The Irish bars of Browns Mills, NJ
Basically, there are three - what used to be O'Brian's (aka Obie's), now Skip's but also know as Franks and whatever, it will always be known as Obie's to the locals.
Then there's JC's, Jack & Connie's, also still known as "JC's" to the natives, and Belly Buster's to those who have only been around the last few years.
The Pub at Country Lakes also qualifies, because it is owned by Chris, who was born in Ireland, where his father owned an historic Irish pub - the ASGARD, named after an historic ship that delievered German arms to the Irish rebels just before the Easter Uprising. A true Irish patriot, married to a Browns Mills girl! Now that was hard to believe.
A fabulous story, yet to be told, and Chris promised to get back to me on it with documentation and published accounts of the whole thing.
More to come on that....
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
USF1 Andretti & Truex
USF1 Andretti & Truex
Andretti and Truex - Marco Andretti and Martin Truex should be the drivers for the new United States Formula One team USF1 - who have officially announced their existence and are setting up Headquarters at Charlotte, North Carolina, home to NASCAR and are activelly seeking new, young, American drivers.
Marco and Marty are a natural combo that would make them competative immediately, though I'm sure it will take awhile for all Americans to get back into the International Formula One mode.
This is the greatest news in years, and Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor are now my new American heros, and I never even heard of them until today.
Having actually witnessed Graham Hill win the Formula One road race through the streets of Monti Carlo in 1970, and receive his trophy from my Ocean City, NJ neighbor Grace Kelly Gramldi, and then actually witnissing Mario Andretti become the first American to win an American Formula One Grand Prix at Long Beach in 1978, it has been totally depressing to see the Formula One circuit go by for decades without an American driver let alone an American team.
The same situation sadly developed along similar lines in America's Cup sail boat racing, leaving two of the most popular world wide sports without American participants at all, a really sad state of affairs.
But now, in the worst possible economic times, along comes two guys - Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, both with serious Formula One experience, establishing a real, solid Formula One team without the benefits and drawbacks of a megabucks, dictitorial owner or corporate motorsport factory sponsor. In other words, a real, makeshift, freelance, independent American owned and operated team, God Bless them!
Charlotte is a natural USA HQ, and Spain is the place in Europe, specifically Valencia, where the F1 circuit recently instituted a new race, ironically replacing the United States Grand Prix, and where the America's Cup sailboat regatta is now held. The facilities there are perfect and unequaled for what USF1 wants to do.
In the USF1 call for drivers, Mario Andretti called the press conference at which they announced these plans over Speed TV, for whom Peter Windsor is a commentator, and threw the hat of his nephew Marco Andretti into the ring. The son of Michael, Mario's son, who I met in Long Beach in 1978, when he was not yet a teenager, Mario is anxious for an opportunity to drive in the international circuit, as his father did in the 1993 season. Uncle Mario was the last American F1 World Champion (1978).
And I think the other driver should be the young Marty Truex, a Jersey Piney, whose father owns a gas station on Route 9 at the Shore, and who used to race at New Egypt speedway when he was a kid. They want to recruit new drivers from NASCAR, and Truex, who had the pole position at this year's Daytona 500, just may want to see what it's like to make left turns in a real road race.
Whoever the drivers are, you know they'll be Americans, and they'll be racing in American built cars, and they'll be racing against the best cars and drivers in the world, and where the winner really is the World Champion.
I'm so glad this happening, I'm going to write a fan letter to Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor and ask them for a job as a janitor, just to be part of what should become a fantastic undertaking.
Someone once told me that bad economic times are best for starting a new business because things can only get better and once they do it all takes off, so maybe this is the perfect time to start a new, $64 millon enterprise.
All of this makes me think of Rob Walker, the journalist who covered the Formula One circuit for Road & Track magazine in the 60s and 70s, and whose avid descriptions of the scene made you feel like you were there, and it didn't matter that it happened a month ago and you already knew who won. He told the story in such a way that he made you feel like you too were part of that fabulous, exciting and historic road race.
While the United States has lost its Grand Prix, at least we now have a team, a real team led by some ingenious and determined Americans, who will at least get us back in the game.
Bill Kelly
Feb. 24, 2009
Andretti and Truex - Marco Andretti and Martin Truex should be the drivers for the new United States Formula One team USF1 - who have officially announced their existence and are setting up Headquarters at Charlotte, North Carolina, home to NASCAR and are activelly seeking new, young, American drivers.
Marco and Marty are a natural combo that would make them competative immediately, though I'm sure it will take awhile for all Americans to get back into the International Formula One mode.
This is the greatest news in years, and Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor are now my new American heros, and I never even heard of them until today.
Having actually witnessed Graham Hill win the Formula One road race through the streets of Monti Carlo in 1970, and receive his trophy from my Ocean City, NJ neighbor Grace Kelly Gramldi, and then actually witnissing Mario Andretti become the first American to win an American Formula One Grand Prix at Long Beach in 1978, it has been totally depressing to see the Formula One circuit go by for decades without an American driver let alone an American team.
The same situation sadly developed along similar lines in America's Cup sail boat racing, leaving two of the most popular world wide sports without American participants at all, a really sad state of affairs.
But now, in the worst possible economic times, along comes two guys - Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, both with serious Formula One experience, establishing a real, solid Formula One team without the benefits and drawbacks of a megabucks, dictitorial owner or corporate motorsport factory sponsor. In other words, a real, makeshift, freelance, independent American owned and operated team, God Bless them!
Charlotte is a natural USA HQ, and Spain is the place in Europe, specifically Valencia, where the F1 circuit recently instituted a new race, ironically replacing the United States Grand Prix, and where the America's Cup sailboat regatta is now held. The facilities there are perfect and unequaled for what USF1 wants to do.
In the USF1 call for drivers, Mario Andretti called the press conference at which they announced these plans over Speed TV, for whom Peter Windsor is a commentator, and threw the hat of his nephew Marco Andretti into the ring. The son of Michael, Mario's son, who I met in Long Beach in 1978, when he was not yet a teenager, Mario is anxious for an opportunity to drive in the international circuit, as his father did in the 1993 season. Uncle Mario was the last American F1 World Champion (1978).
And I think the other driver should be the young Marty Truex, a Jersey Piney, whose father owns a gas station on Route 9 at the Shore, and who used to race at New Egypt speedway when he was a kid. They want to recruit new drivers from NASCAR, and Truex, who had the pole position at this year's Daytona 500, just may want to see what it's like to make left turns in a real road race.
Whoever the drivers are, you know they'll be Americans, and they'll be racing in American built cars, and they'll be racing against the best cars and drivers in the world, and where the winner really is the World Champion.
I'm so glad this happening, I'm going to write a fan letter to Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor and ask them for a job as a janitor, just to be part of what should become a fantastic undertaking.
Someone once told me that bad economic times are best for starting a new business because things can only get better and once they do it all takes off, so maybe this is the perfect time to start a new, $64 millon enterprise.
All of this makes me think of Rob Walker, the journalist who covered the Formula One circuit for Road & Track magazine in the 60s and 70s, and whose avid descriptions of the scene made you feel like you were there, and it didn't matter that it happened a month ago and you already knew who won. He told the story in such a way that he made you feel like you too were part of that fabulous, exciting and historic road race.
While the United States has lost its Grand Prix, at least we now have a team, a real team led by some ingenious and determined Americans, who will at least get us back in the game.
Bill Kelly
Feb. 24, 2009
Farmer George Hits 50 and a Scratch Off
Farmer George Hits 50 and a Scratch Off for $10,000.
Farmer George is one of the most popular regulars at Belly Buster's Bar, also known as J.C.'s, as in Jack & Connie Gillespie when Jack owned it and George's wife, Joanne was Jack's daughter.
Jack sold the bar to Frank, who passed it on to Raham, a University of Tennesee grad from India, who has maintained the local pub like Jack Gillespie used to run it, with a heavy emphesis on keeping the regulars happy.
Farmer George is one of the most popular regulars, mainly because every summer he provides everybody with as many vegtables as they want from his extensive garden.
So it was natural for the regulars to recipicate and throw a 50th birthday party for George, with many of the regulars at the bar bringing in dishes for a special party.
Bill, another local contractor, bought a $5 Double Blackjack scratch off from the New Jersey State lottery, sold on the premesis, and gave it to George, "Happy birthday!"
George sat down and scratched off the double set of cards, with the dealer's hand and the two sets of five player's hands, with the value amount of each hand under it, and one of them registered a $10,000 hit.
George didn't believe it, and gave it to Raham, the owner, to check it out, and Raham plugged in the numbers in the lottery machine and looked at the digital read out and it read a hit for $10,000.00 and gave George the thumb's up.
The laid off, out of work farmer won ten grand on a $5 50th birthday gift. What are the odds?
And now, in these dire economic times, what will he spend it on?
A trip to the islands?
An ocean cruse?
Pay off debts?
Na, George is gong to buy a tractor with the money. A 1944 John Deer tractor, just like the one he first used as a teenager, the one he saw advertised as an antique in the papers and checked out, but couldn't afford to buy, until now.
With this tractor, George promised, he can increase the output of his crops and give even more vegitibles away every summer, so it will come back in kind to everybody.
God works in mysterious ways, but this is one that everyone agrees was in the stars, and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
God bless Farmer George, and may he work magic with his new, old tractor.
BK
Farmer George is one of the most popular regulars at Belly Buster's Bar, also known as J.C.'s, as in Jack & Connie Gillespie when Jack owned it and George's wife, Joanne was Jack's daughter.
Jack sold the bar to Frank, who passed it on to Raham, a University of Tennesee grad from India, who has maintained the local pub like Jack Gillespie used to run it, with a heavy emphesis on keeping the regulars happy.
Farmer George is one of the most popular regulars, mainly because every summer he provides everybody with as many vegtables as they want from his extensive garden.
So it was natural for the regulars to recipicate and throw a 50th birthday party for George, with many of the regulars at the bar bringing in dishes for a special party.
Bill, another local contractor, bought a $5 Double Blackjack scratch off from the New Jersey State lottery, sold on the premesis, and gave it to George, "Happy birthday!"
George sat down and scratched off the double set of cards, with the dealer's hand and the two sets of five player's hands, with the value amount of each hand under it, and one of them registered a $10,000 hit.
George didn't believe it, and gave it to Raham, the owner, to check it out, and Raham plugged in the numbers in the lottery machine and looked at the digital read out and it read a hit for $10,000.00 and gave George the thumb's up.
The laid off, out of work farmer won ten grand on a $5 50th birthday gift. What are the odds?
And now, in these dire economic times, what will he spend it on?
A trip to the islands?
An ocean cruse?
Pay off debts?
Na, George is gong to buy a tractor with the money. A 1944 John Deer tractor, just like the one he first used as a teenager, the one he saw advertised as an antique in the papers and checked out, but couldn't afford to buy, until now.
With this tractor, George promised, he can increase the output of his crops and give even more vegitibles away every summer, so it will come back in kind to everybody.
God works in mysterious ways, but this is one that everyone agrees was in the stars, and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
God bless Farmer George, and may he work magic with his new, old tractor.
BK
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tundra Swans at Whitesbog
The Tundra Swans that come to Whitesbog every year are in town now, and we're planning on going out to take some pictures and record their honks.
There was a full moon tonight - Sunday, January 11, but it was pretty cloudy and cold.
Last night there was a walk scheduled from the town of Whitesbog to the lake or cranburry bogs where the birds hang out and nest.
More to come on this one.
There was a full moon tonight - Sunday, January 11, but it was pretty cloudy and cold.
Last night there was a walk scheduled from the town of Whitesbog to the lake or cranburry bogs where the birds hang out and nest.
More to come on this one.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Ed Gillespie in New Jersey Monthly
From New Jersey Monthly, November 2004 - Garden Variety, p.27 Party Animal
NOT LONG AFTER GRADUATING from Pemberton Township High School, Ed Gillespie got his first job on Capitol Hil - parking cars in the Senate lot. This month, as chairman of the Republican National Committee, Gillespie hopes to drive George W. Bush back to the White House.
Gillespie, 43, whose father, Jack, until recently owned a tavern in Browns Mills, stands out from the suited spin doctors on America's political stge as a blue-colar guy. Well known in Washington as a skilled political strtegist, he's taken on the campaign role of Bush-adminstration pit bull.
After high school, Gillespie attended Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (also the alma mater of Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe). Gillespie took the reins of the GOP in July 2003, and in the ensuing sixteen months helped the party set a presidential campaign fund-rasing record.
Earlier this year, at a church assembly on the campaign trail, Gillespie tapped into his roots. "Growing up in the southern-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area," he said, "I acquired a strong sense of family, work, neighborhood, and community."
When he completes his tenure as chairman, Gillespie plans to return to his own bipartisan lobbying firm, Quinn-Gillespie & Associates, which he co-founded with Jack Quinn, a former White Hosue counsel to President Bill Clinton.
- Bil Kelly
NOT LONG AFTER GRADUATING from Pemberton Township High School, Ed Gillespie got his first job on Capitol Hil - parking cars in the Senate lot. This month, as chairman of the Republican National Committee, Gillespie hopes to drive George W. Bush back to the White House.
Gillespie, 43, whose father, Jack, until recently owned a tavern in Browns Mills, stands out from the suited spin doctors on America's political stge as a blue-colar guy. Well known in Washington as a skilled political strtegist, he's taken on the campaign role of Bush-adminstration pit bull.
After high school, Gillespie attended Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (also the alma mater of Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe). Gillespie took the reins of the GOP in July 2003, and in the ensuing sixteen months helped the party set a presidential campaign fund-rasing record.
Earlier this year, at a church assembly on the campaign trail, Gillespie tapped into his roots. "Growing up in the southern-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area," he said, "I acquired a strong sense of family, work, neighborhood, and community."
When he completes his tenure as chairman, Gillespie plans to return to his own bipartisan lobbying firm, Quinn-Gillespie & Associates, which he co-founded with Jack Quinn, a former White Hosue counsel to President Bill Clinton.
- Bil Kelly
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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