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Archive for the ‘Feature article’ Category

My Mom the Indian

Posted in Blogfinger News, Feature article, tagged , on October 27, 2024| 8 Comments »

 

Myrna Demby-Goldfinger, American-Indian. “High school graduate.”  1938. She was about age 17 when this photograph was taken. Photographer unknown.

 

By Paul Goldfinger, Native-American   (This article first appeared on Blogfinger on October 1, 2012. It re-appeared a couple of times after that, and now we are reposting it  for those who missed it the first times:)

Elizabeth Warren is now. (2024)   running again  for Senate in Massachusetts.  She claims to be part American-Indian based on family folklore. Some people are skeptical because she looks like a clogger in an Irish dance competition.  Her story reminds me of my Mom:  Myrna Demby-Goldfinger.  (I gave her the hyphen posthumously. She would have liked that.)

Mom had a vivid imagination and she loved to joke, sing and tell stories. Sometimes you couldn’t be sure if she was telling the “emmis ” (Yiddish for the truth) or whether she was telling tall-tales.  It didn’t usually matter, because she was always fun.

One of her consistent  assertions was that she was part American-Indian.  Mom’s parents were Jewish, from Poland.  They came here in the great wave of immigration early in the 20th century.  Mom, who was born here, was one of nine children growing up in Bayonne, New Jersey.  Grandpa Demby was a tailor. My grandmother Helen was a little gray-haired lady with a bun in the back.  You can imagine how she kept busy, especially with six sons, every one a character of one sort or another.

All nine had alternative names such as Duke, Shmeel, Muttle, Bennie, and others, often based on their Yiddish versions.  Mom was called Malka or Mollie by her parents and brothers— and Myrna by her sisters.  Grandpa Demby and the uncles called me “Pesach” my Jewish name.

Her family was a little bit like the Marx Brothers.  I loved to visit them in their little house in Bayonne where they all shared one bathroom and they slept all over the place. The food, the music, the jokes, the hijinks, the arguments—in other words, the “shtick”—was a treat if you were a little kid.

Mom was the youngest and the favorite.  Her dad took her with him to the Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue in New York.  As a youngster she would entertain the family by singing popular American songs, but also Yiddish songs from the “old country” which often had ribald lyrics that I could sort of decipher. My favorite was a ditty called “Cockeyed Jenny”—It’s about a guy and girl.  They are lovers.  Her father catches them. Oy vey!

Mom claimed to have once auditioned for Ed Sullivan.  No one in the family would deny it, but…..I don’t know. Over the years she appeared in many amateur shows, usually as the star. When she was 16 she was offered a chance to travel with a “big band” but Grandpa wouldn’t allow it.

So Mom, who was a school teacher, insisted that she was part Indian. She told her students the same thing.  She also told them that my Dad was a secret agent with the government and that he limped because he had been shot.  He wore my old college ring, and she said that it had a secret compartment. Dad loved to play that role whenever possible.

One time we were out to dinner, and the waiter recognized her and said that she was his favorite teacher and that he loved her stories.

I always liked the Indian thing because that would make me part Indian.  I thought that maybe I had an ancestor who was a medicine man.  Mom loved the movies, especially the shoot-em-up cowboy and Indian flicks.  She rooted for the Indians.

I think Mom would have liked Elizabeth Warren.  Maybe they could have gone to tribal pow-wows together.

 

And here we see that Neptune  has Indians in its history.  Mom would have liked this event:

 

SOUNDTRACK:  No story about my Mom would be complete without music.  Here is the Yiddish tune “Cockeyed Jenny” by the Barton Brothers  (veterans of the Yiddish stage).

Sorry, but I can’t translate it.  But when my Mom would sing it to the family, they would all laugh.   If any of you can translate it, please do.      PG

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FEMA’s “Waffle House Index” for disaster assessment.

Posted in Feature article, Music, tagged on October 12, 2024| 6 Comments »

waffle-house

 

Photos and text by Paul Goldfinger.  Editor Blogfinger.net.   South Carolina. (Re-post 2013)

FEMA has named four corporations as the top companies in the U.S. for disaster preparation. They are Home Depot, Loews, Wal-Mart and the Waffle House chain of fast food restaurants. FEMA has been so impressed by the Waffle House company that they have created the “Waffle House Index” which is a metric that they use to informally guage the severity of a disaster.

Inside a Georgia Waffle House along Route 95.

Inside a Georgia Waffle House along Route 95. All photos by Paul Goldfinger, Blogfinger.net. 

 

A North Carolina Waffle House.

Waffle House is a privately held company based in Georgia. They have 1,700 outlets in 20 states across the south and along the Atlantic corridor from the Carolinas down to Florida. Their restaurants stay open 24/7 and they are known for fresh, fast home cooked food. Waffle House restaurants do not advertise and they have achieved some cult status, being mentioned in movies ( a scene in“The Tin Cup”,) country songs, web sites and comedy routines. Traveling musicians, athletes and police love to stop there, and down south they call it a “cultural icon.” Each unit has a juke box and they strive to use diner lingo such as “scattered” hash browns, meaning spread out on the grill.

Much of their notoriety is because they try to never close during disasters such as hurricanes. They have manuals to guide their employees towards that goal. All the units have generators and other special equipment and they are prepared and supplied to continue cooking and making ice no matter what.

The WH Index was developed by FEMA in 2011 after several catastrophic Class 5 tornados struck in Joplin, Missouri, and 5 of the WH stores managed to stay open when everything else closed.

After a disaster, FEMA checks how the Waffle Houses are doing and they use a color code depending on whether the restaurants are serving a full menu, a limited menu or if they are code red (ie closed.) The commitment of the Waffle House company is so strong that FEMA knows that things are bad if Waffle House can’t function. We spoke to some of their employees who verified that pride and commitment.

Eileen and I stopped at a few of their units in the Carolinas and Georgia. They are small places with lively and pleasant staffs. A couple of times we went in at sunrise, and it was like an oasis with the lights on and the personnel ready.

The shops are spotless, and all the workers wear clean starched uniforms. The cooking is done in the open. The cook faces the stainless steel grill and has a basket of eggs in front. She cooks the eggs in small fry pans reminiscent of what you have at home, and great care is given to prepare your food just the way you want it. She flips the eggs into the air and catches them without any breakage—I think it makes them taste better.

The waitresses discuss your order with the cook, while you watch the action. It seems so comforting to be in one of these restaurants, especially if it is dark out and you’re on a journey.

As far as Hurricane Milton is concerned, many Waffle Houses have closed creating a red alert for them. But they have generators and they will reopen as soon as possible.

 

ANNIE BATTLE.  “Waffle House.”

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Modern OG history—2011. Breaking the gender barrier in Little League Baseball

Posted in Feature article, Ocean Grove profile, tagged , on August 12, 2024| 2 Comments »

Janine Cinseruli in her previous life as a child All-Star. The photo is from her scrapbook.

 

By Yvette Blackman, Blogfinger Contributing Writer

 

Yellowed newspaper clippings and photographs fall from their plastic sleeves in the tattered scrapbook. They tell of a little girl of indomitable will, who challenged an institution for the right to play baseball with the boys in her tiny Massachusetts town.

Today, Janine Cinseruli is an accomplished businesswoman, the chef and co-owner of SeaGrass, the Ocean Grove restaurant that used to be Captain Jack’s. Cinseruli and her longtime business partner, Kim Perkins, ran Captain Jack’s for three years with co-owner Jack Green’s blessing, before making it their own in 2008. Business has grown consistently each summer, buoyed last month by a glowing review in The New York Times.

Chef Janine today in the dining room of the SeaGrass Restaurant in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.  Photo by Paul Goldfinger

But this story is not about Cinseruli’s food. It is about a 10-year-old sports phenom from Peabody (locals say “PEAbiddy”) who picked a fight with the recalcitrant men of  Little League Baseball Inc. and forced them to revise their rules.

“You know, when I was 10 it didn’t seem like that. … It was all completely innocent,” Cinseruli said during a busy afternoon at SeaGrass. “I was this little tomboy in the neighborhood. Someone said let’s all go sign up for Little League … and when I got there the man said you can’t play. I said, ‘Why not?’ And he said, ‘Because you’re a girl.’ ”

It was March 23, 1974, a time when women’s sports were considered of far lesser value, despite passage in 1972 of a federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs or activities that receive federal funding. Two years after the passage of Title IX, as the law is commonly known, girls across America were challenging the status quo.

With her family’s support, Janine filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. It alleged that the Little League’s “no girls” rule violated her civil rights and the state’s public accommodations statute.

Peabody Little League had barred about 18 girls from tryouts for teams in the city’s three divisions, claiming that unless it did so the league’s national headquarters in Williamsport, Pa., would lift its charter. Some people suggested that girls could lose a tooth or develop breast cancer from being hit by a ball. Angry letters to Janine’s mother accused her of taking “women’s lib too far.”

Criticism aside, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Samuel Adams issued a temporary restraining order that postponed tryouts that spring. Little League baseball in Massachusetts stopped while the case was argued. League tryouts also stopped in New Jersey while a similar case went before this state’s Supreme Court.

Peabody Little League caved first. With approval from national, it allowed girls’ tryouts that May. A month later, Janine might have hated the blue gaucho pants, white shirt and clogs her mother made her wear to court more than having to sit through the 10-hour hearing. But Judge Adams ruled in her favor. And on June 12, 1974, the Board of Directors of Little League Baseball Inc. gave in to the “changing social climate.” Girls could play ball with the boys.

Janine Cinseruli, the middle of five children born to Vincent and Marion Cinseruli, had broken through the barrier. The mostly black-and-white newspaper images in her time-worn scrapbook show a little girl with long, straight black hair and dancing eyes, smiling at the camera.

She followed up her court victory by silencing her critics. “Janine Strikes Out 16,” the headline in the Peabody Times read after her first start, and win, for the minor league Braves. Her prowess at shortstop, batting and pitching vaulted her to team captain. She would become the first girl to participate in All-Star competition in the Little League majors.

“She really wanted to play baseball. She had a couple brothers who played baseball and she knew she was better than they were,” said Ruth Budd, one of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union attorneys who handled the case pro bono. “She knew what she wanted and went after it.”

Budd, now retired, said the case “absolutely” had an impact on women’s sports in Massachusetts.

“I can tell you that my daughter went out for Little League a few years later,” she said, speaking by phone from her vacation home in Maine. Budd remembers rushing from downtown Boston, some years after the Cinseruli ruling, to watch her daughter, Rachel, standing in the outfield, one of only two girls on her Little League team.

“She was a good athlete but nothing like Janine. And I’m sitting there on those cold benches,” Budd recalled with a chuckle, “thinking, ‘What have I done here? But for this case, I wouldn’t be sitting here on this cold bench.’ ”

At SeaGrass, few knew of the chef’s celebrated history. She herself seemed surprised that Blogfinger knew. But she is proud of her accomplishments.

Long before her bartending days with Perkins in Provincetown, Mass., and their years flipping houses in Miami, she was little Janine Cinseruli, All-Star hitter, pitcher and fielder. Recalling that time got her wondering how she might have impacted women’s boxing, which makes its Olympic debut next summer. If only she were born a little later.

 

KEN BURNS “BASEBALL”

DOCTOR JOHN:

 

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You are loved at Torro.

Posted in Blogfinger feature article, Blogfinger Presents, Feature article, tagged on July 15, 2024| 3 Comments »

Torro Shoe Repair and Leather Works. Ft. Myers, Fla. Torro Shoe Repair and Leather Works. Ft. Myers, Fla.  By Paul Goldfinger © 2015.

 

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger

 

I went into the Torro  Shoe Repair and Leather Works shop on McGregor Blvd. in Fort Myers, Florida, not far from the Edison and Ford estates.  The sign in the window offered cheerleading and kick boxing lessons. Inside, it was a small space with several machines to fix shoes and the sort of disarray that only occurs in places where artists or craftsmen work.

Somehow old-time shoe repair shops  like this survive because some leather items are too good to be disposable. My belt came from Pennsylvania via Bill’s Khaki’s, and I needed two holes added.

This is not a belt to throw away when the size needs adjusting. I’m a sucker for handmade items that have patina, enduring parts, mechanical mechanisms, and classy old-fashioned  styling, so this is the ad from Bill’s that got me to purchase their English bridle leather belt with a stainless steel buckle—this belt had “meaning:”

“For years, customers have asked us to make a belt that goes perfectly with our khakis and jeans. But making a belt just for the sake of it wasn’t compelling… the belt had to have meaning. Then we found Floyd, a second generation Amish harness maker whose workshop lies deep in the remote mountains of Pennsylvania. This belt was our first collaborative effort. The end result explains why we went to such great lengths to bring these belts to you.”   

I never met the Torro craftsman who fixed my belt at the rate of $2.00 per hole.  I imagined him to be old-world, perhaps Italian, in his manner, wearing a soiled apron that was tinted by hundreds of cans of shoe polish—-the kind that you had to rub into the shoe.  I thought he might have Puccini playing on the radio.   But he never materialized , and there was no music.

Instead,  a pretty, slender, young  blond woman came out from the back. She had no patina or other signs of aging or handmade workmanship, but she did have style. Maybe she was the kick boxing instructor.

Anyhow she told me to leave the belt and come back later.  I said, “Don’t I get a ticket or something?”    She said, ” I just handed it to you.”  Uh oh, my cover was blown.  I was so busy being distracted that a tiny orange ticket wound up in my shirt pocket.  On it it said only “2 holes.”

Did I feel loved at Torro?  Not really, but I did enjoy the visit. And my pants no longer tend to drift south.

 

PINK MARTINI from their album “Hang On Little Tomato.”

 

 

 

 

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Modern OG history. 2012, a few days after Superstorm Sandy—Make do? Make soup.

Posted in Feature article, tagged on April 15, 2024| 1 Comment »

The Scream. Edvard Munch 1893.

 

 

Bob makes soup on Delaware Avenue. Friday.

 

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net.  Ocean Grove, NJ   11/03/2012.   (Sandy hit Oct 29,  2012)

One of our OG neighbors, his name is Jim,  took delivery today of a generator. In the process, he became very popular in the hood.  We prevailed on him to let the Blogfinger staff charge their literary equipment: laptops, iPads, cameras, hotspots, and smart phones.  The trip to crazy Wegmans was getting tiresome, and the Camp Meeting charging center was busy. I told Jim that I would consider hugging him, but we just shook hands.

Our Internet access allowed Blogfinger to receive 25,000 hits on 10/30/12. Folks from all over the world were worried about Ocean Grove.

Jim’s  generator is a noisy machine, but the sound of it is comforting. Who would complain about the noise,  especially since Jim was willing to share his gift with his neighbors around him.   Jim was having some friends over for a movie tonight.

We were getting ready to wrap it up for the day when we got a scoop from the lady who lives behind us.  “Come quick Paul;  and bring your camera.”

It seems that Bob Harasna, a contractor from the next block, had backed his truck up near the generator and plugged in his immersion blender.  Bob was making butternut squash soup for this girlfriend, and the critical last step of pureeing the mixture was all that remained to achieve perfection. Bob was so proud of his creation that he handed me his camera to take his photo. The rest of us laughed at this strange culinary sight.

It was getting dark, so we all went inside and lit candles and turned on our flashlights for yet another night being kept in the dark.

 

RANDY NEWMAN. From the movie Toy Story.

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Modern OG history—-2013. Diversity in Ocean Grove…

Posted in Feature article, tagged , , , on March 8, 2024| 12 Comments »

Chavurah (Jewish fellowship) meeting today in Ocean Grove, NJ. 10/6/13 Blogfinger photo

Chavurah (Jewish fellowship) meeting today in Ocean Grove, NJ. 10/6/13 Blogfinger photo

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor,  Blogfinger.net  Re-post from 2011 Blogfinger post.

October, 2013. Unlike most towns, Ocean Grove has been self conscious about diversity ever since it was founded. It all stems from the unusual design of how the town was organized at its inception, and then what happened subsequently, and especially over 100 years later, when the governance of Ocean Grove ran afoul of the Constitution.  (1979)

In 1870, the Camp Meeting Association received a charter from the New Jersey Legislature which allowed a religious (Methodist) organization, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, to govern the town, backed up by lawful ordinances, many of which were based on religious rules (“blue laws”), and enforced by their own police department and court.  This helped keep the town decidedly not diverse.

But it wasn’t long after the founding that people began to move into the Grove who were different from the homogenous group that comprised the earliest settlers. Diversity can be about religion, race, gender, age, etc, but, at first, religion was front and center.

Initially it was the Methodists, but later other Protestant denominations came and then Roman Catholics. In recent years, the town has become quite diverse in many ways, as it has gained in popularity among a variety of groups who are here, not because of the Camp Meeting programs, but because the town is attractive to them for a multiplicity of reasons, usually secular.

It is hard to get clear data on demographics in the Grove. It has been my observation that they have been changing in the last 10 years, especially in relation to socioeconomic status. The town is 91% white and holding. African Americans are about 5%. There is no recent data about religions, but nearly 50% were Roman Catholic in 2000. About 60% of the population are over the age of 45, and most households consist of individuals. About 55% are females. The median income has gone up by 19% when 2010 is compared to 2000, but this is about average in New Jersey.

Link to article in Blogfinger about the population drop documented in the 2010 census: population drop in OG

In 2007 one of the minority groups in town formed an organization, Ocean Grove United, which is dedicated to representing the concerns of gays and others who want to see Ocean Grove be successful as a place which celebrates diversity, neighborliness and fairness. OGU has, in the last two years, become more involved in civic activities in town and has been prominently active in post-Sandy fund raising efforts. Next month they will sponsor a buffet lunch to benefit the St. Paul’s food bank.

Also in 2007, another minority group formed an organization: A Jewish Chavurah (i.e. fellowship) came together to share religious and cultural interests for the growing Jewish presence in the Grove. A few Jews from nearby shore towns have also participated. The group is fairly informal and meets in homes around town, often in relation to religious holidays.

Jews settled in Monmouth County in the 18th Century. Bradley Beach (aka “Bagel Beach”) and Asbury Park later became resorts that attracted large numbers of Jews. Ocean Grove did not allow Jewish homeowners at first, but eventually some moved here. There is no data about this, but the late former Neptune mayor Joseph Krimko, who was Jewish, owned a home here since the 1970’s, when he was hired by the Camp Meeting to be a policeman. He told us that there were few Jews here back then. When I first met him in 1998, he thought you would have trouble forming a minion (10 men for a religious service.)    Two Ocean Grove historians told me that there were Jewish Grovers going way back, but that they were few in number. One even told me that there was a rabbi living in a tent. We have no confirmatory evidence for that assertion.

The most recent meeting of the OG Chavurah was held in the Ocean Pathway home of Dr. Mary Lou Armiger and Mr. Norm Goldman. Glen Goldman, their 25 year old son, related his adventures studying comparative religions and working with aid organizations during this past year in India and Israel. Glen dug into Jewish studies in Jerusalem at a Yeshiva (religious school). Now he’s back wearing a soccer jersey from the Jerusalem Beitar team, and he hung some Buddhist prayer flags on their front porch.

The OG Chavurah and the OGU are examples of how minority individuals  in a small town might still need to connect to their own group, so perhaps we will see some other minority organizations form in Ocean Grove.

At Blogfinger we would like to hear from other demographic groups or individuals in town who might want to share their experiences as a minority living in Ocean Grove.

JAY BLACK (of Jay and the American’s fame) recorded this song in Yiddish and English in memory of the Holocaust. The YouTube video is illustrated with paintings by Marc Chagall.

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Modern OG history: The magic or the tragic? Former Mayor Jahn contemplates life in the Grove: A re-post from 2010.

Posted in Feature article, Ocean Grove portraits, tagged on February 7, 2024| 8 Comments »

MAGIC. Ocean Grove.  Click to enlarge. Paul Goldfinger  ©

Reposted from 2010 with the comments. Blast from the past, with a memorable last line:

By Mary Beth Jahn, former mayor and Committeeman.  She is the only Committeeman ever to comment on Blogfinger.

Hey OG Resident – Oh My!, guess what?  I was one  (a Grover), too, from 1993 to 2006.  I lived in the big orange apartment building on Main and Pennsylvania.  I got used to throwing my blinkers on for a few minutes in the fire zone, unloading the car, and heading for the 100 blocks of Heck or Abbott to park on Saturdays until the Aud. let out.

The bus service was there when I moved in, and it came in darn handy when the train to NYC went down.  In 1993, the majority of the Grove was serving mental patients, so the renaissance with stores and eateries has been and continues to be a delight and a true wonder of how determined citizens who are willing to take a gamble on a magical place can turn it around.

There was a time when Ocean Grove was much more isolated – no Dunkin’ Donuts (though we briefly had a Wawa there), no Windmill, no West Grove Square.  Not all progress is bad.  I’ll agree the density went wildly out of control in the 70s, 80s, and probably the the 90s, but when the state is paying you $1,600 per person, it was hard for owners of large hotels to turn that money down.  As for the triage bus the county has asked us to house, fuel, and insure, I haven’t spoken to one first-responder who says we shouldn’t have it, especially as the southern Monmouth area consolidates services.

That aside, what are the things you love about the Grove?  All that seems to be getting lost here.  I can’t tell you how many people in town I initially met at the old Wachovia ATM.  The Jersey Shore Arts Center is pretty amazing.  Shuffleboard is tons of fun.  The Historical Society and Camp Meeting have great events.  There’s Nagel’s and Day’s and the Starving Artist.  Smuggler’s Cove and Ocean Grove Flowers always have the perfect gifts for any occasion.  For a town that size, that’s hardly shabby.

We all control our own quality of life.  There are certain things we have to learn to live with, especially in a small area.  When we let the negative aspects take over the positive, sometimes you have to make choices.  I personally learned to turn a blind eye to parking on summer weekends so it didn’t make me crazy.  I knew what it was when I moved there, so it wasn’t like I hadn’t signed up for it.  I’m not saying that’s the approach everyone should take, but at some point, with this much anger roiling around some folks, maybe it’s time for some contemplative thought about focusing on the positive rather than the negative.

I moved out of the Grove for two reasons:  one was that I was still not in remission with my severe rheumatoid arthritis, and therefore, unable to perform most home repairs, which would have left the bulk of any work we could do ourselves on my sister, which wasn’t fair.  Second, we still weren’t sure whether I was going to fully go into remission (which I have, thankfully), but to be on the safe side, we needed a home which we could afford if I ended up on disability.  So far, so good.

I miss the smell of the sea when I walk out the front door, walking down the street to the ATM and News and Such, and spending time on the boardwalk.  When I think back on my time in the Grove, those are the things I remember most, not circling around blocks for a parking spot, and I suspect most people, when they remember this summer, will remember the great beach days, dinner parties, drinks on the porch with friends and family, Frisbee on the beach, and the like.

The sheer tininess of this town is part of what gives it the magic it has.  We can choose to grasp the magic and work toward solutions, or we can become bitter and ruin an entire beautiful summer’s worth of memories.

Which side are you going to choose – the magic or the tragic?

THE DUBS  (music added 2017)

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Just landed from Mars…

Posted in Feature article, Music from the movies, Photographic Gallery, Color, tagged on January 15, 2024|

By Paul Goldfinger. 2013. Copyright.

Twistee Treat.   By Paul Goldfinger.

 

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor. Blogfinger.net

What if you just landed from Mars and you saw this landscape? You would wonder if there is life on earth and if there is, what do they do with the funny house, the poles, and the thing with wheels?

You would say, “Let’s leave this odd and boring  place and get back home where the ice cream has a high butterfat content and there are dancing girls.”   Or perhaps you’ll say to the driver, “Let’s try the moon next.”

 

SOUNDTRACK.  By “Daves True Story” from the movie  Jack Goes Boating:

 

—PG

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Lost in the Stars — A Reverie

Posted in Blogfinger News, Charles Layton, Feature article, tagged on September 30, 2023| 2 Comments »

The Milky Way. Photo from the Internet

 

Re-post from 2012.  Charles Layton was a member of the Blogfinger staff when he wrote this marvelous piece. Charles now lives in Philadelphia.  He is a professional editor from the Philadelphia Inquirer, now retired.

 

By Charles Layton

A few years ago we lived for three weeks in Nicaragua, in a house at the edge of a small, very remote fishing village called Casares. It was a spectacular place. Instead of shooshing and murmuring, as they mostly do in Ocean Grove, the waves on that shore towered and crashed and sucked and splattered and spat. They were never subdued.

From our porch, looking out on the Pacific Ocean, we watched pelicans dive bombing for fish. Each afternoon huge flocks – a hundred or more at a time – would fly right past us, headed for their nesting grounds.

But even better was the sky at night. After all the meager lights in that little town went dark, the sky became a light show of blazing stars and star clusters, plunging meteors, wandering planets. Sometimes, very late, when the call of nature roused me from bed, I would walk out on the patio alone and stare and stare at the universe, and especially at the Milky Way, wheeling above me. Stars by the thousands, unbelievably distinct and clear.

In Ocean Grove, on most nights, you can actually count the number of visible stars. Often it’s no more than a dozen. Sometimes it’s none. Living under a permanent scrim of light pollution, we forget how many stars are out there. Many of us have never actually seen the night sky in its true state – as I saw it on the coast of Nicaragua, and as our ancestors knew it.

In a couple of weeks we’ll hear jokes about the Mayan calendar coming to an end, and how that will be the destruction of the earth and all mankind. No need to do your Christmas shopping or pay your taxes now, our doom is written in the stars, har har. What idiots, those Mayans.

But really, the Mayans and all ancient peoples lived their lives in constant communion with the teeming, moving lights in the natural sky. The ancient peoples had no idea what those lights were. They noted that the lights moved in strange ways. Sometimes one could be seen to streak and fall out of the sky. Sometimes a comet would appear, ominously hovering. (What did that portent? Something important, right?) The night sky was those people’s television, fraught with drama and bad news.

The constellation Orion. The three middle stars are his belt

Religions arose to explain all those moving lights. Stories were told. People saw pictures in the sky – a lion, a crab, a hunter named Orion holding a bow in one hand and a club in the other. Because the planets moved independently of the rest of the turning firmament, the ancients associated those special lights with gods – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.

But because the sky was so brilliant, prominent, ever-present and mysterious, ancient people studied it methodically. They built observatories and took and recorded measurements. They found that the heavenly bodies displayed repeating patterns which, when plotted, yielded information useful to hunters, farmers, nomads and sailors. Astrologers tried to discern when “the stars were right” for planting or marrying or doing business or giving birth.

The Bible says the “wise men” (men who understood signs in the sky) were guided to Bethlehem by a star. If such a beckoning star rose in the sky now, I doubt we’d even see it — unless JCP&L suffered a major blackout.

Hurricane Sandy taught us the value of electricity, and I’m happy to have the power back on; I would never want to do without it. Still, it’s not a trivial thing, our loss of that ancient awareness of the richness of the sky.

 

 

BILLIE HOLIDAY  (this song added on 4/23/21):

 

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Exclusive on Blogfinger: Monmouth County Prosecutors Office concludes Manchester Inn fire investigation.

Posted in By Paul Goldfinger, Feature article, Ocean Grove events, tagged on July 26, 2023|

Modern Ocean Grove history:  Manchester fire 2010.

 

March 13, 2010. Photo by Ed Wyzykowski of Ocean Grove

 

By Paul Goldfinger

SUNDAY:  We had the opportunity this morning to speak to a knowlegable  source in the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office regarding the Manchester Inn fire (March 13, 2010)  investigation. After an exhaustive assessment, they have concluded that there was no foul play.  Although no specific cause was found, they have excluded arson. In addition, although a new boiler had been recently installed, there was no evidence that it was a factor in the fire.

The insurance companies have hired a private investigation team to evaluate the work done by Monmouth County officials.

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D-Day: 24 Hours That Saved the World. Doctors go in with the troops at Normandy. 80th Anniversary.

Posted in Blogfinger feature article, Feature article, Music from the movies, tagged on June 6, 2023| 2 Comments »

 

Robert Capa, Life Magazine photographer went into Omaha Beach with the American troops. Robert Capa, Life Magazine photographer landed  at  Omaha Beach with the American troops. They went in at Easy Red/Fox Green sector. June 6, 1944 .He took this photo and won a Pulitzer Prize. *   (see below)

 

By Paul Goldfinger, MD    Editor @Blogfinger

Robert Capa landed with the troops and shot quickly with his Leica 35 mm camera.  He handed over his film to an aide who got the film out  to a boat and then on to England for processing.  Unfortunately, an overzealous lab tech ruined most of the exposures except for a few. The image above is one of them, and the Capa D-Day collection is among the best examples of American photojournalism.

There were 12 surgical teams that went in on D-Day, but only 8 made it to shore.  Medics quickly organized the wounded. Medical stations and field hospitals were quickly established on shore.  Of the wounded who made it to a medical station, less than 1% died.

During the month prior to D-Day,  American factories manufactured 100 million doses of the wonder drug Penicillin. There were 4,644 U.S. Army nurses who were stationed on the European front in 1944. They landed on the beaches on June 10 and walked 5 miles or more to field hospitals.

 

Normandy, a few days after D-Day, aircraft bring in containers of blood for transfusion. * Normandy, a few days after D-Day.  Aircraft bring in containers of blood for transfusion. *

 

(Still photographs by Paul Goldfinger obtained from the movie Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg.)

Troops dropped off in the bloody water move in to Omaha Beach, Dog Sector.  Paul Goldfinger still.  High mortality in the first wave.

 

Tom Hanks as Capt. John Miller regains his composure after barely making it ashore. There is mayhem and death all around.    Paul Goldfinger still image.

 

Medics try to save lives on the beach, but deadly fire inhibits  effectiveness. Paul Goldfinger still.

 

Nazi pill boxes take a high toll on the beach. Eventually Capt. Miller and his men break through to open the log jam. Paul Goldfinger still.

 

 

* Reference:  Time Magazine D-Day 70th Anniversary Tribute  (re-issue of the 2004 Time Classic)

 

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT.  From the soundtrack of the film  The Aviator

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SUGGESTIONS FOR A NEW TOWN SLOGAN. From Blogfinger in 2012. See the comments. You can add your own now in 2022..

Posted in Blogfinger News, Feature article on December 17, 2022| 13 Comments »

What say we fly over to Clancy’s for a brewski.

By Charles Layton.  2012.

Ocean Grove has a time-honored town slogan: God’s Square Mile. It is memorable and succinct. However, as we know, OG is really only about half a square mile – less when it’s flooded — and surrounding its Methodist core there has arisen a large and vital secular community. We think that community needs a slogan of its own. Therefore, here are our “top ten suggestions for a new town slogan.”

 10. Ocean Grove: Not responsible for lost or stolen items.

 9. Ocean Grove: A National Historic Site – but you can get a variance.

 8. Ocean Grove: Gayer than thou.

 7. Ocean Grove: Absolutely no mosquitos. Honest.

 6. Ocean Grove: No parking at any time.

 5. Ocean Grove: Property of Jack Green.

 4. Ocean Grove: Where’s my bike?

 3. Ocean Grove: Home of Blogfinger. (Well, why not?)

 2. Ocean Grove: It only floods when it rains.

          And the Number One suggestion for a new town slogan:

 1. Ocean Grove: What do you have to do to get a drink around here?

 

Here’s a 2022  musical suggestion with  Peter Allen:  “Everything Old is New Again.”

 

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Modern OG history: With New Pipes, a Great Organ Becomes Even Greater. 2012 Blogfinger. By Mary Walton.

Posted in Blogfinger News, Feature article, Ocean Grove feature article, Ocean Grove news, tagged , , on September 8, 2022| 3 Comments »

Organ curator, John Shaw preparing the new harmonic flute pipes for installation at the Great Auditorium. Photo by Mary Walton

 

By Mary Walton, Blogfinger staff.  2012.

     Back in the 1960s, in what organist Gordon Turk deplores as “an unfortunate attempt to modernize” the magnificent organ in the Great Auditorium, 44 large open wood pipes were removed, cut up and used for wind ducts.
     Their absence robbed the organ of its heft and rich, deep-throated tone. The person responsible “claimed to be an organ specialist but really should have been a plumber,” said Ocean Grove’s organ curator, John Shaw.
     But when Turk puts the pedal to the metal for the opening concert of the 2012 summer season at noon Saturday, the Auditorium will once again fill with the sound that organ designer and builder Robert Hope-Jones intended listeners to hear.
     Earlier this month replacement pipes made of poplar, constructed by A.R. Schopp’s Sons of Ohio and ranging in size from four to sixteen feet, were shoehorned into the tight quarters behind the choir loft by a team of Philadelphia riggers. To gain access, a wall to the building superintendent’s office had to be removed and then replaced.
     There’s more. For some years Turk had longed for a set of harmonic flute pipes such as those found in the organs of certain French cathedrals. The Ocean Grove organ has many flute pipes, but harmonic flute pipes are distinguished by a small hole which reinforces certain overtones, giving them a clear “ringing” quality.
     Until recently Turk believed they would render superlative sound only if  housed in stone cathedrals. That is, until he played the organs at halls in Zurich and Vienna with acoustics similar to the wood-lined Great Auditorium. Could such pipes be installed here?
     Turk consulted, among others, Jean-Louis Coignet, the organ curator of the City of Paris, who had once visited Ocean Grove and pronounced the auditorium’s organ “magnifique.” Over the winter they worked via e-mail to establish specifications for 306 harmonic flute pipes ranging in size from one and three-fifths to eight feet, divided into five “ranks” played from the organ’s five keyboards. John Shaw installed them just this week.
     The two installations bring the organ’s total pipe count to 11,558.
     The cost of the additional pipes is $65,000, made possible by gifts from two donors, James G. Howes of Clearwater, Florida, a transportation consultant, and Dr. Liselotte Schmidt, a retired music professor who lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

 

Howes, the grandson of  Methodist minister G.E. Lowman, a noted Baltimore radio evangelist, contributed $45,000 for the construction and installation of the open wood pipes in memory of his grandfather.  “I thought this would be a wonderful way to memorialize my grandfather and make a contribution to Ocean Grove that everyone could enjoy,” he said in an interview.

     Howes learned to play the organ in his grandfather’s church, the Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle, now an historic landmark. “I’m just good enough,” he said, “to know how much more I need to know.” He has also played and sung in the choir of the interdenominational Riverside Church in New York City.
     Howes’ grandparents were frequent visitors to Ocean Grove, as was his mother. Howes himself has been coming here since childhood and never misses a Choir Festival. A pilot who forged a career in airport management, Howes is also the president of Atlas Communications, which offers a weekly radio program, Sacred Classics, and produces CDs and concerts.
One CD recorded in 2001 features Gordon Turk. Titled “Sacred Classics at Ocean Grove,” it has sold more than 3,000 copies, which Howes says is “very good for an organ record.”
     He will be in the audience Saturday when Gordon Turk will debut the organ’s new additions.
     Turk will also offer a July 4 recital (“Storms &Thunder, Stripes & Pipes”) and will play at a July 5 Summer Stars performance with the Philos Polished Brass Ensemble. And featuring, of course, the Auditorium organ.

One of the new 16-foot open wood pipes under construction earlier this year in Ohio


Editor’s note.   September, 07, 2022.   Below is a comment from OG historian David Fox dated today.

 

The Auditorium organ was purchased at a supposed discount in return for having, “Hope-Jones Organ Co. Elmira, N. Y.” emblazoned in gold on the base of the central display pipes. This ceased to appear on postcards in the 1920s.

While the company went out of business in 1910 and the present instrument is mostly not Hope-Jones, I feel it would be a nice historical touch if the name were restored.

It also had some now vanished “U”-shaped wooden ornaments running along the slanting tops of the pipe screens.

 

CANTILENE.      This is a Gordon Turk recording on the Ocean Grove organ.

 

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