“Returning to Stevens Hoboken Academy in September, I noticed a girl that really attracted my attention. I think she may have been a year or so ahead of me, since she looked more mature and I didn’t have her in any of my classes. However, this girl was striking! She was tall for her age and wore a hint of makeup, and a wonderful fragrance that I could smell when she walked past me in the hall. Her brown auburn hair usually hung loose, or at other times was pulled back, framing her pretty face. Frequently she wore a crisp white or pink blouse and a long poodle skirt, hemmed at just the right height for me to see her white socks and two-tone, saddle shoes. She also carried a smart black leather shoulder bag, and had an attitude about her that made her seem much older than her years. In those days, I considered her as being totally sharp, and I guess I still would!” Captain Hank BrackerSea StoriesNew Jersey HistoryHobokenStevens Hoboken Academy Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
“I knew Hoboken well during the 40’s & 50’s, and still remember the gray, steel-hulled Liberty and Victory Ships with their gun encasements on their bows, looming above the sheds on the waterfront along River Street. Much of this area has been reclaimed with fill and is very different looking now, with brownstones, parks and Sinatra Drive along the waterfront. Where I once walked is now gone! Where I rode the ferry to New York City and marveled at the ships in the Hudson River and the tall buildings in Manhattan has all changed. At that time I took grainy photos of my world with a Baby Brownie Camera, and still have some of them in an old album.” World War 2Captain Hank BrackerSea StoriesHobokenLiberty ShipsRiver StreetVictory Ships Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"
“It was during the early summer of 1952 that I found myself in the small community park next to Stevens Institute of Technology. Although I had a job, I had only worked as a “soda jerk” for a little over a week before I started looking for something else. The Hoboken waterfront was still familiar to me from earlier years when I walked this way to catch the trolley or the electrified Public Service bus home from the Lackawanna Ferry Terminal. Remembering the gray-hulled Liberty Ships being fitted out for the war at these dilapidated piers, was still very much embedded in my memory. Things had not changed all that much, except that the ships that were once here were now at the bottom of the ocean, sold, or nested at one of the “National Defense Reserve Fleets.” The iconic movie On the Waterfront had not yet been filmed, and it would take another two years before Marlon Brando would stand on the same pier I was now looking down upon, from the higher level of Stevens Park. Labor problems were common during this era, but it was all new to me. I was only 17 years old, but would later remember how Marlon Brando got the stuffing kicked out of him for being a union malcontent. When they filmed the famous fight scene in On the Waterfront, it took place on a barge, tied up in the very same location that I was looking upon.” HistoryShipsCaptain Hank BrackerSea StoriesHobokenWaterfrontStevens Hoboken Academy Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One...."
“It’s a little known fact, but Hoboken, the Mile Square City, was originally an island in the Hudson River. Of course, its eastern boundary was the Hudson River, but on its western side, the river ran into tidal lands, described before, that extended along the base of the cliffs of the Palisades. Named after his ship, Half Moon Bay, north of Hoboken was where Henry Hudson anchored his ship. The photograph showing “Heavy Frigates at Anchor,” identified to be in Half Moon Bay, shows a sailing vessel that appears to be the USS Constitution, with her decks protected from the elements by a canvas awning. It is recorded that at the outbreak of the Civil War the USS Constitution was relocated farther north because of threats made against her by Confederate sympathizers. Several companies of Massachusetts Volunteer soldiers were stationed aboard her for her protection when she was towed to New York Harbor, where she arrived on April 29, 1861. It cannot be verified, however from my research the other ship in the photograph could well have been the USS Constellation. A third frigate only shows her rigging and cannot be identified. Originally, on March 27, 1794, the United States Congress authorized six similar frigates to be constructed at a cost of $688,888.82. The tidal lands with cattails and river water were filled in at the turn of the 20th Century. Without any concern regarding the ecology, this bay which was used by nesting birds and had served as a protected anchorage, became low lying flatlands. Most of the fill used was from dredging, ballast, dunnage and even garbage. Once filled in, it became the site of the Maxwell House Coffee Company, the Tootsie Roll factory, Todd’s Shipyard, and the Erie railroad yards in Weehawken. The flats were used as a holding area for railroad cars waiting to cross on barges to the eastern side of the river. It also became the location of the western entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.” Sea StoriesMaritime HistoryNew Jersey HistoryHoboken Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One...."
“The Hoboken waterfront was still familiar to me from earlier years when I walked this way to catch the trolley or the electrified Public Service bus home from the Lackawanna Ferry Terminal. Remembering the gray-hulled Liberty Ships being fitted out for the war at these dilapidated piers, was still very much embedded in my memory. Things had not changed all that much, except that the ships that were once here were now at the bottom of the ocean, sold, or nested at one of the “National Defense Reserve Fleets.” Many of them were moved to the Reserve fleet located on the western side of the Hudson River, south of the Bear Mountain Bridge. I vividly recall seeing these nested ships when I accompanied my parents to visit my Uncle Willie and Tante Martha at their home in Towners, New York.” MmaWorld War IiNew Jersey HistoryHobokenLiberty Ships Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"
“Carol Hipkins, a beacon of creativity, has always danced to the rhythm of her own artistic passions. With a background in hairstyling that spans decades, she has mastered the art of transforming hair into works of art.” New JerseyHobokenCarol HipkinsCarolhipkins Author:Carol Hipkins
“No, he was no such charlatan-- Count de Hoboken Flash-in-the-Pan-- Full of gasconade and bravado, But a regular, rich Don Rataplane, Santa Claus de la Muscavado, Senor Grandissimo Bastinado! His was the rental of half Havana And all Matanzas; and Santa Ana, Rich as he was, could hardly hold A candle to light the mines of gold Our Cuban owned.” LightWealthHalfRichMinesGoldCandleFlashSantaSanta ClausCubanCharlatansBravadoHavanaHoboken Author:Edmund Clarence Stedman
“Every writer knows that when you're imitating somebody - you know, you're sounding like Faulkner - you're doing pretty good, but your life in Hoboken isn't Faulkneresque.” KnowsImitatingHoboken Author:George Saunders
“I don’t like doing interviews. I’m not pretending to be some super neurotic, hiding in my closet. I could care less about anybody knowing who I am, but I realize this is part of the game. Maybe if I really hated this whole public thing, I would go do plays in Hoboken.” IfsPlayWholeCareGamesRealizingKnowingWho I AmHatedInterviewsHidingPretendingClosetsNeuroticCould Care LessHoboken Author:Jared Leto
“The time when I had desire to go to the United States I didn't have a penny. It was in the middle of the depression, you know. I couldn't get as far as Hoboken at that time.” KnowsStatesDesireUnitedUnited StatesMiddlePregnancyPenniesHoboken Author:Ben Shahn