The Passaic River means a lot to me. Like everyone who grew up in Harrison, or any number of other communities along its bank, the river was never far from my home. As a child, I was drawn to the river and used to play on its banks – even if there was no official public riverfront area to play on. Why would there be? All the river front property was taken up by factories and chemical plants and industry that conveniently used it as their open sewer and waste disposal site. Unfortunately, some of these companies had names like Diamond Shamrock, Engelhardt Industries, and some of their better-known products were Agent Orange, dioxin laced pesticides, lead based paints and a myriad of other toxic substances.
My friend Joey and I would walk down the little used railroad tracks that were owned by the Eerie Railroad and separated Kearny from Harrison and lead to the river and to the foot of the railroad bridge since made famous by the movie Annie. This was a drawbridge that loomed over us like a beanstalk and climbing it was always a thought – if a scary one. Quite a few people did, including the stuntman from the movie Annie as did the adventurous sole who I accidently caught in a picture I took many years later – planting a flag on top. That picture is the current background of this website.
Even as children we knew this river of ours was not safe – and I don’t mean from dangerous currents. Our river was one of the most polluted rivers in the country, if not the world. It ran black and milky as ink with debris of every kind and it smelled more like filthy bog than a flowing river. Even touching the water was a forbidden endeavor and drinking it would most likely have surely been fatal to man or beast – if not immediately than through a slow disgusting poisonous process! Still we were drawn to it and played on the bank, unbeknownst to any responsible adult. We played at the foot of the now abandoned bridge, in the privacy of our childhood obsessions. Even the mud along the bank was dark and greasy, with a muck more like a failed science experiment than a riverfront.
I always felt somewhat robbed as a child. There was never any swimming in a swimming hole or swinging on a tree over the river. The river was forbidden for good reason and inaccessible – except for the most adventurous among us. Once Joey and I – we must have been 10 or 11 – crossed over the bridge on one of the few times it was down to play and explore on the bank across the river. This we knew was Newark, and Newark at the time was even more forbidding to a Harrison child than the river. We became engrossed in our exploration and unbeknownst to us, the bridge went up silently and lo and behold we were stranded on the wrong side! Of course, an adventure ensued, but that’s a story for another time!
We never fished in the Passaic, never even thought of it. And we never saw anything alive that called the river its home except for large dark rats the size of a cat, and even they were scarce, unless you ventured to the sewer outlets. Never did an egret or crane stalk its banks, never a fish broke the surface, never did a beaver or muskrat swim lazily by.
Even as a child I knew that was not always the case. I knew in my soul that in its not too distant past this river was a beautiful sight once. A place full of life and beauty. A place of awe inspiring beauty and a bounty of both food and water. A major thoroughfare too, I surmise, and place where children played. I’m sure the Native Americans named it by some aspect of it’s beauty and lived along it, if not peacefully, at least not poisoned by it. I’m sure huge trees overlooked its bank and fish as big as a small child swam its currents. Birds of every persuasion used it for food and sustenance and made their homes nearby. It was the sustenance of many a soul. alas, we were robbed of that by Man’s greed, stupidity and ignorance.
I find myself arguing a lot lately with my republican colleagues – I’ll call them republican for expediency, even as I know it more complicated than that. I find myself arguing with the anti-conservationists, the global warming deniers, the off-shore oil proponents and the friends of the pipelines and the jobs at any cost mentality of stupid greedy people. Do they even know or care what they rob from our children? I always say to them, “you know, I grew up on a river that you couldn’t swim in.”
