Spring 2005 Edition

Letters To The Editor   Playing In the Streets Over ½ A Century Ago Toy boats, dams, and the smell of burning leaves........what could the connection be? You have to go back to Fair Lawn in the late '40's or early '50's. Many of the streets were only paved down the center, with edges of gravel and dirt. In the frequent NJ downpours, the edges of the streets would run like rivers, an excellent place to practice our water engineering skills.    If you were really lucky (from a kid's point of view), you would have a large lake in front of your very own house! Despite our efforts at dam building, we were never able to duplicate the huge puddle which formed further down the block.   How we envied those kids living there. You could lose a wheel in those mudholes! Thus you have the toy boats and the dams.   Those same gravel edges made it permissible to burn your leaves at the curb each fall. And, we had leaves! Many of the streets were lined with giant swamp maples, casting shade clear across the streets. No respecters of curbs or sidewalks, these mighty giants created their own territories. Why the town ever planted them remains a mystery. But who could ever forget the smell of those burning leaves? Today, I have to take a ride into the countryside in order to have a chance of catching a whiff of burning leaves, but the smell is unmistakable, and never fails to take me back to those early years.   Ed Korver     Anything New on Trailers You had this great thing last year about fixing up the trailers at Memorial Pool. Whatever happened? Swim Team Mom   From The Editor:  Regarding the great ideas in last summer's article:, we asked the Superintendent of Fair Lawn's Recreation Department for an update.  He said "there is nothing to report at this time."      Ouch Here's a sign of the times in Fair Lawn.   My mother-in law who has lived in Fair lawn for 60 years now pays more in real estate taxes each year than she paid for their entire house when they bought it.   Al Roosov     News About Fair Lawn How can I keep up to date regarding Fair Lawn? Gail Fry   From The Editor: Two ways.  You can check out the Discussion Forum and if you are NOT already on our notification list, you can subscribe to our quarterly publication at this page.     Radburn Coverage Kudos to the Editor of the FL News! Your coverage of the Radburn events was insightful, even-handed, thorough, and thoughtful. EXCELLENT job!   Janice Pessar     Looking For Dad I would appreciate it if you could send a message to Vincent J. DiPentima (Retired Chief of Police), that I Dionne LaVerne Elizabeth DiPentima (Buerger) is trying to get in touch with him. He is my father and it would be a blessing if he would contact me at advancedfilings1@qwest.net. I am looking forward to getting any response.   Thank you, Dionne LaVerne Elizabeth Buerger (DiPentima)     Class of '60 has active e-mail group. Over 175 members of the class of 1960 remain in contact through e-mail, where they share news and memories of growing up in Fair Lawn. The group started forming in 1998, when the late Bill Shorter began gathering addresses, and has slowly grown to its present size.   As additional classmates are contacted, their first reaction is almost always "How did you ever find me?" Classmate are spread far and wide, and have often been out of touch since graduation. Ed Korver, who currently facilitates the group, lives in Oregon and had not had any contact with classmates since 1960. Typical for members of the group, since establishing contact about a year and a half ago, Ed has formed new friendships with some classmates, and renewed friendships with others.   Always on the search for additional classmates, Ed request that members of the Class of '60 contact him at erkorver@aol.com. As work begins on the next class reunion, they would like to locate as many classmates as possible.   1960 Graduate     High School Sports I was directed to this site by Bob Wright (FLHS class of '60) a bit of a football legend in his own right. Enjoyed the various year-by-year highlights. Will you be covering other sports in the future? FLHS was also a wrestling powerhouse. In fact Fair Lawn produced many excellent athletes over the years in track & field, baseball and football.   I grew up in FL in the 40's and 50's...but my mother's family arrived in the 20's and lived in the vicinity of Kiukens and the old Lazon paint store . I went to Bergen Avenue school...and graduated from FLHS in '56 with many of the same kids I started with in Kindergarden. I lived on 11th Street. I'm happy to say I still communicate with some of them. Raymond St Playground was a very special place for many years....for crafts to recreation. It was fun to read some of the articles...   Keep up the good work.   Fred Tscheulin (Class of '56) From The Editor:  Dick Engelhardt's columns will return in the Fall.  Note that Fair Lawn News publishes articles written by volunteers about Fair Lawn related issues and events. If someone wants to write an article, just send it to editor@fairlawnnews.com     Council Minutes Online Does the Council want people to forget what they've done?  They are going to take down old council minutes, after six months?  They say it's because the minutes include the addresses of people who speak at their meetings.  Why don't they just delete the addresses from the minutes? Just sign me,  Suspicious in Fair Lawn