E-mail Recollection
- Name:
Robert W. Dunnican
- Mailing address:
Stanhope, NJ 07874
- When and where were you born?
1945 – Lawerence Mass.
- When did you come to Mountain Lakes?
August – 1959
- Tell us something about your family. Did your parents also live here?
The family moved to ML from Clifton NJ in 1959
- Where have you lived in the Borough? In which houses?
We had 2 homes in the lakes – 24 Lowell Ave and 7 Cresent Drive.
- What do you remember particularly about the houses and properties where you lived?
The Lowell Ave home was a Classic 3 story stucco house with a lareg railed front porch and a 2 tiered proch on the side with access to the upper porch from the master bedroom. The Cresent Drive house ( area known as “diaper village”, built after WW2) was a cape with a large yard.
- What are some of your special memories growing up in Mountain Lakes?
Memories…too many to list here but the closeness of the community, never locking anything, warm lazy summer days spent at the various beaches and fishing in every lake, ice skating late at night with a hord of friends, hanging out at the “bus stop” (Lake Drive) talking about all the things we could do…and not actually doing anything, long walks to and from school every day and picking up friends along the way, great explorations of the woods in the state park, 4th of July at the Club, and so much more!
- 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?
Graduated from MLHS. Currently Webmaster and Designer for the Class of 64 Web Site. (www.diversi-comm.com/mlhs64 ) I have re-established contact with almost every person in our class and we are planning a 40th reunion at the ML Club for August 2004.
- Where did you and your family shop?
ML Market and Dells Village with Sunday morning trips to the Viking Bakery!
- What were the roads and the lakes like?
Well plowed in the winter and the lakes were something you could enjoy in every season.
- Are there any special people you remember who contributed to the life of the town? Why do they stand out in your mind?
- What did you do for fun formal recreation, sports and entertainment in general?
School was Football, Baseball, Basketball and PEP rallies, Orange and Blue show and dances. Summer was long lazy days of fishing and swimming and tennis.
- Are there any special events that stand out in your mind?
4 of July at the Club and the oldtimers game at Briercliff. Backyard parties at all the homes on the big lake.
- 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?
My dad worked in NY and took the Lakeland bus every day. Most fo my friends parents did the same or took the train from the ML station.
- How did various laws affect the way people lived?
The world was a safer place when I was a kid. ML had 3 or 4 full time poliece and 2 cars, both of which you could hear coming! Crime was getting caught steeling a pumkin.
- Did you have a sense of Mountain Lakes as a unique place in its lifestyle, its homes, as a community?
I believe you do not realize what a prevlidge it was to live in ML until you have left it for a while. I found it was an honor to live there and I wish my own kids could experiance it today.
- 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?
When I moved to ML, John F. Kennedy was just elected to office. The world was entering a new age which I believe we were selectivly sheltered from. The outside was always there but we never seemed to be harshly caught up in it until Viet Nam. Many of us went…some did not come back. The early 60’s were when we graduated, sure we could conquor the world and scattered to college or work or the war. Many of us found that ML was the best place we had ever been or would be. This is the thing most talked about when we get together at the reunions.
- What made living in Mountain Lakes special to you, as you think back over your life here?
The peace of mind of an unlocked door!