Interviews with Local Residents

April 23, 2009

Preserving our community's past

We were given the privilege of sitting down and talking with Mr. Nathaniel Kirby who is a Spanish teacher at Pinelands Regional High School. He was very articulate in his answers and he inspired us to learn more about local history. Our town of Tuckerton is very rich in local history and a nice town to grow up or raise a family.
Mr. Kirby moved down to the Tuckerton area, in 2001. He is presently lives here with his wife, son, and his little daughter. He believes this is the best town to raise a family. He is a teacher at Pinelands Regional High school which was established in 1979. He attends Calvary Chapel church in the Tuckerton area. Let me reiterate that Mr. Kirby did not live here his whole life but he knows about the rich history of Tuckerton.
In our town, Mr. Kirby enjoys fishing. He has walked down Main Street many times and enjoyed the scenery. He likes the fact [that] the town has a Main Street. He travels down Main Street every year with his family on Halloween for trick or treating. He also enjoys the fact that the Tuckerton Area is very close to the beach and the surrounding cities of New York and Philadelphia.
In our interview with Mr. Kirby, he embellished much about the local duck and decoy business. He collects decoys and has a second job from his teachings making decoys. He also told us that the Tuckerton Decoy show is very special in the world of decoys and that the Tuckerton decoy has a certain distinguishing style. The Baymen used these [decoys during] a time that hunting and fishing were bigger than they presently are now. This area was very famous for decoys. The wealthy business people purchased decoys as a souvenir from our area. As Mr. Kirby said, “It has become a sub culture of our Tuckerton area”.
In conclusion, [during] our decisive interview, we learned much about the Tuckerton area and how lucky we are to live here. Considering he didn’t live here his whole life, Mr. Kirby told us about how much the area has changed in his time here. Even though the Tuckerton area has built up, our town still retains that old town style. [Matt W, Todd Q, Bobby P]
Fred Kalm was born in the town of New Gretna, New Jersey. His mother and father came from Europe (England and Germany) separately. His father had crossed the Atlantic an astounding 6 or 7 times before he was even in his 20’s. When World War I broke out, his father stayed in America and this is how he met his mother. Fred’s mother was of English decent, and, as he said himself; “having someone around here with an English accent was a pretty interesting thing.” He told us how he and his mother, brother, and sister would all go out to the blueberry farm to pick some berries during the berry-season. Despite his mother being a mostly stay-at-home type mom, she still appeared to have a profound impact on his life from his words about her. On the other hand, his father was a clammer, a profession that he himself decided to follow after coming home from the Navy.

Fred told us that the town of New Gretna was just like any other town in the Pine Barrens area. For fun, young boys would go hunting or play in the woods, or sometimes even go with their fathers fishing or clamming, as Fred himself said he did many a time. He also told us about the process clammers and fisherman, [who sold their catch] in the open market type setting. As we learned at the Seaport, the clams are sold to the market for xx amount of dollars per pound, and then the market puts a retail value for them. He stated that, though many people try and leave the Pine Barrens, later in life they find that they’re wishing to come back.

Fred Kalm went to school at the Tuckerton Grade School and High School, before Southern and Pinelands districts, and other small schools like our intermediate school. His school supported every grade from Kindergarten to 8th, and, while not as many students went to college as is the norm today, when you got into a profession you really knew what you were doing. The only real difference to this today is that we break our grade interactions up a little more, and many more students are college bound.

All in all, Fred’s childhood hasn’t been all that different from yours or my childhood. He would go fishing with his father and berry picking with his mother, things that I’ve done, too. He ranted and raved about how much he enjoyed that soda he would buy for a quarter from the town’s soda machine. It may seem like things have changed quite a bit, such as with all the technology advancements and such, but no matter what day we’re in, some of the things in life will always be the same. [John C, Brian M]

Carl Penn was raised in Brant Beach, on Long Beach Island, at 25 East 46th Street. He was an only child who had many chores, which included taking care of the beaches. Carl went to a small school in Ship Bottom where he met his third grade teacher, Miss Nadler, who later became his favorite teacher. Mr. Penn still sees her from time to time on LBI. Miss Nadler was the first person to realize that he needed glasses, and later that year Carl got glasses and could see much, much better than before. He graduated from [Southern Regional] High School in 1968, with 169 students in his class. Later he went to Glassboro State [College], which is now Rowan University, where he studied to be a History teacher and then later decided to be a library media specialist. During summer breaks Carl worked at the movie theater on LBI, for 16 years until he decided to leave after the theater was made into a four-plex, which neither he nor his staff liked.
While Mr. Penn was living on the island, [many] exciting things happened. [When Mr. Penn was eight years old, a] whale was beached for about three days until [town officials] decided to blow up the beached whale with dynamite. This was not a very good idea because it resulted in whale blubber flying everywhere and breaking numerous houses and cars and such. Another thing was the storm of 1962, which resulted in having many streets and towns flooded; almost the whole island had to be evacuated. Growing Mr. Penn ate a lot of seafood since he lived on the island. He told us how his family would hunt for ducks and get free bluefish from a family friend who would give it to his whole family.
Growing up his father had many diseases since he was born with polio. All throughout his life, Mr. Penn took care of his father until he died not too long ago. Now Mr. Penn lives with his wife. Both of their children are grown up and living with their spouses. Mr. Penn is not retired and still lives on LBI in the house his mother left him after she died. [Katlyn S, Amanda G, Kerry M]
On Thursday, April 23, 2009, we interviewed Mary Lou Mathis. She was born in Tuckerton and still resides there. She informed us about many things that we didn’t realize existed, or had happened. Mary is a very respectful woman, which was proof of people’s actions when she was growing up. Her family has lived here since the 1700’s. Although her maiden name was Mathis, she also married a Mathis, who was not directly related. Growing up in Tuckerton, the town was connected. It was your typical small town, with a general store, Gerber’s, and a candy shop down the street. Religion was influential to the town. Catholicism was not as popular as it is now.
During our interview, Mary mentioned the schools in the area and the education offered. She attended Tuckerton Elementary and Tuckerton High School, which were right next to each other. During her years in high school, Mary played girls basketball and was on the track team. Her high school graduating class consisted of 38 students. Mary let us know that Tuckerton’s rival was Barnegat. Out of her graduating class, 10 [students] went into the service. There were not as many girls in the service as there are today.
Compared to today, prices have increased a drastic amount. If Mary needed a bottle of milk, it only cost her fifty cents. When she went to the movies with her friends on the weekend, she only paid twenty five cents a ticket. Besides going to the movies on the weekends, Mary liked to go to the skating rink in Manahawkin or to Long Beach Island. Mary would do these different things on her free time because there was no television to watch or computer to use. One thing she wished she had growing up was a computer because she wanted to be able to get the news as soon as it happened.
Tuckerton morals were similar to our school’s pillars [of character]. Obviously these morals had an affect on Mary Lou Mathis, because she is such a caring and respectful person. [Kait C, Ozgul Y, Gianna B]
We interviewed Russell Mathis Senior, who is my grandpa and an active member in the Tuckerton community. Rusty Mathis is 69 years old and usually spends his time picking up his grandchildren from school and doing community service. He is retired from his job at the post office, where he worked for many years. Being a citizen of Tuckerton for so long, he saw many changes in [town].
When he was a child, Rusty regularly went to see movies which at the time were only 25 cents. He also said the movies were very bad and only a small child would want to see them. A bottle of Coke was 5 cents and a stick of gum was 1 cent. Back then seatbelts were rare and you didn’t have to wear one. A gallon of gas costs 33 cents. Rusty used to put a dollar worth of gas in his car and ride around with his friends. He also said that there were fewer restrictions than there are now.
[In high school,] there were only four sports: football, baseball, track, and basketball. Most people in his class clamed and fished. Rusty said that the class had 40 kids in his class and only about 9 kids went to college, even though it was a college prep class. He received all A’s but senior year than he said that he didn’t really try and he had no intention of going to college like most students back then. He thinks today’s schools are a lot better. [Russell M, Tristan N, Alex H]
Jaclyn Stewart has lived in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island for two and a half years, but she grew up in Monmouth County. Jaclyn attended Rutgers University, than went to graduate school in Cooperstown, in upstate New York. After that she moved to Philadelphia and now she’s happy to be back with her family.
Jaclyn started working at the Tuckerton Seaport about three years ago; she went to school for museum studies. Jaclyn had to do an internship where she had to work over the summer, and she worked at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Maryland. Jaclyn worked with Shelly as a folk life intern, like Jaclyn does today. Jaclyn works with artists, plans programs, public events and exhibits. Shelly got a job at the Tuckerton Seaport; Jaclyn came to visit Shelly and loved it. A couple years later Shelly got a promotion and Jaclyn actually interviewed for a different job than the one that she has now, running the folk life center. She is really excited to be here.
When she came back to Tuckerton, Jaclyn saw that our town has changed. There’s a lot more development. “I know that a lot has happened around here. You see that older people leave and new people move in. There are a lot more housing developments being built, a lot more stores. I think that when that happens, people become more separated. New people come in and you don’t have that same sort of connection. A part of what my job is at the Seaport is to take history, just like what we’re doing today, to record it, and collect it and keep it. So I take a lot of pictures and talk to people. A lot of what I do is talking to the people who were here a long time ago, saying what was it like and also saying who else should I talk to, because we want to keep all those connections going. Things changed in terms of bringing new people in. There are still the people that have lived here forever and we try to keep their history going, and preserve that for the future.” [Zoey D, Kevser K]
Patty Jillson has lived here all her life, for sixty one years. Her parents moved into their house when she was less than a year old. Her dad worked for the electric company in West Creek and her mom was a homemaker. Patty built her own house in Tuckerton during the sixties and still lives there today. Growing up her grandmother was her role model because she was a single mom since her husband was in the coast guard. She raised three children by herself and always cared how the children spelled because that was important to her. She enjoyed grade school at Tuckerton Elementary. Later, she went to Southern Regional to complete high school. This was a long drive from her home, enabling her to go to many events. She had to work around the bus schedule considering her parents shared a car.
When she was a twelve Patty Jillson began working in the blueberry farms to get some extra money. She enjoyed living here better when it was a small town. She would still rather be here than any other place because she hasn’t found a better town to fit her interests. She explained to us how back then it used to be a lot nicer here. She wishes [that Tuckerton] could restore its old look downtown. There were less people and it was a lot safer. They had many more places to go, including a paper store, swimmable lake, and plenty of space to ride your bike. Everyone used to know each other before Tuckerton got too crowded. She said how she liked it a lot better when her mom would let her around town for the day without worrying.
Patty Jillson believes that the economy affected a lot of people who aren’t ready to retire. This is because they are losing their jobs and are having a tough time finding a new one. She told us about how when she worked all you had to do was go clamming to earn some money. This is no longer available. Although she doesn’t like the way our town is now compared to how it was before, she thinks it has to be like this to be able to survive in this economy. Patty Jillson taught us more about the place we live in and its history. [Mary L, Ottilly O]
The wonderful town of Tuckerton has a fairly large history, and thankfully, we have people who remember it. Patty Richmond grew up in the late 1940s, early19 50s era, and she had plenty to tell us about Tuckerton’s past. In our interview, we learned quite a bit about 1950s life, and we realized what a tight knit town this used to be. Things have changed over the years, but Patty, Tom and I seem to think most of the changes were for the better.
During our time together, Patty answered questions about basic life: what was popular, where teenagers hung out, who went to school where, what school was like. She had fond memories of Pioneer School, a sort of precursor to modern day Pinelands Regional. School and the town as a whole were far less populated than they are today; she attributes that to the 1970’s. However, in turn, there was much more of a community; we had our own stores for just about everything from jewelry to appliances, and we even had a movie theatre! Things aren’t quite the same anymore; for example, Manahawkin used to be the “small town” and Tuckerton the subur, but now it seems to be quite the opposite.
Our interview was a blast from the fifties and we had a lot of fun with it. Things may be different, but they are much the same: we have our iPods, they had their transistor radios; they gathered around the TV in free time and we just can’t turn off our computers! Many interesting things were learned during our seemingly short 20 some odd minutes, and we won’t forget the strong words she had to preach. Tuckerton once was a simple town of grass roots organizations, farms and fewer people; it is now a booming suburb with an ever increasing population. [Patrick M, Tom A]

This interview with Paul Hart was an experience that enlightened us on the history of our community. He was witty and humorous. Paul held our attention through his whole presentation. We all enjoyed his detailed stories of his childhood experiences. Through the presentation we realized that things really have not changed too much since prior generations, other than the updates with technology and economy.
Paul Hart spent his childhood in Beach Haven, New Jersey, until 1950 when he and his family moved to Manahawkin. They have lived there since. His older brother went to an elementary school that had an outhouse. However by the time he began school, he attended what they then called ‘the new school’, which we know as Oxycocus Elementary. This school was larger because his generation was ‘the baby boomers’. The number of kids in each class had increased from 6-12 to almost 30. This school had a room for each grade, rather than one room for all the students. When it came time to go to high school, he went to Southern Regional.
Paul also talked about how things have changed. He says that people respect our environment much more now than they did before, trying to do whatever possible to get rid of mosquitoes. He remembers many hobbies that people had then, like bowling and soap box racing. A majority of these activities are still enjoyed by our youth today. He also remembers going to Atlantic City to see the Miss America pageant and parade.
All in all, Paul Hart brought us a blast from the past. From the old fashioned truck he brought to show us, the tales from the Tuckerton Railroad, and other hobbies he enjoyed. We really got to see how things were back then. Our interview with Paul Hart was exciting and informational. We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to meet and interview such a great man. [MaryJane C, Nadene N, Casey W, Wyatt S]

Anna Stevens is an important member to our community, and embraces the caring pillar [of Character Counts!]. Anna Stevens has lived in Tuckerton for fifty-six years, and loves living here. She was born and raised in Jersey City. She began working at the age of eighteen, as many of us do today. Anna’s first job was at a foot doctor’s office. Growing up her form of entertainment was going to dances. Anna liked school as a child, but wasn’t as good a student as she wanted to be. Her most important thing she got from attending school was learning about life.
The last job Anna had was babysitting because she had three children of her own to raise. Her greatest childhood memory is of her parents, nine siblings, and other family members. Anna’s father worked on the railroad express, while her mother stayed at home. Her brother, Dave, lived in Tuckerton, but he has since passed. Church was a big influence in Anna’s life, and she looked up to the nuns and priests. Aside from her chores, being the best person she can be was her biggest responsibility. Her chores were the same things we do today, but she didn’t mind doing them. With all the new technology today, Anna’s biggest problem is with the computer, which she still doesn’t know how to use today.
One of the only sports Anna attempted was basketball, but due to a sprained ankle she stopped playing. Anna absolutely loves living here because she is surrounded by churches, libraries, historical places, and community clubs. There is so much to do in Tuckerton, and since the day she moved here there have been many improvements. One of Anna’s daughters was a member of the second graduating class at Pinelands, and went on to become a physical education teacher at Pinelands. Susan, Anna’s daughter, now has a scholarship in her name both at Pinelands and in Trenton. Her greatest memory of living in Tuckerton was having so much fun at the lake when it froze. Her daughters and their friends would go ice skating on the frozen water. Anna has made her mark on Tuckerton’s history and her story will always be remembered. [Ashley K, Kristen L]
We interviewed Mrs. Ellen Allen. Mrs. Allen moved here from Boston when she was one year old. She lived in Tuckerton growing up and now lives in Mystic Islands. She has lived in the area for 58 years and has worked in the school district for 18 years. For ten years she served as assistant chef in the high school cafeteria and now works as secretary for our vice principal. Mrs. Allen explained to us how Tuckerton has changed since she was our age. She said that Ocean East Buffet used to be a hotel and the Acme used to be a car dealership where her husband worked. Her father also worked to help build Mystic Islands.
Mrs. Allen also told us that the hangout spot used to be a brick wall. For fun during the winter everyone used to go ice skating when the Tuckerton Lake used to freeze over. The Sugar Bowl, Paper Shop and Movie Theater also used to be places that kids would go to hang out. Mrs. Allen told us how her husband used to race cars and one day the hood flew up on his car. Another time he knocked out his sister. Her favorite thing about living in this area was how it used to be quiet and how close it is to the water.
Mrs. Allen told us that she doesn’t really like tourists but everyone is a tourist somewhere. Some landmarks she would recommend for the tourists to visit, would be to take a trip down Seven Bridges Road, to see the fish factory. Another place to visit would be the Seaport. This school hasn’t been around forever; back then the Tuckerton Elementary school was the high school. After they changed the high school [into] an elementary school there was still no high school around here so Mrs. Allen graduated from Southern [Regional]. Mrs. Allen said that the Tuckerton area is a great place to raise a family because of the school system and the quiet town. [Deanna Y, Gabrielle M]

On April 23rd, 2009, we had the opportunity to interview Alvie Jillson, a member of our community for 63 years, about local history. Mr. Jillson grew up in Tuckerton where he still resides today. His family owned the Jillson farm, which would be considered Mystic Island today. An historical story he shared stated that when they were plowing, they saw dark spots. These dark spots happened to be 6 to 8 Indian skeletons, on average 6 foot 6 inches in height. They were donated to the Smithsonian, but because there were no records, the skeletons weren’t able to be correctly identified. Mr. Jillson also enjoyed playing baseball, fishing, ice skating, swimming, and having bonfires at the local Tuckerton lake. He mentioned going to school at Southern Regional when they were debating about building Pinelands Regional. He was glad he went to SRHS where he met nice people. [Nicole H, Megan O, Jennifer T]
Elsie Driscoll was the person we interviewed for the O.C.E.A.N. 1st project. She is a native born Tuckerton child. She has lived in the area, without moving away, for over 80 years. As a child, Elsie spent the majority of her time on her parents’ twenty one acre farm. Her childhood consisted of work, for a good portion of her day was working in the fields. She and her mother milked the cows daily; she delivered milk to neighbors and the Bed and Breakfast. Elsie’s father was quite the fisherman indeed; he also would clam and eel. Although her mother and father were native born to Tuckerton, her mother’s descendents were Irish and her father’s were German.
Elsie had seven siblings: four were girls and three were boys. While Mrs. Driscoll was here, she brought with her many antique objects, including an egg scale, a porcelain cow, many photos such as the Tuckerton Railroad and her father eeling. She also brought in a rug beater, a bread toaster, a railroad spike, and a glass milk container that she used as a child. Elsie had many pets on her farm. Her father adopted a deer named Peter and even a pet crow named Jet. They also had a plentiful amount of chickens, donkeys, and horses.
She claimed that Jet was a troublemaker but was one of her favorite pets, since he was so exotic. Jet would often follow the kids to school on a daily basis. It was nearly impossible to catch Jet. After every spring, the Driscoll family would clean out the gutters to find whatever objects Jet had hidden, including money, jewelry, bobby pins, and marbles. [Patrick M, Joseph P, Ian S]

For our interview, we had the pleasure of talking with Peter Stemmer. He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, or as he says, ‘Central Jersey’. He lived in North Brunswick for twenty-eight years. Without the technology we have today, his days were filled with games outside, especially sports. Unlike the sports teams that we have today, they mostly played with whoever was in the neighborhood at the time. When he had to grow up and get a job, Mr. Stemmer taught history at the local junior high. He has been living in New Gretna for thirty-five years and feels like a native.
There have been many changes since Mr. Stemmer was born. Changes that he’s seen and liked are the changes to healthcare and the changes in technology. As proof of his fondness of technology, Mr. Stemmer has a blog about historical events at http://bassriverhistory.blogspot.com/. Some of the changes that he wishes did not happen are today’s morals and social obligations. He thinks that it was a lot less complicated and that, ‘kids had the chance to be kids’.
Mr. Stemmer graciously brought in copies of The Bass River Gazette. This is a collection of newsletters that focus on the history of Bass River. He helps with research and articles along with Steve Echinger, Merry and Jean Harris, Harry DeVerter and Elaine Mathis. Mrs. Mathis is related to the Great John Mathis, who was the first white settler of Bass River. Along with this interest in local history, Mr. Stemmer is very interested in family genealogies. He likes this because ‘you can compare the different generations and tell the different challenges they had’. As a result of these studies, he feels like he is part of the families, because he can tell who everyone is. Mr. Stemmer is a very interesting person who likes to dig up local history. [Abby A, Katina K]