You Can Never Go Home

I visited Iselin, the town I grew up in, this past weekend  and stayed at my brothers home on Semel Avenue.  And because of the Facebook page 'I Grew Up in Iselin New Jersey' I have been thinking about the town that I spent my childhood in. The places I use to play and explore.  The stores and the shops I use to go visit. The people who were a big influence in my life.

 So it was natural that on my weekend visit I road around and explored some of the spots that I remember, and it is not the same place.  The places that I use to play are all overgrown with large trees where there were fields. And in some cases there are houses or office buildings covering those areas.

The stores and shops that I use to go to are all gone.  There is not much that is recognizable, only the street names.

Iselin is a thriving community today, when I left, many years ago, it was becoming a ghost town. The business area all but disappeared, abandoned store front was the norm then.
 I may want to see Kleins,Petillties ( sorry for the spelling), Quigleys Esso and the Iselin theater, but time waits for no man and those places and people will alway be with me in my memory of a special time in my life

The Bus Stop

In my younger years growing up in Iselin New Jersey I took a bus to school through junior high and high school. Unlike in Maine were the bus stops at every child's house, even though they may live right next to the next child to be picked up. And I like to say right now, if you are behind this bus trying to get somewhere like I have been, you are having a fit. I would like to say that I have my windows closed as I scream expletive's at the top of my lungs so the kiddies are spared the horror of bad words.

Getting back to the jest of the story. In my younger years all the kids in my development, Woodbridge Oaks, would all have to be in one spot. The location was a small strip mall,named Hilltop. Well any way there was about 20 kids that met here every school day to be picked up and delivered to the school.

  There were different groups, at the stop, that stuck together, the girls all hung together, then there was the boys who usually were separated by how they dressed. One group had a collegiate look, wearing khakis,penny loafers,button down shirts, and cardigan sweaters and in the winter stadium coats.

The next group were kind of stuck in between styles mostly fifties. Black tee shirts, lots of pink and black clothing with white socks and always black shoes.

Then there was my group which were called "The Newarks". We were the most hated for some strange reason. I think it was the girls alway love the sharp dressed man. ( Thank you ZZ Top)  Anyway we alway wore tailored paints that were alway hiked up on our chest. Long and rolled collared shirts some times with monograms. Double knit shirts,Italian shoes and the ever present leather jacket. It was very expensive to dress this way.

While waiting for the bus there was always things to do, like pitch pennies or some of the most bizarre trends for instance. You would get a kid to hold his breath and another would rap his arms around the kids chest, lift him off of his feet and squeeze till the kid passed out. Great fun you think.

Another bizarre trend that made it's way to the bus stop. You would grab your comb. Everyone would carry a comb,if you didn't you could be arrested. Just kidding. So you would take your comb and with the teeth side down smack your knuckles, then spin your arm around till, where you hit yourselves with the comb,would start to bleed. Did I mention that we were not the brightest bulbs in the box.

Mostly everyone got along and it was usually a fun time before the horrors of school. One of my favorite moments was when Billy Collier, a collegiate dresser, brought his grandfathers false teeth on the bus and wore them. I laughed all the way to school and I have to say that as I write this I am laughing out loud. It was a special moment.