Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

Almost as good as the fireworks:

Here are four Hackensack and two Macy's fireworks shots (you can see the illuminated - and under construction - One World Trade Center on the far right).

If anyone else took fireworks pictures tonight, post 'em here.

Anyone see the sky at sunset? It was almost as good. I'll post that tomorrow.

What a crappy night for shooting distant fireworks. Low visibility and low cloud cover meant that some fireworks that shot real high weren't visible when they exploded. Take a look at the first picture (Maywood) whose top is chopped off by clouds (the building on the left is 5 Linden St at Passaic St).

The second shot - also from Maywood - backlit the triple-cross on the steeple of the church at Passaic and Summit.

Paramus' fireworks were dim and low except at the finale (third picture). Saddle Brook was a no-show. I think they were the unidentified town I shot last night.

All in all, a waste of time, but tomorrow's Hackensack show should more than make up for it.

I like the picture a lot too. It's not the angle you usually see, it shows the rail connection to Packard's, it's got a '55 Olds, AND it shows the tower at Main St.

Helmets were definitely not required in 1964. I remember riding helmetless with a friend on his bike in 1965 or 1966.

Trains stopped at Ross Ave?

Manually operated gates? Seriously?

Here's some information I found from various sources:


HELMETS

The history of motorcycle helmet laws in the United States is characterized by change. In 1967, to increase motorcycle helmet use, the federal government required the states to enact helmet use laws in order to qualify for certain federal safety programs and highway construction funds. The federal incentive worked. By the early 1970s, almost all the states had universal motorcycle helmet laws. Michigan was the first state to repeal its law in 1968, beginning a pattern of repeal, reenactment, and amendment of motorcycle helmet laws. In 1976, states successfully lobbied Congress to stop the Department of Transportation from assessing financial penalties on states without helmet laws.


GIFT SHOP

By 1966, the station building had been sold off by the Erie Railroad for private usage as Barbara's General Store and Gifts.


SIDING

There was also a third track in the opposite side working as a partial freight yard.



AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY GATES

Fred W. Watson, a Canadian from New Brunswick, patented the invention of the automatic electric railway gate with the U.S. Patent Office in 1881. This was a departure from the mechanical gates that had been the state of the art until then.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kraissl-Co-Hackensack-NJ-Key-Chain-Fob-/350474654879?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5199ead49f


They're still in town at the same phone number.

Tuning up for the big Hackensack fireworks Monday night, I practiced from my roof on some towns' earlier displays Thursday and Friday night.

Thursday was Englewood and Hasbrouck Heights. In the first picture, it looks like Englewood is celebrating Sears' new look. The second image is just zooming in on the first.

Same deal with 3 and 4 from Hasbrouck Heights.

Friday, I got out too late for a couple of towns' shows, but got the fifth shot of Edgewater's, which just barely cleared the trees of the Palisades ridge. The smoke from the Edgewater fireworks finale had no problem getting up higher and you can see it drifting by midtown Manhattan in the sixth photo.

The seventh shot is just the railroad gates going up at the Passaic St crossing. I forgot I had a 2-second timer on to prevent blur when hitting the shutter on a long exposure, but this is unusual-looking enough to be interesting.

Not much happening on Saturday night, but Sunday night will be Maywood-Saddle Brook-Paramus, which are all nearby and close together and could possibly be in the same shot.

1. Some people just don't want to be photographed

2. TEB/EWR

3. Korean Youth Prayer Circle

4. Need a seat for "Spiderman"? (WAY off-Broadway)

5. The Ward St Wheelmen

6. Image of car show murder suspect?

7. I haven't seen this headgear worn in public since the 60s

8. Left and right: colorful Empire State Building  and Bogota smokestack light (see daylight version in 6/15/11 post)

9. The grimy SE corner of Sears

10. Happy 4th of July

Is that granite?

I doubt it. Not that I looked THAT close for flecks, but you'd think you would have heard SOME reference to the building over the years that included "granite" in its description.

The main reason I don't think it's granite is because it opened in 1932 - a year after the George Washington Bridge, which was originally supposed to be clad in granite. The Great Depression nixed that idea, so I doubt Mr Sears had the Roebucks to spring for a granite building during that period.