By dick metzgar
Staff Writer
JEFF GRANIT John “Blackie” Meszaros stands beside a statue that will be unveiled in Roosevelt Park, Edison, during a ceremony on Monday.
SAYREVILLE — John "Blackie" Meszaros Sr. was on the ground floor of perhaps the most ambitious conservation program ever launched in this country.
Meszaros, 87, of Sayreville, joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933 while it was still in its infancy.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the CCC program on March 31, 1933, to address two major problems plaguing the nation at the time. Then in the throes of the Great Depression, thousands of young men nationwide could not find work, and the country was also undergoing a tremendous erosion of its environmental assets.
From 1933 to 1942, when the program was dismantled, more than 3 million young men served in the CCC — 90,000 of them from New Jersey — working on countless conservation and preservation projects. Meszaros, born in Bonhamtown, Edison Township, was one of those young men.
JEFF GRANIT A photograph from a CCC yearbook shows two men sawing a tree trunk during a job in the 1930s.
"I came out of a vocational school in Metuchen when I was 17 and joined the CCC," Meszaros said. "There was just nothing else for a young man to do. I was sent to Mississippi. We rebuilt some dams, and did a lot of cleanup work of clogged-up streams and did a lot of trimming in the surrounding forest land. We also took care of the existing roads in the area."
The young men in the CCC program were paid $30 per month, $25 of which was sent back home to their families, while the men themselves were given $5 in coupons.
After completing his first tour of duty of 14 months in Mississippi, Meszaros returned home and sought employment. "There was just no work to be had when I returned home, so I joined up with the CCC again," Meszaros said. "This time, I was sent to Utah, where I served two 14-month tours of duty. There, we worked with the ski lodges and helped clear the roads of snow, among other things."
Meszaros said he is determined to help see that the legacy established by those young men in the CCC is not forgotten.
JEFF GRANIT John “Blackie” Meszaros in his early days with the CCC.
Part of this means serving as president of the National Association Civilian Conservation Corps, New Jersey Chapter No. 24. The organization will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the CCC at 12:30 p.m. Monday in Roosevelt Park, Route 1 in Edison, with the dedication of a CCC worker statue.
As a matter of fact, Meszaros said he not only thinks we should remember the CCC boys and the valuable work they did during the Great Depression, but he believes the program should never have been discontinued. He said he thinks it would be a good idea to re-institute a similar program today.
"Those young men did a valuable service to their country," Meszaros said. "Those young men are now in their 80s and 90s. They are a vanishing breed of Americans. The United States Congress has declared March 31, 2003, as Civilian Conservation Corps Day. It is well deserved, and I hope will remind Americans throughout the country of the legacy established by the CCC workers." While keeping young men employed during the Great Depression, the CCC program served as a good education for young men, preparing them for future roles in their communities, Meszaros said.
"We learned a lot about the value of conservation," Meszaros said. "They had U.S. Army officers and foresters running the program, but it was really a good life for young men. The food was good, and plenty of recreation was provided for us. We also met other young men from all over the country. A lot of great friendships developed among the CCC workers. Hundreds of thousands of CCC boys learned their trade in the program."
Meszaros eventually returned home in 1937 and obtained a job with U.S. Metals. He would become an iron worker from 1946 until his retirement in 1974 for the Iron Workers Union, Local 373 in Perth Amboy.
He married his late wife, Mary, in 1938, after completing his third tour of duty with the CCC. They had two children.
"I still have many fond memories from my days with the CCC," Meszaros said.