If I did my Google Map calculation correctly, here is a picture of 242 Isabella Ave in Irvington, NJ. I believe this is Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Zetwick’s house. The other photo is them with Mom on the front steps.
Christa and Ethan took the camera with them on their trip so I couldn’t take any new pictures! So here is a blast from the past.
Durand’s Park in Freehold has a memorial arboretum. For $250 they will plant a tree and install a plaque in remembrance of a loved one. Maybe we should get one for Dad??
Christa and Ethan are on an overnight trip, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some fishing. I did pretty good. I caught 6 bass (2 were a decent size), 2 big pickerel, and a sunny.
At the turn of the century, Pitman was a resort town. People came from all over southern NJ and Pennsylvania to vacation here.
Train station
At the lake, there were amusement rides and even a boardwalk.
Boardwalk
In the 1950s, they added an automobile racetrack. As time wore on, people stopped vacationing in Pitman and a factory was built adjacent to the lake. The lake became so polluted that it was the #1 Superfund site in the nation. The town purchased the property in the 1980s and after a 10 year extensive cleanup, the park and lake are clean were given a clean bill of health.
Now the parks boasts 2 playgrounds, several ball fields, a walking trail, and of course the lake itself, which is nice and clean for fishing.
When I do out genealogical research, I always try to imagine what people were like in their prime. Here is a picture of Grandpa with mom. He is probably in his early 30s in this picture. They were probably out for a Sunday drive and took this picture while stopping for lunch.
Along with most of the country, we had a lot of thunderstorms today. On average there was 100,000 lightning strikes per hour over the entire country! We still managed to sneak in an hour of fishing out on the boat, but it was cut short because of more lightning and thunder.
Today we had an unexpected guest at our pond. I couldn’t grab my camera fast enough, so here is a picture I got off the internet. It’s an immature Cooper’s hawk. I’m not sure what he was doing. They eat birds, not fish or frogs. Maybe he was just looking for a drink or saw some smaller birds around the feeder.
One of the things I love most about gardening is all of the different animals that it attracts. Here are some recent critters I saw today.
Here are 2 pictures of the shuttle from Great-Grandpa Zetwick’s loom. Kathy asked me to do this in January. Sorry, I am a little slow! I bet you didn’t know that the loom was originally from the Amberg branch of the family. The Ambers were weavers. The Zetwicks were trunkmakers. Elonora Amberg married Michael Zetwich (he was Grandpa’s grandfather). Michael was very close to Elonora’s father Martin. They named their son (Grandpa’s father) Michael Martin Zetwick after Martin.
I still have to find the pictures of the loom….I’ll work on that.
The house now has two coats of Duration paint. Some trim is also painted (bottom trim of house).
And here is a picture of Ethan on the beach at a nearby lake.
