Photo of the Day: Early Voting, Richard Rodda Center, Teaneck NJ

Bergen County, where I live in New Jersey, has 10 locations where early voting is held from October 24 through November 1. I cast my ballot at Richard Rodda Center in Teaneck. No matter what your party affiliation, I hope you’ll exercise this right that others before us have advocated—and even died—for before us. 

Photo of the Day: Halloween Display, Central School, Glen Rock NJ

This morning, while in this Bergen County town on other business, I noticed in the distance what looked like a mass of white sheets. Coming closer, I saw a couple of long rows of ghouls, spooks, and additional otherworldly creatures associated with the end of this month.

I chuckled as I took the photo accompanying this post of these apparitions, whose diminutive size put them in the same physical category as many of the youngsters in the school—and whose expressions suggested Caspar the Friendly Ghost much more than the malevolent Poltergeist. 

But, come to think of it, kids these days are probably exposed to so much on TV and in the movies that these Hollywood depictions don’t have the power to scare them like before. No, it’s just real life that they have to be concerned with.

Photo of the Day: Water Fountain and Pond, Pascack Brook County Park, Westwood, NJ

Seeking to enjoy a brisk walk and a brief respite of bright sunshine two days ago, I drove a few towns away from where I live in Bergen County, NJ, to Pascack Brook County Park.

I don’t get there often, but I always enjoy the change of scenery, including a fountain in the middle of its pond. It appealed to me so much that I felt compelled to take the photo accompanying this post.

Photo of the Day: Twilight on NYC and the Hudson River

The other night, at a restaurant near me in Bergen County, NJ, I was given the choice of eating inside or outside. Considering the view just before sunset, as seen in this photo I took then from the Hudson River Walkway in Edgewater, I don’t think my decision to sit with the skyline in view was surprising.

Photo of the Day: Riding on a Sunlit Summer Sunday Morning, Englewood NJ

What a difference a few hours make! As I write this on a late Sunday afternoon, the sky is gray and cloudy, with at least some rain predicted.

But this morning—well, it could have been what a local forecaster of some years ago used to feature as one of “the 10 most beautiful days of the year.” Bright blue skies, comfortable temperatures and humidity.

A whole group of guys—it must have been between 15 and 20 of them—thought the same thing, because they were out on their bicycles in my hometown.

They were riding single file as they rounded the corner across from me, barely slowing down. Not that it mattered: at that time of the day and week, traffic at this thoroughfare is much lighter than from Monday through Saturday.

I could barely whip out my iPhone to photograph the scene fast enough. Anyway, I was glad I could time what I did.

Photo of the Day: 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, St. Cecilia Church, Englewood NJ

A number of people, including myself, lined up after morning Mass on Pentecost Sunday in front of this display at my longtime spiritual home, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church of Englewood, NJ. 

The white tags here, in English and Spanish, list the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit” understanding, wisdom, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Photo of the Day: Saddle River County Park, Fair Lawn NJ

I took the image accompanying this post yesterday while soaking in the sun. 

Though I entered Saddle River County Park from Fair Lawn, that’s not the only suburb encompassed by its 577 acres. It also runs through five other Bergen County towns: Glen Rock, Paramus, Ridgewood, Rochelle Park, and Saddle Brook.

I can never get enough of bodies of water, and though the crisp air may have kept more people from venturing outside, I was happy to take the path around this pond without bumping into crowds.

Photo of the Day: “Reading Together” Sculpture, Teaneck Public Library, NJ

I’m a sucker for statues of kids falling in love with books, maybe because I was like that so long ago.

A few weeks ago, with winter still holding Bergen County in its icy grip, I wrote a post about such a sculpture in front of the Maywood Public Library.

Then, in late March, I came across one with the same idea, which I’ve photographed here: “Reading Together,” in the Children’s Reading Garden in the lawn outside the Teaneck Public Library.

This bronze sculpture was created by New Jersey artist Judith Peck. It’s a charming centerpiece of the garden, which was dedicated 30 years ago this coming July.

Photo of the Day: Donut-Hole Snow Mound, Englewood NJ

We’re almost two weeks into spring, but the mountain of snow and silt from the late February blizzard that my hometown deposited in the greenery of Veterans Park has only dwindled without entirely disappearing. The “mountain” had become a hill, and, at last, just a mound.

Then yesterday, I saw something unusual, which I tried to capture in this photo. At that point early in the day, a large round hole had opened beneath a thin arch of snow overhead.

I peered more closely. I could see drops falling from the arch. Higher temperatures (they reached the high 70s later in the day) would, before long, eliminate that thin white veneer overhead.

And so it proved. This morning, the hole was gone and the snow pile was even more noticeably lower.

Continued above-freezing temperatures, along with rain over the next few days, should eliminate the white stuff at last, leaving only a memory of a storm that for a while left streets impassable and frustrated those of us who had to shovel.

Photo of the Day: Young Readers Sculptures, Maywood Public Library, NJ

I took the image accompanying this post more than a week ago, when snow from the late February blizzard was not only still on the ground but obstructing walkways. That meant that I couldn’t get close enough to read whatever inscription appears on the base of these outdoor sculptures, so I don’t know the name of the artist or the date when this was installed. The next time I return to the library, I’ll see if these exist.

But I couldn’t help but smile when I saw these figures. They evoke what so many of us—including current and former librarians like me—know: that the best time to foster a love of reading is when children are young.

Nowadays, it’s even more urgent that we realize this, as so many digital distractions exist, far beyond what our parents and grandparents feared with the rise of television.

Photo of the Day: Mountain of Snow, Veterans’ Memorial/Depot Square Park, Englewood NJ

I took the image accompanying this post two days ago, after rising temperatures had helped melt some of the 27 inches of snow from earlier in the week. To clear space in the large parking lot just north of our city’s downtown, a tractor moved all that white stuff into a mammoth pile.

Make that two mammoth piles. The one seen here was in the park. Another was in a single spot in the parking lot.

Believe it or not, these piles were even wider and higher when the tractor finished its work. I’m just hoping that Mother Nature will take care of the rest in short order and reduce it all to large puddles.

Photo of the Day: The Calm Before the Snowstorm

Like so many New Jerseyites, I waited patiently for the 12-plus inches of snow from the storm in late January to melt away. In the past week, courtesy of higher temperatures and rain, it finally receded to a more manageable level.

Then came the news that four weeks to the day of that big storm, another, with maybe even more snow and higher winds, was going to hit.

I wasn’t in the best frame of mind, then, when I drove out to Overpeck Park, not far from where I live in Bergen County, NJ, for the kind of walk I hadn’t been able to take in weeks. Despite large puddles in spots, many other area residents felt similarly and circled the large track on the field.

If anything heartened me as I thought of what was to come within 24 hours (and even as I type this, I can see the flakes following), it was that earlier this winter, the days would have been shorter and I wouldn’t have able to take the attached picture of the glorious late-afternoon sky—and that it might take less time for traces of this latest brutal storm to disappear.

Photo of the Day: Late Fall, Hackensack River, Bergen County NJ

I took this image a week ago today, while walking through Johnson Park in Hackensack, NJ. With temperatures dropping, the number of walkers like myself weren’t as numerous as they were earlier in the year—and I expect that to be even more the case through the holiday season.

Quote of the Day (Martha Gellhorn, on November)

“In November you begin to know how long the winter will be.”—American journalist and novelist Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), "November Afternoon," The Heart of Another (1941)

I took the image that accompanies this post a couple of days ago in Pondside Park in Harrington Park, a few towns away from me in Bergen County, NJ. I was coming back from a trip into Rockland County, NY when I saw this park on the side of the road, and pulled over for a walk.

I have increasingly felt that autumn is all too short a season in my part of the country, with warmer temperatures encroaching on the traditional point marking fall. The past several days, however, the temperatures have dropped and the winds have whipped up. I had to pull my scarf around me a little more tightly the other day as I circled this pond.

Leaf-changing—heck, leaf disappearance—can occur so rapidly these days. The magnificent profusion of colors seen on trees just a couple of weeks ago is all gone. The many leaves crunching beneath my feet were all brown, as were those that remained on trees for now.

So, to take up the question posed by Gellhorn so long ago, how long will winter be? I might have worried more about global warming if we continued to have balmy temperatures at this point. For now—fingers crossed—Earth is back into its usual rhythms, I hope.

Photo of the Day: Milton A. Votee Park, Teaneck NJ

A few days ago, after voting early in Teaneck, I took advantage of the newly crisp autumn temperatures to walk around the township’s Milton A. Votee Park.

I am sure that many of my readers who grew up in Bergen County either walked through the 40-acre park, played in it or drove past it. Dedicated by a former township mayor in 1940, it was renamed in his honor 19 years later. It was constructed with money from the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal federal agency, to help hire workers.

Government assistance enhanced the park, too, including a Green Acres grant during the administration of Gov. Chris Christie that built the current sportsplex, including a 60-ft. softball field, 60-ft. by 90-ft. baseball fields, two basketball courts, football/soccer fields, four tennis courts, and a handball court.

You can see the sportsplex in the background of this photo I took while in the park, as I made a circuit along the walking and bike paths. I gloried in the changing leaf colors and the blanket they formed on the grass, along with a quiet only broken by the sudden steps of two deer off to my right.

Photo of the Day: Fall Festival, Englewood NJ

Today, my hometown of Englewood, NJ, celebrated its fall festival in Depot Square. The event featured several service providers, numerous food vendors, and several rides. I couldn’t resist taking this particular photo—especially since some corn was among the items sold at the food stalls.

Song Lyric of the Day (Beth Orton, on Beautiful Weather)

“Almost makes me wanna cry
The weather′s so beautiful outside.” —British singer-songwriter Beth Orton, “Weather Alive," from the Weather Alive CD (2022)

As with all things in life, enjoy it while it lasts.

(I took the image accompanying this post three years ago this month in Pascack Brook County Park, roughly a half hour from where I live in Bergen County, NJ.)

Photo of the Day: Chess Pieces, Paramus Park Mall, Bergen County NJ

 

It had been a while since I had visited Paramus Park Mall, so I was surprised—pleasantly so—to see these giant chess pieces in the common area.

Not that I was a chess aficionado, mind you. But I enjoy seeing a bit of whimsy in public displays, and nowhere is this needed more than in the midst of a day fighting through snarled traffic to make it to a mall.

Anyway, I just had to take this photograph once I saw this scene.

Photo of the Day: Pascack Brook County Park, Westwood NJ

I took the image accompanying this post a week ago while visiting Pascack Brook County Park, about a 20-minute drive from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. 

Though there are picnic areas, pavilions, playgrounds, and athletic facilities, this pond, with its circular walking path, is the centerpiece of the 79-acre park.

Photo of the Day: The Last Picture Show in Tenafly, NJ

I took the attached photo two weeks ago, right after reading the news that Bow Tie Cinemas, not far from where I live in Bergen County, NJ, had been demolished.

For the last half-century—really, since the premieres of Jaws and Star Wars—millions of movie fans have marked their calendars for the start of the summer season, with the Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial kickoff.

But that won’t be the case at Bow Tie Cinemas this year.

Its last poster outside, just when COVID-19 shut down the film industry and so much else five years ago, advertised Ben Affleck’s The Way Back. As late as November 2020, its marquee proclaimed, TEMPORARILY CLOSED—WILL REOPEN SOON. Unfortunately, both predictions proved overly optimistic.

Despite the effort of community groups to keep it open—at least, to preserve its original façade—the borough of Tenafly decided that this would be the local version of the classic The Last Picture Show. Current plans call for the site to be redeveloped as a mixed-use property.

This script has become all too common in recent years across the country, and Bergen County has been no exception.

Next year would have marked the movie house’s centennial. It began as a single theater before, like so many other cinemas a few decades ago, being converted into a quad.

With the closure of the Englewood Theater and the Plaza Theater (later repurposed as BergenPAC) in my hometown, the Bow Tie (then called the Bergen Theater) became the de facto movie house for me and my friends by the mid-Seventies.

I agree with Sean Baker, the Oscar-winning director of Anora, that the big screen rather than at-home streaming is the best way to experience a film. But watching a film with others is more than a matter of technology—you also come away with memories only tangentially connected to what’s projected overhead, as I found several other times in Tenafly:

*In the mid-Seventies, my mid-teens, I joined several older guys in watching the R-rated shocker The Exorcist. Despite the massive publicity the horror flick had generated over the prior few years, we were still so unprepared for its terrifying scenes of demonic possession that we staggered out of the theater late that night. When one of my close relatives piped up with, “Hey guys, let’s go get some pizza!”, they looked ready to kill him.

*A decade later, a new owner took over, eventually turned the theater from a single screen into the quad form it retained for the rest of its existence. I just wish he had spent more on HVAC equipment. As a long line of moviegoers waited patiently outside one summer night in 1985 to see A Room With a View, the owner (who I thought of thereafter as Baldy for his chrome dome) yelled out, “Folks, I just wanted to tell you: It’s close in there.” Close? I thought. It wasn’t till I settled into my seat that I discovered he had come up with a euphemism for “no air conditioning.”

*In early 1988, the theater—now known as Tenafly Cinema 4—ran The Last Emperor. This Oscar-winning Best Picture was 163 minutes long, but moved so slowly that it felt more like 240 minutes. I watched it on a Friday night with seven or eight friends from work at the time. Every one of us caught 40 winks, at one point or another, as we viewed it, but we were collectively able to piece together the plot afterward at a local diner.

It’s estimated that more than 3,000 cinemas have closed since the start of the pandemic, a situation not helped any by the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, which slowed new products down to a trickle.

But in truth, the malaise affecting theater has been developing for years. Higher ticket prices masked the problem for a while, as did the increase in the number of screens. (Just when audiences had finally gotten used to the idea of multiplexes—usually regarded as properties with two to 20 screens—they found themselves going to megaplexes, with upwards of 24 screens. A shakeout was bound to come sooner or later with so much overbuilding.)

Over the last five decades, independent, usually single-screen, theaters, often located in downtowns, have become endangered, if not extinct, species. In addition to the ones named above, my part of Bergen County has seen the final curtain come down on the following cinemas:

*The Fox and Oritani (Hackensack)
*The Rialto (Ridgefield Park)
*The Park Lane (Palisades Park)
*The Grant Lee (later the Sharon Cinema) (Fort Lee)
*The Ramsey Theater (Ramsey)
*Bergenfield Cinema 5 (Bergenfield)
*The Warner Theater (Ridgewood)

(These last two were part of the same Bow Tie Cinemas chain that owned the Tenafly location.)

Longtime residents of this blog who, at one time or another, have resided in Bergen County can undoubtedly supply other area locations that I may have missed. Some readers will simply observe that these closures are simply a product of the passage of time, and, compared with the departure of other longtime institutions, not something to especially concern ourselves with.

I don’t agree. Movie audiences have been forced to accept a diminished experience over time: While screens inside the home expanded in size, those outside contracted. Gloria Swanson’s faded screen queen in Sunset Boulevard was more correct than anyone could have imagined 75 years ago when she complained, “It’s the pictures that got small.”

Towns pay a price, as well, for these closures, in ways more significant than merely dollars and cents. Sociologists speak about “third places”—relaxed, informal environments outside the home and work where people can gather, talk, exchange ideas, build community, and feel a sense of belonging (or, as the theme song of Cheers goes, “where everybody knows your name”).

Movies were among such places for the longest time, and, as I indicated in the examples above, people carried those experiences with them to other businesses in downtowns and, indeed, elsewhere. In an era when so much divides Americans, it is an unwelcome sign that they lose yet something else that brings them together.