Introduction from MommaGoose Shreve.........

 

"In Dentdale, your social status was determined

by the

altitude of the bed you slept in last night."

-MommaGoose Shreve

 

 

 

One could have the tallest four-poster bed in town, hand-carved

by Elizabeth Haddon-Denton herself,

but if this bed resided in a basement apartment at Concorde Arms

you might well consider yourself a pariah!  

Move that bed to the tippityy-top of Tavistock Boulevard and you were the Queen of Dentdale!   Downsize to Dentdale Gardens, or over to Stoneybrook,

and you found yourself in much more comfortable social setting. 

 

I am a woman who has lived in this Boro for more then eighty years, and in that time I have slithered (by some accounts) or worked (my own account) my way up and down the slippery social road

that the residents of Dentdale call Clements Bridge.  

 

My life in Dentdale was never really extreme in any way.  

I enjoyed my life and recall with fondness the sights, the smells, the textures, the laughter and the tears that defined my life experience in this little town.

Whether I slept at, or below sea level, or napped in the rarified airs of the Dentonfield zip codes

 each address represented a new world, a new set of challenges, and a fresh set of rewards.

 

The big cities around Dentdale are often described as 'Cities of Neighborhoods'.

 Dentdale was divided, dissected, bisected, and sectioned off by Turnpikes, Interstate Highways, and railroad tracks.   But it's neighborhoods were determined by the children.   So, it wasn't large swaths of Irish here, Italians there........ each block was its own neighborhood.  Children were color blind, and the best house on the block was usually the one that served the best Kool-Aid. 

 

My kids went to elementary school at the Kingston School across from Ed & Ben's.   I had known the Kingston family since I was a child.  Bridgeton Kingston was the patriarch of that clan, and I'm told that Pat & Corky Kingston will be contributing their own thoughts to the Dentdale diaries.  Avon School and Saint Frances de Sales were the other sources of education

 

After elementary school, the kids went over to the newly built Woodland School.   High school for me, (and my children) was at Denton Heights High School (DHHS - Garnet & Gold).   Denton Heights High School received its students from three towns:

 

• Dentlawn - The first incorporated (mostly)middle class black community whose residents could trace their family history back for two hundred years (or more). 
• Dentdale - A mixed bag of blue collar, and white collar working families most of whom arrived after WWI  & then WWII
• Denton Heights - A little more middle class then Dentdale with a larger number of white collar families, Denton Heights was more of an Edwardian Era (late 1800s, early 1900s) settlement.

Of course, real prestige came to those who resided in Dentonfield.  Elizabeth Haddon married one of the Denton boys, and that is how the town got its name.   Dentonfield won't play a big part in the Dentdale Diaries.   But, I thought I should clarify how it got its name!

 

I have buried four husbands, two children, numerous cousins, a brother, and two sisters.  I've attended services at every church in town.   I've jitterbugged at the VFW on New Year's Eve, and thrown candy canes in the Santa Parade.   Being the only person who could perambulate on a set of stilts (without killing myself or anyone else) I was most frequently paraded up and down the streets on the Fourth of July as Uncle Sam.   Well, more of an Auntie Sam, as my rather curvaceous figure often prompted the youngest of our citizenry to ask their flummoxed parents:  "Why does Uncle Sam have boobs?"

 

The times have changed, and with it so has Dentdale.  But, its citizenry have not changed that much.  As this is just the introduction to The Dentdale Diaries, I won't rattle on much longer.

 

The kind young (well, young to me) man, who is compiling the stories of my friends and family in Dentdale tells me that each chapter will be posted on Facebooked LinkedBooked, or whatever it's being called.   He has intentions of posting the chapters at the rate of one per week and the web address for the blog posts will be:

BarringtonNJ@Blogspot (dot) com

 

There won't be any chronological order to the posts.  The chapters can be read in order, or individually.  I'll be back to tell you about my four husbands and our children in later chapters.   I do hope you enjoy The Dentdale Diaries...

 

Warmest regards:

 

MommaGoose Shreve

Dentdale Arms Senior Center

Dentdale, NJ 08007