 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
Raritan Canal, having grown up in the canal town of
South Bound Brook. For over two decades I have
served on the board of the Canal Society of New
Jersey and, with my husband, Robert, I have led canal
tours throughout the Northeast. On vacation, we enjoy
cruising (at the leisurely pace of 5 miles per hour) on
the historic canals of England, Scotland, France,
Canada, and other countries.
In addition to writing many canal and travel articles, I
have served as the curator of the Mule Tenders
Barracks Museum on the banks of the D&R Canal in
Griggstown, New Jersey. A retired teacher, I have
written two books on the D&R Canal for Arcadia
Publishing. My children’s picture book, Bridgetender’s
Boy, was published by the National Canal Museum in
2005.
bought a fuel tank from a World War II airplane.
Splitting the tank in half, he made two floats for a
catamaran. (A catamaran is a boat with two parallel
hulls or floats; it is usually a light sailboat with a
mast mounted on a frame joining the hulls.)
After adding a mast and a sail, we cruised the
Delaware & Raritan Canal in South Bound Brook.
Some years later, on Halloween, pranksters
punched holes in the floats, and the boat sank in
the canal.
In the picture at the right, my dad is paddling as
his mother, Clara Riggs, and my mom, Louise,
enjoy the ride. Since this trip occurred a mere five
months before my birth, I must have been along for
the ride.
Elementary School and graduated in 1965 from Bound Brook High School. My
favorite class was journalism, taught by Marilyn Ballas.
At Paterson State College, in Wayne, New Jersey, I majored in elementary
education. While living in Pioneer Hall, I edited and wrote the dorm newsletter, my
first attempt at writing for an audience.
After doing my student teaching at Crim School in the Bridgewater-Raritan
Regional School District, I began my career at the Finderne Elementary School,
teaching fourth grade. When that building closed in 1983, the faculty moved just
down the road to Adamsville School, where I stayed until my retirement in 1994.
While teaching, I also wrote and edited newsletters for my church and for the
Friends of the Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage, a state historic site in
Somerville.
to write, but I also hoped to be active in the historical community.
While visiting John Auciello, the chief ranger of the Delaware &
Raritan Canal State Park, I happened to ask if he needed any help.
"How would you like to work at the Mule Tenders Barracks
Museum?" he asked.
And so, my team of volunteers and I created new exhibits,
freshened up those displays already in the museum, and held a
grand re-opening in May of 1995. The building was kept open for
visitors on weekdays and a dedicated corps of guides greeted
park-users on weekends.
All was going smoothly until September 1999, when the remnants
of Hurricane Floyd hit the Millstone and Raritan river valleys,
causing massive flooding. Muddy water filled the entire first floor of
the Barracks Museum, ruining some exhibits and leaving the rest
covered with chocolate-colored mud.
Volunteers helped with the cleaning of exhibits, but the building
has not yet been restored by the State Park System.
needed a driving guide that listed canal sites along the way. Thus began my
research into creating A Driving Guide to Canal Sites Along I-95. Combining maps
and detailed driving directions, this book lists and locates nearly one hundred sites
from Maine to Florida, all within 25 miles of the interstate.
As Bob and I travel, I often keep a running record of the places we visit and the
folks that we meet. An article on our cruise aboard the Emita II, on the Erie Canal,
was published in the travel section of many of the Gannett newspapers.
In 2001 I began borrowing photo collections from the Canal Society and the D&R
Canal Commission. Putting the pictures in order to tell the story of the canal, I
added captions and produced, in 2002, The Delaware and Raritan Canal, for the
Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing.
Two years later, having found a treasure trove of additional photographs, I wrote
the follow-up, The Delaware and Raritan Canal at Work, also for Arcadia.
During this time I had also been working on the manuscript for Bridgetender's Boy,
but had not found an illustrator. Two different artists had begun drawings for the
book, but each had conflicts with job requirements. What to do?
Just when I had run out of ideas, Doreen Lorenzetti, a member of my writing group,
asked if she could illustrate the book. She was the ideal choice! Working all
summer, Doreen created the beautiful illustrations that bring the story to life. My
characters and Doreen's children were the same ages, so her family is forever
immortalized in Bridgetender's Boy.