Clarksboro
KOA
Wednesday,
12 December 2018
The flock of turkeys was wandering
around the campground this morning, and I can prove it: I got 3 of
them out of my front windows. My camera ran out of
battery right after this photo, so I couldn’t get any more. And
they must have seen me move because they all started walking quickly
toward the rear of the RV and back toward the woods. Very chummy of
them to come calling, though. |
| today's route |
Pitman
My first aim today was Starr Dog
Academy in Pitman to see if the dogs would be accepted at day care. At first, it was a little touchy with Dexter, but the owner, Nancy, is
used to tricky dogs and has lots of patience and techniques so was
willing to wait and see if he could adjust. Fortunately, he did, and
I left them there for a few hours while Lily and I went on down the
road.
There’s a decent-sized body of
water near Pitman that I can’t identify on the map, but plenty of
geese can. Mostly I saw a bunch of Canada geese, but I also saw
several that I can’t identify. They were goose-sized and general
goose shape, and they were mostly white with a black stripe running from
their heads down their backs – like reverse skunk markings. And my
bird book says I was hallucinating (or words to that effect). But I
got a good look at them and almost right away wrote down a
description so I wouldn’t forget, so I'm pretty sure that's what they looked like. Wish I knew what they actually
were.
Vineland
From Pitman I got on the highway (non-toll) and went south to Vineland. As maybe you can
guess from the name, Vineland is prime grape-growing territory – you can see vineyards all over. For me, though, its claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Welch's grape juice. Specifically at the First United Methodist Church there. I grew up in the Methodist Church drinking Welch's grape juice every Sunday for Communion, and I'm delighted to know of this connection. You might want to check out the Methodists' explanation for all this because it also explains a lot about the times. www.umc.org/methodist-history-controversy
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| Vineland's Methodist church |
Vineland is ecumenical: it also has a
Russian Orthodox church.
And it has a business named Back to
the Juicer. (Heh heh.)
Glassboro
Back north toward Pitman is the town
of Glassboro, and there’s a reason for the name. It was once the
center of a thriving glass-blowing industry. Every little
town in the area had one or more factories, and there were hundreds
of them in the heyday. They started before even glass molds had been
figured out and all – all – glass was blown by hand. Hard to
imagine now. The bottle machine wasn’t invented until 1912.
I learned this at the Heritage Glass
Museum I was lucky enough to visit and got a personal tour by the
elderly caretaker. His partial deafness made communication a bit of
a problem until I remembered how I used to deal with my mom, and
after that we did okay. He said this museum was focused on the
glass-blowing industry in Glassboro specifically, and in the
immediate area more generally.
Owens-Illinois owned a large plant in
the area – this is the Mr. Owens from Illinois who later partnered
with Mr. Corning in New York.
Mason jars were born here: Mr. Mason
of Vineland got the patent for the lids, and a legend was born.
The museum had lots of the various
types of colored glass – milk glass, for instance. They had
several pieces of Vaseline glass, which was popular because of its
pretty yellow color until people realized that was a result of the
uranium in the glass. Not healthy, really. The color turns vivid green under a black light.
They also had a display of Mercury glass,
that pretty silvery stuff that killed the people that made it,
from the fumes generated by the mercury. You know, that trial and
error thing.
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| mercury glass |
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| milk glass |
 |
| Vaseline glass |
Those photos are all off the internet, but this next one is mine.
I couldn’t believe it
when I saw this glass basket because my grandparents were given one
just like it for their wedding back in 1898 (or so). My mother kept
it and it was one thing I just couldn’t part with in the estate
sale and is now in storage, waiting for me to have a house again.
I was fascinated by all
the milk bottles – they had 2 cases of them on display and my tour
guide said the basement was full of them. They were all blown by
hand, once upon a time. My mind is still having trouble coping with
the idea that all the milk bottles the milkmen delivered to people’s
homes (including ours an eon ago) were handmade.
I was also
interested in the art glass – this shows only a part of what they
had. Some beautiful pieces, made in the area.
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| art glass information |
I had to cut my visit short to get
back in time for the dogs, but there was still much more to see. This museum is only open 2 afternoons a week, and I’m glad I could
see what they had.
Pitman again
On the road back to Pitman I learned
from a billboard that 30 NJ municipalities have banned the use of
marijuana. I don’t know why that fact had to be emblazoned on a
billboard, or why the towns have banned it, but it seems more retro
than I’d have expected from majority-Democratic New Jersey.
The Knights of Columbus in Pitman are
making a big push to Keep Christ in Christmas, and have hung a banner
clean across Main Street to say so, with signs in many front yards. Makes me wonder what was happening in little Pitman to trigger this.
Both dogs did well in day care, I’m
glad to say. Nancy said Gracie was wonderful (everybody who doesn’t
live with her thinks she’s wonderful) and Dexter was fine except
for a few growls now and then. What a relief. She'll let them come back.
The village of Barnsboro, just north
of Pitman, has a set of traffic lights powered by solar panels. I
don’t remember seeing that before – a whole intersection of them.
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