Mustang Memory Lane

with Mike Finegan

When our magazine was getting started, it was Clifton Nostalgia & History that helped to put us on the map. We’re not the only ones with an interest in preserving history and sharing memories of Clifton’s since-past, yet-not-forgotten era. Starting here, we are proud to partner with Mike Finegan (above) and “Clifton New Jersey The Golden Years”. The Facebook group, managed by Finegan and Bobby Cole, was created on Aug. 17, 2015. Its purpose? Creating a space for truly vintage Clifton memories, like these two stories which launch this joint project…

An invasion of Russian tanks. Deployed military forces. Protestors in the streets.

It’s an all-too-familiar scenario—perhaps not the one that you’re envisioning. For Mike Finegan, it’s a reminder that history has a way of repeating itself — if not identically, then with distinct patterns.

Such was the case for a Clifton girl who, like two generations of her family before her, found herself caught up in a conflict. And five decades later, Ariana Puzzo caught up with her thanks to The Golden Years project.

In July 1968, Marlene Bartos, then 13, traveled with her godfather and his wife, native Czechoslovaks, to visit years prior, her father Joseph left Czechoslovakia when the Communists assumed undisputed control. Joseph’s father, a railroad engineer, left Budapest in 1918 amidst the Hungarian-Romanian War.

Fast forward 50 years, Bartos planned to visit family in Czechoslovakia and sight-see in Europe. When she left her Breezy Hill Ct. home, with the late John and Alzbeta (Pohl) Korenik, the trio had no idea that they’d use a car bought strictly for touring to escape the Soviets.

The 1968 Herald-News story reported they left the central Slovakian town of Divin, home of Joseph’s family, for a Prague suburb, Benatky, where Alzbeta’s sister lived. They planned to spend a day shopping in Prague before leaving for West Germany. When they turned on the radio Wednesday morning, they learned of the invasion.

“Russian tanks rolled in and we had to get out,” said Bartos, now 68. “It was very unexpected and fast. The goal was to get in a car and get out of the country as quickly as possible.”

‘We Will Hold Out’

Although the specific details are foggy — unsurprising after 55 years and for someone who was so young — there’s a record of Bartos’ chaperones recounting the experience.

“When we turned on the radio, it was pleading with the people to help the tourists, and telling that [sic] the Russians were taking everything,” Alzbeta had told the HeraldNews. “We could even hear shooting over the radio.”

Alzbeta added the Czechoslovaks were 99% in support of Alexander Dubcek’s reformist regime and against Russian intervention. Students took to the streets, chanting, “We don’t care how much blood we lose, we will hold out as long as we can.”

It’s a sentiment echoed more than 50 years later. Except now it’s from Ukrainians who have opposed Russia’s invasion and occupation of their homeland since Feb. 24, 2022. Bartos has a clear understanding of why that message endures.

“The people, at least in my family, who were living under Soviet rule couldn’t openly speak out about their situation without fear of reprisal,” said Bartos. “So I grew up with the understanding that being under Soviet rule was not anything that anyone wanted voluntarily.”

Bartos said she doesn’t believe many people today realize that the Berlin Wall, for instance, wasn’t meant to keep westerners outside of its limits. “It was keeping people behind the wall, in. I think people are shocked at the idea that you could be killed trying to escape your own country,” continued Bartos. “I think that’s why Ukrainians are willing to die rather than live under that kind of rule.”

From Past to Present

Their only child’s safe return home brought great comfort to the late Joseph and Anna (Sotak), the latter of whom passed away at age 95 on Aug. 24, 2022.

Bartos went on to attend then Woodrow Wilson Junior High in the Fall. She graduated with the CHS Class of 1973 and later studied film and television at NYU.

Bartos’ professional career saw her working at an advertising agency and earning her MBA in marketing from Baruch College. Today, she resides in Montclair and works as a managing director/executive producer for Yessian New York, a branch of the global music house.

It was quite a surprise for Bartos to get a reminder of events from nearly 55 years ago. She was also amazed that Finegan had access to the old newspaper clippings.

As for Finegan, family connection to the Bartos and his awareness of history makes keeping clippings perfectly understandable. “The Bartos were friends of our family,” said Finegan. “Joe Bartos, Marlene’s father, visited our home on East 3rd Street many times. I remember [Joe] and my Uncle Joe discussing European history.”

Made In Clifton.

Dugan Brothers brought it all to Clifton households. Founded by brothers David Dugan and Edward Dugan in 1878, the business spanned well into the 20th century. It grew to become one of the largest and most famous baking organizations in the world.

As the company expanded, it eventually set up a Dugan Brothers Bakery distribution plant at 46 Broad St. The two young men who had started their business with a pushcart, high ideals, and roughly $100 in capital earned the respectable living they dreamed of.

The company stood out for a few reasons. It was the first company to bake 100% whole wheat bread. Dugan’s was among the first of its kind to take products fresh from the oven and deliver it to the home. Another innovation: packaging bread in waxed paper to preserve food value and taste.

Dugan’s grew across the metro area, but its first permanent New Jersey branch was in Montclair. Other locations were in Newark, Asbury Park, Long Branch, Spring Lake, Ocean Grove, and Belmar. But the Clifton plant made headlines for other reasons — both before and after it went out of business in 1966.

On Feb. 28, 1947, the Broad St. building was slightly damaged by a fire. A furnace ignited a nearby partition but was otherwise contained. That wasn’t the company’s first fire. In 1910, a fire razed one of the first big stores in New York. In that case, the inferno changed the course of the Dugan brothers’ lives and saw them transition from general marketing to an exclusively baking business.

Fast forward to March 8, 1968 and another fire broke out — only by then, the Broad St. plant was long gone. News reports from the following day, provided by Mike Finegan, discussed how city officials believed the vacant building was illegally occupied. City manager William Holster set the damage to the 20,000 sq-ft brick structure at $50,000.

Upon investigations by City and Fire Prevention Bureau officials, they discovered that most of the building was filled with thousands of cardboard cartons of artificial flowers — in other words, kindling. The last known owner prior to the blaze, according to police at the time, was Sutton Associates of New York City.

Chief Building Inspector Walter Albrecht announced that he hadn’t seen activity in the building after the departure of Dugan Brothers. There was no certificate of occupancy issued at that time for the building either. Today, the site is even less occupied. It’s across the street from B&B Iron Works, Inc., 1 S Broad St, and is simply a large, vacant lot that contains a variety of construction equipment.