That Saturday evening of June 16, 1984, we arrived at the Holiday Inn on 1000 Roosevelt Road in Carteret, New Jersey, exit 12 on the New Jersey Turnpike. I think that today this hotel is a Red Roof Inn. We were going to stay four nights there, the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of June. Thus, we could visit New York City and my brother Jerry and his family in Metuchen, New Jersey. When I began this blog about my life when I turned 80 in 2019, I wrote about being born in New York City, living in Perth Amboy, NJ, and growing up in Carteret, NJ. I would refer you to those earlier blogs in December, 2019, and January and February, 2020, for more background and historical information about NYC, the Bronx, Carteret, New Jersey, and Middlesex County, NJ. I am not going to repeat any of that here. Instead, I will tell you what we did. We were tired that night, having left Boston in the morning, with stops at Newport, RI, and Mystic, Conn. Thus, on Sunday, June 17, 1984, we went to my old Church, St. Joseph’s. Lo and behold, they were celebrating their 91st anniversary at the annex Church on 865 Roosevelt Road, just down the road from where we were staying, but it was the next weekend, June 21-24, two days after we would leave. I have a copy of the bulletin for that Sunday, because it was Father’s Day. The church and the school are still going today in 2025, where I graduated from in 1953. We drove by my old house at 6 Railroad Avenue. It was still there, since I held the mortgage on that house. Then it was on to Metuchen to visit my brother Jerry, his wife Marge, and their son, Jerry, Jr. We had a good time with them on Father’s Day in 1984. What do you remember about your home town where you grew up.
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in New England that borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital is Hartford, and its most populous city is Bridgeport. Connecticut is the third-smallest state by area after Rhode Island and Delaware, and the 29th most populous with more than 3.6 million residents as of 2024, ranking it fourth among the most densely populated USA states. This state is named after the Connecticut River, the longest in New England, which roughly bisects the state and drains into the Long Island Sound. The name of the river is in turn derived from anglicized spellings of Quinnetuket, a Mohegan-Pequot word for “long tidal river”. In 1633, the Dutch West India Company established a small, short-lived settlement, as half of Connecticut was initially claimed by the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Thomas Hooker (1587-1647) led a band of followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the Connecticut Colony in 1636, the same year as The Pequot War, the first significant clash between colonists and Native Americans in New England. Connecticut’s official nickname, the “Constitution State,” refers to the Fundamental Orders adopted by the Connecticut Colony in 1639, which is considered by some to be the first written constitution in Western history. In January 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Constitution. Connecticut is home to many prestigious educational institutions, including Yale University in New Haven, established in 1701. Due to its geography, Connecticut has maintained a strong maritime tradition, as the Coast Guard Academy is in New London. Connecticut is also associated with the aerospace industry through major companies. The New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, became the dominant Connecticut railroad company after 1872. In 1875, the first telephone exchange in the world was established in New Haven. Prescott Bush represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963, while his son George H. W. Bush and grandson George W. Bush both became presidents of the USA. Most of western and southern Connecticut (particularly the Gold Coast) is strongly associated with New York City. In common with the rest of the USA, non-Hispanic whites have remained the dominant racial and ethnic group in Connecticut, but they are only 63% of the population. The largest ancestry groups are 19% Italian, 18% Irish, 11% English, 10% German, 9% Polish, 7% French, and 3% French Canadian. Protestants are slightly more than Catholics 35%-33%, while no affiliation is 28% and Jews 3%. 71% of the population identified with some form of Christianity. Connecticut’s adjusted per capita personal income in 2022 was estimated at $77,940, third-highest among USA states. I always thought of it as a rich state. Fairfield County is the home headquarters for 16 of the 200 largest hedge funds in the world. Between New Haven and New York City, I-95 is one of the most congested highways in the USA. The Connecticut Huskies are the team from the University of Connecticut (UConn) that play NCAA Division I sports. Both the men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams have won multiple national championships, sometimes in the same year as in 2004. “The Game” between the Yale Bulldogs and the Harvard Crimson, takes place in New Haven. Yale alumnus Walter Camp is deemed the “Father of American Football.” What do you know about Connecticut?
Mystic Seaport
That Saturday afternoon of June 16, 1984, we headed southwest to Mystic Seaport Museum, about 50 miles away, a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, the largest in the USA on 19-acres. They have a collection of ships and boats as well as a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport village with more than 60 historic buildings, including many rare commercial structures that were moved to the site and meticulously restored. As of 2016, the museum received about 250,000 visitors each year. This museum was established in 1929 as the Marine Historical Association. One founder was philanthropist Mary Stillman Harkness, daughter of the only surviving child of Mystic shipbuilder Thomas Stillman Greenman. She initially donated land that had belonged to her grandfather. This museum was one of the first living history museums in the United States, with a collection of buildings and craftsmen to show how people lived. It gained fame with its 1941 acquisition of the Charles W. Morgan, the only surviving wooden whaling ship. I remember that it had a lot of old boats. Mystic is the name of the town, the river, and the harbor. We walked around and visited the various places there. Margaret loved it for the view of the harbor. Mystic the town had been a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in 1784. “Mystic” is derived from the Pequot term “missi-tuk” describing a large river whose waters are driven into waves by tides or wind. This was a real small town with only a population of 4,348 at the 2020 census. The 1988 movie Mystic Pizza, starring Julie Roberts, was inspired by a pizza shop in Mystic. Screenwriter Amy Holden Jones spent summers in the area and chose the Mystic Pizza restaurant as the focus of her story about the lives of three young waitresses. Thus, the Mystic River and Seaport was a nice sight. Have you ever been to a Seaport Museum?
Rhode Island
Rhode Island is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern USA that borders Connecticut to its west, Massachusetts to its north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south. Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is on the USA mainland. Its official name was State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations until 2020, when it became simply Rhode Island, an area of 1,034 square miles, the smallest USA state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly more than 1.1 million residents as of 2024. However, the state’s population has continually recorded growth in every decennial census since 1790, the second-most densely populated state after New Jersey. In 1904, Providence became the state capital and remains its most populous city. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations received its royal charter in 1663. Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams (1603-1683), who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker “Rogue’s Island.” Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution, so that it was the last of the original thirteen states to approve it in 1790. Its official nickname is the “Ocean State,” a reference to its 400 miles of coastline and large bays. Rhode comes from either the island of Rhodes off the coast of Greece, or a Dutch island of reddish appearance. The years following the Civil War were a time of prosperity and affluence, since Rhode Island was a center of the Gilded Age, providing a home or summer home to many of the country’s most prominent industrialists. Whites are 69% of the population, while Hispanics are at 17% and Blacks are at 5%. 59% were born in Rhode Island, 27% were born in a different state, and 13% were foreign born. Hispanics in the state make up 13% of the population. Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Dominican Americans in the country at 5%. The largest ancestry groups are Irish and Italian at 18%, English and French at 10%, and Portuguese at 9%. Rhode Island has a higher percentage of Americans of Portuguese ancestry than any other state. Rhode Island is one of the few states where Black people of recent foreign origin outnumber Black people of multigenerational American origin, African Americans. Rhode Island has had the highest proportion of Catholic residents of any state, mainly due to the large Irish, Italian, and French-Canadian immigration in the past, as well as significant Portuguese and various Hispanic communities. They call submarine sandwiches “grinders.” Rhode Island is the only state to still celebrate Victory over Japan Day (VJ), on the second Monday in August. There are 13 colleges or universities in Rhode Island, with Ivy League Brown University from 1764 being the most famous. Have you ever been to Rhode Island?
Summer mansions in Newport
We were there in Newport on Saturday morning, June 16, 1984 to visit the mansions of Newport. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy southern planters seeking to escape the heat began to build summer cottages on Bellevue Avenue, such as Kingscote (1839). Around the middle of the century, wealthy northerners, such as the Wetmore family, began construction of larger mansions, such as Chateau-sur-Mer (1852) nearby. Most of these early families made a substantial part of their fortunes in the Old China Trade. By the turn of the 20th century, many of the nation’s wealthiest families were summering in Newport, including the Vanderbilts, Astors, and the Widener family, who constructed the largest “cottages,” such as The Breakers (1895) and Miramar (1915). They resided for a brief summer social season in grand mansions with elaborate receiving rooms, dining rooms, music rooms, and ballrooms, but with few bedrooms, since the guests were expected to have their own “cottages.” Many of these homes were built between 1870 and 1915, designed by New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, who also kept a house in Newport himself. The social scene at Newport was best described in Edith Wharton’s (1862-1837) novel The Age of Innocence (1920), about the Gilded Age of wealth in New York City. Wharton’s own Newport “cottage” was called Land’s End. Today, many mansions continue in private use. Hammersmith Farm was the mansion where John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy held their wedding reception. Many of the other mansions are open to tourists, and others were converted into academic buildings for Salve Regina College in the 1930s, when the owners could no longer afford their tax bills. We paid $4.50 each to go in to see the Breakers of the Vanderbilts, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899) on 44 Ochre Point Avenue, with 70 rooms in 138,300 square feet on five floors. Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), nicknamed “the Commodore,” was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. He was born on Staten Island, right across from Carteret, NJ. He was one of the richest Americans in history, perhaps a robber baron of the nineteenth century because of his monopoly on shipping and the railroads. I would compare this Breakers House to Hearst Castle in California, but it was only a summer cottage home, built almost a half-century before the west coast castle. There were no screening rooms or indoor pools. I have nine postcards of the various rooms that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. This 1895 mansion had a beautiful Great Hall, a Morning Room, a Music Room, a Library, a Billiard Room, and a Master Bedroom, decorated very nicely. Then there was the sumptuous Dining Room, and the adjacent Kitchen, but there were nearly 50 other rooms that we did not see. Luxurious would be an understatement. We enjoyed walking around this house on a Saturday morning in June. What is the biggest house that you have ever been in?
Newport, Rhode Island
We headed south on Saturday, June 16, 1984, to Newport, Rhode Island, a seaside city on Narragansett Bay, approximately 74 miles south of Boston, and 180 miles northeast of New York City. The city of Newport, the county seat of Newport County, is known as a New England summer resort, famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history. Newport hosted every challenge to the America’s Cup between 1930 and 1983. Thus, it is sometimes referred to as the “Sailing Capital of the World.” The first USA Open tournaments in both tennis (1888) and golf (1895), were in Newport, both elite wealthy sports. Today, this city has a population of about 25,000 residents in 11 square miles. Newport was founded in 1639, then grew to be the largest of the four original settlements that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Newport was the most important port in colonial Rhode Island. The White Horse Tavern was built prior to 1673 and is one of the oldest taverns in the USA. From the mid-17th century, the religious tolerance in Newport attracted numbers of Quakers, so that the Society of Friends Meeting House (1699) in Newport is the oldest existing structure of worship in Rhode Island. In 1658, a group of Jews was welcomed to settle in Newport, since they were not allowed to settle elsewhere, so that Touro Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in America, built in 1763. In 1732, James Franklin, the brother of Benjamin Franklin, published the first newspaper in Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Gazette. The commercial activity that raised Newport to its fame as a rich port began with the immigration of a second wave of Portuguese Jews, who settled there around the middle of the 18th century, attracted to Rhode Island because of its freedom of worship. They brought with them commercial experience, connections, capital, and a spirit of enterprise. However, Newport was also a major center of the slave trade in colonial and early America. A few Rhode Island families made substantial fortunes in this trade. Yet at the same time, Newport was inhabited by a small group of abolitionists and free blacks. Newport served as the base of the French forces in the USA during the Revolutionary War. It was in Newport that the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to ratify the Constitution in 1790 and become the 13th state, acting under pressure from the merchant community of Providence. William Ellery of Newport was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Pelham Street in Newport was the first in the USA to be illuminated by gaslight in 1806. This major 18th-century port city boasts many buildings from the colonial era. In the mid-19th century, many Irish immigrants settled in Newport, so that the southern part of the city became a staunch Irish neighborhood for many generations. To this day, St. Patrick’s Day is an important day of pride and celebration in Newport, with a large parade down Thames Street. The oldest Catholic parish in Rhode Island is St. Mary’s, located on Spring Street, though the current building is not the original one. John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy were married at this St. Mary’s Church. In the 1950s and 1960s, Newport was the “Summer White House” during the administrations of presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Newport has been a filming location for several motion pictures. Have you ever heard of Newport, RI?
Who were the Pilgrims?
I will try to follow these pilgrims by searching through the life of William Bradford (1590-1657), the leader and Governor of the pilgrims at Plymouth. King James I (1566-1625) came to the English throne in 1603, declaring that he would put an end to church reform movements and deal harshly with radical critics of the Church of England. He ordered that there be only one English translation of the Bible that became known as the King James Bible in 1611. Some English Reformers decided in 1607 to leave England unlawfully for the Dutch Republic, where religious freedom was permitted, as William Bradford went with them. By the summer of 1608, they managed to escape England in small groups and relocate to Leiden in the Dutch Republic. When Bradford turned 21, he was able to claim his family inheritance in 1611. By 1617, this English reform congregation began to plan the establishment of their own colony in the Americas. The Separatists could practice religion as they pleased in the Dutch Republic, but they were troubled by the fact that their children were being influenced by Dutch customs and language, after nearly ten years in the Netherlands. By 1620, they had made the necessary arrangements, as fifty Separatists departed Holland. Joining this congregation, were about 50 colonists who had been recruited by the Merchant Adventurers for their vocational skills, which would prove useful in establishing a colony. These passengers of the Mayflower, both Separatists and non-Separatists, are commonly referred to today as “Pilgrims.” The term is derived from a passage in Bradford’s journal, written years later, describing their departure from the Netherlands itself an allusion to Hebrews 11:13 in the Bible that we are strangers, aliens, and pilgrims on this earth. They left on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, in 1620. People died on the trip there. They spotted Cape Cod in November 1620, after two months at sea. They were supposed to go to Virginia, but strong winter seas forced them to return to Cape Cod, now called Provincetown. There they signed the Mayflower Compact, with Bradford the first to sign. They finally landed at Plymouth Harbor in mid-December and selected that site for settlement. They had a rough first year, losing about half the settlers, especially the women. Bradford was elected governor, and, in that capacity, he worked closely with Captain Myles Standish. William Bradford’s most well-known work is Of Plymouth Plantation, a detailed history in journal form about the founding of the Plymouth Colony and the lives of the colonists from 1621 to 1646, with his experiences and observations. Bradford drew deep parallels between everyday life and the events of the Bible, as divine providence was at work in their community. He was the one who called these settlers pilgrims, that has stuck since then. What do you know about William Bradford and his group of pilgrims?
Plymouth Rock
We ended our Friday by going back to the hotel and getting our car. We drove out to Plymouth, Massachusetts, to see Plymouth Rock, a boulder that symbolizes the historical disembarkation site of the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in December 1620. However, the pilgrims did not refer to Plymouth Rock in any of their writings. The first known written reference to the rock dates from 1715 when it was described in the town boundary records as “a great rock”. In 1774, the rock broke in half during an attempt to haul it to Town Square in Plymouth. One portion remained in Town Square and was moved to Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834. It was rejoined with the other portion of the rock, which was still at its original site on the shore of Plymouth Harbor, in 1880. The date 1620 was inscribed on the rock at that time. The rock is now ensconced beneath a granite canopy. Thus, Plymouth Rock has been moved multiple times since 1620. The rock first attracted public attention in 1741 when the residents of Plymouth began plans to build a wharf which would bury it. Before construction began, a 94-year-old church elder named Thomas Faunce declared that the boulder was the landing place of the Mayflower Pilgrims. The one thing the the Pilgrims certainly did not do was step ashore on Plymouth Rock, since the boulder would have made an impractical landing spot. Others have pointed out that the Pilgrims landed at Provincetown to explore Cape Cod more than a month before they arrived in Plymouth harbor, which lessens the significance of where they set foot in Plymouth. In 1851, a group of Cape Cod residents formed the Cape Cod Association for the purpose of promoting Provincetown as the site of the original Pilgrim landing. Such efforts eventually led to the construction of the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, which was completed in 1910. This Rock has become an object of veneration in the United States, but after all, it is just a rock. It was nice to be in Plymouth, but I was not impressed with the rock at Plymouth Rock. I was happy not to stay there that long. We headed back to our hotel to get ready to leave Boston after our two nights stay there. What do you know about Plymouth Rock?
Old Ironsides
The other stop that we made was to see the USS Constitution and its Museum. It was fun to get on an old ship, but the tea party ship was much more fun. This ship is also known as “Old Ironsides,” a three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy at the Charlestown Navy Yard at Pier One, at the end of Boston’s Freedom Trail. However, it is not made of iron. The privately run USS Constitution Museum is nearby, located in a restored shipyard building at the foot of Pier Two. This ship is the world’s oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat. This ship was launched in 1797, one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794, the third constructed. The name “Constitution” was among the ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy’s capital ships. Thus, the Constitution and its sister ships were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of that period. This ship was built at Edmund Hartt’s shipyard in the North End of Boston. The Constitution is most noted for its actions during the War of 1812 with the United Kingdom, when the ship captured numerous British merchantmen and five warships: HMS Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane, and Levant. This ship continued to serve as a flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, and the ship circled the world in the 1840s. During the American Civil War, this ship served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy. This ship carried American artwork and industrial displays to the Paris Exposition of 1878. The Constitution was retired from active service in 1881 and served as a receiving ship until being designated a museum ship in 1907. In 1934, it completed a three-year, 90-port tour of the nation. It sailed under its own power for its 200th birthday in 1997. The Constitution’s stated mission today is to promote understanding of the Navy’s role in war and peace through educational outreach, historical demonstration, and active participation in public events as part of the Naval History and Heritage Command. As it is a fully commissioned Navy ship, its crew of 75 officers and sailors participate in ceremonies, educational programs, and special events while providing free tours all year round. The officers and crew are all active-duty Navy personnel, and this is a special duty assignment. It is usually berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard at one end of Boston’s Freedom Trail. Have you ever been on an old ship?
The Old North Church
On the other hand, I really liked the old North Church, Christ Church, at 193 Salem Street. I liked seeing the pews with the names of the old colonial families. Of course, these boxed pews had no kneelers. These pews cost an initial 30 pounds, but owners were also expected to pay an annual tax and make weekly contributions. If owners fell behind on their weekly contributions, the church reserved the right to sell their pews. The church also had two pews in the back of the center aisle designated for “Wardens and Strangers,” possibly to entice non-members to join the congregation. The pews were restored in 1912, with some of the original doors, hinges, and paneling from 1723, and numbered the same way they were in 1731. After 1912, the Old North Church became an open congregation and seating was open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. I have three postcards of these pews. This was and still is an Anglican or Episcopal Church. The Old North Church, officially named Christ Church, is in the North End neighborhood of Boston. The church, built in 1723, is the oldest standing church building in Boston and a National Historic Landmark. Old North Church’s steeple is famous for the role it played in Paul Revere’s lantern signal to warn militias in Charlestown that the British were coming, launching the American Revolution. Thus, the Old North’s steeple has become an iconic symbol of liberty in the USA. The original steeple of the Old North Church was destroyed in 1804 and again in 1954, but rebuilt. Construction of the Old North Church began in April 1723, but the congregation was able to celebrate its first worship the following year. The architectural design was inspired by the works of the English architect Christopher Wren, who was responsible for rebuilding London after the Great Fire. The Old North fulfilled a social function, supplying merchants and ship captains with a religious common ground to build their inter-Atlantic trust. Clark and Peter Faneuil each donated 100 pounds for the creation of Old North Church, representing the two largest contributions for the purchase of the church’s bells. The colonists laundered their reputations through Old North, signaling that they were upstanding men of commerce who gave back to the community that supported their activities. In 1991, the Old North Foundation was established as a secular non-profit organization independent of the church. Modern estimates suggest that enslaved Black African people made up 10-15% of Boston’s 18th century population. Enslaved people were expected to be baptized, and were required to attend church with their enslavers, but they could not sit amongst their enslavers, so that they sat in the gallery instead. Many famous people have worshiped here over the centuries. Old North Church is today one of the sites among the 16 stops on the Freedom Trail. Had you ever heard about the Old North Church?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 