Matawan-Aberdeen Tourism Information - 2012

We visited the New Jersey tourist information room at the Montvale Rest Area (GSP mile marker 171) on the way home from Massachusetts this afternoon. It's a rather large center where tourists coming south can pick up brochures that will help them plan their visits to our state. I wanted to see how our local area promotes itself through these brochures. If we don't brag on ourselves, no one will come.

Aberdeen-Matawan is in the northwest corner of the Shore Region of the NJ Travel Guide, which is handed out in bulk at the center. Our presence in the guide is unimpressive, with random listings and lots of gaps. Here's a breakdown of the guide, by section:

• Visitors Info has a listing for the Matawan-Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce (pg 24) and a full page ad for Monmouth County tourism (pg 25). The guide promotes nineteen points in the Shore Region; only one -- Keansburg Amusement Park and Runaway Rapids Family Waterpark -- is nearby.
• Destinations (pp 26-43) includes Cliffwood (Funtime America), Keansburg (Runaway Rapids Waterpark), Keyport (Keyport Business Alliance, Captain John's Charter Fishing, Henry Hudson Trail, Keyport Fishing Pier, and Keyport Municipal Boat Ramp), Matawan (Party and Play -- actually in Old Bridge, Market Place I and II -- also in Old Bridge, and Cheesequake State Park -- yet again in Old Bridge), Union Beach (Visitor information listing). 
• Beaches (pg 44) does not include Cliffwood Beach or Keyport. Why? They both have fishing and permit food.Cliffwood Beach has a seawall that could be listed as a boardwalk. 
• Lodging (pp 45-50)includes 2 hotels in Hazlet.
• Campgrounds (pg 51) mistakenly includes Cheesequake Park under Matawan.

We could do better in this guide. Matawan could promote Burroughs Mansion, the Freneau House and Gravesite, the old stagecoach stop at what is now the Brass Rail restaurant, the historic graveyard at St James AME Zion church, Lake Matawan, Lake Lefferts, the Hudson Trail, and perhaps, in the near future, a long-overdue memorial to the Matawan Creek shark attacks of 1916 and a restored Ryer House. It's a no-brainer that Matawan destinations should not include spots that are really in Old Bridge, even if they share the same zip code. And Cliffwood Beach could promote its bass fishing, natural beach, and beautiful seawall.

As for other tourist brochures available at the center, the Matawan-Aberdeen area should aim to add a listing in a future edition of the Directory of NJ Bed & Breakfasts. The downtown would have to be more inviting to tourists by adding a good mix of businesses, developing and promoting its historic and natural assets, and drawing more attention to its transportation and geographic advantages. Red Bank has its own tri-fold brochure; there's no reason why the Matawan-Aberdeen area couldn't make some adjustments and fill a tourist pamphlet of its own. Our area could also aim to upgrade the Spotlight Players to a professional theatre company so it can be added to the NJ Theatre Alliance Calendar.

A Tight Squeeze in Cliffwood

The 25 Jul 2012 Aberdeen Township Zoning Board agenda included an item related to a request for variances for a forlorn property at 79 Monica Street in Cliffwood. A single family house was first proposed for this property, just off Rose Street, in 1987.Affordable housing was planned for the spot in 1999. Both applications were abandoned.

Typical of Cliffwood variance requests, the property is too small for what they want to build. The lot is only 4,325 sq ft, 2/3rds of the required 6,000 sq ft minimum size in our town. Keep in mind that a quarter acre lot would be 10,890 sq ft; this postage stamp sized Cliffwood lot is only one-tenth of an acre.

The builder-owner is the Real Estate Development Group of NJ LLC. Build Zoom says the company is based in Asbury Park and has license number 13VH05063600. Bizapedia says the company, based in Freehold, filed with the State of New Jersey in 2008 (filing number 0400262195). Inquiring minds want to know more about this developer.

I was unable to attend the meeting Wednesday night, so we'll just have to check the minutes when they're issued to see what happened with this application.

What Ails Your County Employees? Inquiring Minds Wanna Know

Monmouth County Freeholders are considering the idea of spending over $17,000 to have Blue Cross Blue Shield conduct a health review of county employees to see what ails them. For some reason the bill writer thinks it would be in the best interest of the county to look at the overall health of county employees and identify the main areas of concern.

I'm not sure what the county expects to find or what they could even do with such health statistics once they obtained them. Seems like a lot of money to discover that county employees, like the rest of us, need to lose some weight or stop smoking.

My health plan offers me a free health review that develops a personal health profile with a personal response program. My health plan? Blue Cross Blue Shield. Sounds to me like the county is being sold a bill of goods.

Freeholders Consider Challenge to State's Diversion of Local Revenue

Our Monmouth County Freeholders will vote this evening on a resolution to support the League of Municipalities in their call for the State of New Jersey to restore Energy Tax Receipts to local governments. The state has been diverting these revenues to its own use in recent years in what has become something of a bad habit. The net effect has been higher property taxes.

History: Nord Chemical Co Explosion, Keyport (1952)

The 1 May 1952 edition of The Matawan Journal (page 1, col 8) covered the overnight explosions and fire at the Nord Chemical Company at Broadway and Clark Street in Keyport.

"Area residents were jolted from their slumbers early this morning by a series of explosions . . . that set off successive waves of a roaring inferno that consumed much of the plant . . ."

Area fire companies couldn't approach the benzol-fueled chemical fire until retardant foam was delivered from Standard Oil in Linden and applied.

Nord Chemical, which had been in operation for 14 years, consisted of a plant, office buildings and storage tanks situated on 9 acres. Authorities were able to move three of four chemical tank cars on the plant's railroad spur. A neighboring company had  relocated much of its operation to Marlboro for fear of such a fire and still suffered an estimated $33,000 in damages. Nord's estimated loss was $100,000.

The manufacture of benzol distillates from waste had prompted complaints of odors and the pollution of nearby Luppatolong Creek. See "Fumes Many Complaints, Probe" in the 8 Feb 1951 edition of The Matawan Journal (page 6, col 5) for details of these complaints and Keyport's unsuccessful efforts to get the State of New Jersey to assign blame to Nord Chemical.

The 13 Aug 1942 edition of The Red Bank Register (pg 11) reported on what was the sixth fire at the plant in three years. The 29 Jul 1948 edition of the Red Bank Register (pg 9) mentioned yet another fire.

History: Lisbon Manor, Cliffwood Beach (1989)

The 20 Dec 1989 edition of The Independent had this advertisement for the Lisbon Manor Bar and Restaurant at 160 Route 35 North in the Cliffwood Beach section of Old Bridge.. The restaurant specialized in Portuguese, Spanish and American cuisine.

The 1 Jun 1995 edition of The Independent provided a review of Don Sancho's Portuguese Restaurant at the same address.

Livotti's Old World Market, Aberdeen

We bought some fresh fruits, vegetables and meats on Saturday afternoon at Livotti's Old World Market on Route 34 in Aberdeen. A nice shop.

Dairy case

Fruits

and vegetables

Deli department

Espresso bar

Putting Young Daughters on Hold

Raising Children With Your Smartphone, by Patt Morrison. (scpr.org)

I've been seeing more and more instances of girls eight years old and under being left to make up little imagination games and otherwise spend the empty time that results from their mothers engaging in lengthy cell phone calls in public places.

Mom is typically passing what she considers dead time. She may be sitting at a table in a diner waiting for the food to be delivered. Or her daughter is eighth in line in the pediatrician's waiting room. Or she's walking her daughter to school. Or she's wending her way through the aisles at the grocery store. Or, God forbid, she's driving. Whatever the situation, the child is left to her own devices.

The little girl, a blank look on her face, sits frozen or walks aimlessly alongside her mother. Momentarily inspired, her face is suddenly resolute. She raises her arms majestically, perhaps even whirls her upper body around, pretending she's a bird. Or she sings quietly as she tends to her doll. Pausing from her activity, she looks back over her shoulder to see her mom still talking on the phone, eyes fixed not on her little girl but up into the dead airspace where this conversation is taking place.  No longer a bird, the girl returns to her blank state to idle some more.

Well acquainted with these interminable episodes of exclusion, I suppose she is resigned to her fate. This separation, the loneliness, is not new to her. It amazes me that the girl doesn't act up; but she issues no objection, no protest, not even a sigh.

I searched Google Images for pictures of "mothers on cell phone." Virtually all the selections were of happy women and their happy young children, even happy babies, sharing what appeared to be wonderful cell phone moments. Truly 99% of the images with cell phones, women and children were of smiles and joy. Perhaps the mobile telephone industry has mesmerized society in some way? Maybe I chose the wrong search terms?

After all, how can a device that connects two people to a third person bring the original two people closer together? The "connection" is not between the mother and child but between the two persons on the cell phone.  And, need I say it, the daughter is the odd man out.

I'd like to tell these women that they should engage their daughters, not ignore them or take them for granted. Their young girls are a precious commodity, beautiful people who will grow up sooner than their mothers think. I guess they'll just have to talk to their daughters by cell phone. And begin to ignore the spouse.

History: The Batman at the Keyport Strand (1943)

The terrible shootings at a Colorado movie house the other night were at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie. I thought I'd look for the first mention of a Batman movie in our local paper and found it in the 21 Oct 1943 edition of The Matawan Journal. Above is an ad for the Keyport Strand movie theater and the movies being shown that week.

• Salute to the Marines, starring Wallace Beery, with Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen. The proudest picture of them all!

• Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait, starring Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, and Charles Colburn. It's a tonic for everything . . . from your funnybone to your heart!

• They Came to Blow Up America, starring George Sanders, with Anna Sten.
• Shantytown, starring Mary Lee and John Archer, and Matty Malneck and Band.
• Hit the Ice, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and Ginny Simms, with Patric Knowles, Elyse Knox, Johnny Long and his Orchestra, and 50 skating beauties.

• The Batman, starring Lewis Wilson and J Carrol Naish.