Comments for Mr. Local History Project

Comment on Crane Farm: The Little Farm Stand Preserves Basking Ridge’s Farming Past by Lisa Connolly McKinley

Lisa Connolly McKinley — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:53:19 +0000

I worked there in high school. It was so close to my house I could walk or ride my bike. I used to go out in the field with Mr Crane to cut the flowers. All the girls were afraid of him but he was very sweet. He would cut & I would hold the basket. We would talk about anything & everything. My friends would stop by in the summer to tell me where the party was going to be that night. Mr. Crane would give them peaches or apples. I really learned my math there because they had a wooden drawer with the money. No cash register that would tell you how much change to give. They had the best corn and it would sell out so fast. It was one of my favorite jobs ever.

Comment on Crane Farm: The Little Farm Stand Preserves Basking Ridge’s Farming Past by Martha Guinivan

Martha Guinivan — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 11:01:25 +0000

We shopped there for our corn, veggies and fruit I remember, when I worked at Queen City Savings bank ( How's that for the old days ) Mr. Crane would walk to the bank with a brown paper bag. It was his deposit from the day before. I asked if he wasn't nervous carrying that kind of money in a paper bag He said no. If a local went past they'd know and would leave him, if an out of towner saw him they'd think he was just some old man carrying his lunch He was quite a guy

Comment on Crane Farm: The Little Farm Stand Preserves Basking Ridge’s Farming Past by Marge Evers Nimeth

Marge Evers Nimeth — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:59:50 +0000

We have been going to Cranes Farm for years. I’m saying over 40 years. It will be a shame to see this close. I’ll have not where to go to get fresh vegetables and fruit in the summer. Also you can purchase bruised peaches to make peach pe. It’s a SHAME what is happening to our town. I know it is difficult to have a food stand because it’s difficult getting people to help. Was a great place for teens to work at during the summer. We will greatly miiss

Comment on Crane Farm: The Little Farm Stand Preserves Basking Ridge’s Farming Past by Ruth Post Rillo

Ruth Post Rillo — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:56:41 +0000

I will truly miss this special little farm stand, along with Doris and Tyson.
They are such good stewards to Crane Farm, however I completely understand their decision. I hope someone will come along to carry on the tradition for them.
Thank you for your years of care, time, and exceptional dedication harvesting the fields and serving the community with your delicious fruits and vegetables, and also your beautiful selection of seasonal flowers.
My granddaughter loves coming in with me for the yummy chocolate chip cookies and we love the sweet homemade pies.
You will be greatly missed!

Comment on Crane Farm: The Little Farm Stand Preserves Basking Ridge’s Farming Past by Tbc

Tbc — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:39:20 +0000

Comment on Crane Farm: The Little Farm Stand Preserves Basking Ridge’s Farming Past by Craig Kampmier

Craig Kampmier — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:37:33 +0000

The wire handles of a bushel basket cutting into your fingers as Mr. Crane made you walk hurriedly backwards as he picked corn from the stalks and tossed them in the basket faster than you could say corn. “Yellow corn you want small kernels, white corn they need to be large.” Tomatoes, the stem always removed and placed in a peach basket upside down. If you don’t remove the stem, it puts a hole into the flesh of the tomatoes they are on top of…been observing tomatoes with stems and holes in tomatoes from them since the late ’60s, quoting Mr. Crane under my breath every time.

His Glads, perfection. Hoeing the rows of strawberry plants. Bending down to pick bushel baskets of string beans. E L M E R!!! Mrs. Crane would call out from the stand to the field to summon Mr. Crane. He grew Jet Star, Supersonic, and Ramapo tomatoes. All his seeds came from Harris Seeds in Rochester, New York.

The only place I have ever purchased seeds from, and the only tomatoes I have grown, plus one, Rutgers…my father grew. Mrs Crane, a pencil on her ear, taking it to write the prices on the back of a “Certified Farm Market” paper bag and adding them up to tell a customer their total.

Christmas trees, balled, were heavy and we delivered them in his pick up. A particular December Saturday it was a cold soaking downpour…saturated and returning from a delivery, Mrs. Crane sat you at her kitchen table with a bowl of steaming hot vegetable soup and a chicken sandwich.

At a dollar an hour, a $10 day, high standards, quality, hard work, and decent, caring human beings to work for. Colorful leaves framing the landscape, horses next door at the Astor farm…Somerset County Equestrian Stable, Harry Case, Stable Manager; planes taking off from the Somerset Hills Airport on Lord Stirling Road…sometimes a Bi-Plane (2-Wings ~ vintage from the teens or 1920s) would fly.

Warm sunshine on an autumn day. The thump thump of car tires running over the seams of concrete that was South Maple Avenue (Mud Street in the very early days of BR). Picking pumpkins for the stand, and Acorn squash among others. From up the water colored tree covered hill the air was filled with the music of the Ridge High School band…a football game. While much of those pleasurable moments have passed, they live within the soil and spirit of the Crane farm. Stand there, and you can feel it. Much like the story we had to read in school, Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” it was, in Basking Ridge, New Jersey the Garden State.

Comment on Retrospective: Milk Vending History in New Jersey by Wayne G

Wayne G — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:21:53 +0000

In the 1970-80s, there was a milk vending machine directly in front of the VFW Post 2140 on Willow Ave in Long Branch, NJ. We lived 40 yards away on Westwood Ave and used the machine regularly.

Comment on Looking Back at Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club by Jan Rasmussen

Jan Rasmussen — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 13:45:18 +0000

Millridge is where I was a member. Lots of fun summer days. Bill Friars was our swim team coach. Ridge High Class of 66 had their after-graduation party there. The big dance move then was “the locomotion”

Comment on Millington’s Millridge Swim Club Bulldozed Back into the Great Swamp Landscape by Ann DeFries

Ann DeFries — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 10:38:25 +0000

I remember our family belonged to Millridge swim club back in the mid 60’s. I was very young (younger than 10) but I remember riding down a long dirt road from town to get to the swim club, and I remember there were a lot of trees and also a lot of mosquitos! Our family switched to Mt Kemble swim club after that, and I was on the swim team there.

Comment on Looking Back at Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club by Lisa Craven Thomas

Lisa Craven Thomas — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:15:28 +0000

I was one of the fortunate children who got to grow up at Clover Hill. It was truly a magical place where we learned many life skills and gained may life long friends. My whole family, at one time or another, worked for Bailey Brower. My oldest sister was the assistant water front director at Noe Pond (sister club in Chatham) where she directed water ballet shows with Bailey Brower’s daughter. My brother was head life guard at Copper Springs and my younger sister and myself were life guards at Cover Hill. Later, my brothers’ wife became Browers’ administrative assistant. During our younger years we came up through the ranks of learning to swim as we earned badges that allowed us more access to the lake and dock. We swam on the swim team, played on the tennis team, participated in the water ballet shows (my mom sewed costumes), and participated in all the fun activities the club offered. It was a wonderful childhood.
My life has brought me to NC but one year I went back to visit after the houses were built. The club as I knew it was haunting ghost town. The club house and dock were still there and even the swim team lanes were still in the water. But the place was overgrown with cattails and the dock wasn’t safe to walk on. There was a plaque that had fallen on the floor of the porch that still listed the tennis round robin teams with names of people I knew. It was a sad sight for me and seeing the picture of what it is today, the pond, is sad too, yet beautiful. I am thankful for my memories.

Comment on Basking Ridge Evergreen Cemetery is a Living History Lesson by New Jersey History Project

New Jersey History Project — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:47:55 +0000

In reply to Carolynn Dudley.

Our researchers should be able to help. Drop them a note at info@mrlocalhistory.org – oh and a donation never hurts 🙂

Comment on Basking Ridge Evergreen Cemetery is a Living History Lesson by Carolynn Dudley

Carolynn Dudley — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 20:36:55 +0000

Is there someone who can assist me with information regarding members of the Blazier family buried at the cemetery? I was there some years ago and found the tombstone for Alexander Blazier, his wife Martha, and 4 of their children. I’m looking for their sone Amos Moffett Blazier, as well as any other members of the Blazier family and the Moffett family buried at Evergreen. Is there a registry, or death certificates that are available?

Comment on Looking Back at Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club by Nancy Ritter DePoortere

Nancy Ritter DePoortere — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 12:19:00 +0000

I was young , but I remember learning how to swim at Copper Hill! They’re we’re frogs there too—right? I vaguely remember catching frogs.

Comment on Looking Back at Millington’s Clover Hill Swim Club by Elaine Walker Nelson

Elaine Walker Nelson — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 12:17:11 +0000

Our family loved it here. Many happy memories of summer and also winter skating!

Comment on Reggie’s Playland & Farm: A Forgotten Jazz Club in Millington, NJ by Jan Rasmussen

Jan Rasmussen — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 12:15:52 +0000

Millridge is where a lot of us went. Ridge Class of 1966 after-graduation party was at Millridge. Bill Friars was our swim team coach