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South orange

Weichert 349 MontroSe avenue

South orange

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SpringField

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Maplewood

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It’s Fall... It’s Football… It’s Fireplace Season

If you’re thinking about buying or selling NOW is the time to DO IT! Demand is HIGH and inventory is low. If your fall plans call for a move, whether you are looking for that cozy den with a fireplace, or a yard big enough for a football game, Debbie can make that happen! And if your fall plans call for selling, Debbie will fit all of the pieces together so that you can enjoy the season while she orchestrates the move! Buying or Selling in any season requires the ultimate service and un-paralleled attention that Debbie provides! Call, email, or text her …you’ll be glad you did!

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Ever wonder just what happens to all that recycling that gets picked up in our towns? Or how the single-stream reycling works? Kristen Ryan took a tour, and some very interesting photos. Like our cover which is compressed recyling. Story on page 28.

Vol. 23 Issue 6

Heart of the Matter Velkommen

Molly Matters

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What a Dump

Local Matters 9

Love is in the Air

Good moves

Matticulous

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Two local brides with a flair for doing it their way.

Around the towns

Event Makers

28

A tour of single-stream recyling

Magnus wants a dog

Meeting Mrs. Dalloway

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interACT links actor, audience and community

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Woolf at the Door

Nice Act

ON THE COVER

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Resource Guide Local sources

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Final Matters Biology project

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An everyman actor who has played every man 34

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Featuring Local People, Places and Things that Matter to Maplewood and South Orange Since 1990

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Direct: 973-275-3012

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[email protected]

Planning to buy and/or sell in the near future? Call Robert Northfield TODAY! Over 15 years of sales experience and over 800 closed sales. Essex County #1 agent for closed # of sales in 2012*, NJAR® Distingushed Sales Club Award Winner®, NJAR Circle of Excellence Platinum Award® Winner (NJAR’s highest standard of agent performance), and named one of the Top 250 Agents for sales units by the Wall Street Journal in 2013** and Trends, Inc. 2012. Recognized as a Five Star Realtor in NJ Monthly in March 2012 & 2013. Certified Previews specialist for marketing luxury properties.

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MILLBURN/SHORT HILLS | SUMMIT | MAPLEWOOD | SOUTH ORANGE | MONTCLAIR | WEST ORANGE

Maplewood Office 145 Maplewood Ave, Maplewood, NJ 07054 (973) 378-8300 ©2013 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker® is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.*Unit Sales-According to data collected from GSMLS which may not reflect all transactions.**Transaction volume for 2012 production.

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heart of the matter

Fall 2013

Matters

Featuring Local People, Places and Things that Matter Since 1990

PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Karen Duncan MANAGING DIRECTOR Rene Conlon SUPERVISING EDITOR Joanne DiPasquale ADVERTISING SALES Ellen Donker H. Leslie Gilman Kathryn Wile GRAPHIC ARTISTS Lyman Dally Joy Markel COPY EDITORS Nick Humez Tia Swanson CONTRIBUTORSS Marcia Worth Baker, Caitlin Lowe, Kim Mullaney, Elissa Caterfino Mandel, Kristen McEntire Ryan, Tia Swanson

Please address all correspondence to:

Visual Impact Advertising, Inc.© 9 Highland Place Maplewood, NJ 07040

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mattersmagazine.com Matters Magazine© is owned and published by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., 9 Highland Place, Maplewood, NJ 07040. Published monthly, Matters Magazine is free, with editions directly mailed 8 times a year to the residents of Maplewood and South Orange and distributed to businesses and surrounding communities totaling 20,000. Subscriptions are available to non-residents for $30 (U.S.) $40 (Foreign) annually. No part of the publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. READ & RECYLE

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Velkommen Finally getting there BY KAREN DUNCAN

During the summer of 1970 my parents planned an extravagant family vacation to Copenhagen. It was a grand adventure spearheaded by a friend of my father’s, and the trip included his family as well. Everyone was excited. Everyone but me. The trip was set for late August, exactly when the back-to-school sessions for cheerleading practice were mandatory. As in, for every day I missed a practice, I’d sit out a football game. I was sixteen and quite frankly I had a classic teenage meltdown. I told my father he had just ruined my life. And I meant it. After several days of hysteria, he caved. Reluctantly. I would not join my parents and my brothers on this “trip of a lifetime” (my grandparents’ reproaching words). I was palmed off on good neighbors and was quite content to get up early, walk to practice and hang out with my friends. I’m not sure I even understood what I was missing. My brothers (who were younger than I) came home glowingly describing the adventures of their two-week holiday. I shrugged, somewhat interested in viewing the photos. I vowed I’d get there. Someday, I’d get there. Then football season started. I moved on. This summer, 43 years to nearly the exact day, my husband and I traveled to Copenhagen, a memory-making remarkable journey. After four days in Denmark we sailed for Germany, Estonia, Russia,

Finland and, finally, Sweden – an immersion in Scandinavian and Baltic history, food, culture. It was breathtakingly remarkable. Much of what we saw we could not have seen in 1970. A wall divided Berlin. Russia was closed to the western world. Sweden’s Abba was years away from a hit. And Copenhagen’s Christiania was just an idea. Neither of my brothers has ever returned to Europe. Looking over my photos they recognized streets and buildings of Copenhagen and reminisced about their magical trip all those years ago. They vividly remember climbing atop the famed bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark’s prolific writer best remembered for his fairy tales. I made sure that was one of the first things I did in the city. In the fall of 1970 my high school football team won the western Pennsylvania championship. I was on the field as a cheerleader at that momentous event. For a teenager, nothing in Denmark could have compared to that. Now, I am so grateful I finally got there. Top left: My brothers, top and middle in white jackets, (along with the three children of my father’s friend’s family) climbing the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Copenhagen Square, August 1970. Top right: Hans and I finally meet, August 2013.

localmatters

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South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC), at 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange, has a busy season this fall. John Mayall with special guest John Hammond will offer “An Evening of British & American Blues” October 3 at 7:30 p.m. Take 6, the quintessential a cappella group, performs October 9 at 7:30 p.m. Singer-songwriters John Sebastian and Tom Rush will appear October 11 at 8 p.m. Experience the theatrical event Hope Lives Here, October 16 at 1 and 7 p.m. Laugh along with Colin Quinn October 18 at 8 p.m. Don’t miss “The Giants of Jazz: Honoring 2013 Jazz Master Gary Bartz,” presented by SOPAC, the Baird Center and the Village of South Orange, October 19 at 8 p.m. Ireland: The Show will be offered November 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m. Have fun with comedian Jim Breuer November 8 at 8 p.m. Blues singer Bettye LaVette will take the stage November 9 at 8 p.m. Enjoy singer-

Blues singer Bettye LaVette will perform at SOPAC November 9.

songwriter Dar Williams November 14 at 7:30 p.m. Come hear the David Bromberg Quintet November 15 at 8 p.m. Mavis Staples sings gospel November 16 at 8 p.m. Save the date for acclaimed comedian Robert Klein November 22 at 8 p.m. The Klezmatics, with special guest Joshua Nelson, will present “Brother Moses Smote the

Molly Matters

© Dally/Duncan 2013

I’m a NY girl myself. I’ve made the trip and I know the way. Let me be your bridge from the Big Apple to the Garden State!

Natalie Farrell [email protected]

Off: 973 913-8002 Cel: 917 514-7541

www.nataliefarrell.com

Each office is independently owned and operated.

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localmatters Water” at SOPAC November 24 at 7:30 p.m. Bring the family to “The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites” November 30 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The Nutcracker, featuring New York Theatre Ballet, will delight audiences December 1 at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. For more information and tickets call 973313-ARTS (2787) or visit www. SOPACnow.org. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams will appear at SOPAC November 14. Comedian Colin Quinn will be at SOPAC October 18.

continued on page 40

localmatters

Oh, no, he’s DEAD. In the Library! An ancient history haunts the town. A restless spirit walks, Whose are those old bones? And why is it so vital today... to solve the long-buried story? The Maplewood Library Foundation invites you, if you dare, to witness a murder (!) at the Library on Friday, October 11. Join them at 7:30 at the Main Library at 51 Baker Street, Maplewood as they unravel the baffling mystery, “Death in the Stacks.” Intrigue, adult drink, food & dead bodies all for $75 per person ( $85 after October 1). Tickets available at Maplewood Memorial Library, 51 Baker Street, Maplewood and the Hilton Branch Library, 1688 Springfield Avenue, Maplewood. or online at maplewoodmurdermystery.brownpapertickets.com An entirely adult event, no one under 21 will be admitted. Presented by Maplewood’s Deadgood Events as part of the Maplewood Library’s Centennial Celebration, this promises to be a frighteningly hilarious evening. Tickets will be limited. Visit www. maplewoodlibraryfoundation.org or email [email protected] for more information. Proceeds to benefit the Maplewood Memorial Library Foundation.

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DOOR Finding a home and a room of her own in South Orange

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“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” PHOTO TAKEN AT LOTUS PETALS, 92 BAKER STREET, MAPLEWOOD.

BY MARCIA WORTH-BAKER

Anne Fernald’s work has taken her to Uruguay, London and, daily, to Manhattan. There she teaches at Fordham University while researching and writing about Virginia Woolf. Fernald, who awaits publication of her edition of Woolf ’s Mrs. Dalloway, comes home from her travels to South Orange. Here she revels in domestic life. “Woolf writes about ‘the great task of weeding the terrace,’” says Fernald. “I think of that every time I garden.” Fernald, her husband Bill Morgan, and their two daughters moved to a Victorian house in South Orange on Halloween, 2010. Fernald dove into local living; active at Marshall and Jefferson Schools, and with her children’s soccer programs, she also serves as a deacon at Prospect Presbyterian Church. She’s led audience talkback sessions at Luna Stage, in West Orange, advising on a production of Vita and Virginia in 2012.

At the same time, based on a previous book and volumes of other writing on the subject, Fernald was tapped as the sole American to edit a volume of Woolf ’s work for Cambridge University Press. That project brought her into ever-closer contact with Woolf, and challenged her to reconcile the well-known British modernist and feminist writer with Fernald’s life as mother, wife and citizen. “What most people know of Woolf is her suicide and they also know her as an early feminist,” explains Fernald. Virginia Woolf is familiar for the 1929 essay that argues that in order to write, a woman needs “a room of one’s own.” Some 12 years later, Woolf filled her coat pockets with rocks and drowned herself in the Ouse River, a death that has been dramatized many times. For Fernald, Woolf is a much more complicated figure. Fernald became aware of the writer

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From her girlhood in her father’s library to the end of her life, Virginia Woolf read widely and with passion. Fernald’s Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader shows how Virginia Woolf’s reading affected her feminism and how her feminism affected her opinions of her reading. This book looks at the impact of that intense reading on Woolf’s writing and on her feminism. Each chapter looks at an aspect of her thinking – her attitude towards the English nation, the imagination, the public sphere, and fame – through the lens of a literary period, from Ancient Greece through the Romantics. The epilogue explores Woolf’s surprising legacy among contemporary African writers.

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Anne pictured with daughters Olivia and Izzy.

as an undergraduate at Wellesley College, and became engaged in the study of Woolf in graduate school at Yale University. “She has been in my life for 25 years,” Fernald laughs. “I’m still fascinated by her. She read everything and I’m astonished at how people all over the world read her.” Fernald notes that, despite its calamitous ending, Woolf lived a “happy, rich, full adult life.” Fernald encourages her students to realize that Woolf ’s life was “filled with friendships, parties, writing and reading. It was kind of an ideal life.” Woolf ’s depression, argues Fernald, was the legacy of a difficult childhood. “Woolf succeeded in many areas of life,” says Fernald. “That includes overcoming the early death of her mother and other childhood traumas.” In her lifetime, Woolf was criticized for not demonstrating for women to achieve the vote despite her avowed feminism. Here, too, Fernald sees a bigger story. “Woolf was criticized at times for not being on the picket lines, but she was a writer. She used that talent for women. I see that she asked herself, ‘What can I contribute?’ and it was her writing.” Fernald smiles. “What

more can you ask of life than to figure out your strength and put that towards causes that matter to you?” Fernald reads memoirs for pleasure and, along with her daughters, is a loyal Harry Potter fan. The family spends time along the St. Lawrence River. That experience, coupled with a daily commute between Manhattan and South Orange is, to Fernald, an ideal existence. Woolf, she notes, wrote very specifically about the geography of her life. To the Lighthouse is probably the bestknown such work. A s h e r ow n l i f e h a s changed in the past 25 years from student to teacher, parent, wife and homeowner, Fernald says her understanding of Woolf has altered, too. “I used to admire her more aesthetically,” she says. “Now it’s more personal.” Woolf wrote often in the post-World War I era about shell shock and her own battles with depression. “Woolf put the challenges of quieting a troubled mind into words,” says Fernald. “That’s a tremendous gift she gave us.” Marcia Worth-Baker lives in South Orange, where she combines a happy domestic life with literary aspirations.

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Event Makers

Trofest Short Film Festival, Brooklyn, NY

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For the Glass family, choosing South Orange was the best move they ever made. BY CAITLIN LOWE

Closer to Free Century Ride, New Haven, CT

When Eventage owners Jennifer ( Jen) and Matt Glass were expecting their second daughter, they decided to move their family and their event production business out of Manhattan and into the burbs. The couple, he a Long Island native and she originally from Cleveland, chose New Jersey for its easy access to New York City. After considering a few towns, South Orange just clicked for them, say the Glasses. They loved the downtown and the close proximity to the train and airport – necessities as they frequently travel to clients in New York City and nationwide. Their family moved in 2005 and the company relocated in 2006. “Finding South Orange is the best thing we ever did – for the company and for us,” says Matt. “It’s very similar to when we lived in Union Square and could walk everywhere, including work.” Matt and Jen met in 1993 while living in Manhattan and working on production for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. After leaving Macy’s, Matt went on to freelance in the industrial and product-launch sector, while Jen took a full-time position promoting Broadway shows. When Matt was hired to produce a large Disney event in Times Square, he recruited his friends in the business as his on-the-ground support – including Jen. While he didn’t know it then, this launched their entrepreneurial journey. Eventually the couple decided to take the leap

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and start their own company out of their apartment. Jen, who had always dreamed of running her own business, quit her full-time job. The following years were filled with change for the couple, including getting married and growing their company. “We grew very slowly,” says Jen. “ We did

everything in the beginning. When we could we would hire one person and then another.” Today, Eventage employs 14 full-time staffers and up to 100 freelancers at a time for such events as the ING New York City Marathon – a far cry from Jen and Matt managing the business out of their small West

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Village apartment. Clients fall mainly into two categories: nonprofits whose events take the form of walks, runs and rides, and corporate PR and branding events. This hometown, familyrun business boasts a client roster that competes with the largest multi-national agencies out there, including big names such as Avon Foundation for Women, New York Road Runners, Bike New York, Lipton, Royal Caribbean, Samsung and Sharp. Eventage offers two main services: event logistics and creative development. For example, some clients already have an event concept they need executed from beginning to end, while others are looking for the big idea. Some need both. The team is also branching out into participant recruitment, getting people to participate in nonprofits’ fundraising walks and runs. Whether they are organizing a race to the top of a 15-foot tall slice of wedding cake for 10 engaged “bridezillas” to compete for a free wedding for WE tv, producing the ceremonies for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer or designing and building a rolling museum of ‘90s memorabilia to celebrate the launch of Hasbro’s Trivial Pursuit ‘90s Edition, it is clear the Eventage team is always on its toes. Even their office is a testament to their creative spirit. Located on the third floor of 18 South Orange

Avenue, above the Chase bank, they say the office was “trashed” before they moved in, complete with birds flying around, having been vacant for 20 to 30 years before Eventage took it over. The showpiece of the space is a large stained glass skylight framed by a white pressed tin ceiling. Back on the ground, the entire staff sits in one large room. It is just what you would think an event production company would be like: slightly chaotic, buzzing with energy, and alive with phone calls and conversations. “We like the open office concept a lot, ” Jen says. “It is more of a community than when we had cubicles and offices.” If Eventage isn’t keeping Matt busy enough, he is also passionate about the South Orange Village Center Alliance (www.sovillagecenter. org) of which he is the board chair. The group helps strengthen the downtown district and is responsible for events such as the farmers’ market and the Downtown After Sundown summer concert series. The Alliance also recruits new business to the town and keeps the Village Center clean. “We are very intertwined with the village in many ways,” says Matt. “We are pro-South Orange people. This place has been pretty good to us.” Although Caitlin Lowe loves her house, she often still misses her old, tiny apartment in the heart of Maplewood Village.

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Fall 2013

Matticulous The everyman actor who’s played every man BY KRISTEN RYAN

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When South Orange commuters see Matt Servitto on the train, they probably think, “Hey, isn’t that the guy in…” Chances are, the answer is yes. He was “the guy” in the first Charles Schwab commercial with the cartooned subjects talking to the camera about their investments, playing an Everyman flipping burgers as he told the camera “I’ve got a few mutual funds, make an occasional trade, but not exactly Mr. Wall Street, y’know?” In fact, this versatile actor has done it all, performing in everything from As the World Turns and All My Children to Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, Harry’s Law, Unforgettable, Royal Pains and all three versions of Law and Order. He also played the chef in a series of Campbell’s Soup commercials. Servitto’s real persona, while sitting on his couch in his South Orange living room, is much like that guy. He’s your next-door neighbor, discussing the virtues of his newly installed, post-hurricane dry well, or the dad volunteering at Our Lady of Sorrows, where his three kids go to school. He’s not exactly Mr. Wall Street, or Mr. Fancypants Actor, for that matter. He’s a normal guy with a robust laugh and a wickedly sharp sense of humor. Many know Servitto as Agent Dwight Harris from The Sopranos, the role that won him the Screen Actors Guild Award that sits on his mantel. “I’ve played so many FBI agents that I have a whole box of prop FBI badges,” Servitto says. “The prop guys don’t like to give you the gun you used in that last scene, so I hang onto the badges.” He’s also played just about everything else – several doctors, politicians, lawyers, therapists and more than one judge. But for all the varied professional specialties he’s played, he says he’s only capable of being an actor.

Our Lady of Sorrows preparing today’s children for tomorrow’s challenges

We congratulate Matt Servitto on his distinguished career to date and look forward to his future projects.

We are proud to have the Servittos as members of the OLS family, and thank them for their dedicated support of our community. 172 Academy Street, South Orange, NJ 07079

973-762-5169

www.ourladyofsorrowsschool.org

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Fall 2013

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Servitto played Agent Dwight Harris from The Sopranos, the role that won him the Screen Actors Guild Award that sits on his mantel.

mattersmagazine.com Servitto goes through hours in make up for the Adult Swim series called Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell. where he plays Satan, the CEO of hell.

He trained at Juilliard, never waited a table, and has been a working actor for 25 years, but he likens Juilliard to a trade school. “As impressive as it sounds, it’s a conservatory,” Servitto explains. “It’s the equivalent of going to a welding academy, where you only learn how to weld.” “I couldn’t even tend bar. I had no computer skills, no second language. I know how to act,” he says. “At that time everyone came out of there incredibly proficient in their discipline with the inability to do anything else, including make a cup of coffee.” Servitto isn’t one of those guys who always knew he’d be on stage. “I love when I hear other actors say, ‘I knew at the age of five I wanted to be an actor.’” Servitto laughs. “None of that for me. I got into the theater to meet girls.” It started when his all-boys prep school held auditions for a production of West Side Story – a production that included actual girls.

“I’d say I’m sitting here today because of West Side Story. My dad had the record,” Servitto recalls. “I said to my dad, ‘Did you know West Side Story was a play? Well they’re doing it at school.’” His father encouraged him to try out and he’s been acting ever since. “Is the dog walking me or am I walking the dog?” Servitto wonders. “I got on the treadmill and just kept going.” Servitto was born in New Jersey but grew up in Detroit. He moved to New York to study and worked in the same neighborhood for many years, mainly on soap operas. When his family began to outgrow their Manhattan place, they considered moving to Brooklyn for five years, but decided that would just be a Band-Aid. “With one or two kids, it would’ve been OK, but with three kids, these days that’s tenement living,” Servitto says. “When we started talking about New Jersey, our real estate agent told us, ‘You’re skipping a step.’”

When he started traveling more for work, his wife Anne told him that “I’m going to need a back yard.” Like many Maplewood and South Orange transplants, the Servittos had several friends who moved to the area before they did. In his mind, Matt stuck pins on a map where all his friends had moved. “The common denominator for all those pins was I liked all those people,” Servitto recalls. “All of them are interesting and diverse – a gay couple, a mixed marriage, musicians, writers, artists and other actors – and I like them all.” He adds, “The Sopranos is not New Jersey. Jersey Shore is not New Jersey. I go up and visit my cousins in Bergen County and that’s New Jersey. Maplewood and South Orange are this little bastion of crunchiness, and we love it.” Servitto’s latest projects are a Cinemax series called Banshee and an Adult Swim series called Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, in which he plays Satan, CEO of Hell, where employees wear

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khakis and polo shirts with the Hell logo embroidered on the front. Satan tortures his minions in their cubicles, a concept that seems to resonate with cube-farm workers everywhere. It’s not apologetic in its inappropriateness, and it’s very, very funny. During his six-month stint shooting Banshee, his wife and children visited him on set in Charlotte, North Carolina. He checked the schedule for the day and realized there was absolutely nothing appropriate for children to observe. “I said, ‘We’ll go to set tomorrow when they’re just beating someone up in a bar brawl,’” Servitto says with a laugh. “I want them to know and appreciate the work that I’m doing and have a sense of why I’m gone so long.” “I just wish he’d do something we could show the monsignor,” Anne Servitto says. Kristen Ryan thinks of Matt Servitto as a friend, but sometimes wonders if maybe he’s just a really good actor.

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Fall 2013

Nice Act

O

Linking audience, actor and community BY KIM MULLANEY

PHOTOS BY COLLEEN D’ALESSANDRO

Above: Erik Gaden in The Crucible. In the background are (L to R): Christine Gaden (seated), Shawn Kane, Kate Daly, Sarah Rosen, James Fink.

On a warm fall evening the basketball courts at the Baird Center are alive with players, and full of energy. What is unusual is the music playing in the background. With the windows of the third floor black-box theater space open, it’s not uncommon for players’ games to be accompanied by tunes from a rehearsal of the latest musical production offered by interACT Theatre Productions. Says artistic director Nicholas J. Clarey, “As a community theater we share our passion for performing with our neighbors. On warm nights it means some of the South Orange ball players might get a musical number or three as courtside accompaniment.” South Orange resident and board president Elena Svitavsky shares her long-time passion for performing and producing with her family and friends. “It’s not just about me being on stage” she says. “It’s about interACT creating opportunities for all areas of theater support.” By “all areas” she’s also including the audience. “Our group is committed to keeping the cost of tickets reasonable,” Svitavsky explains, “and we think this helps us introduce new audiences to our performances, and it keeps our returning audiences engaged.” To hear her talk about all she does to support InterACT you’d think it was a full-time job. “It might seem that way, but it’s really a full-time passion,” she confesses with a smile. She’s joined by community members such as Colleen D’Alessandro, Marilyn Lehren and Steven Gordon, who also sit on the board, and she and they are always looking for creative ways to include more supporters. Theater and performing are year-round experiences for the ever-growing community of local performers. The 2013 summer introduced a week-long summer camp for 22 South Orange and Maplewood youth. “Seemingly overnight, it was full,” says Svitavsky, “with a waiting list even.”

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Theater Summer Camp with guest actor Keith Randolph Smith and camp director Lisa Hershey.

The Baird Center, South Orange

Cast of The Full Monty: Ken Pettis, Daniel Jaffe (squatting) 2nd row: Jim Coe, Erik Gaden, Walter Zimmerman.

LOOKING FORWARD:

GIFTS OF CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE PATRICIA A. BELL COLLECTION Through January 15, 2014 This exhibition will feature a selection of contemporary art donated over the past 10 years by South Orange– based donor Patricia A. Bell; shown together here for the first time, her gifts have both shaped and strengthened MAM’s contemporary art collection.

Looking Forward: Gifts of Contemporary Art from the Patricia A. Bell Collection is made possible with generous support from Merrill Lynch.

Alex Prager, Rita (from the series Week-End), 2009. Chromogenic print, Ed. of 5. Montclair Art Museum: Gift of Patricia A. Bell, 2011.2.1. © Alex Prager, courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery.

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Fall 2013

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Maplewood resident Lisa Hershey, theater director of the summer camp, takes the community theater aspect to heart. She created a hands-on, child-centered approach that allowed campers to create their own theater. Her campers and their families were “lovely, creative, smart and got along so very well,” says Hershey. “The kids were in charge, with guidance; I just helped them find their theater artist.” Plans are afoot to run the camp again next summer so even more families have a chance to participate. The business community has also stepped up to support interACT, most notably this past August when more than 75 businesses contributed goods and services to the “interACT Sings!” fundraiser and talent showcase.

“From Above Restaurant in South Orange to Verjus in Maplewood, local businesses supported the heck out of our event,” Clarey gratefully reports, “and we encourage all of our audiences to return the favor.” The upcoming interACT season includes Carrie: The Musical, running weekends from October 11 th through October 27 th . “If past ticket sales are any indication, musicals do sell out, and especially the last weekend,” Clarey says. The cast includes several familiar faces and some new ones, with a healthy sampling of area talent: Shona Roebuck, David Wren-Hardin and Holly Joyce Lehren are but a few of the Maplewood and South Orange locals taking to the stage. The 2013-2014 season is demanding, and Clarey and

mattersmagazine.com

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Svitavsky know it. After the fall musical, auditions will be held for The Importance of Being Earnest, Father of the Bride, and Into The Woods. Rounding out the ambitious season are three special opportunities, “interACT Sings!,” The Vagina Monologues, and interACT Youth Productions. Says Svitavsky, “We’ve put together an incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking season and hope to attract even more of the community to come enjoy and take part in the magic of theater.” This year Youth Productions is scheduled to produce one show, highlighting young actors. With rehearsals in the early evenings and on Saturdays, interACT is hoping that more young people will be able to take to the stage, and to swell the

audience. Notices for auditions will be posted on interACT’s website throughout the year. From attending a performance to set design and costume construction, interACT offers opportunities for young and old. So if you have fond memories of building sets in college, or acting on that high school stage, or like to take tickets and greet your neighbors, it’s time to dust off your talents and join interACT for the 2013-2014 season. Visit www.interactproductions.org and mark your calendars to plan your upcoming Saturday night! Kim Mullaney writes from her home in Maplewood and first learned about interACT after walking by a poster for Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

What happens during my child’s first visit to South Orange Family Dentistry?

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Although they don’t last as long as permanent teeth, your child’s baby teeth play an important role in their development. While they’re in place, these baby teeth help your little one speak, smile and chew properly. They also hold space in the jaw for permanent teeth. If a child loses a tooth too early due to damage or decay, nearby teeth may move into that space which can result in crooked or misplaced permanent teeth. We provide complete dental care of children of all ages.

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28

Fall 2013

What a Dump

T

Matters takes a field trip to the RECYCLING plant. BY KRISTEN RYAN

There are two types of neighborhood recyclers: the guy who neatly separates his milk jugs from his vodka bottles and binds the magazines tightly with string; and the guy who slings one big, mixed-up recycling can onto the curb after he realizes all his neighbors’ cans are out. Which customer does the recycling company prefer? Believe it or not, since the advent of single-stream recycling in South Orange and Maplewood, they’d rather get the lazy guy’s recyclables. In fact, the neighbor’s neatly tied bundles of newsprint and glossy papers cause headaches. The bundles must be broken apart manually by human sorters clad in lime-green safety vests and hard hats, two pairs of gloves and safety goggles. Also, the twine is not recyclable and it gums up the works. Larger pieces of cardboard are sorted easily, while small slivers can pose a challenge. So while separating recyclables curbside seems like a nice gesture, and at one time was necessary, single-stream recycling is now the way of the world, and when the pamphlets say “all recyclables in the same can,” they

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mattersmagazine.com

mean it. These days there’s no need to sort cans, glass, plastic bottles, newsprint and catalogs. It all gets dumped in the truck together at the curb, anyway. Residential single-stream recycling is picked up in Maplewood and South Orange by Waste Management, Inc. and taken to a sorting facility in the Ironbound District of Newark. That plant, a labyrinth of enormous sorting machines and conveyors, resembles a dusty, noisy rabbit warren of recyclable refuse. Picture a life-sized game of Mousetrap, where trucks pile the comingled material, a bulldozer pushes it to a huge conveyor belt and the conveyor belt drops it into a grid of spinning, steel ninja stars. The

stars “float” the cardboard up over the rest, which travels to the next station at breakneck speed. Plastic is plucked out and glass is crushed, then it flies into the building next door. The pace is frantic and the din is a roar. The view from the steel catwalks high above the factory’s floor, with the conveyors swirling on all sides, is dizzying, and a touch of the railing leaves a greasy stain. A steady stream of mist from a dozen nozzles high in the ceiling helps to cool the cavernous room and tamps down the dust. Pigeons peer from the skylights and feral cats reduce the population of rats and mice. In most areas of the plant, even on a warm day, the smell is surprisingly tolerable.

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Fall 2013

Huge bales of aluminum cans go to Alabama, where Anheuser Busch converts old Bud Light cans into new Bud Light cans.

Creating problems for the recycling conveyors are concrete and construction materials, tires, sneakers, hypodermic needles, hangers and garbage bags. These are just a few of the inappropriate items the sorters find in the recycling every day.

mattersmagazine.com

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Magnificent Private Estate, Georgian Colonial in prestigious section of South Orange Historical Landmark completely renovated in South Orange once known as the Orange Lawn Tennis Club. Originally built in 1922 for Edward Gregory a well-known New York banker. The 6 bedroom, including a magnificent master suite, 5.5 baths stately Georgian colonial sits on 1.42 acres. 4 working fireplaces and extraordinarily high ceilings. Gorgeous tall glass windows and oversized rooms. Designer kitchen with top of the line appliances enclosed in fine designer wood cabinetry with gorgeous Calacatta Gold counter tops. Brand new hardwood floors, Brand new 5 zone central air system, Brand new furnace, Brand new electric, Brand new plumbing. Beautiful pool.

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This is a big NO! This neighbor’s neatly tied bundles of newsprint and glossy papers cause major headaches for the recycling companies. The bundles must be broken apart manually by human sorters clad in limegreen safety vests and hard hats, two pairs of gloves and safety goggles. Also, the twine is not recyclable and it gums up the works. Larger pieces of cardboard are sorted easily, while small slivers can pose a challenge.

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Fall 2013

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Single stream doesn’t mean, however, that absolutely everything can go into the recycling can. For example, cinder blocks and rocks are recyclable by a “CDW” or construction/ demolition waste facility, but that’s not where our residential, single-stream recycling goes. Tucked under the conveyor belts are huge pieces of concrete, an enormous truck tire, several lone sneakers and hundreds upon hundreds of hypodermic needles, just a few of the inappropriate items the sorters find in the recycling every day. Black garbage bags really make life difficult for the sorters, so these go straight to the trash. “We can’t see what’s in there,” explains plant manager Pedro Dapaz. “It could be anything.” About 70 employees staff two shifts at the sorting facility, where Waste Management sorts, bales, inspects and sells our two

towns’ recyclable material. Much of the plastic goes to China, or back to China, as the case may be. Huge bales of aluminum cans go to Alabama, where Anheuser Busch converts old Bud Light cans into new Bud Light cans. Cleaner product fetches a higher price, so full-time, inhouse inspectors manually pluck undesirables from the mix, all day long. Quality control is of the essence. “Our goal is to extract the most value from the waste stream,” Dapaz explains. “In seven to 10 years, everything will be recyclable.” Dapaz is 30 but looks younger, and he’s seen a lot. With a nod he confirms that yes, everyone asks him what kinds of crazy things they find at the plant – but he’s not talking. Kristen Ryan looks good in a lime-green vest, safety goggles and hard hat. She gets all the glamorous assignments.

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Acclaimed local artist Tara O’Leary’s giclee of South Mountain Reservation, $800. Tenth Muse Gallery, 170 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood. 973-313-2722. thetenthmusegallery.com

Fall Finds

Mediterranean-inspired design, Chantal Talavera stoneware is non-porous, safe for oven, microwave, freezer and dishwasher and in this season’s showstopper color of teal. $39.95 Kitchen a la Mode, 19 South Orange Avenue, South Orange. 973-821-5145

Sensational crystal drop earrings in the hot neutral of graphite gray, $32. Jewel Be Dazzled, 1 Durand Road, Maplewood (inside the Chelsea Set Salon), 973-309-4552. Jewelbedazzled.com

This charming red artisan clutch is so stunning. $24. Bee & Thistle, 89 Baker Street, Maplewood. 973-763-3166. beeandthistlegifts.com

Master story-teller Khaled Hosseini’s third novel is told via a series of interlinking stories impacting descendants and acquaintances for generations to come, $28.95. Words, 179 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood. 973-763-9500. wordsmaplewood.com

Braided rope necklace in this season’s hot colors of teal, chocolate and silver metallic. $45. Perch Home, 9 Highland Place, Maplewood. 973- 821-4852. Perchhome.com

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LOVE

Fall 2013

Under the

IS IN THE AIR

BrooklynBridge

A

Alison Wolfley & Joe Shaffer were married at sunset in Brooklyn, New York on September 7.

The all-Maplewood bridesmaids included Caitlin McTague Radcliff, Brady Beach, Megan Wolfley Holton, Helen Kearney, Megan McCurdy and Christina Canis Lake.

BY TIA SWANSON

Alison Wolfley freely admits to being a Jersey girl. Indeed, all of the bridesmaids at her September 7 wedding grew up with her in Maplewood. And her mother’s longtime friend, this magazine’s own Karen Duncan, made the alterations on her wedding dress. But she also has lived in New York City for years, and so the wedding in which she married longtime beau, Joe Shaffer, was, as her mother Heidi Wolfley put it, “very New York.” The ceremony took place in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with views not only of that famous landmark but also of the Manhattan Bridge – and Manhattan itself, of course. The reception was at a bar and restaurant nearby in the hip Dumbo section of Brooklyn. She and her wedding party were dressed in J. Crew and carried sunflowers. The invitations were hand-drawn by a friend and then letterpressed. One guest remarked, however, that the day was less a reflection of the city than of the couple who married in it: fun, low-key, creative, idiosyncratic and completely personal. The couple simply incorporated the wedding into the life of the park; so boys wandering through hoisted stones into the water behind the minister, Wolfley’s childhood pastor, Brenda Ehlers of Morrow Memorial Church in Maplewood. The groom’s father is an opera singer and performed at the wedding, though not a classical song but a country one.

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OCT 18

COLIN QUINN’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL JOHN SEBASTIAN & TOM RUSH OCT 11

TAKE 6

OCT 9

JIM BREUER

BLACKMORE’S NIGHT

NOV 8

NOV 7

BETTYE LAVETTE NOV 9

DAR WILLIAMS NOV 14

PHOTO BY MARYANNE SHAFFER

Their first dance; Alison and Joe at ReBar in Brooklyn.

MAVIS STAPLES NOV 16

NOV 22

Alison as a preschooler when she attended Morrow Memorial PreSchool.

ROBERT KLEIN

NOV 24

And at the reception, Shaffer’s brothers serenaded him with a song written for the occasion. It was sort of history redux: Shaffer had proposed to Wolfley by writing and recording a proposal song, and then making a video that included pictures solicited from literally dozens of family and friends holding pieces of paper inscribed with the words, “Say yes.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Shaffer also arranged for those family members and friends to meet in Chicago – his home town – on the afternoon of the proposal. So she got a video, a ring and a party in a single day, all in a (relatively) strange city. Chalk it up to a guy who, although it took him a few years to get around to asking her to marry

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Fall 2013

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him, knew relatively soon that he wanted to do it. “I think I knew she was the one for me somewhat from the get-go,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I was always able to be myself around her. Over the past few years we’ve really grown together and I realized that I wanted to spend the rest of my life loving her and making her laugh.” He succeeds. “[Joe] makes me laugh like no one else can, and I’ve realized how important that is in a relationship,” Wolfley says. Mostly, though, she adds, “We kind of speak the same language.”

They also do the same job. Both are social workers in New York, working for a nonprofit organization called Fountain House that helps those struggling with mental illness to return to work or school, or to find a place to live. In fact, the couple held their rehearsal dinner at the facililty. Their honeymoon to the Bahamas, however, was postponed a day. Shaffer is a big Bears fan, and couldn’t miss opening day of the football season. h

LOVE

mattersmagazine.com

IS IN THE AIR

37

Under the

Nantucket Sun John and Greta, above, on Nantucket Island. Left: Greta as a toddler on Nantucket and below, as a bride.

G

BY TIA SWANSON

Greta Guber has always been the outgoing type. It was true when she was only a small child and her mother had a restaurant, Terra Cotta, in Maplewood village, Greta would make cookies out of the extra pie dough and wander around the tables offering them up to the guests, the perfect preschool hostess. (A sight so memorable and adorable, by the way, that years later people still stop her in the street to reminisce about it with her.) And it was true years later, in 2008, when she spied a shy boy across the room at freshman orientation of Philadelphia University in the summer before she was due to start there. She said that she “kind of immediately decided to be as loud as possible in order to make him more comfortable.” Alas, she thought the shy boy seemed more appalled than appealed to by her exuberance. “It didn’t work,” she says, and the two saw no more of each other that week. The shy boy, John Lusky, remembers it somewhat differently. He, too, recalls the meeting at freshman orientation. “She was very nice and outgoing but she was in a relationship at the time so I didn’t pursue her in that way,” Lusky says. And until their sophomore year, that was about it. She had a few classes with his best friend, so she would see the shy boy occasionally and she says that, whenever she saw him, she would again be as loud as possible in order to embarrass him. That did work. Then, one day, they got to talking and hanging out. That summer and the following fall, they got to dating. Guber was immediately smitten. Lusky, she believes, took a little longer to decide. But maybe that’s just his personality. He certainly took note of the demise of the relationship that had prevented him from pursuing her the first time around. And he says after they began dating, he soon realized “how funny and warm her personality is.” On October 19, 2010 – her 20th birthday – Lusky, with a formality

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Fall 2013

Greta Guber with her maids of honor, Jenna Lusky and Grace Guber.

befitting his temperament if not his years, officially asked her to be his girlfriend. In January of that year, there was a crisis. On a New Year’s Eve trip to Myrtle Beach with Guber and his pals, Lusky’s friends gave him an ultimatum: Dump the girlfriend or them. “He chose me without a second thought,” Guber says. Lusky may have been happy for the crisis. “It was difficult to lose a few friends, but I think it really showed her how serious I was about her,” he says. And then they fell into a life together so comfortable and so complete that Guber says “it was kind of bizarre.” Both of them felt depressed when they spent time apart. For all intents and purposes he moved into her apartment. And though they were still college students, aged only 20 in a world that pushes single life further and further into the future, Guber says they began to speak about spending their lives together. “The idea of marriage didn’t seem farfetched at all,” Guber remembers. So intent and involved were they that by March of 2011, “it was pretty much a done deal.” As Lusky puts it, “After about a year together I decided I wanted to ‘lock it down,’ so to speak.” Convinced that she would do a better job of shopping for

a ring than he would, she found herself an antique engagement ring (“She always knows what she wants for these kinds of things,” Lusky says) and that September, the pact was made. Guber was out helping her mother cater an event, and Lusky, visiting in Maplewood with her family, took the opportunity to ask her father for her hand. “Asking her dad was the part I was most nervous about, believe it or not,” he says. “I have a ton of respect for him and I was worried he might not like the idea so much.” But Tom Guber approved and the proposal went forward. “After all the months of conversations about it, and the fact that I picked my own ring,” says Greta, “I didn’t think he’d really propose, but he did. He asked me right before bed. It was simple and emotional and the next morning I was wearing the ring.” There is one other place in the world Guber loves as much as Maplewood: Nantucket, where she has spent all her summers with her parents, Tom and Holly (who’s now the executive chef at the restaurant at the Papermill Playhouse), and her sister, Gracie, a Columbia freshman. Though they initially believed the wedding would be too large to hold there, in the end, Guber opted for Nantucket over a

big wedding. And so, on September 13, they were married before their nearest and dearest, only 15 in total, at the Wauwinet Inn at the point of the island’s harbor. Guber’s sister, Gracie, and Lusky’s sister, Jenna, were the co-maids of honor. The best friend who unwittingly kept them in touch at college was the best man. The bride and groom and their sisters arrived via a little red tugboat. The ceremony was seaside and the cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were served on a nearby patio, surrounded by a gorgeous sunset. Then the guests went indoors for a six-course tasting menu. “I’m still on cloud nine,” reported motherof-the-bride Holly on the Monday after the ceremony.

The newlyweds returned to a home in South Jersey. Their honeymoon, probably somewhere in the Caribbean, will wait a few months. Lusky, the son of Steve and Patricia Lusky of Birdsboro, PA, is in web design and production, and works for a company in Hammonton that has lots of nationally known brands as clients. He also does web design on his own. Guber is in the planning stages of launching a menswear line with several classmates. It is no longer just the two of them. It turns out that both families have the same breed of dog: the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. And now the newlyweds have one too, a tradition of their own to begin. h

Nantucket has always been special to Maplewood girl Greta Guber.

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The new Mr. and Mrs. Lusky at their reception dinner.

Mother of the bride, Holly Guber, traveled to Nantucket with her Kitchen Aid mixer to make the couple’s spectacular wedding cake.

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Celebrity Readings!

E

GIFT GUIDE

Everything you need or want is here in our towns!

VOLUNTEER!

Norbert Leo Butz and Michelle Federer

Always Wanted to Volunteer and Were Afraid to Try? The South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race is launching a series of workshops geared to people who want to know more about what it means to be a volunteer, how to assess their own skills and interests, what opportunities exist in our community, how organizations and governments are structured, and more. Sessions will be free and open to all residents. Participation in school, civic, governmental and business organizations by people of all races and persuasions is a necessary condition for a truly inclusive, racially integrated community. Quality of life is improved by the innovative solutions, shared responsibility, expanded talent pool and increased sense of a united community that results from full engagement of all groups. Participants will receive specialized volunteer training that they can apply to a variety of volunteer and leadership roles across the community. There will be a series of training and educational workshops that incorporate presentations by local professionals and leaders, case studies, group discussions, skills assessment tools, and interactive techniques. Beginning Saturday, October 12 the series will alternate between DeHart Center in Maplewood and the Baird Center in South Orange. Interested? Visit www.twotowns.org or call 973-761-6116.

The South Orange-Maplewood Adult School presents a starstudded line-up on November 4th Once a year The South Orange-Maplewood Adult School produces an evening of storytelling; great short stories are ‹performed› by celebrated Broadway players. This year’s event features Tony Award winning actors Norbert Leo Butz and Faith Prince, as well as Michele Federer from the original cast of Wicked. Celebrity Readings will take place on Monday, November 4th at 7:30pm at the South Orange Middle School. Maplewood local Norbert Leo Butz is a two-time Tony Award winner for his spectacular work in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Catch Me If You Can. Butz, currently starring in Broadway’s much anticipated Big Fish, knows the power of storytelling. “Big Fish is about how stories never die. Once they are told they live on in the memories of the living. I’m thrilled to be part of Celebrity Readings! By listening to the stories, the audience becomes the conduit that keeps them alive!” Michelle FedererButz’s real life partner has recently appeared on the NBC show Smash. And the multitalented Faith Prince, best known for her Tony Awardwinning performance in Guys and Dolls, has also received Tony nominations for: Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, Bells are Ringing and A Catered Affair. Prince is currently playing the role of Miss Hannigan in the revival of Annie. Tickets for Celebrity Readings are $50 in advance and $55 at the door. They can be purchased at www.ssreg. com/som or by calling (973) 378-7620. Faith Prince

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Monday - Friday 9 AM - 2 PM Flexible 2, 3 & 5 day programs Hot nutritious lunches Montclair Art Museum offers “Free First Thursday Nights” beginning October 3. Montclair Art Museum will welcome Museum expert Marjorie Schwarzer October 10 to discuss her book Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America.

The Montclair Art Museum, at 3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, offers a number of events this fall. Beginning on October 3 and running through June, the museum will hold “Free First Thursday Nights” from 5 to 9 p.m., something new to see and do every month, including dynamic programming, art activities, live music and a full-service bar. Starting on October 9, the Museum invites area seniors to “Senior Park Bench,” an artistic social outing on the second Wednesday of the month from 2 to 4 p.m. Each session will feature tours and engaging conversations in the galleries and thematically related art activities. MAM will welcome award-winning museum expert Marjorie Schwarzer, from the University of San Francisco, on October 10 at 7 p.m. Schwarzer will discuss her book Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America. For details and tickets call 973-259-5137 or visit www. montclairartmuseum.org. Community Coalition on Race invites the community to two upcoming events this October. Their

Stuck? Montclair Art Museum offers “Senior Park Bench” the second Wednesday of every month beginning October 9.

annual dinner dance fundraiser, “Celebrating Integration: Forging New Paths to Inclusion” will be held on October 5 at the Loft at South Orange Performing Arts Center, 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange. In addition to dinner, dancing and an auction, the event will honor Ellen Greenfield and Dr. Phyllis Peterman, two long-time residents who have devoted decades of service to the community in support of integration. Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr. will be the guest speaker. For details and tickets call 973-7626116 or visit www.twotowns.org. Also in October, in an effort to build a network of skilled volunteers and leaders for civic, government and community organizations, the

If your college student or you are struggling to identify what kind of career is the best fit for you, then you need to speak with us. The Pathway Planner is an on-line assessment that pinpoints your special strengths, talents and abilities in order to fit you with a job that makes the most sense. The right career match dramatically increases the probability for your success and satisfaction. We provide the information and tools to enable you to make better decisions about your work and career. It only takes one hour to put your career on the right track.

www.yourprofilessolutions.com The Community Coalition on Race will hold their annual dinner dance fundraiser October 5 at the Loft at SOPAC.

973-378-8456 Maplewood, NJ

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Coalition will provide free training in civic engagement with a sixsession workshop; classes begin October 12. Visit www.twotowns. org for more information. G a r d e n S t a t e Re a d s, Maplewood Library’s new book group, featuring works and visits by New Jersey authors, will begin meeting in October. The group will meet for a half-hour discussion at 7 p.m., followed by a visit by the author at 7:30, and conclude with a book signing. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome. October 7: The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, guest author Jon Gertner. November 4: Every Story is a Ghost Story, guest author D.T. Max; and December 2: The Virgins, guest author Pamela Erens. Check for book availability at the Main Library Information Desk or call 973762-1622 x 5022. The Maplewood Library will hold a free special screening of The Rule on October 24 at 7 p.m. at the main library. The Rule, a feature-length documentary by award-winning filmmakers Marylou and Jerome Bongiorno, details how and why the dedicated Benedictine monks of Newark Abbey and St. Benedict’s Prep are able to achieve amazing success with America’s most vulnerable population: inner city African-American and Latino teenage boys. While Newark, with a high poverty rate, has an abysmal high school graduation rate, St. Benedict’s has a near-100 percent college acceptance rate. The Rule presents their “recipe for success” as a model for whole cities nationwide. A discussion with the Bongiornos will follow the screening. For more information call 973-762-1622 or visit maplewoodlibrary.org.

localmatters

The Maplewood Library presents a free screening of the documentary The Rule, October 24. Maplewood Chamber of Commerce and Maplewood Village Alliance sponsor the Annual Halloween Costume Contest in Maplewood Village.

Halloween frights will include Carrie: The Musical, based on the Stephen King horror novel, presented by interACT Theatre Productions at the Baird Theatre, 5 Mead Street, South Orange. The play will be presented October 1113, October 18-20 and October 2527 with Friday and Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. To learn more or buy tickets, visit www.interactproductions.org. The Society of Musical Arts presents a free concert at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 550 Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, on October 20 at 4 p.m. The concert includes the world premiere of composer Roberto Sierra’s Montuno. Sierra and conductor Stephen Culbertson will discuss the work after the concert. The concert theme, “Invitation to the Dance,” will feature a wide variety of orchestral works categorized as dance by their composers. The concert is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts administered through Essex County. For more information call 973-763-4939 or visit www.soma.ar88.net.

Durand-Hedden House, 523 Ridgewood Road, presents two events this fall. Maplewood resident and Newark Museum curator Ulysses Dietz will discuss “Newark, King of Jewelry: The Rise and Fall of a Great Industry, 1850-1950,” on October 27 at 2 p.m. Dietz will speak on Newark’s emergence as the greatest center of fine gold jewelry production in the USA between 1830 and 1850 and then its growth into an industry with a complex network of businessmen, craftsmen and designers up to the onset of the Great Depression. James Madison Durand, who grew up in the Durand-Hedden House, became one of the city’s most successful jewelry manufacturers. Dietz’s talk is based on an exhibition and book produced at the Newark Museum in 1997. The museum has the most important collection of Newarkmade jewelry and precious metal objects in the nation. On another theme, the story of Maplewood’s postal service has always been one of change; come discover the history of Maplewood’s postal service on November 24 through an exhibit from 1 to 4 p.m. and a talk at 2 p.m. by Robert Rose, president The Society of Musical Arts will premiere composer Roberto Sierra’s Montuno at a free concert at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Maplewood October 20. Robert Rose, president of the New Jersey Postal History Society, will be at the Durand-Hedden House for an exhibit and talk November 24.

Maplewood residents Holland Jancaitis, music director, and Nicholas Clarey, director, second and third from left with young actors appearing in the interACT Theatre Productions presentation of Carrie: The Musical this October.

of the New Jersey Postal History Society. For more information call 973-763-7712 or visit www. durandhedden.org. Ghosts, goblins and witches will be roaming Maplewood Village along Maplewood Avenue at the Annual Halloween Costume C o n t e s t , s p o n s o r e d by t h e Maplewood Chamber of Commerce and the Maplewood Village Alliance, on October 31 from 3 to 5 p.m. The festivities include trick-ortreating, music and dancing and prizes for best costumes. For more information contact the Maplewood Chamber of Commerce 201341-9445 or email contact11@ mindspring.com. Special thanks to the Village merchants for their support of this event. Maplewood resident and Newark Museum curator Ulysses Dietz will speak about the history of Newark’s fine gold jewelry production at the DurandHedden House October 27.

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Fall 2013

Experience’s

DEAR SCHOOL

An inadvertent extra lesson in high school biology

B

BY ELISSA CATERFINO MANDEL

Brian calls me at 8:30, which is the first sign that something is horribly wrong. The biology midterm started at eight, so unless he has suddenly become the Road Runner of mitochondria, I should not be hearing from him so soon. The news isn’t good. He threw up and needs me to pick him up in the front office. The not-so-maternal part of me is pragmatic – what about your biology exam, I want to say. But I don’t. He beats me to it. He only answered a quarter of the questions before, he reports, “his head started to spin” and he got really cold. Luckily he made it to the bathroom in time. This is not the first time he has thrown up in school. Actually if recollection serves, it’s not even the second time. “I tried to go back and finish the exam,” he says. “But I got nauseous again.” Unlike some other members of my family, most notably me, Brian is not an anxious person. I can’t imagine that biology or schoolwork in any form would give him a panic attack. Because he is in the middle of midterms, I rush him to the doctor’s office. (See previous note about anxious person.) I figure Brian could have strep or swine flu. He has one more midterm besides biology to take before the weekend. We have to knock out the culprit, whatever it might be, as quickly as possible. The pediatrician runs tests for strep, swine flu – Brian had refused the shot because of some ridiculous video on You Tube that showed a high-schooler who claimed, falsely, that she could only walk backwards after being inoculated – mono, and even diabetes. “Sometimes,” the pediatrician says, “diabetes presents as stomach distress.” All tests prove negative, but the doctor says Brian may develop cramps and other gastrointestinal symptoms as the weekend goes on. The prospect of the math midterm for Friday, the very next day, and the make-up biology midterm right afterward seem highly unlikely. Brian should eat only bland foods, we’re told, and I have to watch him carefully. Oddly enough, as soon as Brian walks through the door at home, he wants to open up a can of Chickarina soup. I fight with him. Chickarina isn’t bland. It’s not on the prescribed BRAT

diet for stomach distress. You don’t want to throw up again, I admonish, thinking if there’s another gastrointestinal incident, he’ll never get to school the next day. “This will be the test,” he says. No, I feel like arguing, you already missed the test. But he plows through the can of Chickarina with no apparent difficulty and then he asks for eggs. Clearly this is not a child with an incipient intestinal anything. The explanatory evidence presents itself half an hour later in his bedroom. On his desk there is an old plastic cup with an old plastic straw inside it. On the old plastic straw is something strange colored, slightly blue, that appears to be mold. I ask the question, but even before it is out of my mouth, I know the answer. “Did you drink from this straw?” I ask. Apparently he was thirsty in the middle of the night and felt compelled to search the cabinets for a plastic cup that hadn’t been used, or for that matter washed, since he was in middle school. You may cast aspersions on my domestic prowess – why didn’t I clean such an eyesore out of my cabinet in the first place? Good point, but I can’t imagine why he saw fit to retrieve this particular cup when there are perfectly good sanitary glasses in all the cabinets, glasses that have survived thousands of dishwasher spin cycles intact and germ free. Maybe it was some kind of misplaced nostalgia for the innocence of middle school when tests didn’t count for much and he had never heard of a midterm. The whole episode actually seems kind of funny. Who but Brian would have the misfortune to drink in the middle of the night from a polluted straw, miss a midterm, waste the morning in the doctor’s office undergoing all kinds of ridiculous tests, and then have to make up two midterms in the space of three hours the very next day? I’d like to say he aced the biology midterm, but he didn’t, although he certainly had an apt lesson on the adverse relationship between the human body and mold. Elissa Caterfino Mandel, who writes about parenting from her South Orange home, is a college advisor and essay editor who no longer worries about midterms.

FOODMatters

something to chew on the ALL FOOD! Issue NOVEMBER 2013

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 

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Call Us at 973-378-8300 Or Come Visit Us in the Village 145 Maplewood Ave, Maplewood All Information Taken from the Garden State MLS as of 9/18/2013. Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed ©2013 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker® is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Subject to errors and omissions. Please disregard if your property is currently listed.