Wayne February 2023

A Valentine’s Day Story

By Richard Mabey Jr.

Author’s Note: I do my absolute, honest best to write stories that are true and endearing to the human heart. This story is very precious to me, in that it is the story of the love that brought my paternal grandparents together.

From September of 1965 till the late Summer of 1966, my feet never touched the ground as I battled a most serious case of Rheumatic Fever. Like clockwork, my grandparents, Watson and Bertha Mabey would come to visit me in my bedroom every Tuesday and Thursday. It is during these endearing visits with my grandparents that Grandpa told me many, many stories of his youth and of his remembrances of life along the old Morris Canal. This very story was one of those true-life tales that Grandpa told me, all those years ago.

My grandfather was a very shy man. However, the good Lord graced him with the gift of story telling. Grandpa had this uncanny talent to use his voice flexion, to animate his hands, and to use his facial expressions to hold me spellbound as he spun his yarns of a time, long since past.

One of Grandpa’s favorite stories to tell was about the Valentine’s Day of 1915. Grandpa was 21 years old and Grandma was 18. It is a story unto itself, but Grandma’s parents, David and Catherine Storms, moved to Beavertown, just across the street from the old Mabey Homestead, in 1914. Grandpa was friendly with the Storms family. And, on the Valentine’s Day of 1915, Grandpa finally got the nerve to as Grandma for a date.

From Grandma’s point of view, I had learned that Grandma’s father did not fully approve of Watson taking his daughter for a date. You see, Grandpa rode his Indian motorcycle across Route 202 and knocked on the door of the Storms Homestead and asked to see Bertha. According to Grandma, it was her father who answered the door and when he saw Grandpa’s motorcycle in the back driveway, he was very concerned about Watson being too wild and reckless for his beloved daughter.

Grandpa often told me, with a big smile on his face, how he remembered sitting on the bench just outside the backdoor of the old Storms Homestead. “I remember your Grandma and her father had a bit of a discussion whether

or not your Grandma was going to be allowed to go for a motorcycle ride with me,” Grandpa would tell me. Then Grandma would interrupt Grandpa and say to me, “but I finally convinced Pop to let me take that motorcycle ride with your Grandpa!”

In May of 1916, my grandfather got the courage to ask his beloved Bertha to marry him. She said yes. They got married the very next month. Together my grandparents had nine children, 15 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, and 16 great great grandchildren.

In memory, I return to those wonderful and magical times of watching and listening to Grandpa tell his stories of the remembrances of his life as a young man. I do my best to be true to bring his stories back to life, to honor the beloved patriarch. I loved my grandfather all so very much. In many ways, he taught me a lot about the fine art of storytelling. I dearly miss him.

Richard Mabey Jr. is a freelance writer. He can be reached at richardmabeyjr@hotmail.com.

An endearing photograph, from 1915, of my Grandma and Grandpa, Watson and Bertha Mabey, on Grandpa’s Indian motorcycle.

Here They Go Again...Late-breaking IRS change

In a last minute about face, the IRS is rolling back the requirement for thirdparty payment providers to issue 1099-Ks for anyone receiving payments over $600 in 2022. They are moving the reporting requirement back to $20,000 in activity and 200 or more transactions as they transition to the lower threshold in 2023.

Why the change

The bottom line? The IRS is not ready to figure out how to automate the auditing of those under-reporting their income from things like Ebay, Esty and Amazon sales or from sales of tickets and other goods through payment systems like Venmo and Ticketmaster.

What does not change

While this last-minute change may keep you from receiving a 1099-K this year, don’t

count on it. Many providers are already geared up to send them out and will probably do so, since the IRS reprieve in reporting is temporary. So keep your eyes open for these forms throughout January and early February.

While the IRS informational return

reporting is temporarily changing, what is not changing is your requirement to report this income. So if you have activities that provide income to you, including your side hustle buying and selling event tickets, that activity is reportable on your tax return. Stay tuned

In further developments, Congress is up to their old tricks in changing the rules at the end of the year. Preliminary review, of the yet unsigned bill, indicates the major changes will impact 2023 and beyond. So stay tuned, future tax tips will lay out the basic tax law changes and how you can take advantage of them.

Shah & Sokoloff , CPA’s, is a year round full service CPA firm providing a wide range of Accounting and Tax services to both Small Business and Individual Clients. We are QuickBooks Certified Pro Advisors and provide new business set up, training and support. Our office is located at 166 Main St. Lincoln Park, NJ 07035. Our website is www.cpanewjersey.com and email is rps@ cpanewjersey.com. To contact us by phone please call 973-633-1001.

Dr. Patricio Molina Releases First Album of Original Music

By Steve Sears

Yamaha artist and Riverdale resident, Dr. Patricio Molina, had written the music, but the songs sat unrecorded, some for as long as 10 years.

“I had been working on this music for a long time,” Molina says. “There are some pieces that I wrote in 2012, there are some pieces that I wrote almost two months before the release, and there are some pieces I wrote when I was very young when I came to this country. I was trying to see what I could do with it, because now there was enough music to create a concert or an album.”

It is an album, and D.N.A. is the title. Molina, who has released albums featuring the music of various composers, now presents 11 of his original, self-performed compositions for solo piano. The offering pays tribute to his early life in Chile and beyond, his musical journey, and with two tunes he portrays his love for his wife and son. “They (the songs) are all part of me in a way,” Molina says. “These pieces were written at specific times in my life, and they were really written for myself. I did not write them for performance; I just wrote them because I had the urge to express something in music.”

“Cueca,” representing musical styles from his Chilean homeland, Molina wrote in 2012, and “Taqsim for Piano” comes from embracing his mother’s Syrian heritage. “In the last

couple of years, I’ve started embracing more of my culture and heritage,” Molina says. “A lot of the newer music includes Arabic touches and flavors. ‘Taqsim’ is an Arabic improvisation, so that was one of the latest ones I wrote.” “A Musical Portrait” is a gorgeous 2:45 piece that Molina wrote for his wife of three years, Mallory, when he proposed to her, and “Light” represents the first time he looked into and “met” the light in young son Patricio Jr.’s eyes. “Imagining a life with him, now being a part of my life, I could see the beautiful light through his eyes,” he adds. Also, an additional piece of music initially destined for D.N.A. will find a home on pianist Lara Downes’s upcoming April album release.

For Molina, there is a deep fondness for the piano, an instrument he first embraced at age three, and he has always found it extraordinary how so much can be expressed and said through just one instrument. “That’s always fascinated me,” he says. “I can imitate the Arabic sounds, Chilean sounds, inner feelings, dances - all of that and just with one instrument.”

When asked how those unfamiliar with him and his music, and with the piano especially, can best listen to and even understand the music presented on D.N.A., Molina offers this. “With art, the more you listen to it, the more you appreciate it. There is a difference

between listening and hearing. I encourage people to listen to it attentively, maybe with a cup of tea or by a fireplace without any distractions, and really, really listen to it as a meditation almost. All the pieces tell a story. The “Cueca,” the Chilean dance, goes places. It’s not just a dance. There’s a theme, a melody, and I convert the melody. I bring the melody to the bottom, to the top, and sometimes I make the melody longer, sometimes shorter. If you’re able to pick up on all those

little things I do with the music, I think that’s where the magic happens.”

Molina, who is Music Director at Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bloomfield, is currently working on a collaborative project with opera soprano, Christine Moore Vassallo.

D.N.A. is available on Apple Music, You Tube, and Spotify. For more information about Molina and his album, visit www.patriciofmolina.com.

Dr. Patricio Molina, making music live in concert (courtesy of Dr. Patricio Molina)

Unashamed of Hope: The Power of the Untold Stories Project

can only be human together.”

Krapf immediately recognized its relevance. “That told me we all have to get together and listen to one another,” she says. “Because the answers are with all of us together, not separate.”

The idea turned into an online storytelling event conducted over Zoom. Krapf describes the events as tentative, an experiment. Both storytellers and audiences enjoyed the personal stories program. When shutdown regulations receded, the concept reached its full incarnation as the Untold Stories of a Storied People project.

Phase One of the project began last year. A total of eight storytellers gathered from four NJ communities, Jersey City, Morristown, New Brunswick, and Trenton, to prepare for in-person performances. The project focused on people with profound life experiences whose stories had not been heard so those stories could be elevated and amplified.

One of those storytellers was Ron Ritzie, a lifelong resident of Morristown who has watched his childhood community change over the years. An accomplished continued on page 7

By Chip M. O’Brien

What’s the point of storytelling?

What are stories for?

In early 2020, these questions held dire importance for the nonprofit organization Storytelling Arts, Inc. Before 2020, it had focused on bringing programs about folk tales to schools throughout NJ. Now the pandemic had shut down schools across the state.

Faced with an existential threat, Storytelling Arts questioned its core mission.

“We had to ask ourselves, in times of Black Lives Matter and COVID-19, are folktales the most relevant way to use storytelling?” remembers Linda Helm Krapf, Executive Director of Storytelling Arts. “Or is it time for us to begin thinking about personal stories?”

The idea for a new direction came from an unexpected source. Krapf’s last flight before the COVID shutdown took her through the Denver Airport, where she spied a Desmond Tutu quote on a poster. It read, “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we

A performance of the Untold Stories of a Storied People project in Jersey City last year.

Unashamed of Hope...

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artist, painter, and muralist, Ritzie had not yet committed his own story to words. The Untold Stories project and its training workshops gave him the opportunity to craft his story creatively, during a summer when many of his childhood haunts were being destroyed for new construction.

“It became a cathartic process,” Ritzie remembers. “I went into a search of going back to my childhood, childhood trauma. And it was very difficult because I thought, I’m 64 years old. I felt that I had dealt with it all. And I had. But there were certain things that needed truth to be told to it, because

there were two sides to a story. And I wanted to know the truth.”

As the storytellers worked together in workshops, many of their stories became more vulnerable and personal. For Ritzie, as for many of the storytellers, facing the truth of their stories activated emotions that they had buried for years. But allowing their buried stories to be seen, heard, and validated also proved liberating. “To tell you the truth, that last summer, I did nothing but cry,” Ritzie says, comparing the process to peeling the layers off an onion or a scab off a wound. “It was like that. And when I finally

got to the root of the truth, I was okay.”

After completing their training, the storytellers performed in each of their four communities. For Ritzie, the Morristown venue held particular symbolic importance: the event took place at Grow It Green Urban Farm, across from his former junior high school.

About sixty people attended the Morristown performance. In the talkback after the event, one audience member addressed Ritzie specifically. Ritzie had told a story about a painful and highly unusual childhood experience; the man in the audience had lived through the exact same thing.

“That’s when it came full circle for me,” Ritzie says. “After everything was done on the last performance, I knew I had done what I needed to do. And the healing started.”

It’s an experience that happened more than once. “Every single audience reflected back to us that they too felt seen and heard, because the storyteller stories were often their stories,” says Krapf. Sharing stories not only healed the storytellers, but helped their audiences heal, too.

Ritzie is still performing with the Untold Stories of a Storied People project, but his stories will most likely turn aside from childhood trauma. “I did it,” he says, “I dug up those bones. I buried them so many times.

And now it’s time for me to continue to do what I need to do as an artist, as somebody that’s going to live a healthy life for years to come.”

After the success of Phase One, the project itself will change and expand, too. If funding is secured, a hoped-for Phase Two will grow Untold Stories of a Storied People to include a monthly storytelling lab in Madison and the ability to bring aboard more storytellers with untold stories from immigrants, veterans, especially female veterans, essential workers during COVID, and all others who feel unseen and unheard.

Krapf hopes that the empathy created by storytelling can offer better solutions. “Our humanity needs to be elevated,” she says. “We need to respond to these times in a different way than the way that we’re responding.”

That’s one answer to our original question: what are stories for?

The Untold Stories project / program shows that stories can be for healing, catharsis, connection, and liberation.

Or, as Micah Bournes writes in the poem “Humming Fools” linked on Storytelling Arts’ website, stories can be for creating hope–hope that by witnessing each other’s stories, we can all become more human.

For more information about Untold Stories of a Storied People, visit www.

Coping with the Loss of a Pet

The strong bonds many people share with their pets can make the death of those pets, be it sudden or expected, difficult to handle. It’s not uncommon to be traumatized when a pet dies, and such grief may be influenced by the pet’s age at the time of its death, the circumstances surrounding that death and the nature of the relationship between the owner and pet.

Different pet owners deal with the death of a pet in different ways, but the following are some ways to cope with the loss of a companion animal.

Recognize that everyone feels differently. Grief is expressed in many different ways. What one person experiences may not be the norm for another. You may go through a variety of emotions, from anger at the circumstances and being left without your pet, to guilt if you believe there may have been something more you could have done to prolong the animal’s life. Mourn in your own way, and afford others the same opportunity.

Reach out to others. Grief often can turn a person inward, and your feelings may be bottled up. Talking about your emotions, whether it’s with a trusted friend or even a therapist, may help. Online message boards that cover grief and pet loss may provide the support you need. Leaning on others who have been in your shoes may help you recover more quickly.

Create mementos or a legacy for the pet. Creating mementos may help children who are having their own difficulty dealing with pet loss. Work with your child to create a photo album or plant a tree to honor your pet.

Dealing with a pet that must be euthanized can be especially difficult. Pet owners can choose to be in the room during the procedure, and that decision should not be made lightly. If you think you can handle it and you want to be there to comfort your pet, then you might be more comfortable

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Author Dr. Frank Plateroti

I

All Level

Women Golfers Needed

Golfers play 9 holes at a course and

Loss of a Pet...

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being in the room. But being present when a pet is euthanized can be emotional, so give this decision serious consideration.

Once a pet has died, many owners debate whether or not to bring a new pet into their homes. Another animal around the house can fill the void created when your previous pet passed away, and some people adopt or buy a new pet before an old or sick pet passes away to make the transition as smooth as possible. A new pet should

t is not too early to start thinking of spring and golf. The Pequannock Township Women’s Golf League (PTWGL) is currently accepting registrations for the 2023 Golf Season. There is no residency or county requirement. All levels, from beginner to advanced, are invited to join this friendly and fun women’s league. It’s a great way to improve your game while enjoying the camaraderie of some new friends.weekday convenient for them. It is suggested that beginners sign up for the Twin Willows course. Other courses include Sunset, Meadows and Deer Run. Registration runs until February 24, 2023, with an 18-week season beginning at the end of April. If you’re not sure of a weekly commitment, sign up as a substitute. For more information including registration forms, go to, www.PTWGL.com, email PTWGLNJ@gmail.com or call the Pequannock Department of Parks and Recreation.

only be brought into the home when you’re ready to build a new relationship.

Dr. Matthew Krupnick is the owner of the Pequannock Animal Hospital. He grew up in Kinnelon and is happy to be home – with his wife, three cats, and two dogs – to provide quality and compassionate care for pets in the community. The Pequannock Animal Hospital is located at 591 Newark Pompton Turnpike in Pompton Plains. You can reach the hospital by calling 973-616-0400.

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and

Morris County NJSFWC Participate in MLK Day of Service

55 members, representing nine clubs in the highlands district of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s clubs (NJSFWC), participated in a Martin Luther Jr., Day of Service.

Clubs that participated included Boonton, Denville-Rockaway, Hopatcong, Long Valley, Madison, Roxbury, Parsippany, and Washington.

109 pre-designed Kits: Dinner-in-a-Bag, Healthy-LifestyleMeal-Kit, Snow-Day-Meal-Bag, and College-Meal-Kit were

assembled, and an additional 426 extra food items were donated to the Morris County Interfaith food pantry.

Each year, all eight NJSFWC districts in the state participate in the same Day of Service project. Past day of service projects include Covenant House, Embrella and NJ Veteran’s homes.

New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded in 1894, has its Headquarters on the Douglass Residential Campus, in New Brunswick. The college, formerly Douglass

SILVER

College, was established by NJSFWC in 1918. To learn more about NJSFWC and membership in a local club, visit www. NJSFWC.org or call 732-249-5474.

For more information regarding the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, contact www.GFWC.org. Opportunities are provided for women in education, leadership training, and community service projects through participation in local clubs, enabling members “to make a difference in the lives of others, one project at a time”.

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New Jersey’s National Guard Militia Museum is a Draw for All Ages

By Steve Sears

New Jersey’s National Guard Militia Museum has two locations. The main location is in Sea Girt, and the second is in Lawrenceville.

The museum is an offshoot of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Staff Sgt. Andrew Walker is the Director/Curator of the 501 c 3 non-profit organization that (courtesy of the museum website), “supports the collections, exhibitions and educational programs of the museum through volunteerism, advocacy, and fundraising.”

Walker, who is in Sea Girt (LTC (Ret) William Kale is Volunteer Co-Curator in Lawrenceville), is an informative, eager guide. He has a wealth of knowledge of military history. When you visit the Sea Girt location which is located a shell’s toss from the beach, you can visit display cases and see artifacts throughout the one-room facility. The museum details the Garden State’s Militia and National Guard history starting with the Dutch and Swedish, who arrived in the late 15th century, up through the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, World Wars I and II, to the present day. “We’re basically tracing the citizen soldier really since New Jersey’s inception,” Walker says. “There are different players at that point. We do trace our lineage and our heritage through the British colonization, but we do recognize the other nations that were called on in New Jersey at the time.”

Founded in 1980, the National Guard Militia Museum was the fourth state National Guard Museum at that time. Rapid growth and expansion encouraged the opening of the Lawrenceville Museum in 1998. Walker says, “We do rely on private donations mostly, so you’re able to reach out to us and inquire about whether or not we want a certain artifact.” Uniforms, medals, several types of equipment, and handwritten notes relating to New Jersey militia can be viewed here, as well as federal artifacts. One especially fascinating aspect of the museum is that, with so much emphasis

placed on New Jersey’s role in the American Revolution – and rightly so - the museum also has a deep focus on our state’s involvement in the Civil War. Copies of articles, diaries, letters, memoirs, newspaper clippings, and regimental histories are part of one of the largest collections of New Jersey related Civil War research material in the United States.

“National Guardsmen are, and still are viewed, as citizen soldiers,” Walker explains. “Civilians during peace, and then soldiers during war. That is really what the militia is: citizens leaving their normal, everyday lives and being called into service. That is the National Guard - you are just supposed to protect your state and your country, and so that’s where citizen soldier comes from.”

The museum relies heavily on in-person visits, and if you enter the doors in Sea Girt, you will see displayed an 18th century powder horn, the oldest artifact on-site, and the 28’, 4,000 pound “Intelligent Whale.” Built in 1864, the submarine, mammal-like vessel was tested in the Long Island Sound, but the Navy was not interested in using it. There are also quite a few replications of period militia uniforms.

Walker has tried to bring into the museum a narrative, downhome connection, and resident historian Joseph Bilby has delivered.

“He crafted all of our narratives, and it really makes sure that it’s pointing to those human connections, those kind of personal stories on those citizen soldiers from New Jersey.” The museum’s Oral History Program is run by Assistant Curator, Ms. Carol Fowler, who has over 20 years of interviews that need to be summarized from audio logs. Volunteers and especially interns value the effort. “It’s a great learning tool for them to see all the work that goes into keeping history,” Walker says.

The Sea Girt location is located at 100 Camp Drive, and the Lawrenceville museum is at Lawrenceville Armory, 151 Eggert Crossing Road. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. Visit www. njmilitiamuseum.org for more information.

Centuries of guarding New Jersey (courtesy if the National Guard Militia Museum)

Greek Cucumber Walnut Bites

Recipe courtesy of Beth Stark, RDN, LDN on behalf of the California Walnut Board

Prep time: 25 minutes

Servings: 6

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1 English cucumber, ends trimmed (about 14 ounces)

1/2 cup roasted red pepper hummus

1/2 cup reduced-fat crumbled feta cheese

5 cherry tomatoes, quartered

Heat oven to 350 F.

On small baking sheet, arrange walnuts evenly. Bake 8 minutes, checking frequently, until toasted.

Slice cucumber crosswise into 3/4-inch thick slices. Using small spoon, gently scoop out and discard center of each cucumber slice, leaving bottom and sides intact.

In small bowl, stir 6 tablespoons chopped walnuts and hummus. Spoon walnut-hummus mixture into each cucumber slice and top with reserved chopped walnuts, feta cheese and quartered tomatoes.

Banana Bread Overnight Oats

Recipe courtesy of Crowded Kitchen on behalf of the California Walnut Board

Prep time: 15 minutes • Servings: 4

3 ripe bananas, sliced

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup chopped California walnuts, divided

1 tablespoon maple syrup

3 cups skim milk

In large container with lid, add sliced bananas. Use potato masher or fork to mash bananas until smooth.

Add oats, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, half the chopped walnuts, maple syrup and milk. Combine thoroughly and refrigerate overnight.

To serve, divide among four canning jars or glass containers with lids. Top each with remaining walnuts before serving. (Family Features)

Cuban Chicken with Salsa Fresca

Servings: 5

1 cup grapefruit juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salsa Fresca:

1 cup grapefruit segments

1/2 jicama, cubed

1/2 red onion, chopped

3/4 cup grapefruit juice

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

Heat oven to 400 F.

In large bowl, mix grapefruit juice, oil, garlic powder, cumin, paprika and red pepper until combined. Add

chicken to bowl and turn to coat. Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer.

To make salsa fresca: In medium bowl, mix grapefruit segments, jicama, red onion, grapefruit juice, olive oil, cilantro and jalapeno pepper until combined.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Remove chicken from marinade. Place chicken in baking dish. Bake 25-30 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Serve chicken with salsa fresca.

The Underlining Message Behind Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera

By Tommy Hughes

When was the first time, through the art of fiction, an individual genuinely felt that one good scare?

When was the first moment where they felt a cold shiver of fear running through their body, causing them to crawl up into a ball on the floor?

In the case of an operatic soprano, it was her mysterious angel of music. A guide toward glory. The unseen genius.

After 35 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s: The Phantom of the Opera will close it’s record run at Broadway’s Majestic Theater on April 16th, 2023. A timeless classic that not only set the bar high for musical storytelling, but also set the bar for theatrical productions as a whole. As was the Winter Garden Theatre with the original run of Cats, the Majestic Theater has evolved to Broadway what Augusta National Course has become to the sport of golf. An equivalence of what Williamsport, Pennsylvania has become to the sport of

baseball. What the Rose Bowl is to NCAA Division I football, and what the city of Indianapolis is to open-wheel automobile racing.

While New York City will move on and keep going, the closing of this record run is something no one thought they would ever see. The musical has become a staple for the city. A timeless classic, the musical has spanned the globe having evolved into a phenomenon. Relatable, the power within emotionally connects viewers in mannerisms reminiscent of what led them toward their love for a particular craft.

The gifts of the title character engulfed in a tragic love story by a path of fantasy.

An evolution, it is a story that began through the writings of a journalist. Upon retirement, the journalist took inspiration through in-depth investigation of the Paris Opera House, and it’s basement cell that housed prisoners of the Paris Commune. Gaston Leroux. His inspiration told a story of both fear and irrelevance. A horror story of underlying meaning.

Fear, not due to the story or subject matter, nor because of the closed-minded onlooker and their reaction to the title character. A fear of the individual taking the next step forward due to internal fear placed in them by society. Shamed into solitude. Shunned by the multitude.

Irrelevance, because the story serves as a reminder that talent is profound irregardless of what one looks like. While the story’s main theme is surrounded by romance, it’s underlining focus is a title character and their gift of music. It was a gift discovered on their own. The music, there. The passion, undeniable. They had no way of sharing this gift with the world until they heard the voice of Christine Daaé. A voice imagined by the Gods. A

reason and platform to share his gift with the world.

And a gift the world received.

When the final curtain falls inside the Majestic Theatre on April 16th, the chapter may fade, but the story will live on. An ending that may be scary. Fear of the unknown.

Yet, if the title character’s fear is felt, it is a fearful wonderment of what will happen next. An individual cannot simply hop aboard César and set a course for Coney Island. Though, if the individual’s gift lives within them, they will find further inspiration to make their song take flight.

The power of the music of the night.

The Phantom of the Opera runs until April 16th, 2023 at the Majestic Theatre

Bucket List Travels: The World’s Wildest Horse Race

by Paul Partridge

Ten wild-eyed stallions are sprinting straight at us. The rumble of their hooves and violent power of their strides augurs a frightening determination. Hours earlier these horses were blessed at church, and it looks like they may need it. There’s a hairpin turn ahead and surely there’s no way all can make it through without incident.

Welcome to the Palio

I’ve been lucky enough to attend the World Series, the U.S. Open, the Indianapolis 500, the America’s Cup, Army vs. Navy, and the Tall Ships parading down the Hudson during the Statue of Liberty’s Centennial celebration.

Nothing compares to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the pandemonium unleashed by a bareback horse race involving three death-defying laps around the Piazza del Campo in Siena Italy.

All that’s delightful and charming about Italy is on display – food, wine, art, architecture, fashion, passion, it’s all here

– compressed into a single, unforgettable day.

Neighbor vs. Neighbor

Siena is divided into 17 neighborhood districts or wards called Contrade. Each contrada has its own colors and flag, and takes the name of a spirit animal or object. For example, Leone (lion), Lupa (she-wolf) and Drago (dragon).

The rivalry between neighborhoods is fierce. The greatest outcome is for your contrada to win. The second-best outcome is for your rival neighborhood to lose.

Some contrade have resorted to bribery to get their horses to perform better, while others have employed drugs. Jockeys have been kidnapped, seduced, and threatened. Heavy objects have been placed under saddles to slow down competing horses.

The preparations that take place leading up to race day are enormous. Think Halloween, Mardi Gras, and the Rose Bowl parade, rolled into one. The festivities culminate with the pre-race dinner.

My family is invited to dinner with the Aquila (eagle) contrada. The setting, in the

shadow of the Duomo, is so spectacular I get goosebumps. It feels as if we’re dining at Hogwarts.

Up at the main dais, the jockey is serenaded by hymns, chants, children’s poems and vino-fortified toasts. Some vestal virgins may have been offered but I can’t be sure from my seat. Our jockey seems surprisingly subdued, as if hoping for the fete to end.

Perhaps he’s not confident in his steed because horses are not chosen; they’re assigned by lottery. Or maybe he’s recalling the unfortunate history of Aquila, as Eagle holds the record for fewest race victories. Or he could be contemplating the plight of previous riders – heroes turned goats following inglorious defeat. For a Palio jockey, adoration can turn to contempt –or worse – in under 90 seconds.

Race Day

For three days prior to race day, a watchman has been sleeping with Eagle’s stallion to guard against tampering. This morning he’s walked to the Duomo and blessed by the local priest.

Piazza del Campo starts to fill around 3 pm. The festivities officially begin when the Italian cavalry enter the square. Impressively, majestically, they parade in, salute the dignitaries, and then lead a series of charges, swords drawn. Half mesmerizing, half terrifying, it jolts the crowd to attention.

Next comes the parade, a two-hour feast for the eyes featuring archers, horsemen, flag wavers, drummers, trumpeters, noblemen (and women) – all dressed in Medieval and Renaissance era costumes. Every neighborhood is represented. By 7 pm it’s race time. An entire Shakespearian play takes place in the leadup to the start. Nine horses are chosen randomly to enter the starting line. They take their position rather casually, Italian style. There are no gates; only a singular rope holds the ensemble (loosely) in place. It’s more like a moving scrum of unruly kindergarteners then a starting line.

The Puppet Master

The 10th horse, called the Rincorsa,

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Morristown resident Paul Partridge has been building a travel bucket list for years. Now he’s diving in – near and far – and shares his adventures in this column.

The Palio di Siena is an insane horse race that’s been held since the Middle Ages and continues today. Here’s a view from inside the ropes.

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stands alone, surveying the scene. He can enter when its jockey so decides. In this way he’s the puppet master, because the race begins only when the Rincorsa crosses the starting line.

The dance between the Rincorsa and the other horses is called the Mossa. There’s lots of banging and bumping and fidgeting. Jockeys are tense. Horses twitch and snort. The crowd, 40,000 strong, crescendos into a fevered roar – shouting, gesturing, imploring, cursing (and that’s the women).

Then, a moment of calm, a second of quiet. All eyes turn to the Rincorsa.

Suddenly a horse rears, squealing and kicking. The other mounts scatter. Race organizers scramble to get the horses calmed and realigned. This happens several more times. Mossa can take two minutes or over an hour. Seven centuries of grudges and paybacks play out in the scrum activities.

Secret Backroom Deals

Heads of the contrade make secret backroom deals, so if their horse is the Rincorsa, they might be rewarded if they enter when their horse is in a good position, or their enemy is in a bad position. The jockeys also make deals, so you don’t

know if they are trying to win or just block another rider. Perhaps this explains why the Sienese name for jockeys is assassini (assassins).

Without warning the Rincorsa bolts across the starting line and a cannon fires to signal the race is on. Our Aquila jockey hasn’t recovered from last night and is late off the line.

The racetrack is not a perfect oval. Walls jut out at crazy, dangerous angles, especially in Turn 2 where we’re sitting. The walls are padded to protect the horses, but that doesn’t prevent collisions.

Jockeys are sometimes separated from their mounts (remember, they’re riding bareback). A riderless horse is not disqualified. The first horse to cross the finish line – with or without a jockey – wins.

The lead changes constantly – and suddenly. Which fuels the excitement. And the delirium of the crowd. One minute your horse is at the back of the pack. Two breaths later, he’s charging to the lead.

Going into the final lap, it looks to be a two-horse race between Nicchio (Seashell) and Oca (Goose). Meanwhile the Eagle has landed, crashing in Turn 2 and never finishing the race.

The crowd is on its feet. It’s a photo

finish. The winner is . . . Goose! The Oca neighborhood faithful rush onto the racetrack, flags waving, tears of joy overflowing. They hug and kiss the

jockey and hoist him onto their shoulders, singing songs of joy. The winning horse is marched into church and down the aisle for a blessing.

Palio jockeys race bareback just as they have since 1656.

Ever Hiked in Northern NJ? Thank the NY-NJ Trail Conference

By Chip M. O’Brien

Howie Liebmann still remembers the moment that changed his view of hiking trails forever.

He was hiking the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a demanding trek in the best conditions, and springtime snowmelt had swallowed many stream crossings. In order to cross, he had to remove his socks and boots, wade through the frigid water, and dry off on the other side before continuing. It was arduous and exhausting.

“And then you come to a spot where there was a bridge built,” Liebmann says. “And you go: wow. Thank God for this bridge. I don’t know who built this bridge, but God bless ‘em.”

It’s a familiar sentiment for the 24 staff members and 2,500 volunteers who power the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. “They know bridges don’t happen on their own,” says Liebmann, who now leads volunteers in maintaining 75 miles of trails as the NYNJTC’s Northwest New Jersey Trail Chair. “And they want to pay it forward.”

The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference is a nonprofit organization that builds, maintains, and protects about 2,175 total miles of hiking trails from the Delaware Water Gap in northern New Jersey to just north of the Catskills in New York. About 760 of those miles fall within New Jersey, almost all north of Interstate 80.

“Basically, we do work to make sure that the natural areas and trails in our region are accessible and sustainable for another century, for generations to come,” says Ashley Nester, Community Outreach Coordinator for the Trail

Conference.

The Trail Conference knows something about sustaining wilderness trails for generations: in 1923, after changing its name from the Palisades Interstate Trail Conference, the organization built the first completed mile of the Appalachian Trail near Bear Mountain, NY.

While the Trail Conference remains focused on building and maintaining hiking trails, as well as publishing famously authoritative trail maps by Sussex County, NJ cartographer Jeremy Apgar, it has also expanded to include conservation and stewardship work that ties to its mission. “It’s great if we have someone building a trail, but what about the natural areas around those trails?” Nester says. “You can’t really have a healthy trail system without a healthy forest for it to thrive in.”

On the local level, the Trail Conference’s work in NJ focuses primarily on three tasks: erosion mitigation, management of invasive plants, and trail upkeep and signage. All three have increased in importance as more people have turned to local trails for recreation and relaxation since COVID: Nester notes that the Conference’s most popular trailheads each saw about 20,000 users in 2022 alone.

The battle against erosion has become increasingly challenging thanks to changing conditions: more intense summertime heat, followed by intense storms with heavy, eroding rain. “It has forced the Conference, particularly our trail builders, to think a lot more creatively about what a sustainable trail looks like,” says Zachary Cole, Long

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Distance Trail Coordinator for the Conference. Trail crews can deploy an arsenal of tools to control water flow and erosion: water bars, check dams, puncheon (a low plank bridge), and puncheon’s big brother: the much-beloved bridge.

Though erosion presents a constant challenge, many parks suffer from an even more aggressive enemy. “The biggest problem here is probably the proliferation of invasive botanical species,” says Bob Jonas, currently Co-Supervisor of Morristown National Historical Park alongside his wife, Estelle Anderson. Invasives choked the trails when they first arrived as Co-Chairs of the Central North Jersey Committee in 2008. A three-year concerted effort helped fight back the worst of it, ensuring wider trails and reduced regrowth. “They’re very prolific,” he says. “So it’s a constant job, really.”

The Conference focuses on about a dozen particularly aggressive invasive species in NJ, including barberry, Japanese stiltgrass, and multiflora rose.

Training is also a major component of the Conference’s work: they offer rigorous apprenticeship programs for their certified sawyers as well as practical training and experience for their Conservation Corps members. “We’re really training the next generation of environmental conservationists and leaders,” Nester, the Community Outreach Coordinator, says.

All of this work is accomplished in partnership with federal, state, local, and private entities, as the Trail Conference doesn’t own any land itself and must seek permission from land managers in order to service the

trails.

In the case of long distance trails, this might require conversation with literally dozens of land owners. The Conference serves three long-distance trails: the NYNJ section of the Appalachian Trail, which it maintains alongside the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and two trails that it designs and leads: the 358-mile Long Path and the 180-mile Highlands Trail.

The Highlands Trail is of particular importance to NJ because it passes through the federally recognized Highlands Region, which occupies less than 15% of the state while providing over 70% of its population with drinking water. By connecting separately owned pieces of the Highlands Region into one landscape, says Cole, the Long Distance Trail Coordinator, the Highlands Trail helps preserve NJ’s water and air quality while offering opportunities for recreation, as well as justification for preserving individual parcels of natural land.

If certain land is considered historically significant, several entities must approve major maintenance projects before the Conference can proceed. Anderson, CoSupervisor of Morristown National Historical Park, notes the historical importance of the land she maintains: over 7,000 of George Washington’s troops were stationed at Jockey Hollow throughout the terrible winter of 1779-80 during the Revolutionary War. Every pile of rocks “could have been an encampment,” she says. “It could have been a fireplace, it could have been a foundation.”

The result: digging and moving rocks is not permitted in the park without approval from the State Historic Preservation Office, the Tribal Historic Preservation

Office, and the Northeast Region Archeology Program. But Anderson and Jonas are undeterred. They’ve made a list of twenty trail signposts that they’d like to replace or service, as soon as approval and warmer weather arrive.

The Trail Conference enjoys a harmonious relationship with land managers and park staff. As a volunteer-run organization, the conference can perform necessary trail work that parks don’t have the time, personnel, or resources to do themselves. Liebmann, the Northwest NJ Trail Chair, recalls asking one park superintendent for her input about a tricky trail maintenance challenge. Her response: “Why are you asking me? You know the trails better than I do. What do you think?”

“And she’s right,” Liebmann says. “We’re on the trails all the time.”

This speaks to the especially vital role that the NY-NJ Trail Conference fills in NJ: our state allocates insufficient funds to its parks, leading to a lack of resources and park staff that many fear is unsustainable. In April 2022, ecologist Michael Van Clef, Ph.D. released the New Jersey State Lands Management Report assessing NJ’s public lands and resources. Clef depicts a dire picture of NJ’s state parks: the state’s operating budget for parks is one third of Pennsylvania’s and one sixth of New York’s, even as NJ state lands face more environmental pressures due to greater population density. Park staffing has been slashed to bare bone, with only fifteen Park Superintendents assigned to supervise fifty parks, and “invasive species control is virtually absent on park lands” due to a lack of personnel to tackle the job.

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In short, NJ parks don’t have enough staff to do the work required to keep trails usable– and without the Trail Conference’s legion of volunteers, there would be no one to do the work at all. “They probably would just say, okay, close the trail,” Anderson says. “And not just our park… all through the state, if they’re not taken care of. They don’t have the staff to do it.”

Even the Trail Conference’s work is hamstrung in NJ due to a lack of partner funding. Though volunteerrun, the conference’s work depends on lumber and other equipment and materials that must be regularly replaced. Many programs run by the New York side of the Trail Conference, specifically those that hire Americorps volunteers, naturalists, conservation workers, and other professional contractors, rely on state grants that are unavailable in NJ.

One solution presented itself to Anderson and Jonas at Morristown National Historical Park. In April, the Friends of Jockey Hollow formed under its first Executive Director, Leslie Bensley. Its purpose: to help fund maintenance, restoration, and other upgrades for the park’s Jockey Hollow and New Jersey Brigade Areas, including historical structures and trails. With the nation’s 250th anniversary approaching, the task is particularly timely for this heritage site.

“We want to promote the park. We want to protect the environmental... and cultural resources,” says Bensley. “We couldn’t be more pleased to have Bob and Estelle as our leaders because they are some of the most qualified

and passionate trail leaders… How lucky are we that this is their park and we get to work with them?”

In his State Lands Management Report, Van Clef recommends creating a similar organization at the statewide level: a nonprofit friends group that could fund public lands projects across NJ. Such a proposal is already in motion. Bill A-594 proposes the creation of the NJ State Parks and Open Space Foundation, an organization that would fulfill this exact purpose. “[NJ parks] are precious jewels in the most densely populated state in the nation, and they must be maintained and protected at all costs,” writes Assemblywoman Shama Haider of District 37, who sponsored the bill. “The entity created with the passing of A-594 would make it easier for private citizens to support our public spaces, something that we should have done a long time ago.”

Assemblyman Alex Sauickie of District 12, a co-sponsor of the bill, agrees. “Parks play a critical role in quality of life and getting people outdoors, especially postpandemic,” he says. He looks forward to lobbying for the bill and getting more cosponsors, mentioning the nation’s upcoming semiquincentennial as well: “There’s no better time than now, in my opinion, to be really focused on this.”

Bill A-594 currently awaits approval by committee before it can be referred to the state assembly. If the bill passes, the new organization would tie in well with the work of the Trail Conference. “What I think this bill speaks to is that the ones that are getting it done really well, right now, tend to be volunteers,” Sauickie says. The organization’s support would allow the Trail Conference

to fund more ambitious projects throughout northern NJ.

In the meantime, as they have for the past hundred years, the volunteers of the Trail Conference continue caring for New Jersey’s trails, their presence largely invisible. “Before I started at the Trail Conference, I truly thought that the parks were the ones that were maintaining trails,” Nester, the Community Outreach Coordinator, says. “And that’s where I get chills because I think it’s so cool that we’re doing that work, and that there’s people out there who are willing to dedicate their time to keeping our public spaces accessible for us to use.”

“It’s the community looking after community assets,” says Cole, the Long Distance Trail Coordinator. “They have a vision and a creative ability that is just unparalleled… it’s impressive, and it’s incredible.”

“If you saw these guys work…” says Liebmann, the Northwest New Jersey Trail Chair. “These people love doing what they’re doing.”

He remembers one particular project: building a 40foot pedestrian bridge in Stokes Forest. He watched a crew of volunteer trail maintainers move Class 1 poles, essentially treated telephone poles, into the forest and set them up to form the bridge. “I was utterly in marvel,” he says. “We had thirty people standing on that bridge. You didn’t see that bridge drop an inch. They put a 40-foot bridge up in a day and a half.”

The next day, hikers enjoying Stokes Forest did not need to hop a precarious path across wet stones or wade across a swollen, muddy creek. Someone had built a bridge.