Remembering Ms. Doyle

For several years around Halloween, we visited Hillsborough Middle School.

Two outstanding teachers from that school, Ms. Moreno and Ms. Doyle, gave their students the opportunity to learn about folklore, history, legends and ghost stories.  Specifically how those stories impact our culture around us.  Hometown Tales helped that curriculum along with a yearly guest assembly.

The first year we did the assembly, we were at the height of our "Public Access" years with the Hometown Tales TV show that ran locally throughout much of NJ, NY and PA.  Hillsborough, NJ had high viewership.  The local papers joined our presentation at the school and we taped segments for an upcoming show. It was a great foray in to speaking engagements on behalf of Hometown Tales.  We continued the tradition for years.

Last Fall, Ms. Doyle left a voicemail message saying she had been out of school for a few months with an illness but she was getting better and would be back soon.  I returned  the call, leaving a message for her indicating she was in my thoughts and prayers and for her to call back when she had a chance.  Months went by and I had not heard.  A common situation that we all probably encounter, the last few weeks, I had been thinking, "I need to call Ms. Doyle back" to see how she is.  Just this morning, I received an email from Ms. Moreno.  Ms. Doyle had passed away.

Bryan and I have been "swamped" with the regular chores of life the past year or so.  This has made Hometown Tales pretty stagnant and quiet.   Hometown Tales has been in sort of in limbo.  Appropriately, I had recently been thinking of trying to get a reunion show recorded and perhaps even writing a blog entry about some of the coolest life experiences Hometown Tales has brought me.  Coincidently, the honor of speaking to enthusiastic and inspiring 7th and 8th graders was one of them.  I thoroughly enjoyed the speaking engagements at Hillsborough Middle School and greatly enjoyed spending my lunch break  during those yearly presentation with a teacher who had such a passion and love for her students. She was dedicated to giving them an opportunity to learn and grow.  In addition, she was a friend.  Because while we only got to have lengthy conversation once a year at a hurried school lunch break.  She always remembered details about what we had talked about years before.  She always remembered I had a son, I was involved in my local town, she asked about my wife, our friends, our jobs and truly listened to the answers.  She was often a good sounding board for career ideas, parenting tips and potential new stories for Hometown Tales.

A good teacher creates the environment for a student to learn and grow.  He or she gives them the tools to think and expand their knowledge.  Ms. Doyle was a great teacher not just to 7th and 8th grade student but to everyone around her because she listened and gave the person she was talking to the opportunity to think deeper, look further and learn more.

Ms. Doyle On behalf of Bryan and myself, who share your passion for history, folklore, learning and legends.  Thank you.

Rest peacefully friend. The person you were made a difference in many lives.  You will be greatly missed.

-Gene

Tons of MP3s

Hey Everyone,

You'll notice a list of all our Radio Shows on the right column of this site. Just scroll down a bit but we also figured we'd update a couple of the last shows in a post. We didn't post for every show in like the last 20 or so.

But here they are.

HT Radio Show #321 - Bryan And the Tornado. Hear about Bryan's trip to the midwest where he went Storm Chasing.

HT- Radio #320 - Weird Northwest. Discussing the odd tales of Oregon and Washington with Weird Washington and Weird Oregon authors, Jeff Davis and Al Aufrasio.

HT- Radio #319- Tales of Meat, Part 1. While we mostly cover tales of beef, we discuss some of the origins of your favorite cuts and other delicacies. One of our most popular shows in a long time.

HT Radio #318. Catching up on the strangest tales including the square donuts, Bryan's trip looking for tornados, Lord Jesus Christ hit by a car, life on Mars, Lost Colony, more strange food and much much more.

HT Radio #317. More on haggis, Cheeburger Cheeburger, oldest jazz club, Ghengis Khan killing the messenger, church in the basement, massive fireball and more.

HT Radio #316. Where'd the tomato come from? Kids in car moved by UFO in NH, the troll hidden in a closet, dead body under the couch and much much more.

HT Radio #315. Catching up on the latest and strangest of news. Big fight in the UK over dry roasted nuts. Haggis Chocolate, Strange Sighting, The Golden Dawn and the Tarot and Satanic terrorist threat. Plus much more.

HT Radio #314- Kuchisake-ona. The Japanese urban legend of the Slit-mouth woman.

Chupacabra? Aliens? What did this in Denville

Mike from Denville, NJ woke up to an interesting event this week. Magically a deer carcass appeared on his lawn, completely skinned to the bone. Aliens? the Chupacabra? or just some kids pulling something from the woods.

No signs of struggle, no drag marks. Animal Control on it's way.

Fountains of Wayne

(Photo - Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive)

A lot of people have been writing in regarding an iconic store in Wayne, NJ that just recently closed. "Fountains of Wayne" has been a staple along Route 46 for decades. First we lost "Anthony's Steaks" years ago and now "Fountains of Wayne" is gone. And yes that is what the band "Fountains of Wayne" is named after.

Here an email forwarded from Diane Carlin who was alerted via a email group she is part of regarding Christmas Decorations.

Sad to see such an iconic establishment be another victim to tough economic times.

"Unfortunately, I open this edition of Chip’s Tips with some sad news: it is with deep regret that I report to you that yet another one of the great Christmas stores in the New York metropolitan area has closed its doors forever. As a result of the current economic downturn, Fountains of Wayne, a New Jersey landmark for over 40 years on Route 46 in Wayne, has gone out of business. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Fortunoff, which boasted quite an elaborate Christmas department during the holiday season, has been forced to close as well. These stores now join the already defunct Christmas City, Harrows and Treasure Island. But that’s not all; in addition to all this, beginning this year the Branch Brook/Namco chain will no longer be carrying a Christmas line. They now join Fairfield Garden Center, which, while remaining in business, has also discontinued its Christmas line. What a perfectly awful loss for our area in only the last 5 years, and this very same thing is happening in other areas all across the nation. It’s just a very sad sign of the times. One small bright spot to report, however, is that subsequent to its liquidation, the Harrows name has been resurrected by 2 former partners and has opened 3 stores on Long Island. However, these new Harrows stores are not the same as the original stores. For example, while they do have a Christmas department during the holidays, these new stores no longer market the Golden Sleigh product line, which was the original store’s exclusive line of Christmas goods."

Preserve Greystone

I recently attended a meeting regarding the preservation of Greystone Psychiatric's historic Kirkbride Building. You've probably heard us discuss Greystone often on our show. It was once the largest structure in the nation, when you include it's underground tunnels, until the Pentagon came along. Greystone became an enormous mental health institution and it surely had it's share of tales.

Sadly, Greystone became overcrowded and tormented by abuse allegations and other questionable activity that was so prevalent in most of the mental health field at one time. Over the years it has become a shadow of it's former self. The institution has obviously reformed and even has new building for adequate treatment. However, many of the old classic abandoned buildings have been torn down. There is a growing movement to keep New Jersey from tearing down the famous and classic Kirkbride building.

Hometown Tales strongly supports this movement. Please check out PreserveGreystone.org

As well you can view some snapshots Hometown Tales took several years ago on one of our many visitors to the grounds. Unfortunately, many of the building in these photos are no longer standing.

The Earthquake

You may have heard but my hometown was hit with a 3.0 Earthquake. I know if you live in California that seems like nothing. But for me, it was pretty cool. Just a little after 10:30 at night I was getting into bed and had headphones on. All of a sudden I felt some massive bass. I looked to my wife and could immediately tell from the look on her face that she felt the "bass" too. And she didn't have headphones on.

Of course she thought it was our furnace but I was pretty sure it was something else. I grew up in Succasunna, NJ not far from where I live now (about 35 mins) and Succassunna was close to Kenvil, NJ. Kenvil, NJ used to be home to Hercules Ammunitions. Throughout their history the joint had blown up several times, once in the early 90s. It was an early morning about 5am and I could just feel the whole earth move when the place rocked the town then. That's exactly what the "earthquake" felt like.

Turns out the actual fault line, The Ramapo Fault Line, is actually in my town two. Hopefully I won't be swallowed up by the Earth someday. Until then my hometown's tale is - We were hit with an earthquake Feb 1, 2009.