By: Merle Citron
It has become painfully obvious that the "Baby Boomers" aren’t babies anymore.
We’re grandparents and really enjoying it.
Pat Danielson of Quarry Street is thrilled to welcome her granddaughter, Rocio Soto, to the world. Rocio is the daughter of Louisa Soto of Princeton.
Carolyn and Henry Eick are proud grandparents for the fifth time. Almost five months old, Halie Bernadette Hicks is the daughter of John and Carolyn Hicks.
"She a beauty," Henry proudly noted.
It’s hard to believe Carolyn and Henry are old enough to have one, no less, five grandchildren.
Cindy Bradford of Jefferson Street loves being a grandma, too. Her grandson, Keegan, is almost a year old and has taken his first 10 steps. Cindy adores watching Keegan grow and achieve each new milestone.
Michael Grant and Linda Beecher of New Hope are proud to announce they’ve become grandparents. Their grandson, Vincent, is the child of Michael’s daughter, Jennifer.
Michael grinned, "I’m going to be called ‘zaydah,’ Linda is the new ‘bubbe,’ and my mother is called ‘megabubbe.’ "
Whether it’s grandma, bubbe, zaydah, pops, grandpa, mom-mom, pop-pop, et al, grandparents are important in the lives of their grandchildren.
Hats off to Lisa Chouteau of New Hope for winning an Emmy award for her work as producer of the Public Television series "Caucus: New Jersey."
Lisa won in the category of outstanding health and science program for her documentary, which explored Alzheimer’s disease.
You may remember that Lisa also produced the documentary about New Hope photographer, Jack Rosen, for which she also received an Emmy nomination.
Actually, Lisa has received a total of 14 Emmy nominations, and "five years of coming home empty-handed," she said, "I’ve finally got a shiny gold Emmy sitting on top of my TV."
Because her husband, Marcel Chouteau, was recording with his band "House of Swank," Lisa’s brother, Jimmy Durborow escorted her at the awards ceremony. Lisa is the daughter of James "Doc" and Dessie Durborow of Stockton. Local girl does good. Yeah.
Anne Marie Macari and her three boys moved to York Street from Mt. Kisco, N.Y.
They now live in their newly renovated, grand Victorian, across the street from City Hall. In an earlier conversation, Anne Marie happily talked about the renovation of her large home, the time involved and the attention to details required by such a project.
A few weeks later, I passed Anne Marie and Gerald Stern of Clinton Street, poet laureate, house renovator and former English teacher. They stood in front of the house looking quite dismayed. A car was blocking their driveway. Welcome to town, Anne Marie.
Pat Vaccarino lives on Malloy Tract and is an 11th-grader at South Hunterdon. His friends also attend South. John Clark is a 10th-grader who lives on Elm Street, and Kevin O’Shea is also a 10th-grader who lives on Buttonwood Street.
They all agreed Lambertville should build a skate park where kids can skateboard and roller or inline skate. That’s a good idea, and you guys should develop a proposal to present to City Council.
Dan and Natalie Shapiro of New Hope have lived here since 1964.
After 36 years of experience, Dan has reached the following conclusion: "There are two good reasons to come to this area: one is to visit the Johnson Atelier, and the other is to visit Finkle’s."
Dan thinks Finkles is a store that’s in a league of its own.
"If you’ve got an old gizmo that needs a whatchamacallit, Finkle’s is bound to have it," he said. "That’s my kind of a store."
Joan Elliott, writer and painter who lives on Swan Street, has been here for six months.
She is a woman of great energy, who wastes no time getting things done. Joan moved to Lambertville from Fairfield, Conn., in March; rented an apartment; immediately went house-hunting; bought her Swan Street house; gutted it April 23; moved in June 20; and threw a house-warming party Aug. 8.
By the way, the house looks fantastic. Joan was quick to note, "Lambertville is a very special place to live."
Charles Tiffany of New Hope sent me a Chit-Chat column dated Oct. 29, 1970.
He was mentioned in that column. At that time, Charles had just graduated from Pratt Institute, moved to Lambertville and worked as a silversmith.
Now, 30 years later, Charles, who still considers himself part-Lambertvillian, still makes some jewelry and does some antique restoration, but works mostly as a lighting specialist. He made the beautiful brass lights that hang over the tables on the first floor of The Fish House as well as the gaslights on Pat and Bruce Hamilton’s house on Coryell Street. Needless to say, Charles is a multi-talented man.
It’s always fun to share "Bo" memories with Bud Dey of Coryell Street.
About 20 years ago, Feather Bo Fetch, champion Golden Retriever, lived across the street from Bud, but somehow, always found his way onto Bud’s front porch. And there he’d rest after his daily foray to Ennis’ Market to get the newspaper for his master and his soup bone from Jack Ennis.
Bo would saunter back to Bud’s porch, and spend most his afternoons gnawing contentedly on his bone. The town was slower in those days so crossing Union Street on his own was no problem for Bo.
When Bo died, Joe Hazen wrote his obituary in The Beacon. Now, that’s love.
Here’s more love. I don’t know who’s more excited about Christine Kroesen’s engagement to Kenneth E. Cook of Hamilton. It’s a tossup between Christine and her mother, Alice Ann Kroesen.
Christine and Kenny have been together for five years. Kenny is in the Army so when they get married, Christine will live for at least six months at Fort Lewis in the state of Washington.
As Christine said, "It sure is a long way from Lambertville, and I’m going to miss home."
Once again the Blawenburg Band graced Sheridan Park on York Street with its foot-stomping music.
While folks listened, stomped and clapped, Bob Beck, well-known artist, painted the event. I detected a distinct rhythm, 4/4 marching beat, to his brush strokes. He definitely moved with the music.
Bob lives in Mechanicsville and has his new studio next to Bernie Ungerleider’s studio on Bridge Street.
Did you know that Jan Holms of York Street, who plays the flute in the Riverside Symphonia, is the only Lambertvillian in the orchestra?
When she’s not in concert, Jan works at the Prallsville Mill for the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission.
And when she’s doing none of the aforementioned, she’s frantically scouring the neighborhood looking for one of her two dogs!
