possibilities. Yet we Brothers and Sisters: The Haudenosaunee are deter- observe that no machinery or other invention made by mined to take whatever actions we can to halt the destruc- human hands was a permanent thing. Nothing humans ever tion of Mother Earth. In our territories, we continue to carry built, not even the Pyramids of Egypt, maintained their out our function as spiritual caretakers of the land. In this purpose indefinitely. The only universal truth applicable to role as caretakers, we cannot, and will not, stand idly by human-made devices is that all of them fail in their turn. while the future of the coming generations is being system- Nuclear reactors must also fall victim to that truth. atically destroyed. We recognize that the fight is a long one, and that we cannot hope to win it alone. To win, to secure Brothers and Sisters: We cannot adequately express our the future, we must join hands with like minded people and feelings of horror and replusion as we view the policies of create a strength through unity. We commemorate two hun- industry and government in North America which threaten dred years of injustice and the destruction of the world with to destroy all life. Our forefathers predicted that the Euro- these words. r

Pehella wtenk lenna- Topan-akpinep, pewi tulapewini wineu-akpinep, psakwiken woliwikgun kshakan-akpinep, wittank talli. thupin akpinep After the rushing waters (had sub- It freezes where they abode, it snows sided) the Lenape of the turtle were where they abode, it storms where close together, in hollow houses, they abode, it is cold where they living together there. abode.

Eluwi-chitanesit eluwi Lowankwamink wula- Chintanes-sin powa- takauwesit, elowi ton wtakan tihill kelik lessin peyachik wikhi- chiksit, elowichik meshautang sili ewak. chik pokwihil. delsinewo.

At this northern place they speak As they journeyed, some being favorably of mild, cool (lands), with strong, some rich, they separated into The strongest, the most united, the many deer and buffaloes. house-builders and hunters. purest, were the hunters.

Wemiako yagawan Lowaniwi, wapaniwi, Lumowaki, lowanaki tendki lakkawelendam shawaniwi, wunkeni- tulpenaki elowaki nakopowa wemi owen- wi elowichik apaka- tulapiwi linapiwi. luen atam. chik. In that ancient country, in that northern The hunters showed themselves at the country, in that turtle country, the All the cabin fires of that land were north, at the east, at the south, at the best of the Lenape were the Turtle disquieted, and all said to their priest west. men. "Let us go."

Pechimuin shakowen Nihillapewin kome- Akhokink wapaneu nungihillan lusasaki lendam lowaniwi wemoltin palliaal kite- pikihil pokwihil wemiten chihillen lendam aptelendam. akomenaki. winiaken.

To the Snake land to the east they Split asunder, weak, trembling, their Those from the north being free, went forth, going away, earnestly land burned, they went, torn and without care, went forth from the land grieving. broken, to the Snake Island. of snow, in different directions.