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HOLIDAY PARTY / POT LUCK DINNER
JACK RUSHING
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: December 10, 1994.
Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 30.
Meeting Program: Talk by Folklorist. Pot Luck Dinner Holiday Party.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1995 Philip J De Parto:
The final meeting of the 1994 year was held on Saturday, December 10, 1994 by the Association. The meeting featured a pot luck dinner and a talk by folktale preservationist Jack Rushing.
Doors to the Cultural Center opened at 6:00 PM. Early arrivals Brian Gonigal, Thomas Pope, and Pamela Webber were on hand to help Philip De Parto with the set-up. It wasn't long before others showed up.
Eating and serving tables were soon arranged. Poultry dishes and desserts were the two strongest areas. Foods present included buffalo wings, vegetables and dip from Bobbie and Thom Bauer, barbecued chicken from Paul Dellechiaie, chicken soup from Charles Garofalo, a macaroni and vegetable dish from Sharon Archer, fried chicken from Carol Smith, and Cuban turkey from Pamela Webber. The desserts included carrot cake from Elizabeth Grout, a mountain of bakery cookies from Bill Molendyk, and a double chocolate cake from Robert Savoye.
A combination of inclement weather (the later it got, the worse it rained) and ill health kept turnout a bit lighter than usual, but all things considered, it ran rather smoothly.
After everyone had had their fill, we started the meeting and introduced guest speaker Jack Rushing. Mr Rushing is the Native American lawyer who founded and leads the all volunteer Great Swamp Folklore Project which collects the folk culture, history, sayings and beliefs of the glacial Lake Passaic and its tributaries. His group is active in about eight states and has connections to similar groups all over the world.
Mr Rushing began relating stories he had been told, most, though not all, having a basis in Bergen and the surrounding counties. He simply told the tale and left it up to the audience to believe or disbelieve it.
Among the stories he told were that there were over 150 assassination attempts on George Washington, how he (Washington) lost his timepiece down a shaft near West Point and how some people claim to still hear it ticking, and several stories about a tunnel in West Point.
He talked about the island along the Jersey shore which served as Robert Louis Stevensen's inspiration for TREASURE ISLAND, about the UFO that crashed in Bergen County and what the pilot looked like, and how the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow was a transplanted Dutch folktale of a headless Hessian brought over from Europe.
He told of how Bowling Green got its name fro Dutch settlers who bowled with the skulls of Lenape Indians, of how Lindbergh ran a camp for the National Socialist Party just up the road from the Center, and how the first cowboys got started in New Jersey.
There were tales of the Van Cleefs who got tired of fighting with their neighbors, withdrew to the hills, inbred, and emerged as misshapen dwarves, of the American Revolution soldiers who sold out another company to the British because both had been promised the same land after the war, and of all manner of ne'er-do-wells and things that go bump in the night.
Almost all of the feedback about the presentation was positive. Mr Rushing in turn was extremely pleased with the response from our members as person after person spoke into his microphone and told tales. He was especially interested in Thomas Pope's questions about correlations between Lenapi and Incan creation myths.
After the post meeting clean up, Mary Ann Denny, Paul Dellechiaie, Phil De Parto, Brian Gonigal, Matthew Marcus, Carol Smith, Anthony Tellado, and Pamela Webber headed out to the Horizon Diner for coffee and gossip.