So it's Thursday again. That means I get to spend my afternoon in Princeton. After last week's entry I received notes from a few friends I grew up with expressing how much fun it was to see pictures of the nice side of Jersey. So, I decided to show you what the two sphinx stationed behind the Princeton Monument actually guard. It is Morven, one of the most historic homes in New Jersey. The house was built in 1701, the original home of Richard Stockton whose son, (also named) Richard, signed the Declaration of Independence. Morven was used as headquarters by British General Cornwallis during the Battle of Princeton for a few days. As the war drew to a close, Morven was where members of the Continental Congress gathered to celebrate the signing of the peace treaty ending the war. (New Jersey has always known how to host a party!) After the war, Morven became the official executive residence of the New Jersey Governor until 1982.
How do I know all this? Well, for one thing, the info is available on plaques around the grounds. For another thing, I had a brochure stashed away in a box of memories labeled "Girl Scouts" that I rushed home to open this evening. (My evening student canceled so I came home a little on the early side and went almost straight to the cellar to get this box and see what I could find within)The evidence reveals I first visited Morven 30 years ago yesterday! That's right, on May 5, 1980, I, along with several girls from my Girl Scout troop, including Ursula Urbielewicz, Kelli Johnson, and Lori LeVecchi were at Morven to be honored for earning our First Class Award. Also there that day (or at least listed in the booklet) was Lisa Correria, a high school classmate representing her troop from different middle school and (as the case was at the time) another council that was a part of our home town in Piscataway. In my memory, there were several other girls there, but obviously even though the event occurred on May 5th, the years that elapsed means it wasn't yesterday! I also found a black and white photograph of the girls from my troop who attended that day along with one of our troop leaders (Mrs. Serpico) but since we were in 8th grade at the time, I am not going to worry about scanning it and getting it posted to the blog this very minute.
I do remember walking around Princeton that day mostly because I wore a pair of pretty sandals I liked. The sandals were white and I wanted to wear them because they were as comfortable as they were pretty. But it was before Memorial Day and there were rules about wearing white shoes in those days. Actually, it is a rule I still abide by because of what happened that day. I defied my mother who reminded me of the rule and wore the sandals anyway, running out of the house and jumping in the backseat of the car to hide my feet before she got in the driver's seat to pull around the corner and pick up Lori. As planned, she didn't see my white shoes till we got lined up to board the charter bus that was pulling into the parking lot to pick up our troop. That's when it happened. I received one of those "mother looks" that said more than could be said if she used words. As I stepped off the curb and onto the bus, my ankle twisted, I fell, and my sandal strap broke! Mom shrugged and took some pity on me and during the ride down to P'ton, she tried to tie a knot into the sandal strap that could hold so I could manage to wear the sandal. I spent the day on a walking tour of Princeton limping along trying to favor that foot and sandal. While I cognitively know that my sandal just happened to break at that untimely moment, to this day, I can't wear white shoes or sandals before Memorial Day for fear of falling and doing something horrible to both my limbs and shoes! Taupe, bone and cream are all fine colored footwear for me from Sept-June, but white is o-u-t!
Also in the time capsule is a roster for Senior Troop 199. My mother and Mrs. Serpico are listed as the leaders that year....I am guessing our first or second year in high school. Beyond the girls listed above are my friends I associate with that day and the reason I can only wear white shoes between Memorial and Labor Day (as the fashion gods have deigned it to be so). They include Denise Hanus, Kyra Longshore, Lynne Perioli, and Cathy O'Hare (who had moved to Wycoff by that time). Tracey Byrne and Christine Dieckmann were also members of our Cadette troop a few years earlier. It's been fun to reconnect with you on facebook and see most of you over the last year or so as well as have the fond memories to help inspire this blog entry this evening!
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