RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,037
(the blazing star commando)
Blazing Star was the previous
name for what is now known
as Carteret. Colonial days and
such. No one much knows about
any of that any more, but when
waterways and not highways
ruled the roost, the connections
of importance were on the
water - thus we find Blazing
Star, Linden and Elizabethport,
in a row as a very important
colonial and later-era locations.
When I say no one knows much
about it anymore, I really mean
it. There's such a dearth of real
and vital old information now
in what today is taught. No one
gets a clue unless they dig it
out themselves. Back in the
time I speak of, all that 'over
the river and through the woods'
stuff was still in grandma's and
her house's future. Wagon paths
and trails through the woods
were held by locals, for their
own uses and own maintenance.
Real freight, supplies, and
cargoes,went by water. The
various riverways mattered
greatly - Raritan, the Arthur
Kill, Elizabeth River, Rahway
River, etc. Lesser tributaries
all led to the careeneing and
widening harbor water all
around Newark and Manhattan
New York Harbor, again and
tight out to Sandy Hook. When
the flotilla of Britain's armada
came into sight of lower Manhattan,
cresting through Sandy Hook,
it was a sight to behold. The
Dutch in Manhattan, seeing that,
knew the jig was up and just
walked away. Nieuw Amsterdam
quickly became New York,
named for the Duke of...
-
I was always taken with the
name 'Blazing Star.' Loved it,
in fact. If you take Route One,
north, past to Linden, you pass
a large cemetery on your right,
I think it's 'Rose Hill' and then
a mass of refineries and crap.
That's all part of the sell-out
and crooked policies of this
area and all the groupie-homos
who sold us out over the years,
but there it all is nonetheless.
Turning into that cemetery,
drive it ALL the way back to
the rear fence (It's a large and
deep cemetery) and you get to
the fencing that marks to off
limits area for Mosey's Creek.
You can see it all there, and
there's even a small island
area in the center of the
waterway, and just beyond
it is Staten Island. You'd
never know it now but
Royalist Staten Island held
much of the British force that
prodded and raided back and
forth between Staten Island
now, and that same Elizabethport
then. Acres and acres, thousands,
of farmland, fields and meadows.
All destroyed now, as are any
nautical or marine connections.
There's even a place, out in the
Linden meadows where they've
erected stop stop-gap burial
memorial for some guy and
his family who once owned
a lot of the area and whose
bones and stuff they found,
or dug up, when wrecking
everything for refinery
and industrial use. At least
some swine had the good
sense to mark some sort of
memorial for those poor folks.
It's not much, but at least
it's something to look at to
prove the old world existed.
I knew an artist once, Frank
Thorne, who used to do a
weekly strip for the Elizabeth
Daily Journal - he covered
a lot of this old colonial-era
history from around that
E'port area. Good info, and
nicely drawn drawing-boxes
too. Frank's old now, but I'm
pretty sure he's still around;
leastways his house is.
-
Until some part of the 1980's,
until they took some further
land and expanded the sewerage
plant, there was a herd of goats
that was kept there, out to the
end of Trembley Point Road,
and they were kept there, I
think, by the Municipal Water
Authority, of Linden. They
kept the grass down, milled
about, and were just generally
cool to see - all the Exxon
and refinery trucks were
always running back or
forth too, but they never
minded. That was more my
problem then theirs. Goats
don't seem to much care
about that stuff. History and
all not really being part of
their make-up. I don't know
the life span of the average
goat, but even let's say at
20 years, what little carrying
capacity - NONE - in human
terms, do they have about
the past. Kind of like us, but
only in a way, it wasn't here
before them and won't be there
after them. Isn't that weird?
-
I always tried not to get scuffed
up over this stuff, but it always
irked me how much we screwed
up our lands and histories. And,
heck, while I'm at it, how we
screwed up for those animals too,
like the goats. Killing and eating
their flesh like nothing ever mattered
except us. Big, stupid us. I can
remember, over in Iselin, back
when the swamis and South
Asians and Muslims began to
step up and take the place over
for themselves, how grossed-out
I got when I started seeing, in
the Green Street meat and grocer
ships, the large window signs
advertising, 'Goat - $1.79/lb.
That was about 1985, as I recall.
Blazing Star was already a
memory, long ago and forgotten,
and Oak Tree Road was still
barely a lane and a half, with the
horse auction off to the left (now
a 'temple of some sort, and a
seeming-zillion apartments).
no one remembers anything,
they just put it all out of mind
and cheer on the new.
-
Another weird, local thing that
always bugged me as how, in
1946, 'Woodbridge' was awarded
'All American City' status. I was
a seminary kid then, but I can
well recall the banner, across
Avenel Street, between Park
Ave. and Madison, where the
church rectory used to be. It
boasted of Woodbridge (there
were other banners all over the
other 'Woodbridge' incorporated
towns too, about how the township
was awarded some Presidential
citation BS and it went on, I can't
remember. But it was all crap.
Woodbridge wasn't even a city.
Not even close. It was a ramshackle
agglomeration of dismal little
spots like chicks without a hen
mother, searching for something,
anything, to peck at. How it got that
designation, I'll never know, except
that if you read it now it's pretty
clear it was an award for having the
best potential to become another
rip-snorting, land-gobbling, killer
segment of off-limits happy living
servile residents who were supposed
to somehow applaud the desecration
of their lands, the growth of industry
and highways and traffic, and the rest.
Well, hoo-ha for that, and it all still
goes on.
No comments:
Post a Comment