Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A Patch reader wondered about a photo his mother kept; you answered!
Patch asked and you answered -- and how! Earlier this month, a reader sent in the following query along with the photo: My mom (and her sisters and mother) were very active in Girl Scouts in the Oranges in the 1920s. Mom's maiden name was Irene Tonks. Mom and her sister - Betty Tonks - were Golden Eaglets," writes a reader. "I now own a very good quality 8 x 10 photograph of a US flag being formally raised on a flag pole. The following is written on the back of the photo: 'October 26, 1923. First flag raising at Camp Natalie Kip.' Can you tell me more about this setting and event? Thanks! He also notes that, "There is also something else on the back of the photo: a large, black ink rubber stamp 'impression' that reads 'From Drew, Bynum, …
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
"We can revert instantly to hot-blooded boyishness," writes Dan Barry, who plays Sunday basketball in Maplewood
The only daughter of a Montrose family with a local extended family
Jean Graves, only daughter of Edward and Jean Graves of Scotland Road, was a debutante who made headlines. The Graves Estate made room for a growing family. Parents Jean and Edward Hale Graves had a daughter, also named Jean (year of birth unknown). The list of household residents grew with the addition of a nanny, two maids and their children, according to the 1910 census. In addition, the Graveses had an extended local family, with deep roots in the Oranges. (The extended family will be covered in a future column.) Many of Miss Jean Stevenson Graves’s activities were chronicled in The New York Times. Her debut was headline news in December of 1926. The young debutante and former student of Miss Porter’s School in CT was introduced to …
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Seth Boyden School puts on the The Wizard of Oz.
Call to Seth Boyden Parents: Please upload your photos and videos of The Wizard of Oz here! We need more, more, more of this great production. You might think that today's kids are too jaded to make it through nearly three hours of a fifth grade musical production. You would be wrong. My fourth grader and second grader have been to IMAX theaters. They've been dazzled by Avatar and Harry Potter and, yes, The Avengers. They have access to iPads and iPods and iPhones. But I have never seen them more enthralled with an entertainment than they were last night at Seth Boyden's fifth grade production of The Wizard of Oz. My second grader was so excited during certain scenes that she could barely sit, a big grin splitting her face. My too-cool-for…
After-school program continues to grow for middle school students in Maplewood and South Orange.
Here in Maplewood and South Orange there’s a thriving, exciting after-school network advancing the social and intellectual development of our youth. YouthNet, now entering its fifth year, offers an after-school learning opportunity at South Orange Middle School and Maplewood Middle School, staffed entirely by district teachers. At YouthNet’s core are more than 30 after school enrichment activities offered free of charge, along with a fee-based developmental program for focus on homework help and tutoring. Far from being just custodial, YouthNet has measured its success by advancing the learning and life training skill sets of our students with its programs, helping them broaden their participation in both social and work settings. …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Reporter's Notebook: Mom prepares for mega music festival with four teens on Saturday.
Like any good mom, I wanted to give my 15-year-old daughter something she really wanted for her birthday. So what did she want to do more than anything else this weekend to celebrate? Maybe a Broadway show? A Knicks game? A day at a spa? A trip to the beach? She wanted to go to the beach all right -- to Bamboozle, the three-day music festival at Asbury Park that is expected to draw 90,000 concertgoers down the shore over the weekend. A few months ago, a concert on the beach sounded like a fun and reasonable thing to do -– at least one day of it -– so I let her pick a day, and I offered to drive and chaperone. I didn’t really think too much about what I was getting myself into. Now it’s here, and I’m getting bulletins about traffic and how …
Sunday, May 13, 2012
This year mom wants the things money can’t buy: peace, quiet and a little less nose-picking.
As a mother of three boys, my days are busy, loud and sometimes covered in chocolate. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But after a decade of macaroni necklaces and still-partially-frozen waffles that land syrup-side down on my duvet cover before even roosters are stirring, I’d like to share some other easy-on-the-wallet Mother’s Day gift ideas. Now I’m not crazy, I don’t expect all these things to last year-round but for one day, any of the following “gifts” would be priceless. Here, in an open letter to my fellas, is what I do and don’t want, in no particular order: I do want you to dress yourselves but not like rodeo clowns. I don’t want to hear any senseless arguments or competing such as, “Look, there’s a cat in the window!” “Yeah, …
Local writer shares memories of her mother.
This Mother’s Day many women will mark the day without their mothers physically by their side. I am one of those women. Although I will celebrate my mother on Mother’s day, I remember her in a special way every day of my life. My mother’s name was Colette. How blessed I was to share that name with my wonderful mom. I once heard that the name Colette meant “victorious” and although my mom was victorious in so many ways, if I was to put words together that describe my Mom and her life, they would be: faith, family, love, and joy. Mom had a lot of really good sayings and one of them was that “Joy is not the absence of sorrow.” That meant that no matter how tough things were, we should still try to see the joy that surrounds us. My mom …
Friday, May 11, 2012
Who lived in the mansion on Scotland Road? Part 1 of 2
Now we know it as 425 Scotland Road, or the mansion next to Marylawn of the Oranges, but a century ago, this was the Graves family home. Built by 1900, the large house is known for its dumbwaiter and the ballroom that still exists. Locals tell of glimpses inside, but their stories pale next to Mrs. Graves's 1908 adventure. Edward H. Graves, owner of the house, was a Manhattan broker with offices at 30 Broad Street, born in 1867 (or 1869; this is census data and it was written by hand). By 1900, he was married to Jean (sometimes spelled Jeanne), born 1874, and they lived in the Scotland Road home. They weren't alone: They had three Irish-born servants, Kate Conklin, Mary Anino, and Ellen McQueen. Ellen's ten-year-old brother lived there, as…
A state legislative committee approved a bill this week that would bar the practice.
Can an employer force you to reveal your Facebook or other social media password as a condition for getting hired or keeping your job? That issue began to get some attention in March after a statistician in New York reported that during an interview with a potential employer, the woman interviewing him had searched for his Facebook and, upon discovering that it was private, asked him for the password. The statistician, Justin Bassett refused and left the interview, according to the Associated Press. But the story brought to light other instances where employers have sought similar access to social media accounts, and have led several states to consider legislation to ban the practice. California's assembly voted Thursday to approve such …
Heather Hecking
5:06 pm on Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Juliet Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts in 1912...NOT 1913. March 12, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. Just felt the need to correct that misprint. more ›