Me and Rod Serling - Enter the Twilight Zone

Rod Serling

Witness one Rod Serling – Standing alone, flesh, blood, muscle and mind. A frustrated actor turned writer, he stands forever in the nightmare of his own creation, pressed into service in the role of narrator for a weekly television drama – The Twilight Zone.

For those who watched and listened, he showed how thin a line separates that which we assume to be real and that which is a product of our own minds.

There is that hauntingly repetitious four-beat score that opens the show, as Serling, dressed conservatively in dark suit and tie, steps out of the shadows and stands in the starry night. With his hands clasped in front of him, he says in his distinctive voice, talking out of the side of his mouth:

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is also an area we call the Twilight Zone.”

Marc Scott Zicree, in his book The Twilight Zone Companion (Bantam, 1982) tells us that the original music for the show was composed by Bernard Herman, who also did such classic film scores as Citizen Kane, Psycho and The Day The Earth Stood Still. Zicree describes it as, “a subtle and lonely piece scored for strings, harp, flute and brass,” but that was replaced after on season “by the more familiar rhythmic theme by French avant-guarde composer Marius Consant.”

As for the name of the show, Serling said, “I thought I’d made it up, but I’ve since heard that there is an Air Force term relating to a moment when a plane is coming down on approach and the pilot cannot see the horizon, it’s called the twilight zone, but it’s an obscure term which I had not heard before.”

Since then the lexicon should show that the CIA psychologists used the term to denote the state of mind of subjects to whom they administered LSD.

But from now on the term “Twilight Zone” will forever be associated with Serling, who conceived the idea for the TV show and wrote many if not most of the scripts. He made the show unique, parlaying an award wining TV drama into the half-hour weekly program that didn’t have the continuity that plots and characters give sit-coms and soap operas.

When word got out that the show would be scary, Serling rejected the advances of agents representing various monster and robot actors who monopolized other sci-fi shows, politely telling them he had something else “in mind.”

And indeed, the Twilight Zone would stimulate endless nightmares, portraying ordinary people in frightening predicaments. But it made people think, and come back for more.

Serling’s contract only called for him to write 80% of the shows, and for Orson Wells to do the narration, but when Orson Wells required more money than they were allocated, and others just didn’t seem right, Serling volunteered to do the narration himself. While it turned out to be the most familiar and endearing part of the series, it was also Serling’s own personal nightmare, as he had stage fright.

The producers and director were at first skeptical of Serling himself doing the opening dialog, but then, as Serling put it, “They looked at me and said, ‘Hell, at least he’s articulate and speaks English, so let’s use him.’ Only my laundress knows how frightened I was.”

According to Zicree, “Serling had more problems adjusting to his on screen role than just stumbling over the occasional word.”

Director Lamont Johnson said, “Rod was a very nervous man before the camera. When he had to do lead in time he would go through absolute hell. He would sweat and sputter and go pale. He was terribly ill at ease in front of a camera.”

Like all successful TV programs, they last only as long as the scripts maintain a certain quality, and writing is what Serling did best.

Born Rodman Edward Serling on Christmas day 1924 in Syracuse, New York, Serling was the second son of Ester and Samuel Serling, his father a wholesale meat dealer.

Popular, outspoken and confident, Serling read pulp paperback novels and mimicked movie actors as a kid. He went in for dramatics in high school, and served as a paratrooper in the Philippines during World War II. After the service he attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and started writing radio scripts and bad poetry.

His wife Carol, who published a Twilight Zone magazine that featured original short fiction, recalls that Rod’s writing habits got him up at dawn. After grabbing a cup of coffee, he would “dictate his scripts into a tape machine.” Often, if the weather was nice, he’d take the machine outside with him and sit by the pool.”

One friend noted, “He is the only person I knew who could get a tan and make money at the same time.”

After five seasons of the Twilight Zone, Serling hosted another TV weekly, The Night Gallery, which also developed short story themes.

Then, years after Serling’s death, they made The Twilight Zone movie, which adapted a few of the original shows to film. It partially succeeded, but the death of actor Vic Morrow and two children in its making put a stigma on the production.

While Serling wrote most of the Twilight Zone TV segments, only “It’s a Grand Life,” about a spoiled boy with supernatural powers, was written by Serling that is included in the film. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” which originally stared William Shatner, was written by Richard Matheson, and first published in the Anthology “Alone By Night” (Ballentine, 1961), while “Kick the Can” was written by George Clayton Johnson.

Johnson once said, “On the Twilight Zone, there was an attempt to keep it literary, to keep it bright, to keep it good. No one in the show ever suggested that something would be good enough – although that’s common today in commercial television. Just to do it good enough. Quality control counted in the Twilight Zone.”

In his last published interview several months before his death, Serling said, “I just want them to remember me a hundred years from now. I don’t care that they’re not able to quote a single line that I’ve written. But just that they can say, ‘Oh, he was a writer,’ That’s sufficiently an honored position for me.”

In May, 1975, Serling suffered a mild heart attack while scheduled to give a lecture at a college in upstate New York, and had to have a coronary bypass operation.

When I read in the news papers that he was in the hospital, I sent him a small note, mentioning that I too had attended classes at Antioch College while a student at the University of Dayton, Ohio, and included a poem by William Bulter Yeats, from Supernatural Songs – The Four Ages of Man.

“He with body waged a fight, but body won, it walks upright.
Then he struggled with the heart, innocence and peace depart.
Then he struggled with the mind, his proud heart he left behind.
Now his war on God begins; at stroke of midnight, God shall win.”

A few days later, on June 28, 1975, after ten hours of open heart surgery, complications arose and Rod Serling died. I heard about it on television at home in Ocean City, and wondered if he ever got my note.

The next day I went out on the porch and took the mail from the mail box and was surprised to see one postmarked from upstate New York. The corner of the envelope said it was from Rod Serling.

I could hear the music from the Twilight Zone as I opened the envelop – Da da, da da, da, da, da da....

It was brief and to the point, typewritten, apparently dictated and signed, thanking me for the poem, and saying that he was really worse off than what the newspapers had let it out to be, and that he wouldn’t be working on any projects for awhile.

And now he’s stuck in that middle ground between light and shadow, and is remembered not as a writer, but as our host in his personal nightmare – the Twilight Zone.
Now whenever anything strange or unexpected happens, we hear the faint strains of that music, and quickly turn around, half-expecting to see him standing there, in dark suit and tie, hands clasped in front of him, welcoming us.

Hildreth House Ghost - Cape May County

The Hildreth House Ghost

Something strange in your neighborhood? Who should you call if your house was haunted by a particularly pesky ghost?

When the Sawyer family became disturbed by the strange events that occurred at an old Cape May County farmhouse they bought and opened a store, they called the ASPR – the American Society for Psychical Research. It’s the closet thing you can get to real ghostbusters.

They are not quacks who try to convince others of the reality of the para-normal, the ASPR was founded in 1885 by eminent American scholars, including William James. They attempt, instead, to find rational explanations for reputed psychic phenomenon. Based in New York City, it is an off-shoot of an even older British Society for Psychical Research.

The ASPR dispatched a team to Cape May County that included Dr. Karl Osis to investigate the Sayer’s Cape May house, and they concluded that the house may actually be haunted, calling it, “a poltergeist case without an identifiable living agent.”

Built in 1772 by Joshua Hildreth, a New England whaler who relocated to this area and took up cattle raising, the house is one of the oldest structures in Cape May county. It has survived a fire, been enlarged several times, and was moved 100 yards down a hill to its present location about a century ago.

The house remained in the Hildreth family until 1976 when it was purchased by a women and her son, who sold it to the Sawyers in 1978.

Although the house was reputed to have been haunted for some time, the only witness to kenetic (the movement of objects) and poltergeist (unexplained noises) activity indicate the strange events only began to occur in the 1970s when the house was owned by the last of the Hildreth descendents.

One lady, a widow who reportedly saw apparitions, experienced flickering lights, saw objects move and heard footsteps, is said to have disliked staying in the house alone.

The next owner, a women and her son, reported to have seen apparitions, heard footsteps and had a burglar alarm continuously malfunction.

When the Sawyers bought the house in 1978 they made major renovations in converting it into a Christmas gift shop they named Winterwood. They found, through hundreds of incidents to dozens of people, that a particularly annoying spirit was in their midst. It seemed liked it came out of the woodwork and liked to play with the electrical system.

The history of the house, engraved on a plaque by the front entrance jokingly warns customers not to be disturbed by Hestor, “the resident ghost,” named after an old spinster who once lived there.

It wasn’t funny at first. So many bizarre and unexplained incidents occurred that the Sawyers contacted ASPR at their 73rd Street offices in New York. With the cooperation of the Sawyer family, Dr. Osis and his associates undertook an objective investigation. Making several visits to Cape May county, Dr. Osis and his team took statements from witnesses and neighbors, searched local historical society records and even tried to acoustically record the poltergeist phenomenon in the best ghostbuster fashion.

In August 1980 Dr. Osis gathered his findings and gave a lecture on the Hildreth House ghost to the twenty-third annual convention of the Parapsychilogical Association in Reykjavik, Iceland, and published his report in the June 1982 issue of the Journal of the ASPR.

Osis and his associate Donna McCormic called their report, “A Poltergeist Case Without Identifiable Living Agent.”

The word poltergeist is from the German – polter – which means noise – and geist, or ghost, and refers to a particularly noisy ghost or “a spirit assumed to be explanation of rapping and unexplained noises.”

In his report, Dr. Osis said that after talking with 31 people, “Twenty-four of the persons interviewed reported observations of the phenomenon.” He made sure that it was not merely a concocted practical joke or an attempt by the Sawyer family to increase their business by exaggerating the existence of the ghost.

Their trust in the Sawyer’s sincerity was boosted by the fact that one witness included a former employee who was not on good terms with the family, and Mr. Sawyer’s embarrassment at not being able to control the electrical malfunctions because he also owned an electrical company.

Osis also said that he took pains to ensure the accuracy of statements and that he, “inquired into the attitudes and possible bias of observers regarding the paranormal.”

“For the most part,” Osis said, “they told us of an initial, healthy skepticism about such matters and expressed belief in some logical explanations for the disturbances. However, subsequent personal observations usually changed their views.”

One of the first bizarre incidents occurred to one electrician who was working overtime in the house shortly after 11 pm. “I was installing recepticals,” the worker said, “and needed more recepticals, so I went out to my truck to get them. When I came back, the tools I had left on the table were scattered over the floor. They were scattered as if somebody had thrown them on the floor.”

Other kenectic activity almost became routine. A file cabinet drawer kept sliding open repeatedly as a book keeper kept closing it, an adding machine suddenly switched on and began punching out zeros, an unwound grandfather clock chimes frequently and customers have been startled by music boxes that suddenly start to play for no apparent reason.

A light socket fell off the ceiling a few seconds before a door slammed shut. When they opened the store one morning they found dolls placed in a circle on the floor with their shoes off as if they were having a séance.

When the Sawyers decided to have a séance of their own in an attempt to communicate with the restless spirit a tile came dislodged from a fireplace, slid across the floor and struck a participant.

Mrs. Sand Sawyer’s daughter Cindi was skeptical until she was spooked one night after work when she lost her keys and her and her boyfriend were accidently locked inside the store. The keys were later found stashed on a shelf where no one would have put them on purpose.

Now convinced it is a friendly ghost, she shows inquiring visitors around the house that has been converted into a retail store lined with display items – small Christmas knickknacks, china, linen and the like. In a backroom she points to a fireplace, the mantle of which was carved by a Hessian soldier who was harbored by Joshia Hildreth after defecting from the British army during the revolutionary war.

“Some people even say that the soldier is the ghost,” Cindi says, “because footsteps have been heard going up the steps to the bedroom. Then there’s two thuds as if he took his boots off and threw them on the floor.”

But she is quick to add that, “other people have heard women’s voices talk, not laughing, but in a serious discussion,” so they’re not sure of the gender of the spirit, or whether it is a number of different spirits.

She talks of Hester as if it’s a member of the family rather than an unwelcome guest, err ghost. “It adds personality to the house,” she says, “and likes electrical stuff, lights, alarms, video cameras, the sterio, things like that.”

Burglar and fire alarms would malfunction, be replaced, and break down again. A video camera used to monitor the backroom would move so it faced the wall, and more than one employee has experienced the music system click on without any physical manipulation. When a sewing machine began running automatically a gift shop manager said, “we had to pull the plug to stop it. It was very strange.”

Osis investigated and found that the sewing machine had a “triple switching mechanism, so before it will operate it has to be switched on, then the appropriate button pushed for switch density, and finally the foot pedal depressed. The machine will not function if any one of these switches is not activated.”

Each time he visited the house, Dr. Osis brought along a different psychic, supposedly “sensitive” to such spirits for the purpose of “identifying a deceased agent.” According to Osis, “The impressions they received in the house were tape recorded before they had any contact with gift shop personnel. We evaluated these impressions by submitting them to persons who had knowledge of the history of the house and its former occupants. Only one of the sensitives, Ingid Beckman reported impressions about a possible deceased agent which tallied with verifiable history.”

She described a women who was identified as Hestor, “the more active of two sisters who lived in the house all their lives.” Hestor was born in 1859 and died in 1949.

Beckman described a women who was, “proud of her family heritage, they were leading citizens and she feels that they sank very, very low. She was left very much to herself,…she was very degraded in the end. She had to go for subsidies…”

This women, according to the psychic, was an active member of a prestigious organization, “more than the community, it’s like a state group or a national group, and has something to do with history.” The impression the psychic had of her motives was that she was “lingering” in the house to defend her family name and the integrity of the house.

Osis said that, “We found out from those who had known Hestor that she was indeed quite proud, especially of her family name; and they had in fact been leading citizens in the community – one of the oldest families, may of whom held public office…(but) towards the end of her life she was forced to accept financial help, which was quite embarrassing for her.”

Hestor was also a member, an official “Master” of the local chapter of the Grange, the national farmer’s organization.

This psychic according to Osis, “gave a fairly detailed and accurate description of Hestor’s physical appearance, and also of her personality and lifestyle.

“In conclusion,” Osis said in his report, “we can say that our investigation of the various explanations for the individual events and our analysis of the data obtained in interviews with witnesses failed to reveal any living poltergeist agent. But the data do seem to suggest – though they do not definitely identify – a deceased agent.”

Tara's Tavern Cookstown NJ

 

The closed Cookstown Diner is what you see from the front door of Tara's Tavern.

It used to be Mike's, a biker bar with a juke box and pool table and motorcycles parked outside.

Now it's the new, totally renovated Tara's Tavern, with an upscale brass and glass and mohagany panelled rustic motif.

Technically it is 1 Cookstown-New Egypt Road, in New Hanover, and is owned by Tara D. Bruni, Tara's American Bar and Grill is located on the crossroads corner where the roads to Wrightstown (Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakeurst - JBMDL) and New Egypt and Browns Mills.

It's in the heart of the Jersey Pines, on the north side of the sprawling military base but has easy access from all three directions.


Open for lunch and dinner every day except Tuesdays (11 AM - 10 PM), the menu is upscale, with heafty portions and though a bit pricy, it is really good, and they give a 15% military discount on food on Monday-Wednesday and Thursday.

Rumor on the street however, has Howard the tall, thin bartender from Clarke's in Mt. Holly (now John & Molly's), behind the bar at Tara's. A real professional bartender with interests in music and sports, Howard is very personable and definately an asset.

Samples from the menu:

Garden Fresh Salads

House Salad - $6.99
Spinach Salad - $8.99 \
Signature Waldorf Vinaigrette - $9.99
Classic Caesar - $7.99

All American Favorites

Turkey Club Sandwich with Chips - $7.99
Pork Roll with Chips - $6.99
All-American Hot Dog with Chips - $5.99
Fried Chicken Fingers with Fries - $7.99
Fried Shrip Basket with Fries - $8.99

CHEF'S SELECTION

Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich - $7.99
Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwich - $6.99\

BEST BURGHERS EVER

1/2 Pound Fresh Grilled USDA Ground Beef - $6.99
Also available as Turkey or Veggie Burger

Mushroom Swiss Burger - $7.99
Bacon Blue Cheese Burger - $7.99
Jersey Burger - $7.99

Grilled Chicken Sandwichs $7.99
(Ranch, Buffalo, Tara's Favorite - cajun spices, BBQ, fried onions, Monterey Jack, with Fries)

ENTREES

Hearty Beef Stew - $13.99
Lemon Chciken $12.99
BBQ Saint Louis Ribs - $15.99
Homemade Maryland Style Crab Cakes - $18.99

16 oz New York Sirloin - $18.99
16 oz Rib Eye - $17.99
Tilapia - $15.99
Cheese Ravioli w/ vodka sauce - $10.99

CHEF's SELECTION

8 oz Filet Mignon - $15.99
Savoy White Bolognese (Sausage) $16.99
Grilled Salmon - $16.99

APPS -

Buffalo WIngs - $6.99
BB or Cajun WIngs - $6.99
Cajun Angels shrimp - $8.99
Mussels Marinara - $9.99
Chicken Fingers - $6.99
Roasted Clams - $8.99
Grilled Veggie Platter - $8.99
Nachos Supreme - $8.99
Sizzlin' Potato Skins - $6.99

Homemade Baked Maryland Crab Dip - $9.99

Clams Rockefeller - $9.99

Soups

New England Clam Chowder - $2.99 -$3.99
Crock of French Onion - $3.99
Beef Chile - $3.99

CHILDREN'S Menu - $4.99

MORE TO COME ON TARA'S -

BK

BOMARC Broken Arrow Witness Checks In

 

BOMARC Nuke Missle Broken Arrow Witness Checks In

When I first discovered the White Deer an old Piney told me that they were contaminated by radiation from the BOMARC missle meltdown. While I know that is now a Piney Myth, I looked into the BOMARC story and found that on June 7, 1960, a fire errputed at the BOMARC base on the far northeast side of Fort Dix/McGuire AFB, now Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst - JBMDL.

I learned what happned from news reports, but couldn't locate any witnesses who were actually there at the time, and wrote up what I learned in an article posted here:
WMD - Weapons of Mass Destruction In My Backyard, that as far as I know, noone has ever read.

In any case, the 60th anniversary of the event came and went on June 7, 2010, with scant notice in the media, but I did attend a public briefing of the clean up efforts then still being undertaken at the Cookstown Municiple building.

I think I was the only reporter present among the dozen there, and I sat next to Col. Grasso, now General Grasso and the Commander of JBMDL on one side, and a young, twenty something guy on my other side, who I later learned was actually responsible for the cleanup of the contamination itself.

The fire that consumed one of the missles totally destroyed the missle itself, and melted the nuke tipped bomb, which everyone would have known about if it exploded.

The local New Egypt Volunteer Fire Department and others put out the fire the best way they knew how - by pouring water on it, which then dissipitated through the sandy soil or flowed out in concrete drainage ditches and under the highway 557 to the Colliers Wildlife Refuage across the street.

As was explained in the briefing and slide show, much of the debree and top soil was removed and trucked away, by pineys to who knows where, but the recent effort focused on the radioactive contamination in the remaining soil that they said was easy to locate and remove - which they did with paint brushes and spoons. The radioactive elements were very heavey, and large, so they could be recognized and scooped up by the brushes into the spoons and then combined so they knew exactly how much they retreived and how much was still missing.

In the end, the most disturbing aspect of the whole briefing was the fact that they acknowledged they didn't know what became of the large, metal rocket launcher, a 47 foot long metal girder that weighed a ton, or a large water drainage pipe that ran under the road and was removed sometime after the incident, but who knows where?

Well now, thanks to Jim Fridley, we know where the rocket launcher went - to a Trenton junk yard.

According to an Editoral in the (Sunday, May 1, 2011) Trentonian newspaper (By Dave Neese), Jim Fridley, who now lives in Nixa, Mo., in the Ozark Mountains, looked up the BOMARC meltdown on the internet, and came across some articles published in The Trentonian and contacted them.

Fridley, at the time of the incident, was an 18 year old in the Air Force, who was working very close to the missle that exploded.

According to the offical report, "The missle launcher is believed to have been moved...shorlty after the accident. However, its location remains unknown, and no verified record indicating the method of disposal is known to exist."

Well Fridley recalls that they placed the launcher on the back of a truck and he escourted it to a scrapyard in West Trenton.

It shouldn't be hard to find a 1960 junk yard in West Trenton where it was taken and see if they have any records.

And now, with that mystery solved, the Army Corp of Engineers or the Ocean County Roads Department should be able to determine what became of the missing dranage pipe that ran under the road.

JBMDL Restaurant Guide - Browns Mills

JBMDL Restaurant Guide

Joint Base McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst

Restaurant Guide to Browns Mills, New Jersey

ALBAS PIZZA – Acme Shopping Center – 893-6808 / 893-6809. (Since 1976) Italian – Pizza – Hoagies – Cheesesteaks, lunch specials, salads, antipastas, lasange, Sicilian specials.

BELLY BUSTERS (Formerly J.C.’s) – 98 Lakehurst Road. 893-7779. Delivers. Under new management, customers take over kitchen. Fresh soups, fried chicken, wings, ribs, hoagies, cheesteaks, poppers, potato logs, ¼ pound hot dogs, chili, French fries, burgers.

BEST BUFFET – Pine Grove Plaza (New Acme Shopping Center) – 735-9300. Chinese. Visa/MC.

BOBO’S CHINESE – Lakehurst Road. 893-1797. Country Lakes Shopping Center. Visa/MC. 11am – 10 pm.

BROTHER’S DINER – 127 Trenton Road – 893-5500. From 6am – 12 midnight. BYOB. Visa/MC. Sam & Cavit prop. [www.brothersdiner.com]

BURGER KING – Pemberton-Browns Mills-Lakehurst Road – 893-988.

CAROL’S SOUL FOOD – WaWa Shopping Center, Lakehurst Road. Take out Southern chicken, oxtail, collar greens, pies, baked beans, salads, fish, catfish.

CHINA KING – Midtown Plaza Shopping Center. Lakehurst Road. Take out.

CINCO DEMAYO – Pemberton-Browns Mills Road – Old Shopping Center – 735-9904. Mexican take out.

COUNTRY LAKES WAWA – Country Lakes Shopping Center.

COUNTRY LAKES PUB – Chris’ Irish Pub, beer and booze to go, cigars, grill, pool tables, English darts, heated outside smoke deck, spots on TV.

CROWN CHICKEN – Pemberton-Browns Mills Road – Old Shopping Center – 893-9500.

DOMINO’S PIZZA – 100 Lakehurst Road. 893-1600. Deliver.

DUNKIN’DONUTS – Trenton Road. Donuts. Breakfast, Coffee by the pound.

FAMILY PIZZA – Lakehurst Road. 735-0500. Italian pizza, wings, sandwiches. Delivers.

GREAT WALL – Browns Mills Shopping Center – Pemberton-Browns Mills Road . 893-1783

HORNETS NEST – Steak & Seafood House. Lakehurst Road.

JU JU’S – 7 Julistown Road (Wa Wa Shopping Center) Seafood & Soul food Take-Out. 893-2020

KO KO’S – Midtown Plaza Shopping Center – Breakfast, lunch grill. No Hurries here. Food is good and cheap. Service until 2pm. Closed Wednesdays.

LAKESIDE GRILL – (Formally Sonja’s) – Trenton Road. 893-03629. Breakfast Grill. German. Across from St. Ann’s “In the Pines” Catholic Church; Martucci family.

LEVILLA - Browns Mills Shopping Center, Pemberton-Browns Mills Road – 893-7760. Delivers. Visa/MC. Panzoritti.

MARTUCCI’S DELI – 396 Lakehurst Road. (Since 1979). 893-2400/Fax 893-2152. Homemade salads, Boar’s Head cold cuts, coffee, burgers, fried chicken, subs, seafood.

MCDONALDS – Trenton Road – 893-6992. Eat in Take Out, open late, drive through, hot spot for lap tops. Breakfast til ’11.

NO. 1 CHINESE – Mill Village Shopping Center (behind WaWa) 893-8868/893-1960 – (Visa, MC) 11am-10:30pm. Lunch specials.

PAPI’S PIZZA – 558 Lakehurst Road, Country Lakes Shopping Center. 893-5447. Fax. 893-3984. Delivers. Visa/MC/Disc. 11am-10pm.

PIG & WHISTLE – Cold beer and booze to go; Wa Wa Shoping Center – Lakehurst Road, Browns Mills.

QUICK STOP – HUNGRY PINEY DELI – 13 Browns Mills-Pemberton Road. 893-0555/893-0005. Fax 893-0559. Booze and Sandwiches. Delivers.

RICCARDO’S – 567 B Lakehurst Road (Country Lakes) 735-0162 /fax-735-1582. Visa/MC/Ax/Disc. Italian. Pizza, salads, pasta, club sandwiches, hoagies, cheesesteaks, oven baked grinders, wraps, Stromboli, calzones. Fish, veal.

SOPRANO’S PIZZA – Midtown Shopping Center, 519 B. Lakehurst Road. 735-9900. Deliver. Original Panzarotti.

SUBWAY – Lakehurst Road. Eat Fresh Franchise.

TOWN DELI – 336 Lakehurst Road. 893-3889. ATM. Phonecards. NJ Lottery. Best Italian hoagies in town.

PEMBERTON

BERGER KING – Eat in Take out. Rt. 38 and Bypass Road.
CHARLIE’S OTHER BROTHER – (Four Stars).
COUNTRY HOUSE – Anapa’s – (Five Stars)
DUNKIN’DONUTS – Rt. 38. And Bypass Road.
JAMESON’S – Bar & Grill.
SUPER WA WA –

MT. HOLLY
BUZZ’S TAVERN – Grill, draft beer, outside café, near courthouse.
CHARLIE BROWN’S – Burlington Road, 541.
DADZ BAR - & GRILL – Rt. 38. Classic bar, indoor outdoor.
DEMPSTER’S – Sports Bar & Grill. Rt. 38.
MILL STREET SALOON – (Oldest bar in NJ) -
JOHN & MOLLY’S – Bar & Grill. (Formerly Clarkes). Draft beer, good food. Live music on Friday nights.

CHESTERFIELD
CHESTERFIELD INN – (1710) 300 year old neighborhood tavern, bar Louisiana grill, fine dining, friendly ghost, former waitress.

COLUMBUS
CORNER HOUSE BAR – Grill -
COLUMBUS HOUSE – Historic

WRIGHTSTOWN

KELLY’S BAR & GRILL /SUBWAY
KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken –
PAPA JOHN’S PIZZA –
SNITCHELHOUSE – German -
SUBWAY – (At KELLY’s BAR & GRILL)
TACO BELL
WENDYS
YARDONAS – Main Street – Italian.


NEW EGYPT –

AMERICA HOUSE BAR -
BROTHER’S DINER – (Old Plumbstead).
TOOTIE’S – Dining Inside. Best icecream, eat in, take out.
WA WA -

Sensory Deprevation Experiments at Stockton

SENSORY DEPREVATION EXPERIMENTS AT STOCKTON – By William Kelly ]

Astronauts do it to prepare for space flight, casino workers do it to relax, athletes do it to refine their concentration, trainers use it to relieve muscle pressure and mental stress, doctors prescribe it to elevate pain, and students do it for college credit.

Originally called sensory deprivation, it has been a scientific research device for decades, and is now being marketed for public use at floatation-relaxation centers.

It is a coffin-like tank with a heavy concentration of Epson salts in a few inches of water that makes for a buoyancy that’s a close to weightlessness as you can get at sea level.

The Philadelphia Eagles used to have one in their locker room to take pressure off the muscles of injured players. Stockton students and teachers built one or academic studies, and Ken Bolis opened the “Float Center” in Atlantic City where most of his clients were anxiety riddled casino workers who have to cut off their sensory input before they short circuit.

Developed in the early 1950s in response to Korean Cold War communist brain washing techniques, isolation tanks were looked upon as a “magic box” cure-al for a number of maladys.

Dr. John C. Lilly began studying sensory deprivation after a Canadian researcher, Donald Habb, discovered that the brain begins to play tricks when a person stops receiving signals from the senses. Solitary confinement has always been recognized as an effective tool in brainwashing and punishment, and Habb’s subjects, lying in bed with their eyes, ears, hands and nose covered, began to hallucinate and became disoriented from laying four days without sensory input.

Lilly’s experiments however, were conducted in tanks of his own devising, with the subject sitting face up floating in a heavily salinated layer of water, which resulted in a not totally unpleasant experience. Subjects who cut off their senses and endured prolonged periods in “Lilly’s Pond” still suffered hallucinations, but durations of short terms were found to produce various positive effects that could be theroputic.

Lilly, a neurophysiologist, biophysicist and psychoanalyst, is better known for his work with dolphins. After performing an autopsy on a dolphin that washed ashore on the east coast, Lilly noticed how similar the marine mammal’s brain was in size and shape to the human brain. That explained the animal’s remarkable intelligence, and stimulated research into its language and inter-species communication.

But Lilly’s sensory deprivation experiments predated his dolphin research, and his theories went against the commonly held belief that sensory deprivation led to terrifying results, mental disturbance and disorientation. Lilly maintained that the hallucinations resulted from the brain trying to maintain an active level while being cut off from stimuli, and in the absence of direct stimuli, programed material stored away in memory banks were called up in the mind’s eye.

Rather than a threat to man’s reason and sanity, he saw it as an opportunity to study the brain and the sub-conscious mind, and possibly use the techniques in therapy, learning and liberating the spirit rather than destroying or controlling it for evil purposes.

Dr. Shelby Broughton, of Ocean City, New Jersey, a chemistry professor at Stockton State College in the 70s and 80s, studied with Lilly and conducted academic research on the effects of isolation at Stockton years ago.

In an interview with Broughton at the time, he said that, “Basically we found that a person gets out of the tank what he expects before he gets into it. What a person wants to get out of the experience , and their predisposition Is important.”

Shelby Broughton first became acquainted with Lilly’s work in the early 1970’s while engaged in inter-disciplinary studies at Stockton when Marine biology students mentioned Lilly’s work with dolphins. “Quite by coincidence,” Broughton explained, “I was sent an application to attend a workshop-seminar with Lilly at the University of California, Berkley that was sponsored by the Esalan Institute.”

Broughton sent it off and was one of 40 participants selected to work with Lilly in the use of the tank, construction methodology and devising possible applications. He returned to Stockton and started a study group of select students who constructed an isolation tank for about $500. “The most expensive component was a water heater,” he said, comparing it to today’s state-of-the-art tanks that cost over $2,000.

While long term sensory deprivation may lead the mind to wander into subconscious crevices in some dark corner of the brain, short periods of time in the tank, or “the box” as the Stockton community came to call it, could be therapeutic.

“The tank is an awareness tool,” Lilly said, “like meditation, like Gestalt, like psychotherapy, like a hammer or a saw,...the tank assists us in a very simple function: it allows us to expand our awareness of our internal state of being.”

Saint Rubin Amaro, Jr.

 

Rubin Amaro, Jr.

The Four Aces

Not Al Alberts and his acapella group from Philly who sang schmaltz songs through the fifties and sixties, but Cliff Lee, Roy Halliday, Roy Oswaldt and Cole Hammels. Now there's Four Aces for you.

As everybody who lives in New Jersey knows and understands, those who live in North Jersey are New York sports fans and support the Yankees, Giants, Mets, Knicks and Devils, while those who live in South Jersey are Philadelphia sports fans, who root for the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and 76ers.

So the news that filtered out of offices of the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers was that they were notified late Monday night that they lost in their bidding war for free agent starting pitcher Cliff Lee, which was surprising because as far as anybody knew they were the only teams in the running for the top prized ace.

To the surprise of practically everybody, Lee turned down six and seven year deals with the Yankees and Rangers for over a hundred and fifty million dollars in order to signe with the Philadelphia Phillies for fifty millions and two years less.

There should be an exclamation point after that statement, but in retrospect, it should be so surprsing since Lee didn't wanted to be traded after helping the Phillies get back to the World Series, only to lose to the Yankees in six games, with Lee winning two.

Lee went to Seatle and then to the Rangers, where he performed similar duties for the Rangers, getting them to the World Series only to lose to the San Fran Giants.

After mentioning more than once that the best time he ever had in baseball was to play for the Phillies and pitch against the Yankees in the World Series, and knowing that his wife had expressed displeasure at having been spit on by Yankee fans, she too pulled some weight in expressing her fondness for Philadelphia.

What's with Philadelphia that would have someone turn down fifty million dollars in order to work and play there?

Cheesesteaks. Tastycakes. Scrapple. South Street. The Four Aces.

Al Alberts and the Four Aces adaquetly represent the schmaltz nature of Philadelphia, where do wop singers can be found singing on street corners outside walk way cheesteak grills.

And for some reason, Cliff Lee, the guy Rubin Amaro, Jr. gave up to get Roy Halliday, has redeemed himself and pulled off the most remarkable deal of the century, bringing Cliff Lee back to Philadelpia.

Oh, yea, Rubin Amaro, Jr., the son of Rubin, Sr., fan favorite, Cuban born shortstop for popular Phillies championship team, later coach while his son was a bat boy, Stanford national champion as leadoff batter, professonal player with three teams, including Phillies, so when he retired from playing, he quickly found a job in the Phillies front office. There he stayed for ten years before taking over the General Manager job shortly after the Phillies won the World Series.

After swinging the deal for Lee, the Philly fans turned on Amaro, questioning his judgements in trading Lee in order to get Halliday, but now, after acquring Oswaldt, and now signing Cliff Lee, Amaro has achieved Saint Status in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

God Bless Rubin Amaro, Jr.