New Jersey Color

Along the Delaware River, near Stockton, New Jersey.

Weather conditions this year seem to have prepared the way for one of the best seasonal viewing conditions in memory.

Within the last week, a metamorphosis of autumnal color from the trees and shrubs of northern New Jersey has resulted in living scenes of brilliant change for everyone to enjoy.

 

When prompted by such beauty, I’m unable to resist the urge to pick up a camera.  Both photos in this post were taken during the latter part of the afternoon when the sun’s light grows softer and makes it much easier to obtain a good shot.

 

Subsequent software processing of digitized images significantly helps to correct exposure mistakes made while shooting.  As most of you may already know, it’s almost impossible to record an image as accurately as the human eye sees it.

Helping Moms-to-be

Bridgewater Councilman Matthew Moench, pictured
here at a Township meeting on July 1, 2013.
(Credit/Dick Bergeron)

This month marks the second year that Councilman Matthew Moench is sponsoring a “holiday drive to benefit the Raritan Pregnancy Aid Center.” 

According to Moench, the Center is an “all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping pregnant women and new mothers in time of need.”

The full explanatory text of this highly beneficial outreach can be seen on the Bridgewater Township web site by clicking here.  It is only a couple of paragraphs long, and it is well worth your time and response during this especially busy holiday season.

The women who are helped by the services of this center are truly in need. 

For example,

Pluckemin Center to get Makeover, New Anchor Store

The status of construction for "The Fresh Market"
anchor store in the Somerset Hills Shopping Center,
as it appeared on Monday, July 15, 2013.
(Photo Credit, Bergeron Images.)
 

The A&P Supermarket which once anchored the Somerset Hills Shopping Center on Route 202/206, at the convergence of Burnt Mills and Washington Valley Roads in the historic Pluckemin section of Bedminster had been a landmark since 1967.

However, time and competition would see it steadily lose ground, as competitors moved into its territory, and as the company failed to adequately modernize its marketing concept. 

Old-time area residents may have been sad to see its demise, but it was time for a change.

Sanofi’s Acquisition of Genzyme to Impact Bridgewater Lab

Outside one of the Sanofi facilities (Route 202/206 south) Bridgeweater, NJ

The April, 2011, Sanofi acquisition of Genzyme, a leading biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, will, according to an article appearing in last Tuesday’s Boston Globe, lead to the closing of a research lab in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

According to that report by Robert Weisman, “Sanofi is closing a New Jersey drug research lab because it has been less productive than Genzyme’s labs, which have developed treatments for rare diseases, Sanofi chief executive Christopher A. Viehbacher told investors gathered here [in San Francisco] at the 30th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.”

A Cold Brewski on a Steamy Bridgewater Afternoon

We returned to Bridgewater from vacation to find the yard a disaster area – broken limbs and branches all over. As a consequence, I found myself cleaning up the mess last Saturday afternoon in the intensity of that hot steamy day. Not wanting to overdo it, I called it quits after about three hours, satisfied that the job could be completed another day.

The work clothing was clearly ready for laundry: my cap’s sweat band was soaked with perspiration; the T-shirt could be mistaken for a wet towel (I went through two!); and my socks came off just as wet and speckled with dirt – all items testimony to a good afternoon’s worth of labor.

There is little like the all-enveloping muggy-hot weather of an August afternoon after completing outdoor chores to call up a thirst for an ice-cold frosty brew. The two bottles of iced tea and one of water which I quaffed while working had not quite done the job.

I pulled a chilled can of beer from the fridge, opened the cabinet door for a Cheese-It snack, stepped outside, plunked my butt down on a patio chair, and approvingly admired the blue of the sky and the bleached white clouds lounging in the background beyond the tree line – a good moment to contemplate the blessing of what nature gives us and for which we don’t even have to ask.

The simplest things can often be the most satisfying.

Somerville Icon Shuts Down

On Thursday, December 31, MacArthur’s Appliances shuttered its doors and went out of business. It was a very quiet ending for an area institution begun in 1955 by “Mac,” father of Hayes and Craig MacArthur, brothers who grew up in the enterprise and who eventually succeeded their dad. Hayes explained how, starting at 11 years old, he showed up at the store to help out after school. Together with Craig, they gradually worked their way up the ladder.

Situated on Main Street in the heart of downtown Somerville, MacArthur’s served area residents uncompromisingly; selling, delivering and servicing major home appliances and TV’s. In its heyday, MacArthur’s maintained its own large warehouse, buying in bulk ahead of customer purchases, stocking name brands like Maytag and Zenith in the days of USA-manufactured products.

But, about 15 years ago, the appliance and television markets began to change in a way that would signal the beginning of the end for stalwart businesses like MacArthur’s. National chains like Lowe’s and Home Depot would begin their encroachment into appliance retailing, while others like Best Buy and Circuit City would begin their takeover of the television market.

The advantage of national chain purchasing power, combined with large-scale advertising of American products manufactured offshore, would erode the ability of a small community business like MacArthur’s to compete.

In the 30-plus years that we have lived in Bridgewater, none of our major appliances – all of which have been replaced over time – have come from any store other than “Mac’s” place. Priscille could never see the advantage of saving a couple of bucks (peanuts when written off over the years of an appliance’s life) by jumping around from one store to another, dealing with people who would not be there the next time she entered the establishment.

When the need arose, we always showed up on Main Street in Somerville, greeted Hayes and Craig, asked one another how things were going, and got down to the business of talking appliances.

We still have an aged 36-inch Zenith console TV, the oldest of our MacArthur purchases. It needed to be repaired once, but the darn thing just won’t quit. Eventually, when we need to get that new LCD HD TV, we’ll be thinking of those two guys on Main Street, Somerville, who provided some of the best service in Somerset County.

Closing the Books on 2008

Monday’s editorial in the Courier News underscored the idea that the fiscal discipline which consumers have begun to show in the recent holiday shopping season is a trait that should be emulated at all levels of government, from Washington, D.C., all the way down to Bridgewater.

I often wonder why it is that governments seem to become as addicted to spending as a crack addict is to cocaine. It looks like some public entities just don’t pay any attention to what is obvious to the average citizen – that, in times of economic distress, spending needs to be adjusted to income. Of course, if a governmental entity can simply adjust income upwards by increasing taxes, then what’s the problem?

So far, there isn’t any sign that public spending for 2009 – at least in a couple of areas – is going to abate. Certainly not at the Federal level, and, from preliminary indications, not at the local level either. In Bridgewater, where the preliminary Bridgewater-Raritan school budget has already been released, spending is assured of coming in at another record level.

Chasing Debtors in the Bridgewater Library

There is a policy at the Bridgewater location of the Somerset County Library that you turn your cell phone off when entering. The staff is thoughtful, though, because you will see a sign reminding you to turn your phone back on as you leave.

Some folks are either uncaring or forgetful about following that request: On a recent afternoon, sitting at a table near the window walls of an inside courtyard, I heard the musical tones of a nearby cell phone go off. Whoever the owner is, he didn’t pick up quickly and, when he did, it sounded like he had the speaker phone on.

The caller greeted my library neighbor with a friendly female voice, declaring, “Hello, I am a credit collector. . . ” By golly, from the pleasant sound of her voice, you’d think that she was joyfully advising him that he had just won the lottery, and would he please come to pick up the check.

. . . And so it goes. These are appalling economic times, and they affect us all. We don’t know what this guy’s financial status is: whether he is a deadbeat who would be chased down even in good times, or whether he is struggling mightily just to make financial ends meet. Maybe we should keep him in our thoughts and prayers in case he’s a person undeservedly caught up in a job loss and a pile of bills.

A Place to Remember

The inscription on the plaque affixed to the horizontal beam salvaged from one of the World Trade Towers is very simple and direct:

A Place to Remember
A Tribute to Life, Lives Lost, and Lives Changed Forever
September 11, 2001

It’s located in a circle of fidelity at Harry Dunham Park in Bernards Township, near the northern tip of Bridgewater. The location of this park memorial is at the confluence of two semi-elliptical walking paths, one large, one small, where they conjoin. The design is well thought out, evidently intended to not let a walker forget as he/she circles the park in exercise.

Late in the afternoon, after parking the car and walking towards ‘A Place to Remember,’ Pris and I saw from the distance the figure of a lone man in a dark business suit standing still, his body straight, his head bent down, his eyes fixed upon the inscription etched in one of the square slates. The names on that plate must have represented loved ones or friends who perished on that dreadful day seven years ago.

The U.S. flag fluttered quietly at half-staff and three bouquets rested on top of the beam, just below the ‘Place to Remember’ inscription. A pot of mums had been placed at the foot of the plaque.

I have written about this honored site before. I’m sure that I will write about it again. I don’t want to forget. Nor do I forget Osama bin Laden – one of the world’s greatest malignant minds – who stays holed up under the protection of his Pakistani patrons in the mountainous region of northwestern Pakistan known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, far away from the steely hand of justice.