Long-lost Middlesex

The sails on the roughly six-foot-high model windmill creaked and rotated slowly. They repeatedly blocked my clumsy, youthful attempts to knock a golf ball through the tunnel beneath the structure.

Not far away, a few would-be Robin Hoods drew their bow strings and fired arrows at targets.

This was late-1960s Middlesex Borough, a summer evening, in what is now an empty Bound Brook Road lot near Kermizian Carpets. For a few months each year over several years, a miniature golf course and archery range was open there.

Quite a combination. Groups of teenagers wielding golf clubs or bows and arrows. Talk about a personal injury lawyer’s dream. Surely, the Middlesex Police Department of today is happy that recreational facility no longer exists.

Not a trace is left of the mini-golf facility. It’s barely mentioned in old issues of the Middlesex Chronicle aside from display ads that would appear each spring announcing its pending opening.

Middlesex, like other suburban towns across the country, has undergone change through the decades. Certain businesses and institutions eventually close or change over time, and become nothing more than a memory.

Long-ago borough residents might have their own memorable spots from various decades – Flo’s Bar, the A&P grocery store, Our Lady of Mount Virgin Church’s small chapel, or what was then called Cook Field, where the Middlesex High School varsity football games were once played.

Mine tend to center on the late 1960s. Marveling at the mannequins’ spiffy suits in Gaysard’s large display windows at the Middlesex Shopping Center. McDonald’s in its original incarnation, with blazing golden arches visible at night as you drove down Morning Glory Road from Warren.

There was also the beloved Pierce School, an elementary grades facility built in the 1920s on Walnut Street and torn down in the mid-1980s with the property sold to a developer. Education? The name synonymous with that in Middlesex was Von E. Mauger. What was originally Central School was renamed in his honor.

Only a couple of years ago, old treasure from Gaysard’s was buyable on eBay. A vintage brown men’s butterfly pattern tie could be yours for $10 or best offer. It’s now six decades past that heyday of retailing, when store owners throughout Central Jersey would mark down items and hold “Sidewalk Sales.”

Middlesex was no different. A June 1964 Chronicle ad touts Gaysard’s selling men’s and boys’ “National Brands” dress shirts for $1. What a bargain. They were regularly sold for up to $5.95. You could also buy “Rex Harrison Type” hats for a buck. No word on whether the famous British actor stopped by to pump-up sales.

Having grown up only a block away, Pierce School was much more than an educational site for me and my childhood friends. Its baseball diamond and basketball court were where we found out whether we really had any athletic ability.

They weren’t the slick, high-standard facilities of today. The basketball court sloped up at one end, creating a disadvantage for one team during full-court, pick-up games. One basket’s pole was eventually dented and bent slightly from being hit by some teen’s wayward car. I swear it wasn’t me.

The most important role Pierce School played in our lives was not as a place to learn math, shoot hoops or drive your car where you shouldn’t. It was a schoolyard community center. A place for the neighborhood kids to hang out on evenings, weekends and summers to commiserate and freely discuss the often-absurd adult world. Nights spent there as a teenager helped shape my worldview.

That Mauger guy mentioned earlier? He was Middlesex Borough’s school superintendent from 1948 to 1971. That’s right, he oversaw the town’s schools for 23 years.

That was before the days of three- to four-year contracts for superintendents. Mauger got the job and held it for more than two decades. It wasn’t a stepping stone to a higher-paying job in another district.

Superintendent Mauger didn’t seem to draw the parental fire like several of his modern-day successors. Adults tended to speak of him with respect for his position. During his tenure, Central (Mauger) School, Middlesex High and Hazelwood School were all constructed.

Yes, a school superintendent once lasted here for more than a generation. Hard to believe in the era of administrative merry-go-rounds. Retailers focused on selling on-site rather than online. Kids could gather off-hours in a schoolyard without parents fearing for their safety. Things have changed over the decades in Middlesex and elsewhere.

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