Clifton Merchant Magazine - February 2017

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AS CLIFTON

GROWS, SO

DO

WE

Letter From the

EDITOR

“This Is My Community And It Is My Responsibility To Make It Better.”

- Studs Terkel

Over our 22 years of publication, we’ve been called several names but the one I like most is Clifton’s Storyteller. It was bestowed upon me back in 1999 by former Board of Education Commissioner Joe Wenzel.

I liked the way it sounded and I flip it around sometimes to use as the theme or slogan of our magazine— Telling Clifton’s Story.

Since that time we’ve told thousands of stories, dug up some great history, published countless photos and have documented what our city is all about.

So in early January as we planned the artwork for the 11th edition of the Map of Clifton, we started counting and came up with the fact that the magazine you are holding is our 251st edition.

There should be a few more, but we almost closed shop back in those early and lean days of 1996 and 1997 and didn’t publish for a few months. But we are still here, Telling Clifton’s Story, and you can find all 251 covers on the inside spread of the map.

That brings us to our Love edition...

Read about how my old friends Ellen and Steve Corbo met in an office and despite Steve being a rude wise guy, fell in love and married some 35 years ago.

In terms of longevity, they are outdone by Joe and Margie Puskas who are nearing the 50 year mark and offer their three points for making love last.

Newcomers to marriage include Raj and Devi Patel, who blended tradition and the modern age in a three day wedding with over 600 friends and family. Richard Mateo and Alyssa DeLiberto met as Mustangs back in 2007 and will walk down the aisle of St. Paul Church on April 21. Then there is Rebecca Potocki and Kevin Delcalzo who met online and were just engaged.

Writers Douglas John Bowen, Irene Jarosewich and my son Joseph Hawrylko have prepared these stories and more tales of our hometown. Month after month, that’s how we earn the Clifton’s Storyteller title—by sharing the good news of our neighbors and community.

16,000 Magazines are distributed to hundreds of Clifton Merchants on the first Friday of every month.

1288 Main Ave., Downtown Clifton, NJ 07011

973-253-4400 • tomhawrylko@optonline.net turn our pages at cliftonmagazine.com © 2017 Tomahawk Promotions

Visit cliftonmagazine.com for current & past issues

4 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Subscribe $30 / year / $50 for 2 Call 973-253-4400 Contributing Writers Jack De Vries, Joe Hawrylko, Irene Jarosewich, Ihor Andruch, Tom Szieber, Michael C. Gabriele, Douglas John Bowen

Editor & Publisher Tom Hawrylko Art Director Ken Peterson Graphic Designer Aly Ibrahim Business Manager Gabriella Marriello

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Meeting challenges

and change

By Irene Jarosewich When he retires, Stephen Corbo plans to write a book – “Wok Your Way to a Happy Marriage.” The how-to guide will include easy stir-fry recipes, loads of relationship advice spiced up with a hefty dose of humor.

“After we first married, I would come home after work, pour myself something to drink, sit down, read the paper, [then] wait for Ellen to come home and make dinner,” said Steve.

Ellen (Nunno) Corbo had begun her fall semester as a law student at Seton Hall University. She also had a job clerking for a law firm and was on the school’s appellate moot court. “I’d be at school all day, go to work, come home, prep and cook dinner, clean up and then begin to study. Well, that lasted about a week,” she recalled.

“I had no idea,” inserted Steve. “I had a classic Italian mother who did everything in the kitchen. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know.”

Somebody had given the Corbos a wok as a wedding present. Ellen dug it out. Steve began to learn to cook. He began to test the recipes, plan the meals. “At first it all tasted Italian,” noted Ellen wryly, “because he put tomatoes and garlic into everything.” They developed a routine. He would plan and get things ready for when Ellen 6 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

came home. Together they would slice up the meat and vegetables in their tiny apartment kitchen while they talked about their day.

Learning and adapting, sharing and communicating, being open to new ideas and change became the style for their marriage, as well as their attitude toward life. Since then, say the Corbos, they have always worked as a team.

As a bonus, Stephen became a fantastic cook.

Who hired you?

When Ellen Nunno first met Stephen Corbo, she was stunned into silence. And not in a good way. A mid-summer day and Ellen was at her new job at Corbo Jewelers in Styretowne. She had just turned 19.

“I’m at my desk and in walks this guy. Tall, good-looking, wavy dark hair, sparkly eyes, tanned. He stops right in front of me. I had absolutely no idea who he was.”

“Who hired you?” asked the unidentified man.

“Warren,” a startled Ellen replied, referring to Corbo’s office manager. “Warren hired me.”

“I never would have hired you. You’re too pretty.

Pretty girls are always trouble,” he said and then turned away, went to his office, and closed the door.

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Ellen was dumbfounded. Even now, she asks, “You know when things are so shocking that you can never forget? That’s what those moments are still like for me.”

“Who was that?” she wanted to know, and was stunned even more when she heard a co-worker reply, “That guy? That is Steve Corbo, the boss’s son.”

Ellen worried that she would be fired before she even had a chance to start.

“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t let this go. I have to say something.’ In the past, people had made assumptions about me that because I was a pretty girl, that I wasn’t a serious person. I had to let him know I was serious. That I would not be any trouble.”

Composing herself, she knocked on Stephen’s office door. After being invited in, she very firmly told Stephen that she was a pre-law student with a straightA average and that she was sure that he would be more than happy with the quality of her work.

“Pre-law?!?” was his response. “I broke up with my last girlfriend because she was going to be a lawyer.

Lawyers like to argue too much.” Ellen just rolled her eyes, and left his office.

Spark leads to flame Despite their first meeting, a mutual attraction had been sparked. Yet Stephen claimed that he was not seeking a relationship. Having recently ended one, he was not keen to start again. His brother Alan, however, needed a girlfriend. Steve thought Ellen should be the one.

Ellen did not see it that way. Steve had captured her interest. Not long after meeting him, she told her mother, “I have met the man I will marry. He doesn’t know it yet, but I believe that he will figure it out.”

At the end of summer, Ellen transferred to the Paramus store from Styretowne and no longer worked with Stephen. Stephen decided it was time to take out Ellen on kind of a “test” date, just to make sure she was OK for his brother. He invited her to play racquetball.

“He still claimed that I should be dating his brother Alan. I was still convinced that I wanted to be dating him. I did not know how to play racquetball. But I wanted to go. So I borrowed a racquetball outfit with the frilly skirt from a girlfriend,” Ellen said with a little smirk.

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Ellen and Stephen Corbo on July 18, 1982.

The game was not even close. Ellen lost badly. though not for lack of trying. Even though Stephen made fun of her raggedy technique, and she sort of laughed, he remembers being impressed with her cando attitude and determination.

Had to ask her father first Soon after, Stephen said, he decided that Alan could find his own girlfriend. He and Ellen became a couple.

Two years sped by and Stephen decided to propose, but first he had to ask Ellen’s father for her hand.

Stephen was the son of a small business owner in a family that generally voted Republican. Ellen had grown up with a father who was a solid Democrat, the president of a union. While both families were Italian and had lots of tradition in common, Stephen and his future father-in-law, Mike Nunno, had already had some lively discussions about their different worldviews. Politics aside, Mike gave his blessing to the proposal, as did Ellen’s mother, and her aunts.

Apparently, most of Ellen’s extended family knew she was getting married before she did.

With plans to propose on Ellen’s birthday, Steve chose one of their favorite restaurants, Vincent’s near Holy Face Monastery, a romantic place for a proposal with a super view of the New York City skyline

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as a backdrop. Pulling into the parking lot, he realized the restaurant was closed. “Uh, no,” he began to mutter, “no, no, no!”

“He was just terribly agitated,” recalled Ellen, “Normally he is calm. I tried to reassure him. I appreciated that he wanted something nice for my birthday, but we could go somewhere else.” They returned to Steve’s apartment, maybe to have dinner there.

Unexpectedly, Stephen’s roommate showed up, again throwing plans off kilter.

They then went to an Italian restaurant in Montclair, yet when they were seated next to the bar, Stephen insisted they be seated in the back room. Ellen was even more baffled by Steve’s agitation.

Both remember the dinner as delicious. Stephen waited for the moment. Yet the party next to them lingered and lingered. Again, Steve began to mutter.

“When I suggested we leave, he insisted we stay.”

Then mere seconds after the other party left, Stephen whipped the ring box out of his pocket, opened it up and placed it in front of Ellen. There was no please marry me or Ellen, will you do me an honor and be my wife? “Nope,” said Ellen with a laugh, “he silently showed me the ring. I looked up at him said ‘yes.’”

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“I was a nervous wreck,” added Steve. “By that point, I just wanted it to be over and done with.”

Ever the gentleman, just in case Ellen had said no to the engagement ring, in his other pocket Steve had also brought her a birthday present.

On July 18, 1982, the couple exchanged vows at St. Brendan’s Church on Lakeview Ave., the same church in which Ellen’s parents, Mike and Ellen Nunno, had been married.

Deep roots in Clifton Ellen, like her mother before her, was born and raised in Clifton. And like her mother, also named Ellen, Ellen and her sister Michele attended School 11, Christopher Columbus, and then Clifton High School. Both belonged to the CHS Mustang Marching Band – Ellen as a majorette, and Michele as a musician, then later as a drum majorette.

Their father Mike, a Marine veteran, was a proud Band Parent, and well-known in Clifton for community involvement, including as one of the founders of CASA – Clifton Against Substance Abuse – Foundation. Ellen credits her father as an important influence in her life, supporting her aspirations to be a lawyer since she first announced her dreams when still a young child.

While Stephen was raised in nearby Glen Ridge, the oldest son of Penny and Alan Corbo – with brothers Alan, Jr. and Michael and sister Cathy – the legacy of the Corbo family is deep in Clifton.

Corbo Jewelers is a Clifton institution, with more than 60 years at its Styretowne location. “Basically, the jewelry business is a happy business,” said Steve, although one that is undergoing a big change.

The traditional, walk-in jewelry stores are being edged out by the ease and deep discounts offered by online sales. Corbo Jewelers is adapting. “When I first came to work for my father,” said Steve, “the innovation was computers. Now the direction is social media, online advertising, the virtual store. And that’s where my daughter Stacey comes in.”

Also a proud member of the Marching Mustangs, Stacey is a 2007 CHS graduate and received her degree in Elementary Education and Sociology from The College of St. Elizabeth. While she loved being a teacher, she also realized that the family business needed help with social media marketing and online sales.

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Pitching in part-time several years ago, she has joined the company fulltime, the fifth generation of Corbos to enter the family business.

“Just as it was difficult for my father,” said Steve, “to adjust to computerization, it is difficult for my generation to wrap our heads around the idea of purchasing everything online. Even though Stacey does traditional floor sales, it’s extremely valuable to have someone her age proficient and comfortable with the online environment to help push us into this new era.”

With her role in the family business, Stacey is carrying on the lesson her parents learned early on in their married life – accept challenges, be open to new ideas, play life like you’re part of a team.

The youngest Corbo child, Michael, graduated from Penn State last year with a degree in Energy, Business and Finance. Ellen recalled that even as a young boy, Michael had a head for mathematics and preferred facts over fiction. “During Library Day, Michael would bring home reference books, Guinness Book of World Records.

I would say to him, ‘Michael, I can’t read these books to you. I want to read a story with you. Take out some storybooks.’ He would sigh and look at me and say, ‘But Mom, I don’t want to read storybooks!’”

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Michael loved team sports, playing baseball and lacrosse. He loved football best and began playing Junior Mustang football at age five, continuing through Seton Hall Prep. At Penn State, he was a loyal fan. He capped off graduating year with the 2017 Rose Bowl in Pasadena between USC Trojans and his beloved Nittany Lions. The Corbos traveled to California to watch the nail-biter of a game that ended 52-49 with a heartbreaking loss for Penn State, but a great memory for the family.

The next 35 In 2010, the Corbos bought a little shore house in Ortley Beach, spent two summers there, and then lost most of it due to Hurricane Sandy, This past July, the reconstruction was finally finished and the family spent a good part of the summer setting up the house.

This coming July, Stephen and Ellen Corbo will have been married 35 years and plan to celebrate close to home. “This will be the first full summer back at the shore,” said Ellen, “and our hope is to celebrate our 35th anniversary there with lots of family and friends! These past three and a half decades have been a fun roller coaster ride – lots of ups, some downs, a few dicey curves, some great straightaways ... We’re hoping for 35 more!”

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She was interested, ready to ask him out. He thought she was beautiful – and couldn’t recall her name on their first date. End result? Richard Mateo and Alyssa DeLiberto, both CHS 2008, are ready to tie the knot on April 21 at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, with a reception to follow at The Brownstone in Paterson.

Not that the two have rushed into anything.

“We met in December 2007 in Ms. Testa’s English class,” almost by chance, Alyssa recalled in an interview last month. She transferred into the class, and Richard transferred out shortly thereafter.

But in between, she said, “I happened to wear a nice outfit, and makeup, and he looked at me and said, ‘There’s something about you that’s different today.”

Alyssa had a boyfriend at the time, “so he backed off,” she said ruefully.

“After that we’d see each other in the hallways at times, glance at each other and smile. But we didn’t know each other’s names,” she added. “I wanted to ask him to the prom in May, but he wasn’t in the hallways.”

Neither could she find Richard on the graduation field, “but I was talking to a friend, saying I think his name is Michael,” Alyssa said. “It turned out my friend worked with Richard’s sister at the Boys & Girls Club, 14 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

’’

“I knew something was up.

He came in all dressed up; he doesn’t usually do that. I asked a friend and she said, ’I don’t know,’ even though she had the ring in her purse!” and Richard’s sister created a MySpace for her brother.

I contacted him; he accepted me.

“Now what do I say to the guy?” she said with a smile. “It’s now July [2008]. I said, ‘Do you remember me?’ He said, ‘How could I not remember your beautiful face?’”

But, Richard admitted, he couldn’t remember her name. “We ended up talking for about a week, for four to five hours a day, and I finally asked her out to Lowe’s Theatre in Wayne to see The Dark Knight,” he said. “At that point, she knew my name; I seriously did not know hers.” But, upon meeting a friend, Richard first introduced Alyssa, “and she stepped in and said, ‘Hi, My name is Alyssa.’” Problem solved! “He admitted it six months or more later,” Alyssa noted.

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Intense, sustained, but no rush Name recall or no, “I grew fond of him, falling in love probably within the first month,” she said. Family matters interrupted the romance to a degree; Alyssa left with her family for a vacation in Cancun, and upon return, found Richard had gone to the Dominican Republic to visit family there.

“But he messaged me on MySpace so I could communicate,” she said. “Ever since then we’ve been inseparable.”

That was 8½ years ago, and while love has blossomed, marriage has not been on the fast track, by design, as together they weighed their career options.

Alyssa attended Bergen Community College for two years, pondering a career in nursing. “But I opted to become a medical assistant, because I’m fascinated with all things medical. I then went to Eastwick College in Nutley,” getting exposure in numerous programs and disciplines, including an externship – not an internship – and generally getting good reviews for her work ethic.

Richard encouraged her to pursue what she liked. “I suggested she go to technical school,” he noted. “You can still go to college later on, but in the meantime you at least still have a career.”

Richard, meanwhile, “was working with my dad as an assistant electrician; he’s an engineer. My dad knew I like electricity, but I knew I wouldn’t reach his level, so he suggested I go to Heating and Cooling/Air Conditioning (HVAC). That’s where I am now. I liked the fact that it was hands on, dealing with electricity and technical details.”

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Springing the surprise The two became engaged on Sept. 13, 2014. Asked why they took their time, Richard said earnestly, “To be honest, most couples that rush things don’t end up lasting too long. I wanted to make sure that I knew.” Alyssa was only slightly less patient. “I didn’t start talking about engagement until perhaps a year prior,” she said.

The couple anticipate about 175 family and friends at their wedding, the majority likely from Alyssa’s side of the aisle, they said. Alyssa was born and raised in Clifton. By contrast, Richard, though born in the US, spent much of his childhood in the Dominican Republic (DR) before returning to New Jersey at age 16, and arriving in Clifton in 2003. “Most of my family is in the DR, but those who are here are mostly in New Jersey, including three of my cousins in Clifton,” he said.

Richard wanted to surprise – and he succeeded to some degree. He proposed “at her house, a few days after Alyssa’s 25th birthday. Her family and friends still were gathered there, so I took a knee in front of her and proposed. Everybody knew it was coming except her,” he said with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face.

“I knew something was up,” countered Alyssa. “He came in all dressed up; he doesn’t usually do that. I asked a friend and she said, ‘I don’t know,’ even though she had the ring in her purse!” Alyssa did the equivalent of a stop-and-frisk on Richard, but came up empty-handed, so was convinced any proposal wasn’t coming that night.

Until it did. With each one knowing the other’s name so very, very well.

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Some triumphant love stories begin, well, inauspiciously.

By Douglas John Bowen Raj and Devki Patel were married on July 23, 2016, after meticulously coordinating and expediting a threeday event. They invited family and friends from around the world – 600 attendees in all. They chose the ring after shopping at Morré Lyons Jewelers in Richfield Shopping Center. As a team, they were exquisitely organized, coordinated, and efficient.

However, the start of their relationship, they both acknowledged, was something altogether different.

The two graciously recounted their journey toward becoming – and being – a couple over coffee at Salome Café on Market St. last month.

Their story began at an earlier wedding, in May 2012 in Atlanta, when Raj (CHS 2009) was a student at Northeastern University in Boston. Raj was a friend of the prospective groom; Devki, a native of Gwinnett County in Georgia, northeast of Atlanta, knew the bride-to-be.

“After the wedding, we were just hanging out with the groom’s friends,” Raj recalled. One of them, Devki’s brother, offered to treat the group to ice cream from his retail store.

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While they were in the store, in walked Devki, charged with decorating a cake for a post-wedding event, attempting to juggle “a box and a bucket,” she recalled. “And none of them offered to help. They just stood there.”

“We eventually helped,” Raj added, somewhat sheepishly, “but we were busy eating ice cream.”

The two, in fact, had seen each other before. “I thought she looked familiar; I didn’t know why,” Raj said. “We [later] realized we went to the same trip in India, organized through our religious group,” two years earlier.

While Raj recognized Devki, Devki could not say the same about Raj. Facebook friendship ensues Because the two were actively involved in their Hindu faith, indeed attending many of the same events on a national scale, they kept in touch by phone and by Facebook. “Whenever there’d be a national organized event, we’d meet up,” Raj said.

Or tried to. At one event in Los Angeles,

, g e t

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r s y d

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“When she was free, I was busy.

When I was free, she was busy,” Raj observed.

Once they got together at dinner – sort of, Devki recounted. “My brother and I were having dinner, and I hadn’t seen him in some time.” Raj walked in on a templerelated errand, spotted Devki and her brother, and as Raj recalled, “I was trying to be subtle, so I start talking to her brother as if she was-

n’t there.” Quite the mistake.

Undaunted by the faux pas, Raj tried again in Atlanta in 2013. “It was near the end of the event, and I was going to catch my bus to the airport, but I called her, and she said she was outside,” he said.

But a large crowd kept them separated. “We were talking to each other on the phone, but couldn’t see each other,” Devki remembered.

Fortune finally smiled on the

two in August 2014, in Robbinsville, N.J., Raj said, observing, “The third time was the charm.” For Raj, New Jersey was home, and he was able to attend the event without missing his work at Credit Suisse in Manhattan.

For Devki, it was a trip to New Jersey, then back to Atlanta, and back again to New Jersey. “I flew home because I also had to start work. But I came back to the event,” hoping they might meet up this time.

“We finally found some downtime, late in the day,” Raj said, exhaling as he recalled the breakthrough.” Added Devki, “Someone took a picture of us together – friends checking Raj out.”

And then, “After years of talking and texting, we caught up, [but] after the event, nothing romantic had happened.”

Christmas in New York Yet, indeed, a spark had flared.

So in December 2015, “maybe a little before, we wanted to see if there really was something there.”

Devki decided made her first trip to northern New Jersey to visit Raj. Smiling, she recalls “However, I conned my parents to do the trip with me. I asked them ‘Why don’t we check out New York City?’”

Finishing her thought, Raj tacked on, “Oh, yeah, I gotta visit this guy.”

Both say their first real date was Christmas Day, 2015. “We had our friendship, and respect for one another, so [just]we needed to enact the chemistry part,” Devki explained. Although their first date went well, it ended early, Raj acknowledged, adding, “Her

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parents were worried that the date did not go well because Devki was brought back by 6pm.”

“The next day, her parents went on an all-day tour in the city, so Raj met Devki in the city, and “we walked up and down everywhere,” Raj said. Raj was unaware the Devki, unused to walking as much as he, was tired. “But I didn’t complain,” Devki said with some pride.

Raj then traveled to Atlanta, and “we started going back and forth” between Atlanta and New Jersey, Devki said. Raj subsequently alerted his own parents about Devki and their blossoming romance, introducing Devki to them in March 2016.

Memorable proposal Raj also told his parents they needed to meet Devki’s parents, anticipating that nuptials were in the couple’s short-term future. “We just need to get our parents on board,” he told Devki – and fast, because traditional Indian weddings are big affairs, requiring lots of planning, and both of them wanted to marry in 2016, not 2017 or later.

Raj had the ring selected, with assistance from the friendly staff at Morré Lyons Jewelers, and also from Devki’s mother. Devki’s stepdad had given his blessing, so the stage was set.

Raj wanted to make any proposal memorable. “Devki was convinced I would propose in front of her parents, and that wasn’t [to be] the case,” Raj said.

Instead, on a Sunday in March, the two went to Princeton to participate in a round of “Escape The Room,” a group participation event, in keeping with Raj’s passion for board games and similar challenges.

Raj also told Devki dinner in New York was on the agenda after the event, and to bring along dinner clothes. To add to the drama, the two skipped lunch during the day.

But, said Devki, when time came to prepare to dress for dinner, and take the train into New York, “he was being really weird, super awkward. It was almost as if he wanted me to leave the room and give him space.” Devki waited for Raj in the kitchen, noting, “It was taking him forever,” and even when Raj finally came downstairs and the two got into their car, “he stalled for time.”

Indeed he did. “I said I had forgotten something, 22 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

rushed back upstairs, turned the light on, took longer than usual, then got back in the car, looked at my watch and said ‘Uh-oh, I botched the train schedule.’” In short, “I deliberately made it so we missed the train.”

Devki still had no clue as to what was afoot.

To kill time until the next train, Raj urged going back inside to play a game. “So I whipped out an index card, and said, ‘Let’s do a scavenger hunt.’”

Odd though it was, Devki said, she still could not fathom what was impending. Instead, she complied with finding clues to 20 things Raj had scattered throughout the house, and “the last clue was upstairs,” Devki said.

The last clue? “Who do I want to spend the rest o f my life with?” Raj said. “Then I proposed. She said ‘yes’ and I called my parents and said, ‘You can come home now.’”

He added, “I knew I had to propose that weekend,” so that when the couple’s parents met the following weekend, wedding plans would be more than a speculative 2017 occasion.

Instead, “No, it’s to be this summer,” Raj emphasized.

Indeed it was, as the couple wed July 23, 2016, in Atlanta. “My birthday is July 18; Raj’s birthday is July 19. So we had everything in that week,” Devki said.

That’s before factoring in four events at the elaborate gathering, with 600 people arriving from “all over India,” from London, and Canada, as well as the Atlanta metropolitan area and (of course) New Jersey.

Devki noted both she and Raj are “first” among all their cousins to get married. Size, scope, and family trailblazing notwithstanding, the two had a wonderful time through it all.

“I cared about wedding details, but I did not become ‘Bridezilla,’” Devki insisted. “It was very relaxed; we were able to get it all done without it being too stressful.”

The couple departed for a honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean the next day.

The two currently live in Jersey City and work in New York – Raj with Credit Suisse, Devki as a teacher at Kippstar, a public charter school.

But both can be found in Clifton most Sundays, attending services at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Bloomfield Ave., where Raj serves as a community volunteer for the Mandir.

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Relationships, even good and lasting ones, often require lots of hard work. Kevin and Rebecca are willing to put in the work; they simply haven’t had to so far.

By Douglas John Bowen Brewing a relationship Ever talk to two people – together or separately – who Their story starts on July 27, 2015. Recalled say the same things the same way? Echo each other?

Rebecca, “Kevin and I met in person several days after Finish the other’s sentences? swiping right on Tinder. Our first date was at Brix City Siblings, especially twins, often offer that distinction.

Brewery in Little Ferry. I remember so clearly walking So, too, can couples like Kevin Delcalzo and Rebecca up to him, tripping over the strap of my purse, thinking Potocki – even within their first encounters. he was so small, but had a nice hair cut.”

“We sat down and before we knew it four hours went From Kevin’s 20/20 vantage point, “It’s something by,” said Rebecca, detailing the couple’s first get-togethI’ll never forget. My friends and I were standing er. “It was like we knew each other for years. Just behind the bar, and one buddy says, ‘Kev, I think two old friends catching up.” she’s here.’ They’re looking out the window, all Interviewed separately, Kevin offered, “We sat thinking, no way is it her, down and talked for four because she’s gorgeous. I hours about our lives. It was He had tears in his eyes with my stayed back from the wina different type of conversaring in his hand and asked me to dow, and when she came in, tion, like we were friends in another life, even though we marry him. It was so beautiful. I she was gorgeous.”

He gave Rebecca a tour had just met.” finally uttered the word yes. of the brewery, operated by Interviewed together last one of his cousins. A second month, the two enjoyed recapping their romantic history to date and their plans date followed at the Crow’s Nest in Hasbrouck Heights, for the future, their viewpoints and sentence structure Kevin’s home town. “I grew up going to the Crow’s Nest almost interchangeable. all the time,” he said. “I love the food, how it’s

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low-key, and you can have a lowkey conversation that some other places don’t help foster.”

For Rebecca (CHS 2008), the matchup was good – too good, she feared. “Things were moving a little too quickly for me,” she said, “so I decided that I needed a break and really think about what I wanted.

Every day I thought about him, every day I wondered what he was doing, and every day I missed him.

“On Halloween, I finally decided

to reach out to him. We talked about what he was up to and at that time he was running a small clothing business. I asked if I could purchase a sweatshirt from him and pick it up that night. He, of course, said yes.

We finally met up. We sat in my car and talked for hours. At that moment we decided to try it again. We’ve been together ever since.”

She added, “I’ve never thought that I could love someone the way I love Kevin. His heart is bigger than

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anyone’s I ever met. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him.”

A modest proposal – not Kevin clearly thought the same way. “I knew I wanted to marry her maybe by January 2016,” he said.

“I texted one of my friends about this a year before I actually proposed to her,” and the friend kept the message, belatedly offering proof of Kevin’s intent even as Kevin spent the next year preparing for an elaborate proposal worthy of his beloved.

Kevin selected the site – the Brix City Brewery, where the two had first met. He picked the date: Jan. 15, 2017. As well, “I started ring shopping [last] November. I designed the ring myself, the diamond and the setting and so forth.

“And I wanted to propose in front of friends and family. I thought, ‘Becca would like them there,’” he said. “Friends came from New York City, Pennsylvania, Connecticut; her best friend [ostensibly] came to get her nails done.”

But Kevin’s meticulous planning hadn’t covered quite everything.

“The day of, she was being the most difficult person,” he recalled, smiling. “I was,” Rebecca allowed, also with a smile. Kevin continued, “She couldn’t decide what to wear; she questioned why we were leaving early. So I said I had to help my cousin at the brewery first.”

“I was being so difficult that day,” she acknowledged. “Our ‘plans’ were to meet up with our friends for brunch at 12:30 in the afternoon. He kept suggesting that we leave at 11:15. I refused, saying that it was way too early to leave at

that time.” Kevin’s ruse – his cousin needed help – worked only as far as reaching the brewery’s doorway.

“He kept pushing me to go in and I did not want to, since the parking lot was filled with ‘customers,’” Rebecca detailed.

“After he asked me to stop being so difficult and just come in for a drink, I finally got out and walked into the most amazing proposal I can ever imagine,” Rebecca said. “It took me awhile to figure out was going on. The brewery was filled with our friends and family. I turned to Kevin to ask what was going on.

He was on one knee.” A video taken by one of the guests shows Rebecca initially focused on the guests, then turning to Kevin to see him on his knee, after which she backed away three or four steps, stunned.

“I’m going to remember that exact moment for the rest of my life,” Rebecca said. “He had tears in his eyes with my ring in his hand and asked me to marry him. It was so beautiful. I finally uttered the word yes. The whole day felt like a dream and I just want to live it over and over again.”

“It took her a while to say yes,” Kevin added, diplomatically. “That whole entire day, she was in another world, smiling ear to ear.”

Born and raised in Clifton, Rebecca graduated from William Paterson University in Wayne, and works as a Customer Experience Specialist at Boll & Branch, an organic fair trade linen company.

“That’s where I really wanted to work,” she said. Added Kevin, “She’s really into giving back.”

Kevin graduated from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa, and is a Graphic Designer at Valley National Bank. He’s also a Speed

and Agility Trainer at Infinity Sports Institute, applying sports experience that includes setting a Group 1 North 1 state record for the 55 meter dash in 2007.

The couple currently reside in Carlstadt with their two cats, Winston and Maxwell. Kevin’s mother “taught me how to cook; I’m the cook in our relationship,” Kevin said. “Rebecca makes a pretty good salad.” Rebecca – predictably? – agrees, almost word for word.

Big wedding for big families No date has been set yet for the wedding, but the site will need ample capacity, the couple said. “We don’t know where just yet; maybe Perona Farms,” Kevin mused.

“We’re looking to get married in a barn. We have fairly large families, so we need to accommodate that.”

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

27

’’

Joe and Margie Puskas close in on a half-century of marriage, fortified by a balance of powers.

By Douglas John Bowen In today’s culture, when you’ve been married for 47 years and counting, you must be doing something right.

But if such a triumph confers bragging rights, Joe and Margie Puskas are reluctant, at best, to offer advice to others pondering a lifetime commitment.

When pressed, Joe volunteered, “You gotta be friends first.” Margie concurred, elaborating, “Love is the No. 1 factor, of course. [But] we respect each other, and we’re best friends. You have to be friends before you’re lovers.”

The formula has worked well for them, resulting in two children and five grandchildren, two successful careers, and a longtime commitment to St. Paul Roman Catholic Church on Union Ave., where the two were wed on Aug. 2, 1969.

“We were married by Bishop Frank Rodimer, the pastor at St. Paul’s at the time,” who now is Bishop Emeritus for the Diocese of Paterson, Margie said. Added Joe, “He’s been a personal friend all our lives.”

Co-eds belatedly connect Both Joe and Margie spent four years at Pope Pius XII High School in Passaic, which during the 1960s already was co-educational, at least to a degree, Margie noted. “At that point, it was a coed school. Boys and girls were taught separately for the most part, with very 28 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

little shared classroom instruction. But we all were in the same building,” he said.

That may be a key reason why Joe and Margie did not know each other until early February of their senior year, 1965, and a class trip. Recalled Joe, “The usher sat me at Margie’s table, and being as suave and debonair as I was, I said, ‘You’re new here, aren’t you?’” Obviously not, he quickly learned.

But the two took to each other, and, Joe continued, “We had dinner and our first dance. And our first date was on Valentine’s Day [1965].” Nothing over the top, Margie filled in: “We were kids; we went to the movies and that was it.”

The movie: A Disney classic, Mary Poppins.

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Two-career couple Following graduation, “Joe went to Seton Hall for four years,” Margie said. “I went to work; in fact I had started working for my boss during my senior year, as I met Joe, for the law firm Sellinger & Chester, based at Monroe and Lexington. “I worked there for four years while Joe went to college.” Joe then joined the Army.

As fate would have it, the couple’s first child, Lisa, was born two weeks before Joe was deployed to Vietnam.

Though the conflict was becoming increasingly lethal, “I had no doubt in my mind afterward that I was coming home,” Joe said.

Joe indeed did come home in 1971. “Nine months later, in 1972, our son Joseph A. Puskas was born,” Margie said.

Two years later in 1974, Margie continued, “I went back to work for Bill Sellinger, and worked part-time and full-time for him, and after he passed away for his son, until I retired in 2014.” Unlike many businesses at the time, the Sellingers held a progressive view on work and family issues, Margie said. “I’d take my kids to school, go to work, then pick up the kids after school and go home. I could adjust my schedule, and they were fantastic” when it came to family issues, she enthused. “Bill Sellinger was a real family man; he believed in the importance of family.”

Joe, meanwhile, managed to make the sometimes difficult adjustment from wartime conditions to peacetime, though he credits Margie with the process. “It took a while to get my feet back on the ground,” he acknowledged. “Thanks to Margie; she got me squared away.” Joe entered the workforce as a Certified Public Accountant, retiring in 2014.

Faith and family Both Joe and Margie remain active at St. Paul’s. Joe, ordained in June 1988, has served as a deacon for 28 years, “assisting in weddings, baptisms, funerals, wake services, graveside services, and so on,” he said.

Margie, whose association with St. Paul’s began in her grammar school days, is a Eucharistic minister, assisting the priest in administering the sacraments of holy communion, and also taking the sacraments to those who are ill or otherwise unable to attend Mass.

Their church positions do offer some great perks, Margie said. “Joe baptized all our grandchildren,” five 30 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Joe Puskas (left center, holding grandson Charles) and Margie, flanked by (top from left): Jonathan and Lisa (Puskas) Wolf, MiJung Puskas, and Joseph A. Puskas II; (bottom from left) grandchildren Cassie, Jackie, Joseph III, and Lizzy.

in all, Margie noted, and he also served as a witness for their own children’s marriages. Daughter Lisa currently works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, while son Joe II, a graduate of West Point, is serving his seventh tour in the Army; the Lieutenant Colonel is stationed in Seoul, South Korea.

Back in Clifton, Joe’s fiscal background also led to his being named to the Board of Directors for several low-income housing corporations linked to the church.

As well, “I’m also on the Diaconate Advisory Council for the Diocese of Paterson,” Joe added.

As for advice to couples in love and ready to marry, Joe and Margie weighed their words carefully before responding.

“Listen to one another before you open your mouth,” Joe offered.

“You have to respect each other,” Marge reiterated.

Joe finished with, “Never go to bed angry.”

A pretty precise three-point capsule, offered by a couple approaching the 50-year marriage mark.

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Ellis Berger wants to drum up excitement for the Clifton Centennial. He has the moves to help the city do so.

By Douglas John Bowen

Ellis Berger with his wife Ronnie, daughter Lainie, and son Adam.

As he sees it, Ellis B. Berger’s life, and his marriage of 43 years, has been one sweet song.

But the accomplished drummer and music teacher would rather talk about his musical career, or about the Clifton Centennial Celebration, instead of his union with wife Ronnie, and the couple’s two children.

Berger is proud of his successful marriage; he just doesn’t want to appear boastful about it.

“How did I meet my wife? We met in the Catskills” in the early 1970s, Berger responded when pressed, recalling it was when the legendary summer resorts, known as the Borsch Belt, still offered top-flight music and entertainment options aplenty.

The string of resorts in nearby upstate New York was so named due to the largely Jewish-American clientele that made the Catskills the primary vacation destination for Jews in the northeastern United States.

“It was still a good place for up-and-coming musicians, start-up comics, and the like to launch a career, espe32 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

cially for those living in and near New York,” he noted.

Ronnie “was on vacation with her family,” he continued. “Her mother subtly arranged for her and her sister to meet me and a friend of mine, who was a maitre ’d [hotel] where I was performing.”

Their first date? “We went to Monticello Raceway.”

Asked if the two won anything that night, Berger quipped, “I won her. That’s what I know. Ronnie and I have been married for 43 years.”

The two were wed in 1974 in Beth Sholom Reform Temple on Passaic Ave. in Clifton. “It’s not there anymore,” Berger observed, one of the few times during an interview last month when a sad note crept into his otherwise cheerful voice.

The pair has two children: Daughter Lainie (CHS 1992) resides in Montreal, where both career and her own marriage have led her; “She married a Canadian doctor,” Berger explained. Son Adam is a bit closer to home, serving as a police detective in Newark.

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Clifton aids music-making Born in Hartford, Conn., Berger moved to Paterson at age 13, then moved to Clifton at the start of his high school years. “The new high school hadn’t been built yet,” he pointed out. “I was in the second graduating class [of the new school], 1964,” he added, proudly.

CHS provided incentive for Berger to hone his musical interests in skills. “I was with the Mustang Band when they went to Europe in ’62,” he said, while his sister and brother were in a second group “when they went in ’66.”

With music in mind, Berger headed to college, which took him to southeastern Louisiana, but Clifton called him back. “The music scene in New York was very active in the late 1960s, so I joined [Local] 802.

The unions used to be open on a Wednesday and you’d find what you wanted” when it came to performance opportunities.

Berger, in his own words, was and is “[p]assionate about promoting music to youth and fostering appreciation and continuation of American Standards, Latin Jazz, Dixieland, and R&B.” Among the drummers he admired most as a youngster: Buddy Rich, a music legend known well beyond just jazz and R&B circles, and

34 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Ed Shaughnessy, renown as a stalwart within the Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Band on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Berger beefed up his own resume impressively in the ensuing decades following the 1960s, involved with several large ensembles, including the Grammercy Brass Orchestra, Baton Rouge Orchestra, New Jersey Pops, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, and the Dave Brubek 80th Birthday Concert Celebration.

Show appearances include work with the Ice Capades, though Berger noted cost-cutting efforts and a stress on “modernity” made such opportunities for live musicians virtually obsolete.

“When the Ice Capades 50th anniversary opened, they included only one musician, a drummer, just to play for the clowns,” he said. “Everything else in the show was backed by pre-recorded music.” Canned music became the norm, he lamented.

Among stage acts, Berger has worked with several luminaries, including Robert Goulet, Vic Damone, Phyllis Diller, and Frankie Lane, among many others.

“I’ve been very lucky; I’ve stayed busy around New York, and stayed busy teaching in Elizabeth for

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

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42 years,” he said, until retiring from teaching in July 2011. “I’ve freelanced all my life, with one exception, and it’s worked out for me.”

A drummer’s life can be dominated (or ruined) by on-the-road conditions, but Berger somehow managed to keep returning to Clifton and home. And, perhaps contrary to stereotype images, Berger asserted, “The musicians I’ve been able to work with and know as friends are straight-ahead guys, family oriented guys, dependable human beings.”

Berger is still active in the music world. “I used to be a lot busier than I That’s Ellis Berger at right, as part of The West End Klezmorim. am now, but I think that’s just the businial, and a bunch of offshoots. I started work with the ness you’re in,” he mused. “People pass away. I’ve special events committee,” Berger said. “I’m co-chair branched out into other things.” of the committee, along with Theresa Bivaletz – make sure you credit her, too!” he admonished.

Centennial contribution Berger has some legitimate organizing experience to “Other things” include volunteering to help make the leverage: his work for Clifton’s 75th anniversary.

Clifton Centennial Celebration a year to remember.

“Twenty-five years ago, I ran a concert series for “They have the basic overall committee for the centen-

36 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

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Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

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the city” Berger noted. “I raised all the money myself; I didn’t work with any committee. To give someone else his or her due, someone took the concert series idea by the horns and ran with it for the next 25 years with decent success.

“But when this [centennial] came around, I volunteered again,” though for the centennial, unlike the 75th anniversary effort, a committee will oversee fundraising

38 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

needs, he clarified.

Berger has plenty of ideas and options to make the Clifton Centennial Celebration a special one, and he’s hopeful many such ideas, whether originating with him or dreamed up by someone else, will come to fruition.

Already a lock on the centennial agenda: a Night with the New Jersey Devils, set for Sunday, March 5, at 5 pm, when the Devils take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at Prudential Center in Newark.

From March 8 through April 1, the Art Center will host the program “Clifton Association of Arists: Centennial Through Art.” A reception will be held Saturday, March 11, 1 to 4 pm at the Arts Center to highlight the program.

In addition, “We’re thinking outdoor concert series, or maybe even an indoor series at the Art Center behind City Hall” during the summer months, Berger said. “There’s a lot of interest” from the New Jersey State Opera Co., among other parties, he added. Other ideas include a Food Court Night.

Clifton Mayor James Anzaldi will preside over the 100th anniversary ceremonies April 26, when a time capsule will be opened and inspected. On two weekends in May, the 5th through the 7th and the 12th through the 14th, the Theatre League of Clifton will perform. The Centennial Parade is scheduled for Sunday, May 21.

Ellis Berger hopes the celebration, for him, is one way to give something back to the city on its 100 anniversary, a city that he and wife Ronnie, married for 43 of those years, still call home.

February 14, 2017 Clifton schools celebrate 100th day of school in the 100th year.

Location: Clifton schools March 5, 2017 Clifton Night at the NJ Devils Location: Prudential Center March 8 – April 11, 2017 Reception: March 11, 1-4pm, Clifton Association of Artists Celebrates the Centennial Through Art. Location: Clifton Arts Center, City Hall Complex April 15 – May 15, 2017 Woman’s Club of Allwood Celebrates Clifton Centennial Location: Allwood Library Showcase April 26, 2017 Clifton’s 100th Birthday Opening of the Time Capsule Location: Clifton City Hall

May 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 2017 Theater League of Clifton presents a Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical Review: Some Enchanted Evening Location: 199 Scoles Ave. May 2017 Masquerade Cocktail Party Location: TBA May 21, 2017 Centennial Parade Location: Streets of Clifton June 3, 2017 Clifton Garden Club Trip to Laurelwood Arboretum Location: Wayne Spring/Summer 2017 Clifton Night Market Location: TBA August 9, 2017 West Point Band Location: Clifton

Summer 2017 Clifton Night at the Jackals Location: Yogi Berra Stadium 9/11 Memorial & Museum Location: NYC Yankees Game & Mets Game Location: NYC Concert Series Location: TBA September 23, 2017 Bus/Ferry Trip to Ellis Island & Liberty Island Location: NYC/NJ Fall 2017 Clifton Scavenger Hunt Location: Clifton November 30, 2017 Centennial Gala Location: Valley Regency For info go to www.cliftonnj.org or on FB “Celebrate Clifton’s 100th”

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

39

Kindness is catching. At least that’s the belief motivating a collection of Clifton forces determined to make the city, and the larger world, a kinder place – this year coinciding with Clifton’s Centennial Celebration.

Not that the kindness wave is limited to any anniversary. For the last three years School 13 students (some are pictured above)participated in The Great Kindness Challenge (http://thegreatkindnesschallenge.com/). The purpose of the challenge is to lift the school culture by focusing on positive actions.

Students were given a list of 50 ideas to try out for the week, such as; Smile at 25 people, read a book to a younger student, or draw a picture and give it to someone. During recess, students have the opportunity to go through some kindness centers where they can write a letter to a member of the services, create a pipe-cleaner heart to share with a friend, and to write a note expressing a kindness done to them. These notes are then placed into the Clifton Centennial Kindness Box. 40 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Students at School 13 also participated in Spirit Days, encouraged to dress in different styles throughout the week. “Kindness Rocks! Dress like a rock star” was the theme for Tuesday, Jan. 24, with students responding enthusiastically (per the group photo on facing page).

The kindness crusade isn’t limited to School 13. Each school in Clifton participated in a Week of Kindness from January 23-27. Random Act of Kindness boxes, adorned with festive confetti, were placed in each school to collect kindness records and notes.

Submissions will be collected on or near the 100th day of school – at press time expected to be Feb. 14.

The hope and expectation is that the kindness that is generated within each school will also be expressed at home and in the larger community.

Credit for the growing citywide effort goes at least in part to Fran Warren and Kim Oeffler, co-chairs of Clifton’s Random Acts of Kindness Committee, which is part of the effort to mark the city’s centennial year. Their efforts are symbolized by red umbrellas they hand out to promote acts of kindness among friends and strangers alike. The committee, beginning last August, supplied kindness boxes to various locations, including houses of

worship, the Daughters of Miriam Center for senior citizens on Hazel St., the Main Library, City Hall, and the Clifton Arts Center.

Different approaches The kindness effort can be expressed in numerous ways. At Woodrow Wilson Middle School, for example, each student and staff member was challenged to perform at least one random act of kindness each day.

Kindness Notebooks were circulated throughout the school. If a student or staff member received one of these notebooks at any time during the day or week, they opened it to the marked page, wrote their first and last name somewhere on the page, read the quote, and found an appropriate opportunity to show kindness toward someone else in our building. Then, without ceremony, they would passed the notebook on to someone else.

School 13 Principal Dr. Marilyn Torley testified to the multiplying power of the program. “My kindergarten teacher walked in this morning with the news that a Donor’s Choose project she had created on Sunday was fulfilled last night and that she would be receiving

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three i-Pads for her kindergarten center,” Torley wrote. “Then later on in the morning a woman [later gratefully identified as Jahaira Ortiz Olowe] came in who had completed an exercise challenge over the last month which generated school supplies. Two of my teachers, Mrs. [Catia] Guerra and Ms. [Andreia] Onofre, were nominated to receive six full boxes of markers, notebooks, posters, stickers, etc.

“With all that is happening in the world, I can’t think of a more important lesson for children to see modeled At Woodrow Wilson: Caitlyn Bourgouin, Aaron Bertone, Mohammad Abedrabo, Kyle Vellis, Bryan Feliciano , Adelys Hernandez, Sohini Mistry. by the adults in their lives that kindness does matter and it does make a fairness, caring, and citizenship. positive difference,” Torley said.

Woodrow Wilson science teacher Melissa Carucci At School 15, meanwhile, students “caught in the act” observed, “It’s really nice to see the students helping of kindness have their pictures posted on a bulletin board each other out. When we talked to them about what in the school lobby. Trustworthiness is a school theme. they did or what someone did for them, they all had a For School 17 students, “Top Cat Tickets” were disgreat smile on their face.” And it goes beyond talk, pensed for a raffle if a student upheld the six pillars of Carucci said. “The students are taking ownership of good character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, their actions and making good choices!”

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With Great Pride, We Recognize the Clifton Office’s Highest Achievers.

September 2016 Award Winners

Lesia Wirstiuk

Top Lister

Hilda Ferro Top Sales

Lesia Wirstiuk

Lesia Wirstiuk

Carolyn Clavell

Top Producer

Agent of the Month

Weichert Pride

Alma Billings

Patricia “Patty” Badia

Weichert Pride

October 2016 Award Winners

Alma Billings

Top Lister

Eileen LiVecchi

Top Sales

Top Producer

Agent of the Month

Alma Billings

November 2016 Award Winners

Alma Billings

Top Lister

Eileen LiVecchi

Top Sales

Eileen LiVecchi

Top Producer

Manuel “Manny” Zamora

Kaitlyn Barbagallo

Alma Billings

Patricia “Patty” Badia

Agent of the Month

Weichert Pride

December 2016 Award Winners

Alma Billings

Top Lister

Hilda Ferro Top Sales

Hilda Ferro Top Producer

Agent of the Month

Weichert Pride

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

43

Assembleyman Tom Giblin, center, with Peace Island Institute volunteers and staff at St. Peter’s Haven food pantry.

St. Peter’s Haven: Wellness as Kindness St. Peter’s Haven, a healthy food pantry and family transition shelter, serves as a beacon of kindness for 800 people per month, a mission it has pursued for more than 30 years. Led by Rev. Peter DeFranco, executive director, and Lynn Bocchini, manager, the organization provides nutritional groceries and fresh produce for those in need.

It also functions as a community hub for wellness workshops, clothing donations and a variety of support services, including guidance on how to obtain government services—and much of the work is done by volunteers.

A report published last year, Feeding America (“Map the Meal Gap”), which used research gathered in 2014, found that in Passaic County alone more than 58,000 peo-

ple can be considered to be food insecure. Less-fortunate area residents come to St. Peter’s Haven once a month to receive donations to supplement their diet.

“We’re a healthy food pantry,” Bocchini has noted.

“We encourage our recipients to have a balanced, nutritious diet. There are many people in need here in Clifton.

She praised the Clifton community for its “overwhelming response” in supporting St. Peter’s Haven.

Originally established in 1986 as a family shelter by St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, today St. Peter’s Haven, at 380 Clifton Ave., is a separate non-profit organization, supported by numerous organizations and businesses.

Volunteers and donations are always welcome. Call 973-546-3406 or visit saintpetershaven.org.

Good Neighbors, Great Rates

973-772-8451 Thomas Tobin 973-779-4248

Bill G. Eljouzi 973-478-9500

44 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

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Clifton native Richard Pitts is making his permanent mark in the city.

Actually, at least two marks. Two sculptures by the artist, Conestoga and Mino, have recently been added to the city’s sculpture park. Much more of his work also will be on display for most of this month, from Feb. 8 to Feb. 25, courtesy of the Clifton Arts Center Gallery, hosting “A Clifton Homecoming: Sculptures & Artwork by Richard Pitts.”

Pitts is looking forward to his “homecoming.”

A self-described “Army brat, born in Ft. Monmouth,” Pitts’ earliest years were spent at and near the Jersey shore, but he and his family then moved to Clifton “and I had the richest childhood one can imagine,” he recalled.

“My childhood was fantastic,” he said.

“And it seems to me that everyone in Clifton I knew in my childhood became somebody special,” Pitts added.

He said his life in Clifton reminds him, in some ways, of the 1973 Italian film Amarcord, a coming-of-age tale directed by the famed Federico Fellini.

46 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Minos and e two of his large works, ar e ov ab d an t) lef ge pa (facing y mother, That’s Richard Pitts today is described in his words: “M t lef low be oto ph e Th . rk because ulpture Pa Conestoga, in the Clifton Sc r soldier who joined the Army ree ca s wa He s. ’30 the in Philippines Lt. George Connie, met my dad in the s/Mexico border with thenxa Te the on d ne aig mp ca horse. He in the priyou got a uniform and a anut, both became teachers Pe d an ee ew Pe a ak ie, ar and Rosem .”

Patton. My sisters Gloria mother called me Dickyboy y M e. ixi Tr g do my th wi vate sector. That’s me

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Richard recalls ... “Here we are with family and neighbors on 12 Fernwood Ct. near the old high school. That’s me with the baseball bat (about 1952-3).” With his home so close to Clifton Stadium, “I spent many times on the stadium wall watching the Mustangs practice for Saturday games. Coach Greco was an amazing guy and coach.”

my life,” he said.

Pitts was patient enough to master his academic requirements in the meantime, graduating from Clifton High School in 1959. He made his graduation year a memorable one by next studying at Newark College of Fine and Industrial Art, studying sculpture with Reuben Kadish, and exhibiting his first paintings at the

Clifton teacher provides springboard “I had an art teacher in the 3rd grade, Mrs. McBride, in School 1 on Park Slope. To keep me out of trouble, she made me clean the windows,” Pitts said. “After talking to my parents she invited me to an oil painting class she held on Saturdays.” Pitts went once – and was hooked.

“I knew from there what I wanted to do with the rest of

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Richard recalls ... “In 1958, we are 17 or 18 at the Metropole Cafe in Manhattan. That’s me to the far right. In the middle is Skippy Segnello of Vreeland Ave., and [at left is] George Takavorian of Day St. Real Jersey Boys. All that’s missing is Bobby Darin.” At right, Richard when he started the First Street Gallery in 1969 on the Bowery.

Newark Museum of Art. “At that point, New York was becoming a boom town culturally; Europe moved to New York during the war, so New York at that time was very bohemian.” Nearby Newark felt the effects as well; Pitts noted Newark College of Fine and Industrial Art “had a faculty that was amazing.” Besides Reuben Kadish, the Newark school’s director was recognized by Life Magazine as Artist of the Year. “The talent pool was deep, almost unbelievable,” Pitts said.

Asked the cliché question for New York in that period – did he ever meet Bob Dylan -- Pitts replied, “No, but I had a good friend who helped run the Café Rose, and Dylan frequented that café quite often.”

To Europe, and back to a career In 1962, Pitts began an on-and-off stint at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

“It was very expensive in those days; I’d go for a semester, wait a semester, go back for a semester, and stop again to raise money.”

His art career could have suffered when Pitts began a three-year tour of duty with the US Army in 1963, but Pitts turned it to his advantage. “I was first stationed in Ft. Monmouth, of all places,” he said, “then went to Europe. At that time, if you joined the Army for three years, you had a choice of career training or of location.

50 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

I asked for a photography slot, but the Army couldn’t deliver. So I got to choose Europe, and that became my job – haunting all the museums.”

Upon returning to the US in 1965, and bolstered financially through the G.I Bill, Pitts resumed his studies in Fine Art at Pratt for three years, including graduate school, securing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.

Walking home one evening while back in Manhattan, he spied an empty storefront, and quickly moved to rent the space, founding a studio on 18th Street.

Pitts also is a founding member of the First Street Gallery, an artist-run gallery, now located in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Pitts is a full professor of Fine Art at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan, a founding member of Urban Studio Unbound, and president of M55 Art. Pitts’ work is represented in many private and public collections, including museums and corporate collections.

Coming home to Clifton Pitts will meet and greet interested Cliftonites and others at a reception on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 1 to 4 pm (rain date: Sunday the 19th). The gallery’s indoor exhibit will “showcase his unique and skilled style of art via sculptures and two-dimensional works,” according to the Arts Center.

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51

Mrs. Freeman's class in School 1 on Park Slope and Day St. “I thought her name was appropriate as a teacher setting her students free with the 3 Rs,” said Richard. “That’s me second from last near the door. I know every name in this class. They became my archetypes for the rest of my life.”

A master of various art media, Pitts has been inspired by abstract expressionism, third world art, the shaped canvases of Stella and Murray, Japanese wood cuts, and cartoons. At the Clifton exhibit, Pitts’ work will feature sculptures and two dimensional works.

Asked if the lay person (such as the interviewer) could grasp an overall style or theme in his work, Pitts recommended a film produced by Mark Khaimov, available on the web at Richardpittssculpture.com. “I was impressed with how he [Khaimov] put it together,” Pitts said.

With a laugh, he added, “That may explain my work best; I’m so into it, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

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Reflecting on the question a bit longer (per respectful follow-up request), he continued, “I understood from early on that art is a language. I would hope my art is a wayfinder for the imagination. The imagination is our future. What we think of often happens, if it’s in your heart.”

It certainly did for Richard Pitts, with a boost from Clifton itself.

For more information about Richard Pitts, go to www.richardpitts.com. For more information on the monthlong show at the Arts Center, visit the city’s website at www.cliftonnj.org.

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Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

53

Named after the acronym for the five Great Lakes— Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior— HOMES Brewery will be the latest addition to the Michigan brewing scene when it has its grand opening in March.

With nearly 200 beer manufacturers in The Wolverine State, it will take some great recipes to stand out in a competitive market, which is why owner Tommy Kennedy has brought on Clifton native Nick Panchame as his head brewer.

Panchame, 31, is an award-winning brewer, having earned a Silver medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, CO. GABF honored Traverse City, MI-based Right Brain Brewery, where Panchame was brewmaster, for its beer Concrete Dinosaur, which competed against 84 entries in the Rye Beer category that year.

54 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

“I took to it pretty quickly.

It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was working at a respected brewery, and I was running the show.”

This is the second time Panchame, a 2004 CHS grad, has run a brew house, but it’s the first time he’ll be helping build it from the ground up, selecting all the equipment that will be used to make his recipes.

This is actually Panchame’s second career: He previously managed the dining program at St. John’s Law School in Queens, NY, from 2009 through 2011.

Adjusting one’s culinary career “I wanted to be a chef and realized how that life is pretty quick,” explained Panchame, who graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI, in 2009 with a degree in culinary arts and food service management.

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

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Spirits & Foods “I didn’t even realize they “It’s a lot of long hours with bad were there for a while. At first, pay, and I had crazy school loans. they were only open Friday and I was pretty miserable doing that.”

Saturday nights,” Panchame “In 2010, my mother, Jean, continued.

“They had volunteer knew some guys who worked at a bottling runs, so I started going brewery in New York. I went to those with Megan — who is there to try and get some partnow my wife — and that’s how I time hours, but I was told that I learned about the internship proneeded to at least have some Both Megan and Nick Panchame devote gram. experience in home brewing,” he long hours to their respective culinary “So when I got laid off from recalled. “That’s when I started careers — up to 70 hours a week.

St. John’s in 2011, I went down to home brew. I was interested in to Cricket Hill Brewery and asked for a job, and ended the idea of maybe working in the industry. I got crazy up being accepted into their internship program,” he into home brewing while working at St. John’s. I was recounted. reading books and anything I could get my hands on.”

Panchame initially started brewing with starter packGood timing contributes ages, but quickly graduated to full grain brewing.

At the conclusion of his three month program, “Those starter packages, it’s basically the difference Panchame worked for an additional month before takbetween making lemonade from lemons, and making ing an assistant brewer job at 508 GastroBrewery, lemonade from powder,” he explained. “I did it a handwhich was located in New York’s trendy SoHo neighful of times. Eventually, I got my father, Gustavo, to take borhood. some kegs and cut off the tops, which we turned into pots “A lot of it is luck. It was only six years ago that I for full grain brewing. I was self-taught at first, then really got started, but the industry is a lot different than took an internship at Cricket Hill Brewery in Fairfield.”

56 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Spirits & Foods it was then,” he explained. “The good part about the industry was there were not a lot of experienced people, so it was kind of a new hustle. You can get an internship or get a job because there weren’t a lot of young people looking for jobs right away because you can’t start drinking until 21.”

“My then-girlfriend, Megan, and I were living at an apartment in East Rutherford when I took that job,” recalled Panchame. “We met at culinary school. She was going for pastry and I was going for a culinary art degree,” he said. “She at least understands it. She’s not getting fed up working 70 hours a week because she’s in the same boat. We might not see each other as much as other couples, but being able to see where the other person is coming from is helpful.

“My hours were all over the place when I was working at 508,” he continued. “Some weeks, it was part-time because they had no hours for me.

There was a lot of grunt work at first — cleaning, bottling, and stuff like that — before anyone let me run the brewing.”

After about six months, Panchame gradually became more involved in the brewing process at 508, gaining valuable experience in the process.

“It was a lot of the same technology as I used in home brewing, but everything was way more efficient.

Everything is bigger and better on the production side. The way you handle beer is completely different,” he continued. “The culinary experience in general, I think it helps me have a really good understanding of flavor, which helps me a lot with the recipe writing on the beer end. I think I understand flavor better than most — I was never a good student.”

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Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

57

Spirits & Foods Moving to Michigan In 2012, Panchame left 508 and moved to Michigan with Megan, where he took a job at Right Brain Brewery. Located in Traverse City. Right Brain Brewery specializes in culinary inspired beers, and distributes across Michigan.

“They were open for about five years in at that point, and had already won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest in Denver, Colorado. They’re a pretty big deal in Michigan, and they were just moving from a small space to a huge space on 2003 Mustang sports captains, rear from left: Karen Langner, Brian Schaab, Alejandro R. Tesone, Justin Swisher, Max Koziol and Paul Kornaszewski of track. the other side of Traverse City, Middle: Teddy Kwolek (wrestling), Bryent Ridges and Shawn Loeffler (basketnearly 20,000 square feet,” ball), Christine Ferrara and Jillian Fueshko (basketball). Front: swimmers Nick explained Pancheme. “They Panchame, Kristin Reilly and Caitlin White and bowler Alex Berberich. brought me on as assistant brewable to write some recipes for anything new coming out, er, and I moved on to co-head brewer and then head and I was able to improve operation as far as how they brewer within one year. did things. I had management experience at St. John’s, “When I first came up, they were just starting to diswhere we had a union, so that was helpful as well.” tribute in Detroit and pretty much all but the upper In 2015, Panchame’s contributions to Right Brain peninsula,” he said. “By the time I left, we were distribBrewery were recognized on a national level, when his uting to the whole state. The brewing scene in Michigan beer, Concrete Dinosaur, earned him a Silver medal in the is huge. When I left New Jersey, there were fewer than Rye Beer category at the Great American Beer Festival.

10 breweries. I think there’s over 30 now. And “It’s a raffle system because they can’t fit everyone Michigan has over 200.” there,” he explained. “You’re allowed to submit five “I took to it pretty quickly. It was the best thing that beers, which we did. I was talking with the owner about ever happened to me,” he continued. “I was working at it and that was the one I made that we submitted and got a respected brewery, and I was running the show. I was

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58 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Spirits & Foods a medal for. There were close to 2,000 beers in all categories, and in that one 80 breweries [actually 84, according to GABF website data] submitted a beer.”

Seeking new challenges After four years, Panchame left Right Brain Brewery and moved to Ann Arbor, and joined HOMES Brewery.

“I left because I wanted to be a part of something new, something that I have more ownership of,” he explained. “I’m the only head brewer here. I’m putting in a lot of hours now, getting the brewery set up and purchasing the equipment we need.

“At Right Brain, they were already established: Head brewer, cellarman, production manager … I’m starting from scratch now, so I can do the exact styles that I want to do,” Panchame said.

For Panchame, one of the appealing factors was that HOMES’ owner, Tommy Kennedy, is invested in having a busy kitchen and restaurant to complement the brewery. The kitchen is run by Noe Hang, who owns a chain of fast food restaurants, No Thai, with locations in the college towns of Ann Arbor and East Lansing.

“Noe and his partners own several Thai fast food restaurants that target college students from Michigan

and Michigan State,” Panchame said. “We have a lot of Asian-influenced dishes, but he wants to do American food, too. He’s a cool guy, and he lets me put my two cents in about the menu. Right now, we’re still trying to get ready to open in March, but I would love to do private beer dinners with food pairings down the road.”

With an emphasis on barrel-aged sours and hoppy brews, Panchame said HOMES will open with 8-to-10 distinct beers.

“We’re going to make all different kinds of beers, but we’ll be focusing on those two things since we have space under the brewery to do barrel aging,” he explained. “It’s got consistent temperature and humidity, so it’s perfect.”

Eventually, the bar will have 20 beers on tap. The 5,000 sq. ft. space has seating for roughly 100 people inside, and another 60 or 80 outside around some fire pits.

Panchame is eagerly waiting for the grand opening, so he can finally see the results of several months of hard work.

“When I was first started brewing at home, it was because I decided I needed to do something I liked,” he said. “There’s other things I could do, but this is something I really love. This is something I am going to be doing the rest of my life.”

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59

THE ARTS

The cast and crew of the new Clifton talk show – Meet Clifton. From left: Patrick Meyer, Cameraman; Ray Grabowski, Host; George Silva, Co-Host; Diane Gangi Ohland, Producer; Lauren Scarfo, Director; Sharon Koribanics; Updates; Lizz Gagnon, Updates; Joe Koribanics, Resource; Craig Shom, Director; Lisa Farrar, Camera 2.

Meet Educate Entertain the Town—is the concept behind Meet Clifton. Launched by Ray Grabowski in late Summer 2016, along with co-host George Silva, the show is an informational half hour of good news and the positive things around town.

“Even though I was born here and grew up in Clifton I learn new stuff all the time from our guest,” said Grabowski, who is also a Clifton Council member.

From those in the arts and entertainment areas to civics and health and law, the goal is to introduce viewers the resources offered here in town. Produced by Diane Gangi Ohland, the show features three guests per show highlighting their knowledge of specific topics.

Think talk show format, explained Ohland, as visitors are welcomed on the show by Grabowski and Silva and then interviewed on their expertise.

Transitions are filled with musical performances to segue from one guest to another. Other on air folks do community updates of programs offered here in town.

60 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Grabowski noted that all the work for the program is done by volunteers and that the broadcast is commercial free as it is run on the city’s public access channels.

Tune in to Optimum Channel 77 and Verizon Fios on Channel 40 to see the weekly program. Episodes are filmed weekly and run for seven to 10 days.

“The idea is to enjoy, learn and understand our hometown and its personalities, cultures, events and organizations,” said Grabowski. “It’s all good news—no politics, no advertising, no biased information.”

When you think of Clifton’s historically charming Dutch Hill neighborhood, opera doesn’t usually come to mind. Few people even know that an opera company has its origins in Clifton, much less a quiet little corner of Dutch Hill. OK, it’s not exactly the Met at Lincoln Center, but down on Hadley Ave., you’ll find the Garden State Opera’s headquarters in the home of its artistic and musical director, Francesco Santelli.

THE ARTS He has a studio in his home, but Santelli also works out of larger production facilities around North Jersey.

The word opera in Italian means “a creative work, especially a music composition” suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, acting, dancing, scenery and costumes in a staged spectacle.

Santelli founded the Garden State Opera in 1999 “with the purpose of offering quality productions at low ticket prices. The company produces fully staged operas with an orchestra.”

Santelli’s opera company has performed in venues throughout Passaic, Essex and Bergen counties featuring singers and musicians from around the New York City metro area.

Since 2005, the GSO has also been showcased as part of the Caldwell College Concert Series in collaboration with the school’s Music Department. “Special thanks to Dr. Laura Greenwald and the Music Department of Caldwell University for their continued support and collaboration with GSO,” he said.

Funding for GSO comes from the admission fees at performances, donors and grants. Since 2003, GSO has received support from the Passaic County Cultural & Heritage Council. This year the PCCHC helped forge a new project with Rosa Parks High School and the GSO also receives support from the Achelis and Bodman Foundations.

That support will enable GSO to present the rarely performed Francesca da Rimini by Sergei Rachmaninov and Il Consulente Matrimoniale (The Marriage Counselor) by Francesco Santelli. The production will include the choruses of the Masterwork Camerata and the Caldwell University Chorale and dancers of the Art of Motion.

GSO will perform Il Consulente Matrimoniale in Clifton as part of the city’s Centennial. They will also perform the Mozart opera, Bastien and Bastienne with Rosa Parks singers will perform the chorus for the production with the professional singers of GSO. For more info, event dates or how to support the company’s 2017 season go to gardenstateopera.homestead.com.

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

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CASA@30

CASA members from left front: Robbin Gulino, Johanna Ricca, Tom Whittles, Mike and Joanne Bujnowski, Lauren Murphy, Judy Bassford, Angela and Bill Swan, Patti Thompson, Ed Welsh. Missing is MC Peter Salzano.

The Mayor and Council recently presented the representatives of CASA (Clifton Against Substance Abuse) with a proclamation honoring the organization for their dedication to drug and alcohol prevention education.

Founded by Angela Swan, who is still a dedicated volunteer, along with a group of supportive individuals more than 30 years ago, CASA’s leaders today are President Tom Whittles and Vice President Judy Bassford.

The activities that CASA has brought to the community are an important service that is aimed at reducing the use or abuse of alcohol and drugs on Clifton.

“We are working with kids from Kindergarten right through senior year,” explained Whittles. “We partner with other groups in town, from the Police to the Boys & Girls Club to the Rec Dept and the Board of Education.”

Among the activities are an annual drunk driving reenactment at CHS a few days before the prom.

Working with police and student actors, the event shows what happens when a drunk driver kills a passenger and follows the students through the courts to jail.

CASA also sponsors the outdoor movies as part of National Night Out in August; the overnight August Clifton Camp Out in Albion Park; and is the major underwriter of Project Graduation, the after graduation all-night drug and alcohol-free party at a nearby resort for members of the CHS graduating class; in cooperation with the Boys & Girls Club, funding also goes to the After School Program which offers homework help and have recreational activities in various neighborhoods.

62 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Bassford noted that unique programs such as BABES (Beginning Awareness Basic Education Studies) gives children an early foundation of living a healthy lifestyle.

Funded by the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, businesses and individual also support the group with donations or by attending events.

For instance, the March 10 Buffet and Tricky Tray at the Boys & Girls Club will benefit Project Graduation 2017. Businesses can provide gifts, purchase blocks of tickets or provide donations. Tickets are $30. Call Judy Bassford 973-418-8031 or Johanna Ricca 973-907-6810.

The Prom Fashion Show is March 19 at 2 pm. Contact Tricia Montague for info at casaprojectgrad@gmail.com.

CASA Mission The mission is to empower and mobilize the community to combat substance abuse and related issues by: • increasing community awareness of the scope of the problem and its devastating effect; • mobilizing and assisting community resources in obtaining funding for prevention and treatment; and • facilitating and coordinating the establishment of linkages between community services and the public.

CASA operates exclusively for non-profit purposes.

To find out more or get involved, contact Tom Whittles at 973-800-2938 or twhittles@yahoo.com.

CASA’s public meetings are at 6:30 pm at the Clifton Health Department on the last Tuesday of every month, except for July, August, and December.

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63

A longtime Clifton presence evolves as its local focus becomes global.

To help keep the program self-sustaining, the family returns the first calf of any cow to the program, but otherwise keeps all other calves, as well as the milk, to help foster selfreliance and improved health.

“The idea is to give people seed capital, in terms of goods,” Pastor Weber said, “and at the very least a way to improve the family diet. It’s a way to give people a leg up, and to help them help themselves.”

Amidst Clifton’s Centennial Celebration, a venerable denizen of the city, the United Reform Church of Clifton and Passaic, is set to mark its own birthday in 2017 -- its 125th. Its parishioners are celebrating by raising money to better the lives of those less fortunate.

Parishioners are raising funds for the Reformed Church World Service, which helps those affected by hunger, poverty, or natural disasters. The initial goal was to raise $1,125 or $10 per each year of the church’s existence. To help out, contact urc352@verizon.net, or call 973-365-1666.

Pastor Michael Weber, who has served United Reformed Church since February 2009, said the church already has surpassed that goal. “I’d like to challenge us to double it” as the year progresses, he said.

Though the church calendar this year will include special services and events, “this is a church that is mission-minded,” Weber emphasized.

“The funds we raise will help purchase livestock for people in third world countries. For $500, for instance, we can purchase a cow, and the program gives it to a family.”

64 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

Proud local history Originally founded as the Reformed Church of Clifton on April 19, 1892, the organization held its first church services in the Clifton Union Sunday School Chapel on May 1 of that year.

And in fact, the church’s formation reaches even further back, beginning as early as 1870.

As told by parishioner Helen Berkenbush to the Passaic County Historical Society last summer through the society’s summer newsletter, the Clifton Union Sunday School Society organized in a hall above the general store and post office on May 8, 1870.

A chapel was built two years later on land along First Street, donated by the Building and Loan Association of Clifton. Fire destroyed the chapel in 1881, forcing the Society to plan and build a replacement.

Prayer meetings and services were added to Sunday school activities in the ensuing years, overseen by visiting ministers from surrounding churches and by seminary students from New Brunswick and New York.

Clifton-area parishioners finally secured a full-time minister to oversee the flock in October 1891, setting the stage for the permanent founding of the Reformed Church of Clifton the following year, authorized by the Classis of Paramus in Ridgewood in April 12, 1892.

The Reformed Church of Clifton merged with the Bethel Reformed Church of Passaic on Oct. 23, 1977, with the latter shutting its doors for good on June 4, 1991. Pastor Weber said today’s parishioners are determined to continue working to make Clifton a better place -- and perhaps help better a larger world as well.

The United Reformed Church at the corner of First and Clifton Aves. is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2017 with a goal of raising $1,125. The funds are for the Reformed Church World Service, which helps those impacted by hunger, poverty, or natural disasters. At right (from left): Helen Berkenbush, Evelyn Williams, Jane Declet, Nancy Tanis, Marilyn Short. To help out or for info, write to urc352@verizon.net or call 973-365-1666.

Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

65

EVENTS

The Friends of the Clifton Library President Vivian Semeraro, center, recently presented a $2,900 check to Candice Brown, director of the Clifton Public Library. Also pictured from the left are: Andrew Schwartz treasurer, Joan Robertson, corresponding secretary, and Faye Levine, vice president. The work of the volunteer non-profit 501(c)(3) organization raised the money through fundraising efforts and a membership campaign. The money has been designated for the continuation of the museum pass initiative and musical programs. Photo by Patrick Meyer.

66 February 2017 • Cliftonmagazine.com

EVENTS PRAISE (Clifton Parents Requiring Action and Information for Special Education) is a nonadversarial parent support group for parents and families with special needs children based in Clifton. Their next meeting is on Feb. 27 at 7 pm at the Main Library. A speaker from the special needs law firm of Hinkle, Fingles, Prior and Fisher will discuss issues about bullying. For info, email cliftonpraise@gmail.com.

Linda Wielkotz, the director of “Dealt a Deadly Hand – Murder at the Royale Casino,” is pictured with cast members and CHS grads Michael Purdy (left) and Kenneth Fowler. Purdy graduated from CHS in 2009; Fowler in 2013. Theater League of Clifton’s annual dinner theater opens Feb. 24 at Mario’s Restaurant. Info: theaterleagueofclifton.com.

The CHS Class of 1967 50th reunion is April 22 from 7 to 11 pm at the Bethwood. The cost is $100, which will include a four-hour buffet and open bar as well as a DJ. Checks should be made payable to Patricia M. Gibson, mailed to 304 North Road Bridgton, ME, 04009, and be received by Feb. 28, 2017.

Contact Patricia Gibson (aka Patricia Stagnitto back in 1967) at pattymarie25@gmail.com.

Clifton Rec Family Night Feb. 15.

For $5.50/person, have dinner at 5:30 pm and see the movie “Trolls” at 6:30 pm. Also included are popcorn, a bag of movie favorite candies, beverage and dinner. The menu offers French fries and choice of one hot dog, hamburger, cheeseburger or grilled cheese sandwich). Seating is limited. Pre-register at the Clifton Rec office or at cliftonrec.com before Feb. 13. Call 973-470-5956.

Welcome Mardi Gras at St. Brendan School, 154 East 1st St., on Feb. 25. Doors open at 7:30 pm with hot and cold buffet and music by Swingman and The Misfit-Mutts Band. Cost is $30 per person or $250 for a table of 10. BYOB and full table will receive a bottle of wine. Call 973-772-1149 for tickets.

Poetry and Music at the ANT: On Feb. 18 at 7 pm, the ANT Bookstore and Café, 345 Clifton Ave., continues its free monthly series of poetry and music with poets Laura Boss and Maria Mazziotti Gillan and musician Monroe Quinn. This series meets on the third Saturday of each month and includes an open mic and refreshments. Poet James Gwyn and musician Victoria Warne coordinate the series. Come to Downtown Clifton and meet them at the event, send them an email at ergo.therefore@gmail.com or call 973-777-2704.

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Cliftonmagazine.com • February 2017

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13TH RELAY

The 13th Annual Relay For Life is set for June 10 but to get there you need to start now. That’s why Cliftonites are invited to join the Relay For Life Kickoff 2017 on Feb. 11 at 3:30 pm at the Senior Citizens Center. This year’s guest speaker: Councilman Bill Gibson, a cancer survivor.

Cancer free for almost two decades, Gibson, (pictured with his wife Robin in 2000 during treatment) was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM) in 1997; the disease affects plasma cells, disrupting the immune system and compromising bone marrow—it’s a bad one.

An on-the-job injury in 1999 (as a Clifton Police Officer) triggered a staph infection, which in turn jump-started the MM, forcing Gibson to endure intensive treatment, which the councilman will recount. See a prolife we did on him in the March, 2011 edition of our magazine at cliftonmagazine.com Those attending the kickoff event also can learn more about organizing a Relay For Life team, hear survivors’ stories, and enjoy refreshments provided by Villa Roma and the RFL Committee. The 13th Annual Relay for Life is at Clifton Stadium beginning June 10, at 2 pm, continuing into Sunday at 2 am. Please note the change in our time this year! the committee notes.

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This year’s Relay “will follow the Wizard of Oz theme with Somewhere Over the Rainbow there is a Cure for Cancer,” the committee said.

For more information on the Relay For Life of Clifton, go to relayforlife.org/cliftonnj, or contact Sarah Gruehlich at 973-285-8030. For 24-hour cancer info, call 800-ACS-2345, or cancer.org.

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CHS Sophomore Pete Wilk has his eyes on a career in Mechanical Engineering, but if baseball beckons loudly enough, he’s willing to take a detour.

“I want to attend Ohio State University and further my career in Mechanical Engineering,” said the January CHS Student of the Month.

“If I am lucky enough to get a scholarship at a closer college, I would take that offer.” He’s open to any engineering discipline after graduating, fortunes of the wind depending. “Whatever path my degree in Mechanical Engineering will take me is what I will pursue,” he said.

Maybe so, but Wilk’s career aim is influenced in no small degree by his father, who passed away last year. “I helped my father in his plumbing and heating business for a few years,” he said. “I enjoyed helping him any time he needed assistance,” he continued, adding, “I lost my father in September of 2016. All I want to do is further my career in baseball and be a mechanical engineer, and prove to my dad that I will be successful, just like he was.”

Academic excellence is as important to Wilk as athletic excellence is. Wilk attended School #2 and Woodrow Wilson Middle School before arriving at CHS. “My best experience in school was my Freshman year when I made Honor Roll for the first time,” he recalled.

Though only a sophomore, Wilk

asserted, “If I could meet with younger students I would tell them that the academics here at CHS are great and there are many electives that they can choose from.

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Wilk’s favorite subject during school hours is History, particularly American History. “I enjoy this subject because I like learning about the past and present of our country,” he said. Within the category of American History, “I am really interested in politics,” Wilk added.

Outside the classroom and after school hours, Wilk is active. “I am currently a Varsity hockey player for CHS,” he said. “In the spring time I am a pitcher and a first baseman for the Clifton High School Baseball Team.”

Though it’s not unheard of, Wilk is a bit of an unusual baseball commodity: He’s a left-handed pitcher — valuable all by itself in the world of baseball today — but he bats from the right side of the plate, per the likes of Rickey Henderson or Cleon Jones.

“If I had a chance to play professional baseball, I would definitely postpone my college career,” Wilk allowed. For now, a college baseball scholarship is a more immediate goal, which would advance either of Wilk’s possible career paths, athletic or academic.

When not on the mound, on first base, at bat, or somewhere on the

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ice, Wilk enjoys the twin pastimes of hunting and fishing. “I hunt for deer with a rifle and I have a bow also,” he said. “I would love to go pheasant hunting one day.” As for fishing, he can be found angling for trout on one of several local rivers, including the Wanaque and the Ramapo, as well as the Musconetcong, somewhat farther away in the Kittatinny Mountains.

“If the trout is legal length, I will take it home and have it for dinner,” Wilk said.

As for more conventional meals, Wilk includes local eateries among his options. “My favorite place in Clifton to eat is The Hot Grill,” he noted, certainly a respectable choice among Cliftonites citywide.

Wilk is a part of the youth group at Saint Philip the Apostle Church in Clifton, and also is a member of the Knight of Columbus as a Squire, or Junior Knight of Columbus. “My dad was a Knight and he got me involved,” Wilk said.

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Birthdays & Celebrations

Ashley Rose Montague turns 11 on Feb. 6. Happy Birthday to sister Donna Hawrylko on Feb. 25.

Alejandra P. Gonzales is 11 on Feb. 28. Natalie Pych turns 16 on Feb. 8. Troubadour Nick Zecchino celebrates on Feb. 11. Lux siblings—Eric turns 21 on Feb. 3 & Renee turns 15 on Feb. 14.

Happy Birthday to...

Send dates & names... tomhawrylko@optonline.net Alison Degen.......................2/1 Robyn Feldman................... 2/1 Jack Houston ...................... 2/1 Kristin Reilly........................ 2/1 Mary Jane Varga................ 2/1 Emil Soltis, Jr ...................... 2/2 Joseph Fierro ...................... 2/3 Bob Naletko....................... 2/3

Aria Katherine Federele turns 6 on Feb. 15

Catherine Grace Burns ........ 2/4 John Nittolo........................ 2/5 Richie Szepietowski............. 2/5 Courtney Carlson................ 2/6 Joseph DeSomma ............... 2/6 Robert D’Alessio ................. 2/7 Nicole Tahan...................... 2/7 Tara Fueshko ...................... 2/8 Jamie Carr ......................... 2/9 Craig Grieco...................... 2/9 Steven Becker ................... 2/10 Bryan Kelly....................... 2/10 Matthew Seitz .................. 2/10 Valentine Le Ster ............... 2/11 Sarah Mikolajczyk ............ 2/11 Nick Zecchino .................. 2/11 Joseph Hilla...................... 2/12 Anthony Musleh................ 2/12 Dolores Rando.................. 2/12 John Hodorovych .............. 2/13 Amin Zamlout................... 2/13 Mark Gallo ...................... 2/14 Jeanette Ann Saia ............. 2/14 Orest Luzniak ................... 2/14 Christine Canavan ............ 2/15 Chickie Curtis ................... 2/15 Frank Klippel .................... 2/15

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Wish Anthony Gretina a happy 60th on Feb. 29th?

Anthony will be leaping to age 16 in 1,096 days...and is pictured with granddaughter Catalina Gretina-Reyes.

M. Louis Poles ..................

Ashley Brandecker ............

David Fazio .....................

Leann Perez......................

Lorraine Rothe ..................

Michael Del Re .................

Richie Bandurski ...............

Stephanie Peterson............

Michael Papa...................

Robert Mosciszko..............

2/15 2/17 2/17 2/17 2/17 2/18 2/19 2/19 2/20 2/21

Ernie Rodrigues celebrated his 41st birthday on Jan. 14.

Taylor Jesch.....................

Diana Murphy.................

John T. Saccoman ............

Robert Adamo.................

Eileen Feldman ................

Kimberly Mistretta ............

Robert Krupinski ..............

Kimberly Gasior ..............

Joseph J. Schmidt.............

Brittany Helwig................

Joyce Penaranda .............

Brittany Pinter ..................

Lauren Ricca....................

Charlie Galluzzo .............

Mark Zecchino ................

2/22 2/22 2/22 2/24 2/24 2/24 2/25 2/26 2/27 2/27 2/27 2/27 2/27 2/28 2/28

Don Knapp celebrates a birthday on Feb. 6.

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2017 MAP of CLIFTON Look for the 2017 Map of Clifton inserted in this edition. Additional copies will be found year-round through our usual distribution sites.

On the cover you’ll find lots of folks you have either read about in our pages or know as your neighbors and friends.

On the flip side you will also see 251 covers of Clifton Merchant Magazine, dating back to our first edition in October 1995.

We hope you will find the map useful and enjoy the many photos — and all those covers! — on those pages.

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