From: “Linda Anders”

Subject: The Colony Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2009

Hi , I just discovered your website & am enjoying so very much. In 1971 my dad was told that by the time he would be 40 years of age he would no longer be able to walk due to a back injury (He is 81 now & walks just fine) but because of this my parent sold their house in Bergenfield & moved to The Colony. We bought 2 attached houses on riverside drive . #48. Two log cabins made for the summer. My dad was in construction & the plan was to break through the walls to connect both homes & raise both homes, but they would be handicap accessible.. That summer I learned how to swim on the river.

The names of the owners of those homes are on the tip of my tongue. I think one was the Gardeners & the other began with a “T”…something like Tillman. The town gave my parents a terrible time & would not let them make the improvements because they thought it would harm the neighbors property next door which at this time was a junk yard. We could tell that the building use to be something so cool. Do you know if was a club house? Is this where you had dances ? It was on the point facing the train trestle.

A really wonderful lady names Sylvia Marks let my family use her home which was probably 3 house down from ours, for the winter. My dad & I put heat in it & she let us live there rent free. I think her husband had passed away. They use to travel & she had all these cool hats hanging on the wall from their travels. I remember she had a hat that bull fighter worn & another beautiful sombrero –her house was right across from the chain swing. Did any of you know her? Was there a hotel by the chain swing?

Al Stempler who someone mentioned on the site was a wonderful man. I think he was a mason. He told my parents about another house that might be for sale. It was #33 Riverside Drive. A white house with green trim on the corner of Center St & Riverside Dr. The Feldmans lived across the street. I still have earring Mrs. Feldman gave me when I graduated from either 8 or 12 grade and I still wear the, It was funny to read about them fencing in the street! When my parents bought the “white house” as we called it we didn’t know that the “little red house” came with it! There were so many cool things inside. I will ask my parent if they remember the owners names. One time people came to our house & told us that it use to be a restaurant. It had a HUGE porch! And the people who worked at the restaurant lived in the little house. Can you tell me if it was a restaurant? Do any of you know what I am talking about?

I know Mr . Immergut.he still wasn’t a “happy camper” in the 70’s! There were hardly any kids in The Colony that were my age, I use to take our dog hiking up in the mountains –which is now rt 287! I know the exact spot where the website talked about where you could see all of Oakland from the mountain top. When I lived there no one played in the baseball field it was such a shame. When we lived in #48 there was a shed across the street with a wall were I could bounce the ball off & practice tennis. Right by my house on Center was a basketball court & I would spend hours playing around the world.

The Field was our back yard & our house was surrounded by beautiful weeping willow trees. Last summer a friend of mine took kayaks from Pompton Lake & kayaked down past my old house. It was horrifying. The water falls were gone. (we use to cross them to go into Sandy lake .By the chain swing there was 20 feet of earth in front of where the water use to be! I heard they had dredged & deepened the river but was still shocked when I saw it. And my old house # 48 made me cry when I saw how bad it was . There was dirt & trees where I would scoot down the steps to go swimming in the water. The big tree that was in the center of the water aka our “rest spot” for when we swam across from our house to the chain swing , was gone.

I hung around for a little bit with Cindy Mullens , her dad still had the same drinking habits in the 70’s that he had when you were there in the 50’s. She somehow “obtained “ a small boat & she & I would be rowing up & down the river having such great adventures. I didn’t know the train carried passengers & stopped at the top of the hill!

Linda Anders

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From: robert blumenthal]

Sent: Friday, September 04,

To: Linda Anders

Subject: Re: The Colony

Hi Linda,

I enjoyed reading your letter. You might be interested in knowing that on August 30 of this year, we had a reunion in the Colony. Last Sunday, 35 people met by the ball field. We hadn’t seen each other since the early ’60s. You can imagine what a joyous and happy occasion that was. We later went to the Timbers for dinner.

Just like you, we all shared a sense of despair to see how the Colony changed from a beautiful summer retreat to an area which is somewhat rundown. The clubhouse where we socialized and held dances is now a garage. It is at the end of the ball field on the corner of Center Street and Park Drive. I lived in the house next to the railroad trestle. There used to be a dock in front of the house, but it is gone now.

The house you talked about on the corner of Center Street and Riverside Drive, used to be a restaurant. In the late forties and early fifties, mock weddings were held there. I was about ten years old at the time.

Unfortunately for you, the Colony died during the late 60’s. You saw what was left of a wonderful place. It began in the mid thirties. I arrived with my parents in 1948. We rented one of the Feldman bungalows for three years. In 1951, my parents built the house by the trestle. In 1956, we lived there permanently. In 1970, we moved away, however, the other family in the house stayed. Their name was Jack and Sarah Isaacs. The man walked on crutches. You might have crossed paths. By the end of the 60’s, the kids grew up and their parents moved to Florida.

Most of the homes were sold, and the face of the Colony changed. What was once a thriving community where people took great care of their homes, existed no more. The beautiful Ramapo River turned into an oversized stream, and the waterfalls disappeared. Everyone knew Al Stempler. During the mid fifties, we would all pile into his pickup truck and go for pizza or get ice cream at the milk barn.

Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. The Colony will always hold a special place in my heart and I enjoy sharing the experiences with others.

Bob Blumenthal

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From: “Linda Anders”

Date: September 10, 2009

To: “‘robert blumenthal'”

Subject: RE: The Colony

Hi Bob,

I wish I had gone on to the website a little earlier as I might have stopped by to listen to some of the stories at your reunion! 35 people, wow you must have had a blast reliving fun times! You might want to consider starting something on facebook. I started something for the street I lived on in Bergenfield & reunited with some old neighbors.

I had heard that the building was a club house on the corner of Park & Center but it was never open when I lived there. I can not believe it is a garage now! I think I do remember someone walking on crutches. I am thinking he was a nice man. I was just about never down by the trestle, only if I was walking home from school and didn’t want to walk along the river. I didn’t think the water was deep down that way.

I really have a hard time wondering why people don’t take care of their homes, I can understand if they aren’t healthy. But I just don’t get why they don’t throw away garbage, paint & clean their homes!

Did Al Stempler have kids? I remember dancing with him at my wedding. I don’t remember his wife though, I guess she passed on.

The Milk Barn in Pompton Lakes was sold a few years ago. They couldn’t find a buyer for the business so the car dealership next door bought it. The barn is in storage somewhere. The movie theater is still in Pompton Lakes but now it has plays in it upstairs & downstairs is something for kids with nothing to do with movies. A few people I know have gone to the plays & they said they are wonderful!

I am pretty sure that the state is slowly buying out the houses in the colony & pleasure land. As they buy them they demolish them. It might have been an “old plan” because it use to flood there. It doesn’t’ any more. We were lucky we never go water in our house. The ironic thing is that further up the River they built a really expensive development.

They wouldn’t let my parents fix their house up but they let this contractor go in on the same side of the river only in a different area. He cut down trees, which caused a mudslide. Life is interesting! At Barns & Noble they have a series of books on different towns & one is Oakland. It didn’t have much in it on the Colony, actually I don’t think it had a thing in it.

I really enjoyed the website & will check it out again!

Thanks!

Linda

Born in New York City, November 11,1934, to Mr and Mrs. Nathan Model!, he attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx. Upon graduation in June 1952, at the age of 17-1/2, Ron embarked on his first major professional engagement as first trumpet for Cornelia Otis Skinner in her one-women production of “Paris 90” with Nathaniel Shilkert conducting. Returning from an eight month, cross country tour with that show he was auditioned, and subsequently engaged at age 18 in 1953 to become principal trumpet of the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra under H. Arthur Brown.

In addition to his contract, he was awarded a four-year full tuition scholarship to the University of Tulsa in May of 1957 after completing the Bachelor of Music Education degree and four seasons with the orchestra, he returned to New York and a new phase of music, joining the world famous “Machito11 Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra at the Palladium.

In 1958, Maestro Vladimir Golschmann, the newly appointed conductor of the Tulsa Philharmonic, invited Ron back again to continue his schooling and once again resume the principal trumpet position. In May 1960, Ron was awarded his MM in performance and was engaged by Maestro Paul Kletzki to become principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the 1960-1961 season. Nine seasons with Dallas and six seasons in Tulsa gave him the opportunity to play under such great conductors as Solti, Munch, Ehrling, Monteaux, Dorati, P.revin, and Mancini.

His teaching experience dates back to 1958 when he was an instructor at Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas and at the same time with the University of Tulsa. In 1964, he joined the faculty of S;M.U. and almost immediately initiated three new programs for brass, including the brass ensemble, stage band fbrjazz, and a faculty brass quintet.

Mr. Modell has long and wide experience in the field of jazz, having spent 18 summers in the Catskill Mountains area of New York, at one of the largest resort” Hotels, playing lead trumpet with the show bands. He has appeared in nightclubs as lead trumpet for Vic Damone, Tony Bennett, Delia Reese, Buddy Greco, Jufius La Rosa, Bill Eckstine and many many others. Dallas area jazz fans were treated to the first appearance of Ron in April of ’67, when he performed with his own S.M.U. Stage band at Moody Coliseum during the “Evening With Stan Getz.”

The most distinguished trumpet players from many of the major symphony orchestras in the country are among the teachers he feels most fortunate in having studied with.. Those teachers include James Smith, Sol Lubalin, Frank Venezia and Harry Glantz from the New York Philharmonic; Louis Davidson, 1st Trumpet, Cleveland Orchestra; Milton Davidson 1st Trumpet, Dallas Symphony; Jdesph Rescigno, Metropolitan Opera; Murray Karpilovsky, 1st Trumpet, Pittsburg Symphony; Roger Fenn, 1st Trumpet, Tulsa Philharmonic; and Rafael Mendez, world-renowned soloist.

Ron has a button permanently pinned on the inside of his trumpet case, which reads “Go Home and Practice.” His philosophy on playing any music is “Whether it be one note, a scale, or a concerto, it must always be musical and in good taste.” Ron joined the Northern Illinois University faculty in June 1969. As Professor of Trumpet and Director and Founder of the NIU Jazz Ensemble he has served as a judge, clinician and soloist with the finest high and college wind ensembles, symphonic orchestras and jazz ensembles, During his 28 years the NIU Jazz Ensemble performed over 600 concerts for more than 6000,000 people at high schools, colleges, correctional institutions, and public concerts. In addition, during his tenure, the Jazz Ensemble released 13 recordings. Conducted for George Burns and Bob Newhart

1994 recipient of Achievement Award for Jazz Education- Downbeat Magazine 1994 recipient of 1st Illinois

Board of Regents Certificate of Merit 1995 recipient of Illinois Alliance for Arts Education Service Recognition

award 1996 NIU Jazz Ensemble selected by Quincy Jones to perform 50 years of his music at Montreaux Jazz

Festival, Switzerland, with Jones conducting 1998 World Tour with pop star Phil Collins

Subject: WEST OAKLAND

Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009

Dear George:

I hope you remember me. My maiden name was Gladys Mark (now Gladys Korn). I was so happy to be “found” by Donny Perlman.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the reunion However, I enjoyed looking at the pictures others have posted, as well as their memories. I dug out some pictures taken in 1951 and 1952. I remember most of the names in these pictures. In no particular order they are: Ellen Stempler, Joannie Immergut, Helen Podalsky (she was a ward of Gussie and Dave Huchlerin and now lives in Israel), Patsy Saler, Carol Friedman, Vicki Panitch, Martha (her family rented for 2 summers from the Langfelders), Steve Wallach, David Adelman, Alan Lowenthal (with Vicki and I) the 3 boys I believe are David Adelman, Robert Friedman and Richard Samuels. The boy with Steve Wallach is Jeff (don’t know the last name). As I scanned the pictures into the computer, some of them wound up crooked. I tried to rotate them but couldn’t get it to stay. I’m hoping you have the ability with your computer to straighten them out before posting them.

Some of my memories are: Going to the Milk Barn and having our ice- cream outside on the wooden picnic tables, bowling in Pompton Lakes with pin boys setting up the pins, hiking up to Skyline Drive and finding the trail and hiking to the lake, David and Robert had a secret hiding place in the bushes near the railroad tracks and I believe we girls followed them one day and found their hiding place and then hid in the railroad station when we heard them coming. I also remember biking with Vicki and Ellen and some others to the Milk Barn. Although our parents cautioned us that it was too far, we did it anyway. Then Ellen had to call her father to come and pick us up in his truck, bikes and all. I also remember the floods and cleaning up the mud in the house that was caked on the walls and furniture.

Another memory was my mom teaching us Mah Jongg and Canasta on the porch so we would have something to do on a rainy day, and we did play the games. I spoke to David Adelman and he remembers that also. As for me, Ed and I lived in the Bronx for 10 years, then in New City, NY for 30 years, and in 1999 we moved to Boynton Beach, FL. We have 3 children and 7 seven grandchilden. I went back to school when in my 40’s and received an AAS in Business Administration and my Paralegal Certification. I worked as a paralegal for many years before retiring. Ed retired as a Lieutenant in the NYC Fire Department. We were married 50 years on November 1, 2008. He passed away on April 9, 2009.

I’ll try to send you a picture of Ed and I taken in March, 2008 in a separate e-mail. I’m a novice at scanning and attaching to the e-mail but I’ll so my best.

I’m sure the reunion will be a fantastic success, and look forward to the seeing reunion pictures when they are posted. My best regards to all who remember me.

Gladys

Sent: Sun, Aug 9, 2009

Subject: Pictures of Oakland(from Addie Edelson – Jay’s Wife) Dear Bob,

My daughter, Eve, was visiting me from California this week. She retrieved really old photo albums in the attic, and found black and white pictures taken in Oakland. We scanned them and the results will be in the mail to you by tomorrow morning. I’m afraid they feature the Edelsons a lot, but I hope there will be enough other pictures to give people pleasure.

I promised you bios. Jay and I got married in 1954, when I was 21 and he was 22. We had just graduated from Yale Law School and Yale Music School. The buildings were across the street from each other and that is how we met. We lived in Chicago, where he did graduate work, then NYC, where I went to NYU Law School. In 1966 we moved to the Washington, DC area, and both went to work for the federal government where, among other things, Jay served as president of the employees union at the Department of Labor. We traveled a lot, including visiting family and friends in France, Israel, and Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.

Jay became ill and died in 2003 of severe complications of diabetes. I continue to work as an administrative appeals judge for the federal government. We have two daughters. Eve is a computer systems engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Univ.of California at Berkeley. In addition to her day job, she has created two web sites, www. smokefreeworld.com, and www.scamorama.com. She has written a book, “Scamorama” (you can read the description on the Amazon web site), which treats scam and anti-scam letters as a literary genre. Our daughter, Dora, is a musician and composer.

I didn’t send you pictures of the older Jay or the present-day me, which would bear no resemblance to the pictures you will see. Jay looked back on his Oakland days as the best of all possible worlds; he loved everything about it and the people in it, including the Blumenthals!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reminisce. Although I can’t attend the reunion, I would be grateful to do so vicariously: perhaps some people will take pictures that can be sent to me via e-mail. I would love to see them.

Best wishes and e-hugs to all,

Addie

I will add some bio info as well. Sue and I have been married for 46 years and have 10 grandchildren–Donny gets first place on the one! I was never religious growing up but my wife convinced me to get involved in the Jewish community and I became an ardent Zionist.

A highlight of my involvement was being a National Vice Chair of the UJA and traveling to Russia and meeting with refusniks and later sharing a drink with them in Jerusalem.

Sue and I have traveled to Israel about 15 times. After becoming an engineer by training, I recognized that engineering was not for me and proceeded to law school and became a patent attorney—now called an intellectual property attorney (fancier title but I still do the same tasks!)

I pitch and play first base depending upon where i am needed. I still ride a bike almost every weekend, weather permitting. I have not played handball or punchball in over 50 years but am ready to try if that is what the group chooses to do.

To:perlmandon@sbcglobal.net

Sent: Mon, Aug 10,

Since I am a little older my memories of Oakland go back a few more years

Oakland (The Colony) was not always a bucolic, quiet, family friendly summer retreat. At the end of the 1930s and early 1940s Oakland was a lively, swinging summer getaway spot for young Singles from N.Y.C. The bungalows were rented to groups of young guys and gals (4-6) sharing a bungalow. Similar to the Hamptons of today, but not as upscale. The guys were looking to meet girls and SEX. the girls were looking to meet guys and get Married, again like the Hamptons. I am sure many in both groups had their wishes fulfilled. World War II ended in 1945 and Oakland changed completely.

Mr. Klein (???) sold bungalows #1-#20 along West Oakland Ave. for $800. each and the four larger ones on center street for$1,000.each. The families moved in renovated their new castles and the Oakland of our memories was born.

Our bungalow was #26 Riverside Drive, opposite home plate on the ball field. I watched many a softball game sitting on the concrete wall along the edge of the field. .I usually played second base. This gave me the opportunity to chase foul balls into the poison ivy patches. My mother could never understand why I caught poison ivy every summer. Thank G-D for calamine lotion.

I also remember playing fullcourt basketball in the original Casino. This was a very large wood and stone structure which “mysteriously” burned down one summer night. My father, Larry (Abe).Wallach was very instrumental in having the Casino rebuilt. I think he was the first president of W.O.T.A. West Oakland Taxpayers Association.

Having waterfront property is great for swimming, boating and fishing. However, it has it”s drawbacks when it is a rainy summer. We would watch the river rise and wait to be evacuated to the top of the hill. It was great fun for me but not for my parents.

To see a movie in Pompton we would catch a train about 1:20 , and then walk home(about 2-3 miles) . We saved the fare 25 cents for the pinball machine Another fun time was when WE would all pile into the back of Al Stemplers pickup truck .He would take us into Pompton to the bowling alley and ater to the Milk Barn for ice cream. When I bought my house in Tappan I had AL build a patio for me; it lasted about 35 years.

The boys my age were: Ronnie Modell,Ted Rosenstein, Harris Taylor, Alan Lowenstein, Carl Sherman, Don Perlman and Joel (Butch) ??? the girls were Patsy Saler ,Carol Langfeler Ellen Stempler Gladys Marks and Joan Immergut.

Thanks for the chance to walk down memory lane again.My wife, Carol and i have been married for 51 years. Unfortunately, she will be having a knee replacement on August26 so I will not be able to be with you at the reunion. If there is another one I would love to go .

Best Wishes ,

Steve Wallach

“New Jersey nirvana,” is an oxymoron if ever there was one. Yet, that over the top characterization is pretty close to what New Jersey childhood summers were for me. I suspect the same holds for a number of my old Oakland friends.

Physically, the rural setting of the Oakland bungalow was about as far removed from the concrete and asphalt reality of my daily life in the Bronx as I could imagine. The mostly gently flowing river; the grass covered ball field; the ubiquitous trees, all were as if out of a magical fantasy. The contrast with the Bronx setting of my “regular” life could not have been more stark.

Along with my Oakland friends, I lived two distinctly different early lives: a city life and a country life. “Real” life was lived in New York City, specifically in The Bronx.

It is often metaphorically asserted that one cannot go home again. This might literally be true for the part of The Bronx in which I was raised. I suspect that no taxi driver in his right mind would nor should take me there. For decades, I have assumed that an armored personnel carrier would be prudent. For the majority of each year, The Bronx was my home, and it was life, as I mostly knew it.

My Bronx life was a confining test of endurance and survival: keep your head down and your mouth shut. Focus on school, but do not advertise academics in the neighborhood. Resourcefulness was constantly required to avoid the always-lurking shame, humiliation, and physical intimidation.

Shy, quiet, small, insecure, awkward, anxious would have been the operative descriptors for me. Social relationships with girls were totally off the radar screen. This social retardation was not helped much by the all-boys public schools that I attended.

Then, periodically, miraculously and dramatically, things would change. June 30^th, the end of the New York City school year would arrive and a completely different, if temporary, life would begin again. It was like something out of the old Broadway musical, “Brigadoon.” A new world and a different life would once again materialize beyond the fog of my Bronx confinement. We would be off yet again to “the country,” to New Jersey.

Everything was different during these two and one-half month summer escapes from The Bronx. Oakland is where I learned most of the ordinary things that are just part of normal childhood. There, I learned to ride a bike, to swim, to play softball (never very well), to play poker, to hike, to dance, to fall in love: all part of growing up in the post-war 1940’s and 1950’s, yet less likely in the confines of life, as I knew it, back in The Bronx.

The summer was a physical, geographic, recreational, and psychological refuge, oasis, and virtual paradise compared with my everyday Bronx life. It is where I discovered girls: as playmates, as friends, as emerging sexual beings who could excite, delight, and sometimes terrify a shy and tentative boy, making his way among the frequently overpowering forces of adolescence. A first touch, a first taste, a first date, a first dance, a first kiss, a first love, a first broken heart: all stuff of the magical Oakland summer months of my adolescent coming of age.

Given the vicissitudes of life, I am geographically far from my New York-New Jersey roots. Ironically, I have ended up in Taos, New Mexico, yet another small mountain town. While New Mexico and New Jersey are worlds apart, I am amused and delighted to be back in the “country” after these many years. It is just a bit like having come full-circle.

Now in the “autumn of my years,” I am filled with overwhelmingly rich memories of the power of that special time and special place that was Oakland, and of the lasting impact that those long ago and far away Oakland summers have had on the course of my life. I will be eternally grateful to my old friends who were part of that life-altering time of my life. For me, they were indeed what it was all about.

We have eleven grandchildren (Panitch, I have finaly topped you at something), four girls and seven boys.

In 1993 I retired from Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield after twenty-five years,and then retired from White Plains Hospital Center after fifteen years.

I continue to work part-time as the Administrator of the White Plains Physicians Organization. Ellen and I winterized our bungalow and lived in West Oakland from the spring of 1969 until the fall of 1970. Ellen was lucky and got to experience a flood.

I cannot wait to see all of you on August 30th.