As a young girl growing up in Old Bridge, AlisonResident publishes dad’s
Alison Hyland
stories as a ‘river rat’
By lori elkins solomon
Correspondent Hyland enjoyed listening to her father, Dan, talk about his childhood adventures along the Raritan River in New Brunswick during the Great Depression.
Now she has recorded her father’s stories for others to read in a book titled River Rats: Growing Up on the Raritan River, published by Writers Club Press.
The book describes the colorful experiences of a young boy, despite — or perhaps because of — the hardships of living in the grimy, industrial environment of New Brunswick in the 1930s. Because most families were very poor, children had to find inexpensive and resourceful ways to amuse themselves. Thanks to the city’s proximity to the Raritan River, Dan and his friends spent a lot of time swimming in the river, exploring its docks and getting to know the wide variety of people — ranging from fishermen and canal builders to bootleggers and prostitutes — who earned their living along the Raritan’s shores.
"The term river rats really came from the local people — the kids especially, who were children of fishermen, people who worked the docks and worked on the river," Hyland said from her Old Bridge home last week.
While River Rats is Hyland’s first book, it is by no means her first creative endeavor. A professional artist whose works have been displayed in local galleries, Hyland said that she decided to try writing because it provided a "different outlet" for her creativity.
Hyland got the idea for the book when she was fishing with her father in Sandy Hook. While fishing, her father yelled out: "Hey, Archie and Al went swimming yesterday." "Yeah? Where," she responded. "Down at Sandy Bottom," her father answered. He then laughed and said that he was reminiscing about his childhood. Each year, summer would officially begin for him and his friends when it was hot enough to dip into the Raritan for a swim. His brother, Al, and his friend, Archie, were usually the first ones to test the waters.
Hyland had heard this story many times before, but it suddenly occurred to her that others might be interested in it as well.
"I said, ‘Dad, this might make a good book,’ " Hyland recalled.
When Hyland and her father returned home, she gave him a mini-cassette recorder, batteries and five one-hour tapes, and asked him to record his stories. The stories did not have to be told in any particular order, she told him; he should just speak freely into the recorder.
After her father finished recording his stories, she transcribed the tapes using a borrowed dictophone, and organized her notes into chapters. She illustrated the chapters with photos and memorabilia from her family’s collections and with sketches that she drew herself.
Besides actually transcribing the tapes, Hyland said the most difficult part of putting together the book was deciding how much historical background to include in the manuscript.
"I just got so engrossed in New Brunswick history," she said.
Her solution was to place a note to herself over her computer so she could focus. The note read, "This is the topic: Dad’s story from 1930 to 1938."
Of all her father’s stories, one of Hyland’s favorites is about how the Raritan River would freeze over in the winter and would be dynamited in early spring.
"The boys used to get on the ice flows and ride them like rafts," she said.
When Hyland first began this project, she wasn’t sure if she would publish it or simply record her father’s stories for her family to enjoy. She even put the project aside for a couple of years while wrangling with the decision. She finally decided it was important to publish the manuscript, though, and presented the book to her father for his 80th birthday.
"My goal was to get Dad’s story out," she said, explaining how important it is for families to record their histories. "So many people have told me they wish they had copied down their parents’ stories, and now their parents are gone."