Current 2021 Real Estate Photos of 50 Hazelwood Ave, all fixed up modern
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THE CHURCH AND SCHOOL
We lived four houses up from Sacred Heart School and Church.
Sacred Heart School and Church and Convent and Rectory took up a complete block,
The Church being a big old beauty on the corners of South Orange Ave and Sanford Ave.
Sacred Heart Church, Vailsburg, Newark, NJ, Link To More Photos And Information
Those first 10 years were full of family, neighborhood, church, and school.
Catholic School church activities (First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Father/Son Breakfast),
School, Cub Scout Friends and Den Mother, Boy Scouts and Boy Scout Camp, Little League (All-Star Centerfielder!, 2 summers of CYO Day Camp (Catholic Youth Organization).
The streets were safe enough for us to come home and change out of our school uniforms into playclothes,
get on our bikes and play baseball or football and be home by 6 p.m.
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My mother used to sing this song when she was upset (she'd only sing the first line).
When I asked her about it, she said, "It's an old Negro Blues Song".
Actually, on the video it says "Negro Spiritual" (if needed, expand the size at the beginning to read it)
"Negro" was common, polite terminology in the 50's and earlier (even to the mid/late 60's)
Other examples
Dr Martin Luther King used the word regularly in his "Letters From A Birmingham Jail" (1963)
"For years now I have heard the word 'wait.' It rings in the
ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' "
"...unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I don't believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of
Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see
them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys"
Negro Baseball League
United Negro College Fund
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Of course, NOBODY says "negro" anymore. Though not an offensive slur, it has simply dropped out of disfavor, like "colored people",
in favor of "black" and "African American." Honestly, I'm not sure what we're supposed to say these days, and I don't know whether I'm "white" or "Caucasian" or whatever,
or what the precise differences are among "race", "ethnicity" and "cultural heritage".
In fact, in my home as I grew up, the nword (with the "gg") was NEVER spoken.
I did have a brother, the middle one, 5 1/2 years older than me, who was an idiot and who didn't associate with the best crowds.
He would occasionally seek attention by showing off his knowledge of his vast variety of teenager street words for African Americans,
"jungle bunnies", "coon skins", "shines". That's all I can remember.
My mother's favorite cousin, whom whom she used to babysit and walk in a carriage as a baby, married a guy who resembled Archie Bunker
and who had Archie Bunker feelings towards African Americans. He referred to Newark as "the jungle." Yet, he was a good father and a good friend to my parents.
In the fifties and sixties, "negro" would be used in school in an academic setting, and "colored" in ordinary conversation, as in,
"the coloreds live on the other side of The Garden State Parkway."
I had a "mammy", or a colored or African American woman who was my babysitter sometime between infancy and kindergarten.
I remember her name. It was Mamie Van Doren.
But NOBODY has used "negro" since the late sixties or early seventies, I guess,
and I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT say "I won't rent to the negroes" during a PA civil service employment interview.
The notion is so ridiculous that it's laughable. But the interviewers made up the lie and got away with it. White SCUM. Republicans maybe.
In fact, I DID rent to a black African American foreign student from Africa at the time (2014 or so)
and I just recently, in 2022, rented to a black African American man from Harrisburg.
Actually, personally, I was quite cutting edge in the Civil Rights Movement as I grew up.
The Greensboro, North Carolina, lunch counter sit-ins beganin February, 1960.
In 1960, I ate lunch at a lunch counter in South Orange, New Jersey, with a black man, my supervising co-worker at a Veterinarian's office/clinic.
In 1969, I withdrew from the oppressive, medieval educational environment of the jesuits and enrolled at Rutgers in Newark.
In the early seventies, I was a runaway Huck Finn, raft-riding in Manhattan with "black Jim" aka Sabu, sort of an older brother.
He introduced me to karate in the dojo of the highly regarded Peter Urban in Chinatown. And so on ... to many examples to list.
One more ... During that time I was driving a taxi in Manhattan and I stopped for two fares at Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village.
They had been waiting a long time ... measured in hours, not minutes (I'd seen them as I drove by with other passengers).
They flipped out with their dramatic expressions. That's just where we were at then.
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So, I'm angry with the Ghosting and Sanctioning I've experienced for many decades from Democrats AND Republicans.
THE LAW OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE PA CIVIL SERVICE LAW REFERRED TO AS THE "RULE OF 3",
REQUIRED THE CRIMINAL STATE EMPLOYEES TO HIRE ME FOR THE STATISTICS AND/OR REAL ESTATE POSITIONS I INTERVIEWED FOR.
THEY BROKE THE LAW IN BOTH CASES, AND THE REAL ESTATE PEOPLE LIED UNDER OATH AT THE CIVIL SERVICE HEARING.
I wanted the truth to be exposed, so distributed flyers throughout the Assembly and Senate office at The Capitol,
notifying and inviting everyone to attend the civil service hearing.
Governor Wolf surprised me by coming out to meet me on the stairs as I ascended toward his office.
I was too surprised and deferential to bother him with a flyer, and perhaps he sent an emissary to the hearing,
but the fix was in and they lied and denied.
I'd been to a hundred or so offices that morning and afternoon
and, as far as I know, only one senator went hysterical with rage and complained about me (for doing what other citiens do and have a right to do).
She was so stupid that she didn't get it that she SHOULD HAVE BEEN ENRAGED AT THE LYING FAT WHITE TRASH at the real estate department WHO OUTRIGHT LIED
while enflaming everyone with a completely fake racial issue that never happened.
The actual racial issue that did occur was the lie she told that created the false narrative of a facial issue. Her lie was a REAL racial issue.
But the truth, I guess, is just a little bit too much for you all to handle.
That's probably why Governor Wolf came out to meet me (with about 15 bodyguards).
Well, he was friendly and he's an intelligent man (Dartmouth, MIT), but he couldn't or didn't do anything.
Talk about Opportunity Cost! Talk about Reparations!
I don't know why African Americans WILLFULLY MISUNDERSTAND.
This all started in 1982 at sacramento state university when I was mocked and toyed with and insulted and abused sexually and regarding race and gender.
This was done by my instructor, by definition a person in a position of power vis-a-vis me
and by her stringy-haired, aging hippie husband, the department chair, who chuckled along at the abuse.
When she put her finger to my nose and scolded "white men have it coming to them!" and
"calling a white woman a womens libber IS JUST AS BAD AS calling a black man a $%gg@#",
THAT WAS CLEAR ABUSE and IT WAS ABSURDLY INCORRECT and, by the way, I never said $%gg@#.
SHE DID!
But everyone hated ME and called ME a racist, and it's never ended to this day, 41 years later.
ghosted, sanctioned, harassed, persecuted, tortured, abused.
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LET US TALK ABOUT JEWISH PEOPLE
When I was the Democratic Candidate for Mayor of Middletown in 2021,
I reached out to the African American community of Middletown and Pennsylvania and The United States
and I created most of this web page to do so.
And now, to acknowledge, honor and communicate with PA Governor-Elect Shapiro, I have inserted these words here underneath where my mother would sing when distressed.
A headline from "The Jewish Cleveland News" reads
"Josh Shapiro, Democrat who made his Jewishness a campaign focus, wins Pennsylvania governor's race"
OK, well that opens the door to continuing the conversation he began.
I have reached out to African Americans as well as I know how.
Now, here, I will BEGIN to reach out to Jewish Pennsylvanians and Americans.
I say "BEGIN" because I have a lot to say in order to tell the story fully.
And I know that, when the brain gets tired, one might rant and ramble.
So, the quick outline I plan to jot down right now, and these few vignettes
are not meant to give short shrift at all, but just to meet a time deadline of an Inauguration in Three Days! lol
Note. You may have noticed that I write "Jewish People", instead of Jews.
I do this for my own comfort level as to what sounds right and non-offensive, and to bring to light a language issue, and to avoid criticism.
It seems that most people don't refer to Jewish People as Jewish People. They refer to them as Jews. Even Jewish People call themselves Jews.
(OMG! A quick note. Something just came up as I researched what I just wrote lol.
I see an article in The Washington Post 10/05/2020 by Ben Sales, titled " 'Jew' isn't a slur. You don't have to avoid saying it"
Well, I'm saving money and I don't subscribe to The Washington Post, so I'm not going to read his article right now.
I'll continue with my feelings and thoughts about it.
We don't call Japanese people "Japs". That's offensive, right? I think so.
Let's not belabor this. Let me get to the point.
One of my best friends was Jewish ...
OOPS! ..
O. M. G. ! I just stepped in it, didn't I? Typical me.
Actually, he was my brother-in-law, and he was my best friend for quite a while.
My sister, nine years older than I was, was estranged from the family and she asked me, the youngest, to give her away at the wedding.
Well, she was my sister, so I said "OK" and I did, and she tried to draw me into her life and into a close relationship with him.
She was kind of unstable, strong-willed, raging outbursts, kind of personality issues like the above-mentioned middle brother who knew lots of racial slurs.
I exaggerate when I say she was a cross between Janis Joplin and Squeaky Fromm.
Anyway, Charles was Jewish, or so he said. He had blond hair and I don't know what Jewish People "are supposed to look like."
He didn't practice religion, and I don't think any of his family did. The two of his sisters that I met were gorgeous. But I digress.
In our early relationship, I remember my sister and I meeting him at the corner of W. Houston St and Thompson St
and as he approached he smiled a gentle warm and happy smile, commenting "Ah, my two favorite people", and he meant it.
I stayed in their apartment on Thompson St the summer of 1969 when they went to Europe.
They (he) arranged for me to get a job at Avco Embassy Pictures in the mail room up on 6th Ave, around 52nd St (JC Penney Building, I believe).
When she came back she said it was bad and that they had stood on a street corner in Paris spitting on each other.
Anyway, long story short, he and I remained friends (partly because we felt each other's pain I guess).
She married another Jewish guy she met in The Village, a Columbia grad, journalist type, whom she met in the Peace Corps.
Neither of them made it through the first summer of Peace Corps training, but she was remembered there for her legs.
That only lasted a few years, and he and I never bonded. He was very hostile, actually.
She candidly told me that she told another Peace Corps guy that she'd met richard again and should she marry him what did he think?
She says he replied that he'd never met two more immature people in his life. Hmmm...
Anyway, I needed the brother, friend and mentor in Charles, and sad and lonely Charles needed me, I guess,
so our friendship lasted through the five turbulent years of h.s. graduation 1968
until I rebelled against the counter-culture, joined The Navy and requested San Francisco as a home port.
I was assigned to the USS Enterprise, based in Alameda CA for my four-year enlistment.
Anyway, one time about a decade later I was back in NJ for a short stay and I visited Charles
and he wanted to quarrel about things pent up, and he yelled at me and pointed at me angrily (he was a wimp)
and he repeated "You're an Irish!""You're an Irish!" "You're an Irish!", with anger and all the ferocity he could muster.
GET TO THE POINT.
OK, that's how I know that THAT Jewish person, Charles, felt that being called a Jew was insulting,
maybe like calling a Japanese person a Jap.
So he called me "an Irish" I guess because you can't really shorten Irish the way you can shorten Jewish to Jew and Japanese to Jap.
So I'm going to continue to call Jewish People "Jewish People", with all due respect to Ben Sales and his Washington Post article.
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future topics. chronological growing awarenes of Jewish People and Jewish culture.
menorah in the windows of the Ivy Hill Apartments where my best friend moved to.
Samuel Pollock, Jewish veterinarian in South Orange who saved my dog's life in 6th grade,
and for whom I worked on Saturdays to pay off the bill, eating lunch with black supervisor every Saturday AT LUNCH COUNTER.
Charles Weldon brother in law, genius, liberal eventually taught computer science at City College in Manhattan, near Columbia.
Working at Avco Embassy Pictures, NYC, owned by Joseph E Levine, Jewish
Driving for Hobart Taxi Company, Manhattan, and Ramp Maintenance Company, Bronx - both Jewish owned, I believe.
Working for YES, Youth Employment Service in South Orange, often for Jewish people, doing labor on their property
Jewish people on TV and in the news, and my mother's opinion of them (my father always remained silent), e.g.
Sid Ceasar, Steve Allen, Norman Mailer
(it was partly my mother's breezy, bemused attitude toward Mailer that led me a bit astray to admiring Mailer.
He drank. He was an aggressive bully. He almost killed his wife stabbing her.
And he wrote a lot of crap, like "The Executioner's Song". I mean, a young man like me seeking guidance in life from someone,
be it my genius brother in law or a highly acclaimed writer and he writes about some dude being executed for murdering people.
We already have Edgar Allen Poe. The morbid jesuits made us read that spooky, scary stuff. Don't need more.
He just kept on going like the energizer bunny, writing with full force about any damn thing that would get attention. Gore Vidal was right.
And mailer's like "oh, I must face my fears and be courageous and go surfing! Huh ?!
Hey, Mailer! I know you're dead, but getting hit by a wave is fun. It just splashes over you,
like getting hit by a bucket of water ... without getting hit by the bucket ... just the water.
Oh, yeah, in the interest of truth, I have to bring this one up.
mailer wrote a paper in 1957 called "The White N@gg$%" (You know, the word with the two g's)
But NOW, you cannot find it. They have changed the title on the internet to "The White Negro".
It's just untrue. It's not the title. I remember the original title, and that is TOTALLY in character with what mailer would do.
His brash, arrogant attitude would be that "no white man can say this, BUT I CAN because I'm the Great and Powerful norman mailer."
Now, I know this sanitizing of words is true because two years ago, when I was writing about the sixties,
I mentioned Stokely Carmichael, a black power firebrand whose motto was "Get Whitey!"
"We're gonna rape your wives and daughters!" I know. I heard it. I remember it. He was on tv saying that.
NOW, try and find "Get Whitey" anywhere.
Now it's that he just said "Get Whitey off my back." not. They rewrite history. Orwellian.
So, Jewish people ... nerdy ... lacking in basic street play interaction ... or something.
For example, Charles Welson, my brother in law was a genius, best friends with Chess Champion Bobby Fischer,
won the U.S. Open Chess Championship, himself, one year,
but he had a pot belly, walked like a duck, and spoke like Elmer Fudd sometimes.
One thing that I thought was telling.
He was a guy who NEVER exercised in his life and I guess he was aware of this, i.e. that he wasn't fit,
so...he gets a book titled "marine corps fitness" or something like that
and there it sits...on the shelf...forever.
His solutioh to getting fit was mental.
buy a book about fitness and put it on the table.
Academic, business oriented, successful at the professions, "cheap"
a pound of flesh.
Columbia. mark rudd. morningside park. abbie hoffman, jerry rubin. schechner wbai.
ed koch and bella abzug. barbara boxer. Davis judge rosenstein or rosenberg. sac Capital guy.
mark rudd. stanley gruen. robert.
attending the temple in middletown
old woman where were you
numbers on wrist ten years old
chjarles sex drugs three way spite bernadette
yugoslavia on phone from air force. killed in yugo.
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1961-1973
PARADE, ST PATRICKS DAY 1961, KENNEDY ELECTED
In 1960 JFK got elected President, and he took office January, 1961.
That was a big deal because we were a mostly Irish and Italian Democrat environment, with some Germans and Polish.
On March 17, on St Patrick's Day, we had a big parade that assembled on Hazelwood Ave, beside the school.
My Italian friend and classmate, Fred, joined me and we marched together.
We marched all the way through Newark to downtown.
My father was all dressed up in a fancy Top Hat and Tails.
It was his dress uniform for his rank as a Knight in the Knights of Columbus,
a Catholic Men's Service Organization.
It's the only time I ever saw him dressed up like that.
Lincoln School Playground 120 South Kingman Road, South Orange
From Hazelwood Ave, Newark To South Kingman Rd, South Orange
Google Walking Map; From 50 Hazelwood Ave, Newark - To 120 South Kingman Rd, South Orange; 0.6 miles (just over half a mile), 12 minutes
South Kingman Rd was a nicer neighborhood with larger, single-family houses with driveways and lawns,
kind of like moving from Ward 1 in Middletown, near the Airport or Amtrak,
to the east side of Middletown, on Race and Adelia and on Vine St north of Main St.
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Top Hat And Tails, like my father dressed up for The Big Parade through Newark, 1961
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EARLY DAYS, Jr High Age 10-13
1961-1964
THE HOUSE on SOUTH KINGMAN ROAD
SOUTH ORANGE
About 3 months after the parade was the last day of 5th grade.
My parents told me that morning that, after school I should walk to 120 South Kingman Road.
That was our new home. They sold and we moved. We now lived in South Orange.
According to Google,
It is a 12 minute, 0.6 mile walk (or bike ride), a little over half a mile.
On the way was Lincoln Elementary Public School (I'd gone to kindergarten there because Catholic School started at Grade 1).
The next four summers (after grades 5-8) were centered around Lincoln School Playground.
Oh! Happy Summmer Days And Nights!
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When I was in the 6th grade (1961-1962)
I sat down at a lunch counter with a black man every week, and we refused to leave until we were both served.
Yes, that's true.
Of course, they always served us. It was no big deal.
We were in South Orange NJ, not Greensboro SC.
The Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins happened that same year.
The long walk home to school resulted in me adopting a stray puppy.
In my case, I was an 11-year-old "paying off my dog's veterinarian bill" by coming in to work for him on Saturdays, washing dogs etc.,
and I would eat with his employee who showed me the ropes of dog care.
But it shows the culture we lived in, and that I was raised in, and whose values I assimilated.
But on South Kingman Rd we were surrounded by City
Ivy Hill Apartments, Newark
Urban Newark
New York City
From South Kingman Rd, South Orange To The Empire State Building
Google Map; From 120 South Kingman Rd, South Orange - To The Empire State Building, 34th Street, Manhattan
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IVY HILL APARTMENTS
Shortly after we moved from Hazelwood Ave to South Kingman Rd,
my best friend across the street moved from Hazelwood Ave to the Ivy Hill Apartments.
From our South Kingman Rd house, it was less than a half mile walk through Ivy Hill Park to the Ivy Hill Apartments.
Ivy Hill wasn't that bad when I lived on South Kingman Rd.
From South Kingman Rd, South Orange To The Ivy Hill Park Apartments
Google Walking Map; From 120 South Kingman Rd, South Orange - To Ivy Hill Park Apartments, Newark
Distance, I always took a short cut directly through Ivy Hill Park, practically a straight line; Less Than half a mile, 5 minutes
But apparently is got very bad as the decades rolled by
Ivy Hill Apartments Crime
10,000 residents. You could see The Empire State Building from the roof.
Over the decades it became dangerous.
Scroll Down To Urban Newark
Adolescence, 13-17 (1964-1968)
URBAN NEWARK
But the projects in downtown Newark were ALWAYS bad.
one evening, early 70's,
I walked here on a Goodwill walk.
I went to Rutgers Newark 2 semesters
got jumped at library door
