RUDIMENTS 1037.

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,037

(the blazing star commando)

Blazing Star was the previous

name for what is now known

as Carteret. Colonial days and

such. No one much knows about

any of that any more, but when

waterways and not highways

ruled the roost, the connections

of importance were on the

water  -  thus we find Blazing

Star, Linden and Elizabethport,

in a row as a very important

colonial and later-era locations.

When I say no one knows much

about it anymore, I really mean

it. There's such a dearth of real

and vital old information now

in what today is taught. No one

gets a clue unless they dig it

out themselves. Back in the

time I speak of, all that 'over

the river and through the woods'

stuff was still in grandma's and

her house's future. Wagon paths

and trails through the woods

were held by locals, for their

own uses and own maintenance.

Real freight, supplies, and

cargoes,went by water. The

various riverways mattered

greatly  -  Raritan, the Arthur

Kill, Elizabeth River, Rahway

River, etc. Lesser tributaries

all led to the careeneing and

widening harbor water all

around Newark and Manhattan

New York Harbor, again and

tight out to Sandy Hook. When

the flotilla of Britain's armada

came into sight of lower Manhattan,

cresting through Sandy Hook,

it was a sight to behold. The

Dutch in Manhattan, seeing that,

knew the jig was up and just

walked away. Nieuw Amsterdam

quickly became New York,

named for the Duke of...

-

I was always taken with the

name 'Blazing Star.' Loved it,

in fact. If you take Route One,

north, past to Linden, you pass

a large cemetery on your right,

I think it's 'Rose Hill' and then

a mass of refineries and crap.

That's all part of the sell-out

and crooked policies of this

area and all the groupie-homos

who sold us out over the years,

but there it all is nonetheless.

Turning into that cemetery,

drive it ALL the way back to

the rear fence (It's a large and

deep cemetery) and you get to

the fencing that marks to off

limits area for Mosey's Creek.

You can see it all there, and

there's even a small island

area in the center of the

waterway, and just beyond

it is Staten Island. You'd

never know it now but

Royalist Staten Island held

much of the British force that

prodded and raided back and

forth between Staten Island

now, and that same Elizabethport

then. Acres and acres, thousands,

of farmland, fields and meadows.

All destroyed now, as are any

nautical or marine connections.

There's even a place, out in the

Linden meadows where they've

erected stop stop-gap burial

memorial for some guy and

his family who once owned

a lot of the area and whose

bones and stuff they found,

or dug up, when wrecking

everything for refinery

and industrial use. At least

some swine had the good

sense to mark some sort of

memorial for those poor folks.

It's not much, but at least

it's something to look at to

prove the old world existed.

I knew an artist once, Frank

Thorne, who used to do a

weekly strip for the Elizabeth

Daily Journal  -  he covered

a lot of this old colonial-era

history from around that

E'port area. Good info, and

nicely drawn drawing-boxes

too. Frank's old now, but I'm

pretty sure he's still around;

leastways his house is.

-

Until some part of the 1980's,

until they took some further

land and expanded the sewerage

plant, there was a herd of goats

that was kept there, out to the

end of Trembley Point Road,

and they were kept there, I

think, by the Municipal Water

Authority, of Linden. They

kept the grass down, milled

about, and were just generally

cool to see  -  all the Exxon

and refinery trucks were 

always running back or

forth too, but they never

minded. That was more my

problem then theirs. Goats

don't seem to much care

about that stuff. History and

all not really being part of 

their make-up. I don't know

the life span of the average

goat, but even let's say at

20 years, what little carrying

capacity  - NONE  -  in human

terms, do they have about

the past. Kind of like us, but

only in  a way, it wasn't here

before them and won't be there

after them. Isn't that weird?

-

I always tried not to get scuffed

up over this stuff, but it always

irked me how much we screwed

up our lands and histories. And,

heck, while I'm at it, how we

screwed up for those animals too,

like the goats. Killing and eating

their flesh like nothing ever mattered

except us. Big, stupid us. I can

remember, over in Iselin, back

when the swamis and South

Asians and Muslims began to

step up and take the place over

for themselves, how grossed-out

I got when I started seeing, in

the Green Street meat and grocer

ships, the large window signs

advertising, 'Goat - $1.79/lb.

That was about 1985, as I recall.

Blazing Star was already a

memory, long ago and forgotten,

and Oak Tree Road was still

barely a lane and a half, with the

horse auction off to the left (now

a 'temple of some sort, and a

seeming-zillion apartments).

no one remembers anything,

they just put it all out of mind 

and cheer on the new.

-

Another weird, local thing that

always bugged me as how, in

1946, 'Woodbridge' was awarded

'All American City' status. I was

a seminary kid then, but I can

well recall the banner, across 

Avenel Street, between Park

Ave. and Madison, where the 

church rectory used to be. It

boasted of Woodbridge (there

were other banners all over the

other 'Woodbridge' incorporated

towns too, about how the township

was awarded some Presidential

citation BS and it went on, I can't

remember. But it was all crap.

Woodbridge wasn't even a city.

Not even close. It was a ramshackle

agglomeration of dismal little

spots like chicks without a hen

mother, searching for something,

anything, to peck at. How it got that

designation, I'll never know, except

that if you read it now it's pretty

clear it was an award for having the

best potential to become another

rip-snorting, land-gobbling, killer

segment of off-limits happy living

servile residents who were supposed

to somehow applaud the desecration

of their lands, the growth of industry

and highways and traffic, and the rest.

Well, hoo-ha for that, and it all still

goes on.