We worked in New Jersey for 2 years. 1971 and 1972. I both loved and hated the east coast. The radio stations were awesome. We could pick up most New York stations and back then, they were still a lot of oldies stations. There are still some today, but not so many. I got into reading a lot. New Jersey had a lot of small libraries it seemed each one had a different selection. So, I spent a lot of time driving around and checking out books that I wanted to read. I would have 20 or 30 books checked out at a time. I hardly ever read any of them, but it was fun to have them for awhile. We also made a couple trips into New York City while we lived there. There was a record store down in Greenwich Village that had a lot of oldies. I wish I could remember it’s name. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is still there. We would go record shopping and a lot of the really rare 45’s I have, I bought during this time.
Working for IBM was pretty cool. I was making more than I had ever made in my life. I could have a good job and still have a good family life. I don’t know how Karen remembers it, but I remember those years as being pretty good. New Jersey is not a great place to live. We got out as soon as we could could. But I have lots of good memories from that home. In trying to think of events that happened in New Jersey, I remember one. We had gone to Michigan on vacation. Michigan was about a day away and we could once or twice a year. One time, we were coming home from the trip and as we pulled into the driveway of the house, a light was showing in a window facing the street. As we pulled in, the light suddenly went off.
Well, we freaked out. Was someone in the house? We didn’t have timers in those days. We didn’t remember leaving the light on, but maybe we had. There were no cell phones, so I went next door to a neighbor and called the police. This patrolman came and we let him into the house and he walked through the entire house (didn’t take very long – small house) and found nothing. We concluded that we had left the light on but the connection was loose and it had picked that exact moment to turn itself off. We slept very uneasily that night. Nothing or nobody was ever found, so the explanation was probably right, but it was still worrisome.
Dad