- Name:
Jim Craver
- Mailing address:
Richardson, Texas
- When and where were you born?
1950 in Newark, NJ
- When did you come to Mountain Lakes?
1955
- Tell us something about your family. Did your parents also live here?
Family lived there from 1955 – 1970
- Where have you lived in the Borough? In which houses?
44 Glen Road
- What do you remember particularly about the houses and properties where you lived?
Wonderful house and lived on Wildwood Lake
- What are some of your special memories growing up in Mountain Lakes?
Too many to mention them all, but high school sports, 4th of July fireworks, Hub Lakes League, movies in Boonton, climbing the Tourne, bologna sandwiches at the Market, sledding down Pollard Rd., canoeing and ice skating through the canal, passing my swimming tests so I could go to the lakes without a parent, tennis at the Mtn. Lakes club, just to mention a few.
- Where did you go to school? What particular memories do you have from your school years? Are there any special stories you associate with that time of your life?
Attended all of the schools – Wildwood, Lake Drive, Briarcliff, and High School. Wonderful teachers and coaches.
- Where did you and your family shop?
Del’s Village, Denville, and Boonton
- Are there any special people you remember who contributed to the life of the town? Why do they stand out in your mind?
George Wilson was like a second father as my basketball and baseball coach.
- What did you do for fun formal recreation, sports and entertainment in general?
The town really supported high school sports. Also the Hub Lakes summer League was great. I also have fond memories of playing grade-school football, which was just a bunch of kids forming a team made up of kids in your class. You would play two games – one against the grade above yours when you got beaten to a pulp, and one against the grade below yours when you got your revenge. Swimming on all of the lakes in summer, and ice-skating, hockey games and hot chocolate in the Winter. Couldn’t wait until they raised the flag so you could skate!
- Are there any special events that stand out in your mind?
4th of July was great fun, and the Orange & Blue GAA Show was a great event, especially if your girlfriend was on the winning team. That was before girls’ sports and Title IX, and it was THE big event for them.
- Did your parents and the parents of your friends work nearby? In New York or elsewhere? How did they get to work? How did commuting change over your time here?
Dad had an office in the Empire State Bldg, and he rode the train and took the bus.
- How did various laws affect the way people lived?
Old-timers will recall this – Greenwood Lake, NY
- Did you have a sense of Mountain Lakes as a unique place in its lifestyle, its homes, as a community?
I don’t think any of us really realized back then how good we had it until we got out into the “real” world.
- How did the world’s events — World War I, the Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the assassination of JFK, Viet Nam, Watergate, etc. — affect you and fellow Mountain Lakes residents when you were growing up?
I was in an 8th grade class which was in the high school back then and I vividly remember a teacher coming in the class, whispering something to our teacher, and then telling us that JFK had been shot.
- What made living in Mountain Lakes special to you, as you think back over your life here?
The small-town atmosphere and knowing virtually everybody in the town made it special. For me personally, the sports activities growing up and in high school, the close friends you made, and what a safe place it was were wonderful.